Asher has started Kindergarten! He’s been very excited about this all summer. We attended an end-of-summer work party one morning and an orientation morning a few days before the official start of school. Here he is on that September 2 morning.

Pretty proud and hopeful, right?

The first day for Asher to join the Red Rose Kindergarten at Sacramento Waldorf School was last Wednesday. He happily posed for pics and marched headlong into the yard to play with friends, many of whom were in preschool with him last year.

He likes the swings and to run around in the circle bordered by the straw bales. He’s eating all his lunches up nicely.

This first week has been a little hard, however. He’s still adjusting to all the newness—new place, new teachers, new classmates, new rhythms. My little guy who is normally so bold and jolly has been crawling into my bed before dawn, crying and saying he doesn’t want to go to school. Nothing has happened or gone wrong. It’s just a lot of change all at once. I think things are gradually improving as the days add up. I have picked him up a few days “early,” meaning after lunch at the end of the Kindergarten morning, instead of after nap group. His problem may be merely that he doesn’t want to nap.

I know in another week his anxiety will be gone and he’ll be making lots of friends. I know that he’s brave and will soon be a ringleader. But right at this moment, my sunshine boy is working through it. It is both hard and exhilarating to watch him tentatively taking these steps into the world.

This is a small collection of precious summer moments that I want to remember. It was a summer full of color, creativity, and togetherness. We got our fill of outdoor adventures and indoor play, too. We tested, challenged ourselves, and grew in so many ways.

From the bottom of my heart, I hope your summertime was full of bliss and daydreams, excitement and rest.

Today one of our summer adventures is featured on the Beneath the Rowan Tree blog, which is super fun! Pop over there to see!

The boys and I made another batch of jam last week, which was Week 11 of summer vacation. You see, we mamas must be creative to survive summertime. We must also do our best to create and squeeze sweet moments out of these long, warm days at home.

I wish I could say we plucked all of these strawberries from our garden, but we don’t grow enough berries to make that possible. I also wish I could say they were organic berries, but alas, they weren’t. They were the next best thing: on sale!

What is absolutely wonderful, however, is that my kiddos and I worked together on this project. Lucas and Asher were great about chopping all the strawberries. (Getting to use real knives is a thrill for them.) Their cooperation and good natures made this such a fun activity. I just love how capable and helpful they are these days! They got to decide on the sweetener for our low-sugar jam—they picked honey!

The chickens benefited, too.

We call this Mama and Sons’ Strawberry Honey Love Jam. Good name, no?

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

There’s been another change in Asher’s artwork since I last posted about it in May here, and before that, here. This one above is “Zombie Blood Splats, Explosions, and Chemicals.”

“My Creature Owl”

“Doggy”

Untitled

Asher’s Writing (left-handed, right to left)

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“Just Scribbles”

“A Game with Gold”

“Asher, Alex, and Noah Fighting a Black Monster”

“It’s About Swords”

“A Game” This one looks like a form drawing! Something he won’t be asked to do in school for another two years. This stuff is fascinating to me.

“BattleBetween a Fire Octopus and a Blue Guy”

A little over a week ago we went blackberry picking with friends at a u-pick farm in Auburn called Amber Oaks Raspberries. In a word, yum!

This sweetie will be in Asher’s Kindergarten class, and my boys and the two girls got on very well together, while my friends and I picked and chatted. We came home with 7 pounds of berries.

There were two types for picking that day: one a little tart, perfect for jam. The other was for eating.

Peekaboo!

Asher picked about two berries. He proudly told me he ate them, like he put one over on me. Lucas helpfully picked two and a half baskets.

We had a wonderful picnic lunch with our friends after we were done picking. The kids played.

Then we came home and made jam! Beautiful, beautiful jam.

Isn’t it pretty? We got ten 8-oz. jars from our full sugar recipe. This was my first time canning by myself.

We froze some of the berries for using in smoothies. Then we made blackberry cobbler with the rest. It was fabulous!

Last month we got to go to Calaveras Big Trees State Park for a weekend camping trip. It was as magnificent as I remembered it from when we camped there a few years back (before we were four).

The boys had a wonderful time. Our campside was bordered on three sides by very large fallen logs, which created a kind of parkour paradise for all of us. We balanced and climbed on those logs a lot, moving from one to another without touching the ground. There was a sweet little creek behind our campsite and some kind of old building whose purpose we couldn’t fathom.

Lucas got to try chopping kindling with the ax, with Ian close by—but not too close! It is both exciting and terrifying to see Lucas learning to perform more dangerous tasks, such as chopping wood and lighting fires. It’s good for him, though. He is learning how to be careful, capable, and confident and that is priceless. We all negotiate risk every day of our lives.

We had campfire fun, including s’mores, of course.

