Update

I've been advised that I'm slacking on the job here, and need to update more frequently.  It's true that I haven't been very good at keeping up lately, so I'm going to commit to more frequent updates, although they may be entirely boring.

Jackson and Hollie started back to school this past Tuesday, after being out of school for three and a half weeks.  They are settling back in nicely.  Hollie's school celebrated it's 126th birthday yesterday.  There were some fun events scheduled at the senior school (the upper middle / high school campus), but unfortunately those had to be cancelled due to inclement weather (aka so much rain that we could row to school).

Brynn has started preschool two days a week and is really enjoying herself there.  Her first day happened to be on a day when a farm brought some animals out to the school.  I stayed with her for a bit there, but she was really fine for me to go.  She joined right in with the other kids, who were chasing a piglet around the playground (she's not in this photo but you get the idea)

And then she jumped in the sandbox, shouted out a ":bye mom!" and that was it...she is so easy that way.

All of the kids are required to wear these hats when outside (same with Hollie's school, and I think most others).  The intent is to protect them from the sun, since the UV is so strong here.  Her blue hat signifies that she is in the blue room, so the teachers can spot their kids on the playground.

Other updates..We traded in the Camry.  It was a great car, but didn't provide enough room.  A teenager in a back seat between a car seat and a booster was not working.  So, we now have a Toyota Kluger, an SUV with three rows of seating.  The kids are much happier and it drives really well.  I don't have a picture of our actual car, and it's dark outside now, but here's a picture from Google of the Kluger.  Ours is a dark gray.

On the car note, I will share a couple of photos that I took last week.  One is the Ute, a sort of standard for trucks around here.  I've not seen one Chevy Silverado or Ford F150, or anything even remotely close to them here.

Here is the ute (I think that is short for utility)

And then here is Jeff's very favorite (which will probably not come as a surprise to those of you who know him well).

"Babe, that's smooooooooth" he says.

And then, here is my favorite that I've seen.  

HA!  So me.  No, not really.  It's a Porsche Panamera.  I saw one in traffic a couple of days ago and actually did think it was a pretty nice looking car.  Of course I was curious how much a car like that would cost, and I have found them to be quite reasonable.  That is, If you consider $200,000-$400,000 reasonable.  YES KIDS, we are having beans for dinner AGAIN.  But we can go for a ride after.  Okay, so I'll never have a Panamera.  It's far more likely that I'll be cruising around in that El Camino looking thing with Jeff (perhaps with a big pair of sunglasses so no one recognizes me).