First Day of School and a Happy Birthday

Two weeks ago we started our school year. I like to start early so we can 1) Take the day off whenever something fun comes up that we would like to do, and 2) Finish the year as soon as the weather gets nice. Since it's still nice here I like to get outside as much as possible with the kids, so we start off the day playing outside, come in for Bridget to take a nap and Andrew & Laura to do schoolwork, then head back outside again in the afternoon. This schedule doesn't leave much time to get housework done, but right now I'm just focusing on the essentials because I can spend hours and hours cleaning once we're in winter hibernation mode. Here are Andrew and Laura's first day of school pictures.

Yesterday was Andrew's birthday party. In the morning his friend Erek, who couldn't make the party because of previous plans, stopped by to play with Andrew for a little while.

Then in the afternoon we had the party. It was a few weeks late because we have had plans the last few weekends, but we have been telling Andrew for a couple of years that he could have a "kid" birthday party for his sixth birthday, so we had to have one. He wanted to have a solar system theme party, and I think he was quite happy with it.