Instagram | 22

Happy Monday to you – though I might hold out until later today to let you know how it actually goes. I started a 3- (possibly 5-) day raw food/juice detox this morning. At the moment I’m feeling rather virtuous and a might bit hungry, but not angry and mad at the world, so things are going all right. I’ll keep you posted! For now, let’s focus on my past week according to Instagram:

Pile-on daddy time – always a favorite past time.

Liam painted a tile/trivet as his last art project for the summer. I originally was looking at it upside down and Liam had to twist it around for me and tell me it was a painting of a ninja with purple swords. Of course.

We watched a different kid’s channel last weekend – this cartoon was strange, even by kid’s cartoon standards.

For the last day of summer vacation the boys asked to go to the new mall (Rivertown, which was built over a decade ago, but we still call it the new mall) and wanted to play at the treehouse and ride the carousel – of all the options, this made them happiest.

My first grader. 100% not into getting his photo taken and suddenly all grown up – I love his recent habit of walking around with his hands in his pockets.

I was able to get a few smiles out of him.

And for comparison – first days of school from kindergarten and first grade. What a difference a year makes.

Jack got to hang out with me at work for about an hour before picking Liam up from school… he was pretty good, though I made the mistake of having him watch a new-to-him movie which got him all anxious and had him yelling at the bad guy on the screen. Next time we’ll stick to Backyardigans, where he only sings along with the intro song.

Yet another beautiful sunset.

And a much less beautiful mantis. This one was in the backyard where I slept outside in a tent. Ewww.

My lazy boy, hanging out with mommy with his goldfish crackers.

Little 16-day-old Emerson – such a sweet baby! We got to cuddle him up on Saturday! And the big boys indulged in a little FIFA 12 soccer on the Wii while the little boys played with even littler kid toys – everyone was happy (except their dog, Vince, who Liam hit in the eye with a tennis ball – sorry, Vince, those Bennett boys cannot be trusted).