Schools in session, which means obligatory first day school photos!  Not sure what Emerson is doing with her foot here!

So typical of Avery!  Always trying to be funny and do her own thing…always trying to test boundaries….oh how it drives me crazy and makes me proud at the same time.

We managed to get a normal one too.

Avery has a male teacher this year….one of the two in school. She seems pretty excited about it. She said her teacher is nice and funny.

Emerson…SO grown up.  Both her and Avery, but Emerson especially…just look at her!

I could stare at this next picture all day.  There is just something about it that speaks to me…the way they have their arms around one another, the way they are looking into the camera but not smiling…I can see through their bodies and into their souls.  They fight often and more often than not don’t like being a twin, but there are moments like these when they connect and their love for one another is so present.

My little Harper has no front teeth!  She was definitely a little nervous…Avery and Emerson were big helpers though and dropped her off at her class and agreed to sit next to her on the bus.

Justin was taking pictures with his big camera and here I was getting in the way trying to get some on my phone!

Harper asked to see her picture.  I LOVE this picture.  I yell at them more than I like…it’s not a lot, but I do yell some and that is too frequent.  It’s not the type of mom I want to be.  I want to enjoy every second with them.  THIS.  We are only in week one of the school year of not having an au pair.  I know it is going to be challenging but the timing feels so right.  In eight years, I have never been the one who has regularly taken them to preschool or to elementary school.  I have no regrets that I haven’t done it to date, but now…I am so excited and ready for it.

Four years…this is the forth year in a row of taking first day pictures attending Oakton Elementary.  And it seems like Avery and Emerson going into kindergarten and me sobbing was just the other day. Time is passing by quickly!  I want to spend time with them getting ready in the mornings, helping them with their schoolwork, schlepping them to and from their activities, making their school lunches.  YES, it will drive me crazy sometimes, probably a lot truthfully, but it is a privilege being their mom and I want to “mom” for awhile.

I love this next picture too.  Don’t mind my broken nail…not enough time to get to the nail salon these days “momming” more often!

Giving Harper some 1st grade inspiration!

A pic with my girls.

A pic with Daddy.  Avery is always trying to be funny for the camera.  The girls with their handsome daddy!

The bus stop crew is definitely smaller this year!  We lost a few neighbors to moves and some to new schools.  Somehow the third graders are the oldest of the bunch.  Four 3rd graders, 5 first graders, 1 kindergartener, and 2 younger siblings who will join the OES crew in a few years.

I teared up a little as the bus pulled away.  Justin called me out on it at dinner and the girls started laughing.  I told them in all seriousness, I did tear up…I told them the first day represents a clean slate, a fresh start, new opportunities – it’s the promise and potential of great things in the year to come!

The Sunday before school started we went raspberry picking. Truth be told we also went blackberry picking, sunflower picking, fresh flower picking, and herb picking.  The raspberry picking, where we started, was my absolute favorite. The weather was perfect, the clouds were amazing, and serenity embodied our entire family.

SAD.  Sad…with a capital S – A – D.  That is how I feel now that my sister and little Noah left home for London.  I feel fortunate to have seen him three different times already…in late January when I went to visit in London for a week, in May when my sister came to visit for a few weeks and again this past month when my sister visited for a few weeks.  Both prior times of seeing one another, I knew the next time I would see my sister AND it wasn’t that far in the future.  THIS time…the next time is unknown.  Realistically it could be a year.  Babies grow so quickly and to think that I may not see Noah again for another year makes me incredibly sad.

I do feel fortunate of the time we spent again with him these past few weeks.  He is crawling, smiling, and starting to eat real food…well some pureed anyway.  He slept over twice and both times I was in heaven.  The second time he spent the night, we took him out to eat at Jacksons and walked around Reston Town Center for a bit. I’m his auntie and while I wasn’t pretending to be his mom, I love him as if he were my own.  So out we went – my family of four kiddos.  My heart was completely and utterly complete.  Wish he lived a little bit…ok, a lot closer…so we could have these sorts of dates way more often.

The truth is the girls absolutely adore their cousin too. We went swimming together, hung out at Papa and Grandma’s, went to Meadowlark, went to Reston Farmers Market, celebrated Avery and Emerson’s birthdays, and Avery and Emerson got to spend some  one-on-one time with their Auntie!  I enjoyed each and every moment of spending time with him from his soft baby skin and baby smell to his poopy diapers.

I am going to miss ALL of it!

My little ray of sunshine:)

We just returned from another great beach summer vacation with the Brophys and the Nidays.  We switched it up this year and went to North Topsail Beach in NC.  The beach area was definitely quieter and that meant basically our private beach located within feet of our house.  The house was open concept, bright, and great.  There was less to do than in Outer Banks, but for the most part I didn’t miss it and enjoyed there being even less to do.

We spent time at the beach and in the waves….

Time at the pool…

Time in the hot tub….

