Dancing Cousins!

Spending Time With Zoe!

Swearing In A New Judge!

My big brother is now a judge! Look out, World! This was his small swearing in ceremony-- the big one is next month! I am so proud of him!

Of course, even if it is a formal occasion, these five can't get together without some sort of shenanigans happening and before we knew it, they were in the judge's seats! Seriously, watch out if these five are ever presiding over a courtroom. The two on the left will just giggle their way through the proceedings while the one on the far right will spin around and around in his chair, not paying the least bit of attention to the case. The middle two will take themselves far too seriously...

The Kindergartener!

What can I say about this one? He is a little heart melter, that is for sure! Tomorrow marks his first week of kindergarten under his belt and really, he has been so cheerful about the whole process of starting this new life that I am beginning to exhale. Mason's start of Kindergarten 7 years ago was so traumatic that I am forever scarred and nervous when I take a kid of mine to school for the first time. This guy, though, jumped right in as though he has been going his whole life! How strange it is to spend my days without him. After thinking how easy it will be to run errands on my own, I found myself getting teary in Trader Joe's when I realized that I was one of those moms with no kid in her cart for the first time! I miss him and his wonderful conversations terribly but this is part of life and I will adjust. He certainly has! And let me tell you: he is such a true little GUY about school-- his favorite parts are recess and PE. My girls have NEVER said that. In fact, quite the opposite! He was also quite impressed with the overhead projector, but not that he was learning how to write the letter "a" on said projector. He likes to draw at school as well, but we could have guessed that, huh? Do you want to know my favorite part? It is when that sweet little bundle of boy comes down the hall to meet me after school with a huge smile on his face and lots of loving for Mama (and sometimes a pocket full of rocks collected from the playground)!

My 4th Grader!

This sweet thing is also growing alarmingly fast! Where does the time go? It really makes me appreciate being a stay-at-home parent. At least as the time simply evaporates, I know that I have been there for all of it and participated in the days with these people I love so much! This girl is truly something special with a sweetness that goes to her core. She is, in essence, a caretaker of all those around her. Witness the fact that on the first day of school when she saw that there was a very real possibility that her Mommy might lose it, she patted me and said, "It's okay, Mommy, really! I like my teacher and I have my best friend in class so you don't need to cry!" She also loves to take little kids under her wing. She loves to shadow me and chat and would follow me to the ends of the earth. I guess that is the little girl in her and I am in no hurry to see it end.

My 7th Grader!

Who knew many years ago when I first started dreaming of this girl that I would blink and she would be starting 7th grade, almost as tall as me with feet the same size as mine? Everything she does is done with a whole-hearted effort and she never tires of making that effort. The one vocabulary word that she has never learned is "bored". She dreams up new games, novels, and ideas in her sleep. She enjoys unusual food, is addicted to Harry Potter, still unabashedly loves her parents and wants us to walk her into middle school, is wild about theater, and has a general, almost touchable love for life! All doors are open for this kid right now -- which ones will she choose to enter and how lucky am I to get to support her in all of her choices? I so love this daughter of mine!

7th Grade, 4th Grade, and Kindergarten, Oh My!

On Tuesday, Mason started 7th grade and Hannah started 4th. Dylan went to school just for a hour with me to get a feel for his Kindergarten classroom. Both girls had great days! Above is the picture from that day. Below are pictures from today when Dylan had his first full day of Kindergarten. Thankfully, I was very busy today so I could not focus on how alone my days could become. I have had a child tagging along with me for twelve and a half years and I have become very attached to it! I knew that saying goodbye to Dylan today would be hard. It does not help that the ritual here is to read "The Kissing Hand" with the parents and kids, then say goodbye after everyone kisses their child's hand and eats a chocolate kiss. I had to mentally disconnect from listening to the story to avoid dissolving into a puddle of tears. After saying goodbye to a cheerful big boy, I went to a Boo Hoo breakfast with friends, then did lunch duty
at Mason's school. He was full of smiles at the end of the day which does help ease this Mommy's heartache a little. P.S. He is in class with his best buddy, Dylan!

Pianist!

Destruction...

I have not posted in a while mostly because my computer had died. Fortunately, Andy was able to revive it and all is well again! I have also been super busy! The girls are in another show at The Box (Pirates of the Penzance) and have begun rehearsals five days a week. We are also registering for school and getting ready to start next week (sniff sniff). I even have to send my baby to Kindergarten this year-- talk about some serious heartache for this mama! But, along with all of that, we are remodeling our kitchen! We had a leak for a long time which we kind of overlooked. After all, let's face it--Albuquerque does not see a lot of rain anymore. When we finally addressed the issue, it was going to cost a couple thousand dollars to take down one section of cabinets, fix it, and put it back up. These are cabinets that we have always wanted to replace so it made sense to just do the whole kitchen now. I have been packing (what a job!) and trying to set up a temporary kitchen.

Here is the kitchen Tuesday night! I can't tell you how glad I will be to see the wallpaper strip at the top of the wall disappear. I made peace with it ten years ago and have lived with it, but if you know me at all, you know that I am not a pastel person. The tiles on the counter had a matching pastel strip. Our new kitchen will have dark cherry cabinets and a Corian counter top with a nice tile back splash. The things cabinets can do these days is amazing! Once I found out, there was no going back!

Here is the kitchen last night--kinda gross, huh? Good thing we are addressing that leak issue...

Julia and Robert's Skating Birthday Party!

Swimming!

Cliff's!