My friend Allison, who writes the awesome blog All for the Boys, did a fun post showcasing real boys’ rooms. Click over to see what inspired her and view some other kid rooms in situ!

You can see that my boys’ room is nearly devoid of any decor. Sad. I’d like to use the excuse that we’ve moved here only in July, but six months is ample time to at least get a couple photographs on the walls! So, I’ll use the baby excuse instead. That one gets me out of all sorts of things! Besides, the boys are totally into decorating their room by themselves. See?

One thing I had never anticipated with raising boys is how sentimental they are with treasured objects. Now that they’re a little older and more conscious of their living environment, they’re wanting to save and display their creations or little prizes they earn. Time I start thinking of ways to organize it all.

And one last thought. Have any of you ever stumbled upon anything gross/weird in your kids room? For me it was a black, BLACK half-eaten banana hidden under Kai’s bed. This AR mommy nearly had a heart-attack coming across that one!

Their birthdays were this week. I now have a 4-yr-old
(“Four like Caillou!” Dax likes to say) and a 6-yr-old.

And I really thought the baby was going to make her debut last
night. Woke up to long, drawn out contractions and shakes and shivers
– got those last time I was in labor. But I willed the baby to wait,
because as excited Dax is for the new baby, I knew he wouldn’t
be cool with sharing his birthday. Crisis averted!

We kept hearing about the amazing fall colors in the North Carolina mountains, so a couple Saturdays ago we headed up north. The piles of leaves were such a big deal to the boys. When they attacked Ryan relentlessly, I suggested he ignore them and act as if he didn’t care (because they’d surely leave him alone – reverse-psychology!). But that plan didn’t work out so well.

It’s been a challenging sort of week thus far. The kind filled with disappointments and soggy socks from the rain. And sad feelings from missing my best friends, one of which just had her beautiful baby, and the other whose baby is taking his first steps. But there was a moment today when the boys and I had croissants and hot cocoa after school, and it was so sweet and everyone was warm, content, and happy. I declared every rainy day to be a hot cocoa day, and the boys said “Yeah!” They even left their mugs 1/3 full so I could finish off the rest (and I tried not to think about backwash). Cocoa is cozy.

Other cozy things today: a sweet gift from Jozen, and curling up with the novel The Death Cure. Yep, YA lit is my guilty pleasure!

I absolutely feel like crashing right now, but since my blog doubles as personal journal, I just had to quickly visually document our week. Good news is that Kai should have his cast off in two weeks which is before his birthday, before Halloween (a huge concern for him), and before the baby arrives (gigantic concern for me). Then he can go back to what got him in trouble in the first place; attempting bike tricks and worrisome speeds. But this time he’ll have elbow pads, wrist guards, knee pads, shin guards…whatever to keep him from breaking another bone. A little crazy? Yes. But is my child crazier? Yes.

And I’ll be posting an easy kids’ Halloween craft soon. Once I find some energy, blessed energy.

(Also wanted to throw in the link to the new Future Islands album. So much good music happening. Fall is the best.)

My mom made fun of me because I kept taking pictures of the trees in her backyard, which is huge. Being out in the country is such a new and novel thing to us.

And some Instagram images taken when we were downtown Durham. Cool city that place is.

Have a happy weekend!

And just like that, my son accomplished his first week of kindergarten! I am so proud of him. There was nervousness and maybe a some tears on the first day, but Kai has adjusted to his new routine well. Though waking up at 6:30 is still something I have to get used to. Ick. And that pic above was Kai’s first-day, after-school treat. He wanted a chicken sandwich.

It’s been so sweet having the one-on-one time with Dax. And quiet! No fighting or crying (although the crying part will change when the baby comes). And I can do errands almost twice as fast. At times, I catch myself thinking, Really, this is my life? It got kind of easy all of a sudden.

I’m excited for the long weekend and our mini-roadtrip. Now that the threat of a hurricane has passed, we’re headed east to visit my mom in Durham and look for artsy stuff and food trucks.

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P.S. Would you be interested in promoting your shop or blog? I’m now accepting a couple sponsors that would be a good fit for this blog. Shoot me an email jenniferkirk{at}gmail{dot}com for rates, site stats, and all that info.

Before bedtime the other night, I caught Kai making shadow figures in his room and thought, hey, it’d be real easy to make some shadow puppets out of cardstock.

Kai was pretty darn proud of the ‘t-rex’ and ghost he cut out. He even snuck working the glue gun to attach the popsicle stick when I wasn’t looking. That boy.

It didn’t take long for AC addiction to kick in. We’re such homebodies nowadays. Lots of crafting, Lego building, and squabbling between the kids. I need the beach!

Anyone else suffering in the south or east coast? This heat wave is brutal!

Random pics of us downtown, the kids’ mood swings, our hunt for a good Mexican joint, and my attempt at the summer turban thing. Dax immediately cracked up, said I looked funny, and that scarves are ‘for shirts only, not heads.’