Time under and on the the pier in our bathing suits…

Time on the Surf City Pier in real clothes….

Time celebrating Harper turning 6!

Time enjoying meals…

Time going for ice-cream outings…

Time visiting the sea turtle rehabilitation center…

Time acting and performing plays…

and time with our toes in the sand!

It was a great week of relaxing with friends, bonding, having fun, and creating awesome memories.

BROPHYS       MADDYS        NIDAYS

Avery and Emerson are eight…yes, EIGHT!  I mean that is half-way to 16 people!  I can’t even wrap my head around it.  I still feel like they are babies, toddlers…perhaps it is because they still wear some of the same dresses (or at least have them in their closet) from when they were in pre-k. Maybe I should get rid of them?  …Nah, they still fit!  Not sure that would change how I feel though anyway.

When I was a kid, I always thought it would be the coolest thing in the world to be a twin.  Well they say the grass is greener on the other side, right?  I would venture to say that Avery and Emerson would tell you that they would chose not to be a twin given the choice.  One day I was telling them how cool I thought it would be when I was a kid to be a twin, and they couldn’t believe that I would even think that.  I asked them what could possibly be so bad about being a twin, to which they replied “sharing a birthday”.  I couldn’t fault them there!

Since this year was a “family” birthday celebration and their birthday was on Sunday, I decided we would start the celebration Saturday afternoon, thereby extending their birthday, which was only fair since they were sharing it!

We enjoyed a fun morning at Reston Farmer’s Market with little Noah in tow.  The girls wanted the natural fruit popsicles, to which I said why not!

Little Noah slept in the stroller much of the time.

He woke up only after we bought six gourmet cupcakes for part of the girls birthday celebration.  We played and took some pictures while “Justin” had a beer at The Crafthouse.

Matchy matchy! Apparently, these were his pajamas! I thought that may have been the case, but since Emerson had a dress in the same pattern, I decided to go with it!

I totally pretended he was my fourth; my heart was so full and happy.

We sang happy birthday to both girls separately and enjoyed delicious cupcakes Saturday afternoon with Papa, Grandma, Auntie Lauren, and Noah.

Avery and Emerson decided they wanted to get pedicures for their birthday with Auntie Lauren and Grandma so all us ladies went to Diamond Spa for a 5:00 appointment.  We had the whole place to ourselves…I told them I rented the place out!

Saturday night we grilled out at home just the five of us.  All three girls ate a burger…it was amazing!

Sunday morning we celebrated with some presents and pancakes for breakfast.

Followed by Matchbox in Mosiac District for lunch, which was where Avery and Emerson both wanted to go.  It was 11 of us in total – Mila and Lari joined us too!  I love our growing family! Lunch was yummy and we tried to capture the event – the sun was so bright!

The girls decided they wanted to spend the afternoon swimming at Papa and Grandmas for their birthday so that is what we did!  We took a break for cake…each of them had their own….cakes from Giant was their cake of choice! Then there was more swimming followed by Chinese take-out (another choice of the girls).

It was truly a wonderful weekend celebrating these girls turning 8!

Five years ago we said hello to au pair life and it has been a true gift to our family.  Prior to having an au pair, I was that person who thought having live-in child care was crazy….certainly not for me.  I’m so grateful that I stepped out of my comfort zone and fully embraced au pair life and everything it has to offer.  To this day, we remain very close with two of our former au pairs and I know that number will increase to three in just a few days once Lari heads back home to Brazil.  The girls have formed such great friendships with Karolin, Ludmila, and Lari and it warms my heart thinking about all the great times they had while Justin and I were at work and the experiences we had together as a family.  Our house has been loud…really loud, crazy, and full of ladies these past five years.  We have had deep belly giggles, snuggles and cuddles, and love…fierce love for one another. Not every day has been perfect, but that fierce love has gotten us through the tantrums, sibling rivalry, and miscommunication.  We opened our doors and our hearts and our lives have forever been enriched.

Wednesday we send Lari on her way back home to Brazil. She fit into our family on day one and she was the perfect match for our family…even better than we could have hoped.  So after five years of au pair life, after adding 3 forever Brazilian and German family members to M-unit, we are hitting the pause button for a few months and are going to try life out as a family of five for a little while.  It will be different…I honestly have loved having au pairs, but it’s time….time for M-unit to get back to our core five for a little while….honestly, something we have only ever done for three months.   As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  I’m looking forward to the next part of the journey for M-unit and our au pairs as they too are on an amazing and exciting part of their journey.  

#munitforlife. #bonvoyage

Another American Nystagmus Network Conference in the books!  Feels like we were just at the one in Minneapolis, which was two years ago! This years conference was in Crystal City, VA making the choice to go a no brainer and the cost fairly minimal.  We stayed at the hotel, and as always the girls had a great time living hotel life for the weekend.  We booked a room for four so Harper happily slept in a sleeping bag underneath the desk.  She is almost six and still hasn’t been offended by not being able to sleep in a hotel bed!

