What the Right Decision Looks Like

After three weeks of school I transferred Riley. The details aren't important because after three weeks at her new school it is clear I did the right thing. Thank God! My heart is overflowing with gratitude. Look at the evidence, I found my sweet happy girl again.

There was a new first day sign for our fresh start. She's collected leaves for a nature collage, learned new songs, discussed science topics, practiced her handwriting, made friends, made art, taken a field trip, befriended the stuffed dinosaur in the front office (Diney), learned about a different culture, practiced her musical scales, been to a party and danced a lot! The bulletin board inside the door says "You are artists! You are bright! You are explorers! You are loved! You are the reason we are here." Isn't that great? I'm glad she's happy and learning again.

Summer, Stick A Fork In It

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

Click any collage to enlarge

Summer Wrap Up Video Questions:
1. What was the most educational thing you did this summer?
2. What was the worst thing about summer vacation?
3. What was the very best thing about summer vacation?
4. What was the best thing you ate?
5. What was the worst thing you ate?
6. What was your favorite activity/project?
7. What was your favorite trip?
8. What did you do that was unexpected?
9. Is there anything you didn't get a chance to do that you wish you had?
10. Are you ready to go back to school?
11. What is the most exciting thing about starting middle school?

**Full Disclosure: We filmed this on the night before school started. It took at least six takes due to Riley's video bombing , the dog, technical issues, etc. So, I apologize before you view it for my sharp tone mid way through I was completely exhausted. Otherwise, enjoy our summer memories!

March-ing On Part 2

Jump in your time machines fellow travelers and let's go all the way back...to mid March! We'll all pretend I totally skipped almost two whole months of posts on purpose so I could do a few cute recap posts. Here we go...

We celebrated two years of marriage and almost seven years together (it'll be seven next month). We rang in this milestone in our usual super cool style...with board games! Cards against Humanity and such, chips and dips and some drinks. It was actually a lovely evening, not in the top ten most romantic nights of my life, but exactly what we were in the mood for. Here's to fifty or so more years!

Right on the heals of Isaac's character day Roo's school had fairy tale character day! It was conveniently the day after Epcot so she had just received her brand new Mulan dress (not that she has any shortage of options before that). I was thrilled that she wanted to be Mulan because I was sure the room would be full of Rapunzels and Belles, but she was bound to be the only Mulan. We found her a white flower from the garden for her hair, gave her some purple eye shadow and red lip gloss and even managed to find her "beads of jade". She looked perfect. Let's face it my kids kick butt at character days!

Scenes from Spring Break

I talked a lot about spring break an earlier post...But let's just sum up here as well. Children's Museum, library, movie nights, board games (Disney Sorry FTW), coloring, car sing-a-longs, play dates!, dress up, out to lunch, Easter decorating, playing "quietly", puzzles, books, running around in the backyard and making a pony at build-a-bear!

We snuck a date night into the mix right at the end our spring break. More board games and adult conversation for us. Good times.

The kids had their first and second night sleeping away from home about a week apart. Their grandparents took them out to dinner, to the Lego movie and then swimming the next morning. They gave them back happy and tired. The next weekend I asked Roo's Bestie's family to watch them so Mike and I could go out. She kindly volunteered to let them sleep over. It was very nice and super weird. It's odd, but when Mike and I are alone I always dream up all these fun things to do and then we end up happily doing nothing. I just always feel the full weight of being tired when I stop moving. It's why I don't stop moving too often if I can help it, so I can keep ignoring the tired. That being said I enjoyed my time off very much almost as much as I missed them.

Miss Roo and I took a stroll through one of the world's biggest Disney Stores and we found her the wig for her Halloween. It was late March and she just happened to demand her skeleton tights. My silly girl. She got compliments all day on them. Then we got home we tried on the whole ensemble. Amazing, right? Now we just have to wait seven months....

And now my friends you have been brought up to the present, hurray!

30 of Days of Gratitude: Day 17, 18 & 19

Day 17: I'm thankful for all forms of photography. Pictures are worth a 1,000 words and I am an historian by nature. I'm not the best photographer by any means, but I always strive to document. Time is so fleeting and memories fade much faster than a photograph.