We were joined by our dear friends Mars and NoNo for this trip and it was particularly awesome to have some quantity time with them. Life for the grown-ups has been so busy these last six months or so. In the woods, there are no work emails to check. Amen.

There are, however, plenty of sticks that can instantly become weapons for little boys—especially if you find a random, discarded wire cable that can be dismantled by two quick 9-year-old hands. “Here, Mars, hold this so I can wrap this wire around to make a proper hilt.” The boys were on their best behavior for our friends, and worked hard to limit their sword fighting to slo-mo bashing and movielike derring-do.

We hiked through the North Grove of Big Trees state park together. It’s a short, gentle hike, but the kids got tuckered out before we were done nonetheless.

This is what they call Discovery Stump. It’s the giant sequoia that was first chopped down to prove to the world that giant sequoias existed—and to make a buck. They used to hold dances on this tree stump; they built a school room on it; they used it as a stage for theatrical performances. Now it’s where park volunteers teach tourists about giant sequoias, California history, logging, how stupid people can be, and forest conservation.

A living Sequoia Sempervirens. The trail leads past a dozen or so of these magnificent trees.

Rest stop.

Giant redwood cones.

Wild yellow irises.

Sweet Uncle Mars and tired Asher in need of lunch.

Mmm, lunch.

There were plenty of card-playing giggles with NoNo.

Lucas taught Asher how to play War.

Daddy cooked our baked potatoes in a stone oven/grill thing and they were lovely. We had steak and wine and other goodies. Sometimes when camping, it seems like we go from one meal to the next, with little in between. Our kids are always starving, it seems, no matter how much we feed them.

After our friends left, we also had a lovely hike ruined by moodiness and a picnic that made it better, a splash in a creek with butterflies all around, and then we met this awesome bug!

Scene: 1:38 a.m., two boys, led by the older one, pad into our bedroom.

“Dad! There’s a wasp in my bed, and Asher’s burning up with lava!”

“Mmmrffl—What?”

“There was a wasp in my room. I saw it. It flew by my head and I trapped it in my covers.”

“Mama, I need a drink of water.”

I get up. Lava?  “Um, OK. I’ll go look. Here’s some water, Asher.”

gulp, gulp, gulp

“More.”

“OK”

gulp, gulp, gulp

“More, please.”

gulp, gulp, gulp

“Asher, go potty now, please.”

In the boys’ room, “Lucas, your room is dark. How could you see a wasp?”

“Um, I don’t know. But I did.”

Light on, shaking out covers, “I don’t see anything, honey. Your bed is safe. I think it was a dream. Why don’t you go in and go potty?”

“But I saw it…. I’m glad it’s not in my bed.”

“Sometimes when we have to go potty in the night, we have strange dreams to wake us up.”

“Oh.”

Everybody goes back to sleep immediately, except me. I’m awake for an hour.

Breakfast dishes, with two small helpers.

Putting away laundry, also with help. Halleluia!

Chicken care and feeding.

Kitchen science, on the cheap.

Safetytown USA, where we learned about fire safety, bike safety (“Wear your helmets, kids,” says Uncle Mario), and how to be safe near electrical wires and power stations, stray animals, strangers, and assorted other dangerous things. Safetytown is a mini town, with scaled-down buildings, working traffic lights, and a little pretend railroad crossing. We practiced crossing the street a lot.

Ours was a self-guided tour, which gave us some map-reading and reading practice. Lucas did a great job!

It also gave us lots of opportunities to sit and watch DVD presentations play. :-/  Still, the kids were mostly engaged.

We learned about not playing with matches or lighters, about “Don’t Hide! Get Outside!”, about crawling on the ground if there’s a fire, and having a family fire escape plan and meeting place. Although Lucas already knew a lot of this stuff, I think it was Asher’s first introduction to “Stop! Drop! Roll!”

There was a boring trip to the grocery store, made somewhat less boring by buying crummy Chinese potstickers, chow mein, and egg rolls for lunch.

We watered the garden where it was looking thirsty.

We watered the boys, who raced through the hose spray.

I fetched 17 glasses of ice water for thirsty humans. That water cooler idea is looking really good in the heat of summer.

We made mango, orange, yogurt pops.

The 4 p.m. tantrum came right on schedule.

Two storybooks.

Some math and language arts practice.

Piano practice.

Lucas tried on his new gi to show me. He looks so handsome and grown up.

Quite a day, no?

You know what’s great?

Having buddies that are into the same kinds of things you are into …

Having some time to sit and imagine and build and laugh, side by side …

Enjoying the play without thinking about the fact that you’re learning stuff …

Sometimes there are setbacks. Stuff breaks, but when friends are there to encourage you, it’s OK.

There’s always a new way to try it, and sometimes new environments to play in. Why not?

And the delight in achievement is so very nice.