Tough Tattooed Trenton

Trenton was so excited to put on these temporary tattoos. He thought they were so cool because they were skateboarding tattoos. Does it take away from the toughness factor, that they are Disney tattoos?

tattooed

More Mothers Day Madness

Kristin took some great pictures when we got together for Mother's Day at Grandmother and Grandad's house.Super Trenton!

Recital Round-up Part 3--Aloha!

The morning after the talent show, Kira had her performance with "Stages," the show choir-type class she has been taking. The theme this time was luau/beach party. They started with traditional hula dances. I loved their cute costumes!

Don't you love all the red-headed polynesians. The end of the production was a medley of Beach party song from the Beach Boys, etc. Here they are doing the Mashed potato. Kira does a mean twist! She did a great job smiling and performing!

After the performance, we enjoyed a pot-luck luau and had to take a few more pictures of our hula girl! ALOHA!

Recital Round-up Part 2--A Day in the life of a Star (or Kira's School Talent Show)

Today we are following the young starlet, Kira, on the day of her big school Talent Show performance. She has a full day of public appearances promoting the event, but still has to be ready for the night, so she sports this stylish scarf to keep her pin curlers in place and heads out the door. She is wearing a special t-shirt to promote the event, "A Night with the Stars" at the school. Kira has a loyal following, but not everyone is a fan...

After a busy day at the school, she returns home where her hairstylist and make-up artist (a.k.a. Mom), completes the transformation from starlet to "Annie."
A quick bite to eat, and then it is off to the school. Here she is practicing her smile as Annie.
And the moment we've all been waiting for...."The Sun'll Come Out...Tomorrow." She finishes to thunderous applause in the standing-room-only cafeteria! (video to follow...hopefully!)

After enjoying the rest of the talented performers, and undoing the Annie hair, Kira takes a moment to pose for the paparazzi (a.k.a. Mom).
And works the Red Carpet!
Then it is off to bed to get ready for another performance the next morning. Just another day in the life of a star!

Recital Round-up Part 1--Kira's Class Presentation

This month has been crazy with all of the end-of-year performances. It began with Trenton's first recital ever with his tumbling class. I'm sorry to say that the world's most friendly kid, actually had a pretty bad case of stage fright. I didn't get any photos, but am trying to figure out how to get that video posted.

This was Kira's 1st grade class presentation. I had a fun time snapping action shots as the kids showed us the raps they learned to help them remember how to count by 10s. The other moms and I are considering using this for our workout routine, since those kids were burning some serious calories:




And here she is as the old lady in the class play, "The Good Guys vs. The Bad Guys." I was impressed with her ability at physical comedy when she had to pretend that she slipped and fall on the ground. (I thought she had really fallen, at first).

After the performance with her good friend, Halle, and their special 4th grade friend, Makayla.

p.s. Tessa

Just a couple of days after I made that last post, we decided that Tessa is officially crawling. She sure can do a lot of damage these days, and has started to injure herself with all of her adventures.

We finally made it into the pediatrician today for her 6 month check-up, a month and a half late. She was 3 oz. shy of 20 lbs. (but had just had a poopy diaper changed, so I'm sure that's where those ounces went), and 28 inches tall. They put her at 90% for weight and 95% for height. So there really are chubbier babies out there, somewhere (just not a lot of them)! I actually think that she has been holding steady at around 20 lbs., for the last couple of months, so she may be going to slim down soon. I will miss those squeezable thighs! I feel so blessed that she has been so healthy...all of my kids, really have been. I know so many who go through so much medically, but after hauling all three kids around town with me today, I am so grateful that our trips to the pediatrician are few and far between.

7 months

I beginning to think that I may have to come up with a new way to mark Tessa's growth--maybe a shirt, or something she can't wrinkle up. It was quite an adventure trying to take her picture this time! I documented it with this slide show.


