Waiting for the bus, under an apple tree.
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Playing with Meera.
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Running as fast as he can, to go greet Owen.
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Sunday we hosted a brunch for our neighbors in Sayre. We started the tradition of once-a-semester brunches last year. The students catch on quick that there is good food at our brunches! The food used to be the big draw…
…but now… now our universe has slightly shifted… and now Dash is the big draw…
Everyone wants to hold the puppy. He was literally held, non-stop, for the entire 2.5 hours of the open-house-brunch. And trust me, I’m not the only one taking pictures of students holding Dash. The iPhones are a’clicking just about non-stop.
The bambinos love these brunches because they get to have everyone over to play…
…and hang out…
…and just enjoy a Sunday with our favorite students as everyone heads into a new week. (This week at Lehigh is “4 o’clocks” — i.e., the first round of exams — so it was especially good timing for our brunch. The stress level around these parts is running pretty high right about now.)
At least once a week we feed the kids something simple for supper (and Braydon and I find something to eat later, after they’ve gone to bed), because we sometimes just cannot manage to get a real family dinner on the table in time. Between double work, and triple school, and a lot of homework, and everything else, as probably most families know all too well, pulling off a sit-down-family-meal is oftentimes practically impossible. Tonight was one of those nights. Homework was done, K & O were playing basketball in the hallway with Jon — as usual (they literally play every single day), and Meera was hanging out playing, while Braydon and I were scurrying to pull together a quick and easy meal for the kids.
Very spur of the moment, we invited Jon in to eat with them (as in, I shouted out our doorway into the hall: “Jon, do you want to eat mac-n-cheese with the kids?”). It was just mac-n-cheese… however… 1) mac-n-cheese is still K,O,M’s all-time favorite meal, and 2) Jon was just thrilled it wasn’t his usual can-of-spaghettiO’s-for-dinner. These four were just so happy to be sitting there eating that mac-n-cheese together. I could not get over the goodness of it all. Note: Jon is our Head Gryphon this year. We all absolutely adore this guy. The bambinos, especially, are just head-over-heels for him.
This photo is just a snapshot, but it captures the moment perfectly. We are living a very unique family lifestyle, and there are challenges and joys to it. The moment in this photo represents one of the greatest joys.
It is Meera’s turn to learn to read.
She’s just beginning.
I took these yesterday– exciting moments for a lazy Sunday morning.
Not sure who is prouder of the emerging reader: Meera herself, or her doting brothers.
I snapped these with my iPhone just as I got the kids home from school today… so they aren’t the greatest pics… but they definitely convey the idea: ‘Home From School!’ is a very exciting time around here these days — for Dash and the bambinos both. Reunited at last, after a long day apart! There is nothing quite like a kid (or kids) with their dog. And there is nothing quite like a dog with his best playmates.
I thought kids were a big hit on campus. And they most definitely are. But puppies…. my oh my! A puppy takes it to a whole new level.
So far, Dash has not left Sayre. But it has been nice weather, so we’ve been outside at Sayre a lot in the past three days. Dash has met a lot of students already, and a lot of students have fallen head-over-heels for Dash already. I’m pretty sure that Dash is well on his way to being the most popular guy on campus.
We got a puppy! His name is Dash!
He is a 13-week-old cockapoo. We are in love!
We picked him up — from the farm where he was bred & born — on Saturday at noon. It was a 3-hour drive, round-trip. We had narrowed the name down by the time we headed out that day. Meera was set on “Lightening Dust.” Kyle and Owen wanted it to be “Rainbow Dash.” Braydon and I decided it would be “Lightening Dash,” hoping that “Dash” would stick. And stick it did. Nobody has mentioned the lightening part since seeing him. He is Dash Johnson-McCormick. Here are some shots from the drive home:
We arrived, introduced Dash to our home and to Lehigh…
…and then, after much playtime and overstimulation, he promptly fell asleep.
…on Kyle’s lap. Which was a dream-come-true for our Ky Ky (who has never been a fan of cats, and has long wanted a dog). Kyle kept saying, “Is this a dream? Am I dreaming? Seriously, this is a dream, right? Do I really have a dog? Is this our dog? Is this really happening? This is the perfect dog. How did we get such a perfect dog?”
Later that night, once we had the bambinos in bed, Braydon and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary with sushi, a movie, and our very first, brand-new, puppy. Now, that was a dream-come-true. (How long do you think it will be before Dash no longer sleeps with his head just a couple of inches away from sushi, without even attempting to taste one morsel of it?)
(Note: that night was not a dream-come-true. Braydon and I were up all night long with a crying, whining Dash baby spending his first night in his crate. Yes, we are crate training. No, we didn’t give in to him that night. Yes, we were exhausted the entire next day. No, crate training is not easy.)
But the best dream-come-true is seeing Dash become part of our family. This is why we finally broke down and decided to get a dog:
Friday was Spirit Day for the bambinos’ new school. I can’t get over how much they (the bambinos) have already attached themselves to this place. I went to the pep rally in the afternoon before school ended. I wanted to see what it was all about. And I wanted to see how K, O, and M acted there. Getting verbal reports from them that school is “great” is different than actually being able to see them there, and seeing how they behave there. I was blown away by how true to themselves, and at home, the three of them were. They are working super hard (the academic work is much more challenging than their previous school), but they are holding their own and doing just great. Switching schools was a huge decision for us. So, it felt really good to see K, O, and M on Friday — really in their element — really happy, and really authentically them. The school mascot is a cougar (named “Paws”), and the school color is red. You’d think the bambinos had been going there their whole lives given their level of school pride.
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