As for the conference itself, Justin and I walked away with some extra tips and strategies, some to do’s that we want to investigate further with a geneticist now that Avery is a little older. We talked to a few people, the girls made some friends, and Avery met some other kids with nystagmus.  Ironically, I think the only reason that she knew that they had nystagmus was because of the name tags that the kids with nystagmus were wearing, not because she noticed anything different with their eyes! 

We skipped out on dinner Saturday night and opted to take advantage of being so close to the city. A metro ride, dinner at Logan’s Tavern, some wrong turns, two uber rides, and night time monument viewing defined our evening.  Good quality family time defined our weekend.

Jo Jo Siwa….who?!  Yes, Jo Jo Siwa!  I didn’t know her either until a few months ago!  The latest Nickolodeon pop singer.  Justin and I surprised the girls with an early birthday present….their first concert!  The concert was at Wolftrap and I love that venue so last night at age’s 7 and 5, the girls went to their first concert!

The night included:

• a heat index of 107
• sweat sweat and more sweat
• fun times with friends
• an outdoor picnic
• monocular viewings
• and bows, bows, and bows!

Five years!  That’s how long we have lived in the neighborhood. When we moved in, Avery and Emerson were not even three and Harper not even one!  In our cul-de-sac were a group of families that hung out a lot…and I mean a lot!  We were often included in the gatherings but our kids were the youngest of the bunch and initially the bunch had more boys than girls and as such we didn’t join in the gatherings as frequently as some of the others.  Some of the families we thought were lifers in the neighborhood and I would have ventured to say some of them (but not all) felt the same.  Of the five families that started getting together five years ago, as of tomorrow we will be the last remaining.  The Gladwells will now join the ever-growing list that also includes the Fosters, Younces, and Ferrarias as they venture on their next journey as a family.  Other families have come in to the neighborhood and the gatherings have now expanded far beyond the cul-de-sac.  Our kids are no longer the youngest and there are quite a few girls these days…as there are young boys as well.

The girls first friend, and one we thought would be a lifer, Meagan is moving tomorrow.  They will venture off to China where they will live for two years before likely returning to Colorado.  The Gladwells have been great neighbors, the kind who always have an open front door and a stream of kids flowing in and out.  They are generous and welcoming and will be missed. I know the girls will truly miss their first friend.  I hope they hold close to their hearts and cherish the memories they created from 2014 – 2019 in the Adams Hill cul-de-sac.

The early days….

Slightly older…

The final days….

And the final goodbye…officially Meagan’s 8th birthday!

Bon Voyage!!

Last but certainly not least, this little one filled her marble jar for the first time.  She appreciated every marble she earned along the way and the majority of time was not bitter or disappointed that she lagged some behind her sisters.  Happy girl with fake smile!

She wanted to go ice-skating or to Build-A-Bear only after Avery shared those ideas in the last two weeks.  While we had a great time with Avery ice-skating, we knew a new different experience would suit us all better.  Harper’s eyes lit up when I suggested mini-golf!

Her morning started with a cuddle in our bed…an occurrence that has been happening more frequently lately with a recurring bad dream that she has been having.  Look at both of us…you can almost see our brains in this picture!

She picked out her own clothes for the occasion and wanted to approve of my attire as well!  We had the mini golf course to ourselves.  She probably could use a lesson or two!

This next picture…I just keep looking at it thinking when did my baby get so tall!  That skirt has been around in our house now since 2015 passed down from Avery to Harper years ago and it is showing more and more leg with each passing year!  And those shoes…so grown up!

Her face saying “oooohhh” as she watched the ball.

We made it four holes before thunder and lightening put an abrupt end to our mini golfing.

We quickly had our money refunded and made it to the car just as the skies started opening up…and I mean torrential downpour.  This girl has such a good attitude…she just got in her carseat and went along with the new plans….which of course, were Build-A-Bear!

I sat with Harper in the backseat due as Justin drove threw the intense rain.

Harper picked out a multi-colored bear that she named Emily.

We ended up heading to Ozzie’s for dinner, a last minute decision since we hadn’t planned on being at Fair Oaks Mall.  Harper ordered the kids chicken parmigiana and fries and she ate more of it than I thought.  Her favorite were the Ozzie rolls and butter (notice the butter on her cheek). Justin and I had burgers and salad….the burger totally hit the spot!  Harper had a great time at dinner, giving Justin and I many tight hugs throughout the evening.

The evening ended with a stop at Dairy Queen for dessert!  Now that is how to eat an ice-cream cone!

When we got home, she ran upstairs to tell Avery and Emerson about her evening and the magic of childhood was fully present listening to Harper tell about her evening to her inquisitive sisters.  Its moments like these that put the biggest smile on my face and make me so grateful and happy. Now if only I can eat an ice-cream cone the same way!