I don't have official stats, since I still haven't taken her in for her 6mo. check-up (I know, shame on me!), but according to our home scale, she is still right around 20 lbs. She does outweigh most of her 1-year-old friends, and has yet to meet one who can rival those thighs! Still everyone she meets wants to love and squeeze all of that chub!

I'm not sure I would really call what she is doing crawling, but she is definitely getting around. I think her trouble is that she likes to straighten her legs. More often than not, she ends up in somersault position (I've helped her do a few somersaults). But she manages to move around a room. Lately, though, she thinks it is great fun to pull herself to standing, and has even began to cruise just a little between furniture. I wonder if she is going to skip effective crawling and head straight for walking! She has tried most all kinds of foods, but seems to want grown-up food more than her own, and wants to try and feed herself (uh, oh! Do I detect another independent, determined personality??? I might be in trouble!). She has learned what to do with Cheerios, so she is on her way.

Still no teeth, yet, but the way she is chomping on me, they can't be too far off (Ouch!). But all of this teething, digesting of new foods, and learning new tricks, has interfered with (what used to be) her fantastic sleep habits. It is hard to get her to sleep now, and she often wakes up shortly after going down. Most of all, her sleep schedule is really unpredictable, right now. And that can take a toll on her Mama, when there is so much going on. Good thing she is still so sweet and fun most of the time, so we have to forgive her for the sleep thing. I know Trenton went through a similar stage around this time. Hopefully it will pass, soon. Really, it's just hard, because she has been doing so well. It could be much worse.

Anyway, we love our Tessa Roo!

Happy Mothers' Day to me!

My Mothers' Day wasn't filled with lots of expensive presents (after all, I am getting a new home for Mothers' Day) but I did get a fantastic Breakfast in bed, served with lots of love, by my dear children.  And not only did Kira make me a 3-page card (she's all about quantity over quality these days), but Kira and Trenton both sang and smiled so sweetly when the primary children got up to sing "Mother I Love You."  We had a wonderful meal with Barry's family, including his mom and grandmother.  And Barry made two fantastic desserts:  flourless chocolate cake, and lemon-lime posset.  Yum!

I decided to pay tribute to our moms in the blog header, because not only is May Mothers' Day, but BOTH of our mothers have May birthdays!  They are both exceptional women and wonderful Grandmas to our children!  We are so blessed!  So Moms (if you ever read this), there was more I wanted to do for you this year (and may still do).  But know that we love you and are so grateful for all you have done and still do for us!

Home Sweet Home?!?

So, it is hard to know at what point to let everyone in on all of this. It would have been more fun last week, when I was elated by making the offer (first day on the market) and having it accepted the very next day. This week, the headaches of scheduling inspections, loan applications, renting our home, etc., etc., etc, are setting in and there is the lingering fear that something will go wrong and take this dream away.

But at this moment, we are set to close on this home on June 25th. It is more than twice the size of our current home, and in pretty amazingly good shape for a foreclosure. It has lots of really nice features, and we will feel so blessed if this all works out!

So on to the important stuff...would you go for black or stainless appliances in the kitchen???

Kira got a clue...

A week ago this time, I was decorating a cake, and somewhat frantically making last-minute party preparations. We celebrated Kira's 7th birthday with a Nancy Drew-themed slumber party and adventure. If you want to read about all of the party specs, check out My Insanity blog.Overall, it was a success. I remember now why my mom called them "slumber-less" parties. I was surprised and dismayed, when after staying up until midnight, Kira and all of her party guests were wide awake (and hungry) at 6:00am. We put on "The Sound of Music" for them and told them there wouldn't be any breakfast until 8:30. I tried to get a little more sleep, but that mostly went out of the window when one of Kira's friends got sick and started throwing up. That did add some excitement to our morning, but we were still able to solve the birthday party mystery and have a great time. Kira got really neat gifts from her friends this year, which I am excited about, because school will be out in just a few weeks, and these are the kinds of things that will help her to keep busy (and hopefully not needing to spend so much time picking on her brother). Thanks everyone!