Some fun family updates from this Summer~ Theme: Celebrations!!!
We spent the 4th of July with lots of friends, new and old! Can't think of a better way to celebrate our independence.
Celebrating our first day at the new school!
Celebrating a win for the Royals!
Celebrating our little artist! Ellie's artwork was chosen and featured on display at the Olathe Educational Resource Center:
Celebrating two generations of girl friends!
How better to do that than an outdoor Frozen sing-along at Crown Center?!?!
These girls are beautiful inside and out!
Celebrating this little peach being outside the womb as long as she was in :) Almost 9 months old!
If you get the chance, you really should come by and squeeze on these thighs- we've really been beefin' her up!!!
Lovin' on great grandpa!
Celebrating Midwest OBgyn friends!! Love these beauties!
Celebrating the Bride-to-be! Can't wait to officially call this beautiful girl my sister!
John + Jackie!!
We
celebrated some lake time! With friends and lots of kids :) We only
made it one night, since Tessa decided it would be fun to party all
night long, but it was super fun while it lasted!
Celebrating fun church friends and AWESOME neighbors!
If
she wasn't already one of the coolest teenagers we know, she now
definitely holds that title because she has her own set of face
paints!!!! FUN :)
How
can you help but smile when you see this face?? I remember when I was
pregnant with him, my prayer was that he would bring so much joy
wherever he goes.....
I'd say that's an accurate description!
He's
been doing preschool with Miss Leslie, and he's been so proud! He says
he wants her to stay forever, and all the days I have at home with him,
he says, "Do I get to stay with Miss Leslie tomorrow?" with his big
smile :)
He
did give me the best compliment last week. He comes bouncing down the
stairs, and says, "MOM! You're a good human....and you're really
pretty....and you're really awesome!" Then skipped away....haha!! I'll
choose to remember this one, rather than a few hours later when it
turned in to the classic arms crossed, brow furrowed, "I'm NOT happy
with you! I'm NOT going to call you pretty!" LOL
Celebrating birthdays! The birthday fairy made a
couple visits, and per tradition, the kids got to pick what they wanted
for their birthday breakfast. Ellie chose blueberry buttermilk pancakes
with blueberry syrup (and little paper umbrellas...obviously!).
I
captured the moment she realized these things were actually called
Tic-tacs. One of our favorite treats :) I always call them "Chill
Pills"- sometimes we have to pop a few when we flip our lids! haha
Caleb,
predictable as ever, went with the powdered donuts! (and marshmallow
cereal...and Fanta....) I know, I know... food dyes, refined sugars,
and white flour (gasp!). But hey, we celebrate lavishly around here and making one whole trip around the sun is a big deal!
We took a trip to Scheels Sporting Goods store, too, and had a little fun~
Caleb is our little tech savvy guy. Here's his rendition of our family. Found this on my phone....haha!
I
was lamenting because this is the year that they decided they don't
want to celebrate their birthdays together anymore (bye-bye to the easy
one-time party for both!) and wanted to do separate friend parties. But
it turned out super-fun. Ellie chose a skating party (she's actually
only been skating once in her life, so I tried to persuade her away from
it, but she was adamant). It started out rough, with lots of
wipe-outs, but by the end we got the hang of it. And the dads sure did
have fun!!!
Caleb had a cosmic skating party, complete with a strobe light bowling ball and music videos.
This is what happens when "Let It Go" comes on.....
And family fun was also had by all!! So, three parties instead of one....I was spent! But we had a blast-
A little football with the big boys-
Some
random thoughts. I've been thinking so much about parenting lately
(well, always...) and I'm realizing more and more that I spend so much
time parenting for 'performance'. You know, hoping that my kids won't
totally embarrass me every time we're in public! Always hoping to put on
our best face to the world, you know, so it looks like I'm doing a
mighty fine job raising this brood. The problem is, things never turn
out quite how I planned, and it turns out that all these little people
cannot be controlled because, naturally, they have minds of their own,
and make their own decisions, for better or worse.
("Look mom, she's smiling")
And
the more I think about it, I want kids who can make their own
decisions, good or bad, and then deal with the consequences (within
reason of course). Isn't this what we do every day as responsible
adults? I figure, this is their practice ground. Let's make the small
mistakes now and learn from them, so that they turn out to be, as
William puts it, "good humans" in the long run.
For
us, this means embracing the uncomfortable. Sometimes answering that
"How are you?" question with an honest answer rather than a standard,
"Great! Fine! Everything is awesome!" (who started singing the Lego song
just then?..haha!) It means risking the melt-down at the coffee shop
because we can't buy a treat today (because, "sweet treats are for sweet
boys, and you're choosing to be really sour right now"). Or allowing
the kids to ask questions of our new friend, the dad of two of the
cutest little girls we love to play with, who has prosthetic legs. Of course
they have questions! Instead of instructing them that it's not polite
to stare or point, I let them ask. And, awesome as he is, he was happy
to answer their questions....the many questions! And then we were off to
playing again! And we learn, little by little, that we are all
different, and that's something to be celebrated, not avoided or be
uncomfortable with.
Oh,
and so much for our first impressions at school. Got a call from the
school nurse a few weeks ago (who is super sweet!). Caleb had a
headache and a 99.something temp in the morning so we told him he could
try school and let the nurse know if it gets worse or if he feels bad.
So nurse Kristen called to let us know that Caleb visited her, and
reported that he had a 104 fever in the morning and received medicine at
5 o'clock sharp. I had to laugh out loud! He didn't even wake up till
after 6:30am. What else do the kids tell people at school? Who knows.
And
then there's the house. Despite my best efforts, it's usually a wreck.
Except the days when Miss Leslie comes...because I'm convinced she has
magical powers that allow her to be not only the best and most fun
person ever, but also leave my house looking sparkling with laundry done
and folded and a million other little things I find that make me love
her even more. I need to search her purse and find that magic wand! I
need one! So, every other day, I just cant keep up. Like that time when
your 3 year old wipes his hands on your DECORATIVE towel
after eating a nutty bar. I've never had a "decorative" towel before,
but I proudly displayed one just yesterday- a stark white one with
dainty little painted designs that I hand-stenciled onto it. Why, oh WHY do
I do this to myself!?!?!?! When I flipped out, William looked at me
with that "you're being crazy" look.....after all, it is a TOWEL.....sigh. Once again I repeat my mantra "We can't have nice things"....or pretty things, or white things.
However, we DO have this little gem (I'm referring to the table, haha):
Hand made by my Daniel- I think its reeeeeealll niiiiiice :)
I've actually determined that I like the house messy because then I don't have to worry about it getting messed up- lol. So, to all my friends, never worry about cleaning your house when I come over. I'll feel right at home :) And you've been warned, I'm going to TRY to give myself some grace, and it might not be as clean next time you come over here.
I'm
honestly coming out of a little funk, and I'm hoping this school year
will be one full of celebration...because life's worth celebrating! I'm
slowly trying to let go of some of the fears and anxieties and
imperfections that drag me down so often.
One awesome thing: I've been married to this catch for 10 years now:
Around
here, we're lucky to catch 5 uninterrupted minutes to catch-up...but we
will be celebrating in San Diego next month on an ACTUAL VACATION.
Can't. Wait. I can't even imagine. Sleeping in (or even just sleeping),
being lazy, traveling light, eating out, on our own schedule....oh is
it too good to be true? I think we've earned it after 10 years putting
up with each other :)
More on that next time!
1 comment:
You're a good writer. I loved seeing all the pics!!
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