Little Baker Jamisen + Little Painter Lily

We were so proud to get this note from Jamien's classroom teacher (Jessica).

Due to our amazing bakers and kitchen helpers, we were able to donate the following items to the Lighthouse Mission:

2 dozen chocolate chip cookies

5 loaves chocolate chip zucchini bread

3 pumpkin custards

5 pumpkin pies with homemade crust and filling

3 apple pies with homemade crust and filling

3 sheets of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

7 loaves of amadama bread

24 loaves of challah

The children also earned and donated a total of $188 dollars that will go directly to Lydia Place.

Jamisen donated $6 of his own bath fizzy earnings for the project.

The creek at Lily and Jamisen’s school has been more exciting these days. The rain has turned the slow moving trickle into a little babbling creek.  There is a group of kids that work diligently to create a dam most days.  They have figured out that they need to work together to gather rocks, sticks and leaves to slow the water.  It is exciting when they achieve success as the depth of the water increases behind their dam.

Tonight, when we were at Trader Joe's, he saw the Salvation Army bell ringer and fished all of the money he was carrying in his pocket and put half of it into the donation bucket. I told the bell ringer that this was Jamisen's money that he had earned himself. It turns out that Jamisen had held part of his money back for a "tip jar" that he thought might be at checkout. When he learned that the checkers did not take tips, he went back outside and stuffed it into the Salvation Army bucket. The bell ringer was visibly moved by his sweetness and generosity.

The kids have been such a lovely ball of energy lately. They've taken to sleeping out in the living room on weekend nights, which is so very cute and terrible. They barely can get to sleep and when they do, they only sleep for like 4 seconds before one of them is up and waking the other one up. It has not been awesome for the parentals but man oh man, they love it. They're such good friends, those two. Above, see Lily's idea of "fingerpainting."

I did have to do the whole "Kids, if you don't improve, I'm going to turn this car around!" trick where I actually had follow up and turn the dang car around. Since it was during a long Sunday, I had been trying to get the kids out of the house so it was way more of a punishment for me to turn the car around and go home. Also, alllllll the tears; whoah. Lily cried and wailed and whimpered for like an hour. Jamisen quickly wised up and started making deals. He ultimately managed to negotiate his way to 1/3 of the activities out that they were going to get by sacrificing his sister's scalp. Literally. Lily HATES to have her hair brushed or washed. Chris sometimes remarks that she looks like she is being raised by wolves because her hair can get to be quite a tangled knotted up mess. So, he convinced her to wash her hair AND both of them to "be good"  (aka, play quietly and no fighting) in exchange for an hour at an indoor play area. It was pretty effective but the punishment for me was way worse than it was for them!

Jamisen continues to work hard on his reading and math skills. He impresses us with his work ethic and is learning at a rapid rate. It's fun to have him sit down and read books to all of us. 

Lily has Moxie for Miles

We have had a busy fall - between business travel (NYC, DC, and Hallmark in Cali for me; Saudi for Chris), we also fit in a really lovely event at our home, supporting Washington State Governor Jay Inslee. I was literally home for ONE night in between trips and that was the night we squeezed this fun event in. 

It was Lily's first exposure to a political event. Typically, she has gone to a friend's house when we host because her young energy can be just a tad um ... energetic for a formal political event. All the speechifying doesn't do well with a mischievous though adorable little attention seeker in the midst. But, this summer, we went to a fundraiser at a lovely old home in Fairhaven and they had a nanny present and, lots of little kids running around. It really helped lower the average age of attendees because parents could actually come.  And Chris and I both feel strongly about opening channels of communications for all demographics to our elected officials So, with Jay's blessing, we decided to try it. It totally worked! The fundraiser was filled with young, active, skeptical people who asked great questions and kept the party lively. 

Showing all the moxie one would expect from Lily Leah Renoud, our little whirling dervish of energy zcgreeted the Governor with a high five. 

At this point, the kiddos have met all of our Washington State Federal Delegation (House and Senate). I have vague but positive memories of my parents hosting political events or issue-based salons at our home when I was very young (albeit, I don't think they were hosting them for liberal politicians or causes ... cough cough). I'm hoping that this idea of community responsibility resonates with our kiddos long after they're grown. After all, electing people that reflect our values to office isn't just a one-day thing (aka: election day in November). It's an every-day thing and continuing conversations and education.