First day of school

Allison has been eager for school. She was so eager, in fact, that she was up at 5:50, 6:10, and 6:20 standing at her father's bedside asking him if it were time yet.

Eventually it was time. Joe took her. Everyone knows I would cry and then Allison would probably cry and we don't need that. At any rate, he says she was a little apprehensive but her teacher put her at ease and she was just fine. No tears from anyone.

Joe took a couple of pictures. This one is in front of our house. Aren't her shoes just fabulous? She loves them. Not only that, but she can almost tie them.




















And another in front of the school itself. We forgot to drop off her supplies ahead of time, so she's a little hunkered down. Her backpack won't normally be quite so heavy.

Her smile tells you exactly how she feels about going to school.

Kindergarten is coming!

Allison starts school on Monday. Pictures will follow. In the meantime, I thought I'd post this lovely picture of Allison and her preschool teacher from last year. Miss Casey was absolutely wonderful and Allison just adored her.

I took this photo of them on the last day of school last May.





















Here's to the next adventure.

My silly girls

Some kind of ridiculous hat Allison made.

When he was just a week old

Jude is three weeks now and he is huge. A woman I met in the park today misheard me and thought I said three months. When I corrected her and said no, three weeks, she was suddenly incredulous. Apparently, he's a more plausible as a three month old than as a three week old! Which is to say he is, in fact, enormous.

I will take some more pictures at some point. For now, here are some pictures form his first few days.

Hello, Uncle Leon

I haven't posted any pictures of the baby here, but I did put a few on facebook. I'm reposting them here for Uncle Leon, who is sufficiently tech savvy to find his way here but is not, as of yet, a facebook user. :)

Our baby is Jude William Xavier. Jude is for St. Jude, of course, and Xavier is for St. Francis Xavier. William is for Uncle Leon AKA William Leon Gatlin, on whose birthday our newest addition was born.