ANOTHER TOOTH: GONE!

 

Came home to a freshly lost tooth today – and a thrilled little boy.

TOOTH FAIRY ALERT

Looks like someone is starting second grade with a freshly-lost tooth. :)

HER CARRY-ON

It meowed and purred. It was complimented for its pretty fur by TSA.

Two weeks ago, Paul and I took the kids to the airport, and they flew all the way cross-country unaccompanied. They were brave, and everyone—even the cat—made it in one piece, though poor Carter got sick on the plane. Bunny told me the flight attendants dumped coffee grinds onto the mess and then left it that way. So, they had a weird odor to contend with, but otherwise the flight was uneventful in all the more important ways, and it was a red-eye non-stop.

If you’d have asked me a few months ago if I’d send my kids unaccompanied cross country, I’d have laughed at the thought. However, the reality of driving cross country with three kids made the choice, well, if not easy, it certainly made it practical.

I’m proud of my kids, and especially that girl up there, for their resourcefulness and confidence.

OUR NEXT CHAPTER

 

In 1997 Paul and I moved out here, 24 and 25 years old, expecting to spend 3-5 years broadening our horizons and experiencing life in a place very, very different than the southeast. Needless to say, we stayed a little longer than we intended, and here we are, nearly exactly 15 years later. For the past couple of years, we’ve talked between us about when it would be right to make the return, noting both career progress and the kids’ stages, and it always felt about as far off: “in a year, maybe 18 months.” Life bleeds by in such increments, and we have decided that, perhaps like starting a family, or any other similarly enormous choice, there is no perfect way to do this. We have a good opportunity now to act, so we will.

Next month our family is relocating cross country back to the southeast. My husband is in technology, and the RTP in North Carolina (a couple smaller towns near Raleigh are our specific targets) makes most sense to us.

It’s hard to leave, despite our excitement about what we are going to gain after so many years being separated from family, old friends, and the area that most says, “home” in our hearts. We’ve started to share our news with a few, but, I’m happy to say we’re blessed with so many we care about that I know reading this will bring on a wide range of emotions, both from those we won’t be able to see as often anymore, and those who we (finally!) will be seeing SO much more often than ever before. Paul and I realized it was important to use the summer to act on our desire to move to help the kids transition more easily to new schools, new friends, and time is going to fly by. I know that will mean we simply can’t celebrate as many friendships as we want before leaving, which makes me sad more than anything else.

Honestly, this timing, and our deciding over the past 2.5 weeks about some big changes means that it’s not going to be the cleanest move ever. There are logistics I’m not confident about from 3000 miles away, specifically, securing a home. We’ll rent while learning about a whole new area.  So, while I am definitely looking for homes in Cary or Apex now to get a good read on everything, I’m not sure whether we’ll really know where we’ll land until a week or two after we’ve already relocated--thank goodness for the packing, shipping, and storing options we have nowadays! If you just happen to have or know of a 3 BR home for lease, I’d appreciate the heads up, too, ya know… ;) Right now it’s logistics, logistics, logistics here… along with me still taking the kids to the beach everyday for Little Guards, because that makes everything easy: being out of the house for 6 hours a day. (eesh, 1.5 more weeks)

Anyway, that’s our story as it’s developing. Da doo run run run, da doo run run.

THE GRADUATE

{This Moment:: If It’s Yellow…}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Start Your Engines…

…the school year has begun!

Here’s hoping the first day goes smoothly for them both, as Carter enters his first year among the ‘big kids’ who go to school all day, everyday, and as Bunny starts her last year of elementary school.  My fingers are crossed that Carter takes enough time to eat snack and lunch, and he does not get lost trying to find his room after recess or lunch. (Big sister did once, and still remembers how upset she was until she spied a grown up she knew to ask for help—it’s not a huge school, but feels enormous when you’re 4 feet tall.)

In the meantime, I’ll be taking the next 20 minutes to finish the cup of stone-cold coffee I poured myself at 6:30, and then tackling some of the wall to wall messes summertime has presented to our home while littlest brother happily plays with toys no one can tell him he’s not using right. Ahhhh, exhale….

Thank You, Teacher Anna!

My baby finished his first year of preschool. I am so proud of him for the growth he’s displayed this year, going from a child who desperately desired to never be without his mama nearby to one who may still prefer me close, but also loves being at school. His teachers are no small part of this, and Teacher Anna will always be remembered fondly. I’ve said it about a million times, but it bears repeating that Cole’s stature sometimes makes it hard for him, since his body and maturity do not match, and he was allowed to grow at his own pace, blooming to become a very active participant in class who easily makes friends. (I know I’m partial, but he is pretty easy to like, I think.)

Last Day, 2012!

Another school year bit the dust!

Thank you, Mrs. F! Bunny loves you so much, and is already missing you (if not the homework!).

Thank you, Ms. P! Carter has grown *so* much this year, and you are no small part of that!

Our family has a little tradition over the past couple of years where our kids’ superstar teachers receive these stars as presents, which they can, of course, hang where they like—but we love to see the stars in classroom windows as our brood passes through.

I can’t believe summer is already here. It seems like just a blink ago I was sending them off for their first day. Both kids did very well on their final report cards and have earned a summer of fun. :)

1-0-0

This dude ran 100 miles in Running Club this year! NTS!*

*Not Too Shabby (♥ Cedar Rapids)

A Walk Down Memory Lane, AKA Two Weeks Ago

Tahoe.  We went.  We saw.  We sledded.  We swam. We… played skeeball? Huh.  I had the trip pretty well planned out in my mind, and didn’t foresee that one.