Day 18: Photo projects! I love scrapbooking. I started way before it was cool and I'll probably be the only old lady in the nursing home with a drawer full of acid free pens and glue sticks. It started as a way to remember my senior year of high school and became a life long hobby. While I don't often have the time for scrapbooking since Riley was born I find all kind of other photo projects to work on. It's good way to de-stress while documenting./p>

Day 19: Milkshakes!

Scenes From The First Week of School

Everybody was all smiles from start to finish this week! The brand new playground at Roo's school opened on Wednesday and on Thursday we found out the student with the peanut allergy grew out of it and we could send peanut butter again! Aside from refusing to wear his new shirts in favor of his old broken in ones Isaac's week was better than expected. Both my big kids had good notes home every day!

How cute is Roo's Mr. Pear? Isaac missed out because he only took his lunch Monday to humor me and not once since. It's a real high point of his year to be able to have breakfast and lunch at school. He also met his new in school gifted teacher and is excited to start soon. It turns out he'll be the only fifth grader which is kind of a bummer, but I dare you to try to dampen his enthusiasm.

When I picked Roo up today she had a hat (last picture) that said "Riley has 6 apples up on top." They read Ten Apples up on Top (one of my favorites!!) and had an apple taste test. They tried each color apple and then picked their favorite and that's the color apple they put on the hat. Isn't that the coolest?!? I love that. They also had a fire drill today, her first ever. She did excellent.

I'm so proud of my big kids! Where are they now? Playing secret spy at full volume in the backyard. I love how much they miss each other during the day. I managed a major deep cleaning project every day while they were in school as well as my normal housework and errands. That's saying a lot with a dryer that runs cold and nonfunctional car.

First week of school? We nailed it. Go team!

First Day of School 2013

Isaac was thrilled to be at the top of the heap this year. Mike and I spent the summer telling him how awesome 5th grade was for us. All the cool field trips and projects. He has two teachers again both ladies. Math and science in the morning and language arts in the afternoon. He was super excited to tell me about his day and he had a glowing note home too!

Miss Roo was happy to see me, but a little upset that I was picking her up "early." Her day is 9-4:30 and I came at 3:30. We were going out to dinner for Mike's birthday and she had a date with Grandpa and Ya Ya. She hugged her teacher goodbye when she left. She also had a great note home. She taught the whole family her new "Days of the Week" song in the car. It is to the tune of "The Addams Family". She told me about stories they read, and games they played. The only bummer was that the new playground wasn't ready, but we're assured it will be this week.

Great, great start to the school year! (And a Happy Birthday for Mike!).

Prepare for Abundance

That is the message I received. I joked about hoping it was an abundance of good things, but prosperity was implied. I can't help but feel blessed. I hope I can be open to whatever comes. I don't have even a vague inkling of what lays ahead and for a goal oriented person like me that is extremely difficult. On the other hand it's freeing. I can tell what lays ahead is different from anything that came before.

When I returned from vacation I submitted an essay that will be published in a book that comes out this winter. Very exciting stuff! It was a daunting task to talk about myself as an inspiration, but I'm very proud of what I came up with. My wonderful sister-in-law came by for a 6am photo session so I'd have recent family photos to submit with my essay. Aren't we cute? I'm pretty biased though.

Those kids sure are growing up. Roo has another year of preschool because her birthday is a week after the deadline, but we're thrilled to have her starting at the new charter school around the corner from our house. She'll get a Greek lesson daily among other perks. Isaac will complete elementary school this year. The thought makes me feel very old.

There is plenty of struggling and being tough to be done, but I'm feeling more of the payoff from my hard work lately. Isaac finished his whole summer reading list by July! I was very proud of him and he earned a free book from the Barnes and Noble summer reading program for his hard work. He picked out the first book in the How to Train Your Dragon series. Riley's been reading a bit this summer too. It's kind of amazing what a little patience and the right educational software can too. Miss Roo also made a lot of progress swimming this summer too. We worked hard and played hard this summer. Go team!

Minnie Party (My Pictures)

Just in case anyone isn't sick of hearing about Roo's birthday, there's MORE! For all the lovely pictures taken by Lara Jackson Photography check out yesterday's post, these are the pictures I took (mostly as I un-decorated).