Friday, again

Wow, that was a week that flew by, my goodness. I've been peppy and energized for most of this week, feeling in-control and while I still can't ever seem to get anything done, it has been a good week. But today was damp and overcast and I caught the tiny sniffle the kids had earlier in the week so I'm tired and fresh out of positive attitude. In an effort to conclude the day in a happy state of mind, I bring you a short selection of pictures of moments from our week. Then I shall feel better, right?

Here I attempt to catch Amy in a candid moment. She was speechifying about something as usual, I sat on the floor pretending to check email. 

We were all very excited to have a frost on the ground Thursday morning. So pretty! I actually had to scrape the car when we left for school, 30 minutes before grabbing this picture. 

I never thought I would, but I did. That up there is one giant box of Christmas tree on its way home. I'm in a "no fuss" mood this season, combined with a "I want my tree up from now till January" mood, combined with a "I don't want to find a hundred insects hatching from my tree and leaving sap on my ornaments and crawling across the living room floor the day after Christmas" mood (that happened last year). So I took the plunge and spent the bucks... tomorrow's project will be assembly. I have never in my life had a tree up before Thanksgiving. I feel like such a rebel. 

PS - Don't know what I'd do without the van - it fits everything! 

Speaking of trees, William is totally smitten with this little magnolia outside Amy's school. He calls it his Baby Tree, and whenever we come and go from the front entrance he has to spend some time loving it. 

This scene occurred this afternoon, about one o'clock, after a half hour of playing when he should have been resting, and only minutes after a loud and whiny request to go play outside. 

I love Amy's ability to draw figures in motion. She's started making a lot of observations lately along the lines of "so and so [at school] has SUCH nice handwriting/draws SUCH nice pictures, etc". Of course I think she does a fabulous job at all of it, too, but it brought to mind just how vivid those feelings are for little kids, and how I too can remember my own early school days and how everyone in class knew each other's handwriting, or drawing style and made comparisons for better or worse.  

In an effort to salvage what threatened to be an afternoon/evening of tired, cranky, bad moods on all of our parts, the three of us came up with the idea of early baths and a pajama party, complete with dinner in the living room watching The Nutcracker . Much fun, but still tired. See above. 

And that folks, is all I've got. I have plans for something like this: 

with a side of television for the next hour or so. Here's hoping we all find ourselves refreshed and recharged by the end of the weekend.