Kindergarten, Here She Comes?

A few days ago was our Kindergarten orientation. She cried and fretted and worried. "I'm nervous, mom. And mostly, I'm going to miss you." I heard this nine times a day. I tried to stay positive. I responded with "Me too! I always miss you when I'm not with you." I reminded her that God was always with her. I reminded her that we were in each others hearts all day long.

God help me. I prayed this time after time.  Please, help me.  Help me make this a learning experience.

I used to roll my eyes at people who cried after dropping their kids off at Kindergarten. Cold hearted, right? And then I had a baby girl and my heart was ripped out of my body. And now i get it. 

So, I actually prayed. But I'm realizing that the praying ended up being more for me than for her. Time and again I can't see past my circumstances. I am afraid that current feelings will be "forever feelings." Such little faith. Such silly fears. For as I've said time and again this week, He did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self control. Amen.

When the kids were called up to get in line and go see their classroom for 10 minutes without the parents, her little shoulders heaved and I saw her walking to get in line, trying to hide her tears. Trying to be brave. Trying to keep it together. 

And while she was gone, I knew she'd be okay.  I knew she'd been through worse. I knew she'd disappeared behind an O.R. door before and had miraculously made it through.

And afterward, I actually heard in my ear, "Mom," barely a whisper, "it was good. It was awesome."

For that? Frozen yogurt to celebrate.

She and Abram post orientation...

1254.  clothes not being an issue

1255. socks with no tears

1256. bravery and more bravery

1257. living 3 minutes from school

Summer On The Horizon

As the weather heated up. we were so happy to get outside. 

We took every chance we could get.

Who says you can't paint and draw outside while donning your bathing suits?

I think they were ready to swim even though it wasn't quite warm enough in May.

So since it wasn't warm enough, we had shaving cream wars.

And we played at the park...

And pretended to be Spidey...

And soon enough, the first swim happened.

And there was happiness.

And frog jumping into the pool...

And having friends over to dip in the shallow end.

And summer was looking bright.

Next up : swim lessons.

1250. closing the doors during nap time

1251. using the living room

1252. a cousin afternoon

1253. shorts that don't hurt

Frozen 5th Birthday

The cousins sure have enjoyed sharing birthdays this year.

Here is Fordy's 3rd. All smiles.

And while we did a family dinner for Abby also, the big news was that Anna from Frozen came to visit (please take note that we have created an extensive chart comparing the amount of years in which princesses and such will still be revered and the amount of money we have to spend on such things. The bottomline? You'll never see the likes of this again. This year was the bonanza! It is also the year I should begin encouraging Abby to sing and eventually work for one of these companies seeing that they are raking it in. Raking. It. In.)

Anna arrived!

(And truth be told, she was magical. And realistic. And wonderful)

Come in, Anna, come in!

Abs was in heaven.

She read to them, they all sang together, there was face painting, and a gazillion hugs.

And afterward, snacks, cake and these words…

"Mom, I prayed that Anna would come visit. I  knew God might not give me that wish, but I asked anyway." 

1246. being able to make her little dream come true

1247. holding a gift back

1248. friends to celebrate with

1249. cousins attending because they live close

Last Day of Preschool

Since school is about to start again (I am in denial about this seeing that it was 103 degrees here yesterday), I should probably go back and cover our last day of school!

We moved a month into the school year so things seemed to finish up early for us in May. It wasn't until a month before it that I realized that Abby's last day of school was on her birthday. 

So, of course, the morning had to start off something like this : 

A 5 year old breakfast of champions - donuts, raw milk and Elsa, just in time for her Frozen birthday party, looming the next day.

And then off we went to Safetyville.

A mini, kid-sized city where the munchkins could ride bikes and run and play as if they owned the place.  "See that place with the M, mom? That's the place with the food that tastes good but is really bad for you, right?" Yes, the brainwashing against fast food has begun. May it stick! Amen. 

Getting photobombed by one of her favorite teachers who Ford can't wait to see again when he starts preschool soon. Yes. He begins preschool in 2 weeks. 