First time in any snow at all. (Bunny did mess with some snow the night before at about midnight when she accompanied Paul parking the car, but still.) This was just the little patch right in front of the hotel.

Then, for giggles, we asked ‘em if they’d like to go to Nevada.

 

See that driveway?  The hotel driveway?

Bam.  Nevada. Donner Party, eat your heart out.  Oh, wait.  Too soon for that joke?  Sorry.

Once we got that out of the way, it was time to suit up and get down to some serious snow play.

I love how it looks like I somehow managed to hike us into the middle of nowhere for some ‘freshies’.  Um, no. We were simply early, and lucky enough to be at Adventure Mountain first thing on a Saturday morning after a snowfall 2 days before (during a school week). About 20 feet to the left of us, looking up the hill, were groomed sledding runs.

Bunny and Cole liked to sled together, and I love how Cole looks like he’s Randy, the little brother on A Christmas Story who was so bundled up he couldn’t put down his arms.

I don’t have a whole lot of photos from Adventure Mountain, because I was busy playing, too. That place is great, and a total deal. Some other places, state run “sno-parks” included, charged anywhere from $15/person for the day to—get this--$30/hr per person to tube at Heavenly.  I mean, seriously.  For that much, for 4 hours for 5 people, we may as well have bought the adults lift tickets, and enrolled the kids in ski school, and blown some at the casino afterwards (we’re not casino folks, BTW, just sayin’ this is how stupid paying $30/hr/person would be).  Adventure Mountain was $18/car for the day.  You could buy food, or pack it in.  You could buy or rent equipment, or bring your clearance sleds from Target. Also, most other places really didn’t have anywhere to simply play if sledding was losing its luster. This place gets thumbs up from us.

After a couple of hours of rigorous play, my baby was hongry. I pantomimed to Paul that I was taking Cole to the snack shack, and bought us both hot dogs, and a bag each of chips and cookies to share.  Ha.  Share.

Mister Man wolfed down his hot dog and began eying mine within about 30 seconds. “Can I have yours?”  And he did.  And the chips, and the cookies. Then he asked for more. I suggested we wait a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that day we enjoyed the pool at the hotel.

Then I put away the camera and jumped in, too. :)

The kids really got a kick out of the koi pond in the atrium at the hotel.  We never just walked on by these fish, and I think Carter named a few.

We happened to be on the second floor, so they also liked choosing between the elevators and the stairs.  And that the breakfast was served near our room, plus the pool was also right by us. Location, location, location.  Carter made good on his threat to eat dozens of slices of bacon, and I think his sodium levels have just about evened out by now.

For dinner we trekked all the way back to Nevada, taught the kids what second-hand smoke smells like as we walked the path through the casino, and went to have dinner.  The wait was only 25 mins, but the kids were literally—LITERALLY—trying to climb the rock walls outside the restaurant, and Paul suggested I check out the sign within sight that read, “Arcade.” I was certain it was just a different way to gamble, but humored him.  Holy crap.  It was basically a Chuck E. Cheese within the casino.  Irony of ironies.  I’ve maintained for years that CEC is simply “Vegas for kids” with those stupid tickets subbed for chips, and about as negligible a reward (“Hey!  Let’s spend $25 on tokens so the kids can ‘win’ about $1 in prizes!!”) and they way kids get PSYCHO about those tickets… anyway, here was the perfect way for even the kiddies to gamble away some cash, er, I mean tokens!

Never mind, it was an improvement over climbing the walls.

There was more of all the same (well, not the kiddie “gaming”) the next day.  All in all, a good trip, and my deprived kids can say they’ve visited ‘real winter.’ :)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Spring Training

Today Mr. Middle starts tee ball!  Somehow I’d misunderstood the information regarding the season length when signing Carter up for both that and basketball, thinking it only overlapped 2 weeks, but it’s more like a month and a half.  Oops!  There’s no conflict on the calendar—I just try to only have 1-2 activities at a time and I count running club as one, since it takes about 3 hours of our time weekly.  So, yeah, thank goodness for emails from coaches.  :)

These cleats?  SO small and cute.

~18 Miles

Last weekend the kids’ elementary school held its annual Walk-a-thon fundraiser.  It was Carter’s first year to participate, and he was very excited to finally be “really” doing it with his sister.  We arrived and set up at about 9:45 and snagged a nice spot right near the track but not too close to a speaker—there is a DJ and the speakers are LOUD.

A highlight was when Firehouse #9 came by.  A couple of dads work there and were on duty, so they swung by, much to the delight of, well, everyone.

I bet he took a great picture from up there!

All told, Bunny and Carter walked just a lap to two shy of 18 miles between the two of them, ate a few hot dogs and sno-cones, and then it was 3:00, time to pack up and head home for some time  rinsing off the track dust in the pool.  Good times.

First Kindergarten Field Trip

Though it didn’t work out that I could chaperone, because there is no way I’d vary from the preschool schedule for my still-anxious Cole, and it conflicted with pickup time, I did get to sneak a few bookend photos.

Kid-made shirts to help them wrangle the ~80 kids at the pumpkin patch.

Drop off chaos in the classroom.

Pulling up as they return.  Carter’s first bus ride – it was so loud, he said.

All done!