Fall Leaves

I've already confessed that I'm a perfectionist.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right?  Well, that perfectionism has been rearing its ugly head lately in weird ways.

For example, each fall the kids look forward to jumping in the leaves.  We rake the leaves in our yard into a big pile, and the kids run and jump into it.  I always take lots of pictures, and I feel happy documenting the changing of seasons and the growth of my babies.

Well, we haven't done any of that yet this year.  Mostly because conditions haven't been perfect.

Here's what it would take to do this perfectly:

1.  All 3 kids playing together
2.  Cute clothes (most likely coordinating with each other)
3.  Kids' hair cutely styled
4.  Cool weather, cold enough for fall clothes but warm enough for comfort
5.  Perfect lighting

My guilt has been piling up every day as the kids ask me when they get to jump in the leaves.  The tree in our front yard has now dropped all of its leaves, and the wind keeps carrying them out of our yard and down our street.  We keep getting rain, which makes the leaves too wet and gross to jump in.  After Nolan comes home from school, we have to do homework and then dinner and then various activities, which leaves no time for leaves.

The weather has been unseasonably warm for a couple of days.  Today I let the kids wear flip-flops along with the random clothes they chose.  We dropped Nolan off at school and then had about an hour to hang out at home before going to our weekly play group.

Nora found a turtle-shaped bottle of bubbles (remember how much she loves turtles) as soon as we got home from taking Nolan to school.  She asked me if she could blow them outside.  I consented since I know this warm weather won't last much longer.

The next thing I knew all 3 of us (Griffin, Nora, and me) were outside.  Blowing bubbles quickly turned into "Can we play in the leaves?"

I threw in the towel on waiting for perfect conditions.  Nothing was perfect today.

1.  Nolan was at school and couldn't join in the leaf fun.
2.  The kids were wearing random clothes.
3.  Griffin's hair is a bit long, and Nora's hair was wild and untamed.
4.  The weather wasn't very fall-ish.
5.  The lighting was horrible, bright morning sun in some areas and dark shadows in others.

So, I got out the rake and tried to move all the leaves across our driveway into the front yard (so the kids could jump on the softer grass rather than the hard driveway where the leaves had gathered).  I ran inside and grabbed the camera.

I decided to enjoy the moment.  It wasn't anything I had in mind, but it was beautiful.  The kids had so much fun.  I'd rather capture photos of two of the kids than none of them.  These pictures show the kids as they truly are, crazy hair and all.  The pictures will remind us that this year we had 70-something degree weather in late October, and the kids got to blow bubbles outside the week before Halloween.

Take that, Perfectionism.

So, I leave you with some imperfectly perfect pictures of my two youngest kids enjoying a warm fall morning.

Jessica