Fordy jumped on his scooter and had jumped a curb, crashed and was back up again before I was hardly in the front gate with Abby dragging her bike behind her. Not a single parent or teacher was surprised that crazy Ford was speeding past the big kids. My fearless guy...

Abby and her pal Tessa obeying the traffic signs:

Abby's two assistant teachers, hugs to say goodbye...

And Abby with two of her closest pals during snack time : 

And Ms. Amy whom we love and adore. A sincere, steady, honest, witty and straightforward gal who loved these girls with her whole heart this year.

Each girl got a massive notebook that Amy put together throughout the entire year that highlighted everything that they accomplished. There was not a dry eye in the house.

As I said "goodbye for now -- and good luck with Ford next year" -- I think the previous year snuck up on me. The move, the grace God had for me in placing Abby in this little school, the people we'd met, how at home we feel -- I couldn't hold it together and raced out before we all started crying again. We feel so blessed that Abby had a wonderful year that prepared her for Kindergarten.

And that night, pazookie and ice cream after dinner!

And off we went to prep for the next day.

A Frozen party was waiting for us, a final celebration before we said goodbye to her pals for the summer. 

1242. a party without planning on a thing on her birthday
1243. happiness and no broken bones at safetyville
1244. protein in the morning, most mornings
1245. realizing that booster can be a carseat too

Ford's Dedication

When Abby was well beyond her heart surgery, we had her dedicated at church as soon as we could. I think we felt that we'd been through so much with her - that we were so blessed to still have her with us, that we couldn't "give her back" to God fast enough. 

With Ford, here he is, a three year old guy.

Because of switching churches, moving and all matter of busyness, we still hadn't done it. I know that God knows our hearts -- that we want to serve Him with Ford's life but now that we are settled, we wanted to get on it as soon as we could. 

We had a church picnic and our pastor lead us through some good questions.

Do we think we are ensuring his salvation with this dedication? No. 

Do we know that it's more about us than about him? Yes.

And he even let our pastor hold him and pray for him (he felt like the star of the morning). 

And afterward, who doesn't' like to be dunked in the baptism pool when it's 98 degrees at 10am?

Thankfully we had an outdoor picnic thing happening so it wasn't a total disgrace.

But can we talk about a very important topic?

This little man's curls.

I miss them.

Don't you?

Remember this...

And now it's #operationbringbackthecurls

This hair cut makes him look far too old.

#bringmybabyback

1238. being asked the hard questions

1239. the right clippers = free haircut

1240. happy and smiley most of the time boy

1241. dreams of a chore chart

Mother's Day after America's Day But Before

May was a busy, busy, busy month for us. 

Five family birthdays and our anniversary.

And the last day of school.

And 10 other things.

Including Mother's Day.

Which was a super windy, wonderfully sunny day. 

We've found a wonderful church that we love.

We've been hopping around for months so finding Vintage Grace has been such an answer to prayer.

And afterward we went to the park with a new Spider Man kite, a real BBQ (thanks, Kev!) and great food.

This guys loved flying Spidey.

Dang, I miss those curls (more on that later…)

And this girl liked it too.

And we are so happy to be with Grandma.

Happy Mother's Day to me, being with her.

And we so missed Grandmama on that day, especially.

1234. a super windy day

1235. randomly buying a kite

1236. transferring from winter to summer clothes for abby

1237. great, new baby news for 2 friends

Color Me What?

Color Me Mine has changed a bit since I went there in my post college days. 

For instance, this was a $55 painting experiment.

Granted, we have them for life (is this good?) but one hour for $55? 

The "artist" fee, the extras….

Abort, people. 

If your kids are under 5, grab some awesome paper plates, paint and glue and stay home.

I swear their artistic creation will rock your world just as much.

And, by the way, Abby hasn't looked at her creation since we've gotten it home.

1229. time with friends anyway

1230. swimming after dinner

1231. open windows and the breeze

1232. getting a few things down while they play

1233. revamping the tv watching = more peace around here