Snow?

Grandpa arrived today, and he brought...

Snow

Did you notice the winter coats, gloves, and lack of footwear?

Good times.

Thank you Grandpa!

Castle Park

This was the park that the girls wanted, but didn't get to, over Spring Break. After doing some mass clutter control, bed changing and other miscellaneous things that needed doing, we took off to Castle Park. It has changed a lot since we were there last. The equipment is updated and newer. Very fun.

Simple Things

The girls have been earning little rewards as a part of a new incentive program in our house. Today they picked the little "insects". This is serious scientific business. Below is a photo journal of the exploding insects...

Just so much fun. It's the simple things that seem to bring the most pleasure.

Cheerleading

Heather announced before Spring Break that she would like to try out for Moiola's cheerleading squad. I was very surprised because I didn't think she payed any attention to cheer. Two of our good friends have been cheerleaders so I guess it was on her radar. At any rate, cheer tryouts happened on Friday after school. Dad showed up to pick up Jenna, and Heather got a good luck squeeze from him.

As I've watched the cheer practice and thought about the fact that the number of open spots on the squad was unknown, we did a lot of prepping about the possibility of Heather not making the team. She was excited to try, and we focused on her having a good audition. I really stayed out of the picture so my nerves and/or thoughts wouldn't transfer to her. Except for a couple of last minute pointers from mom, this was all Heather's gig. She came out of the audition SO happy. Here are the pictures from seconds after...

That is one happy girl. You know, when you try out for something you just never know if your audition is going to be what the judges are looking for, so having a good audition is all you can be sure of. I was so happy to hear and see that Heather felt so good about hers. We had about an hour to talk about things--if she makes it, if she doesn't, how she'll react, the fact that no matter what, she felt good about her audition, etc.

We nearly blew it waiting in the car. I guess the judges asked for Heather to come back in so they could remember her. She had been number 1, so they wanted to refresh their memories. We walked up just in time, and she was able to be seen again.

After waiting for about ten more minutes, the results were posted in the office window. Would they take a lot of girls? Not very many? Older girls first? What were they looking for??? When the results went in the window, the screaming started. Darn that tinted window! I couldn't see. Heather was grinning and jumping up and down, and I finally saw the numbers that were posted. Right at the top was...

#1

Wooooooooo-hoooooooo! She made it! She is a Moiola Cheerleader for 2010-2011! So awesome! She is so happy too. I wasn't sure what to hope for. These girls don't look anything like the high school cheerleaders I am used to seeing. I wondered how "good" they had to be. I knew she had a chance because the girls all performed at about the same level, and Heather had her smile and spunky personality going for her. Whatever they wanted, it all worked. All the girls got in (except for one and we don't know the reason for that), and they were elated.

And of course, we had to take more pictures...

The celebration was planned whether she made it or not, but the smiles were probably bigger with this result! First was dinner at Corner Bakery (giant cookie included)...

and then dessert at Cold Stone. Yes, the cookie was a dessert, but the Cold Stone trip was already promised for after the audition. It happened to be dinner time, so Corner Bakery was a total score for the girls.

CONGRATULATIONS HEATHER!!!

A Mother's Heart

My computer screen was blurred this morning as tears filled my eyes. The feelings in my 40-something mother's heart have been beautifully written by the blog's guest author for the day. Whether your children are babies or headed off to college, you will enjoy it. Here is a portion of the post:

Because now it’s our turn to pack the school lunches. The turkey sandwiches, cheese sticks, and chocolate chip cookies, homemade or not. We fold white napkins in half alongside a water bottle. And we tuck our hearts into our children’s backpacks, too, hoping our kids know, somehow, that where ever they go, our hearts follow, too. Whether our kids are making swan sculptures in art class, running loops around the field in P.E., or standing alone on the black top at recess, they are never, truly, alone.

The post is titled, It's Our Turn, and was written by Terresa Wellborn. You can read it here.

Enjoy.

Spring Break - Final Day

Saturday is technically a weekend, but for this post, it is the last day of Spring Break; the last day of a long and wonderful break that has been without demand of schedule except that which we have wished to schedule for our pleasure.

As Heather had had two friends over to spend the night, we were up late on Friday night and began our Saturday morning rather s l o w l y. Around 11:00 a.m., I wished to crawl back in bed and read a bit or fall asleep. It was then that I realized that my girls were expecting great things--a trip to the castle park in Irvine and/or a trip to the movie theater. I began to remember that Jenna needed shoes, that my bulletin board at church needed updating before Sunday, and that our house needed some major clutter clean up before Sunday was upon us. Out of bed I bolted and into the shower. The girls were very sad to hear that the park and the movie were becoming out of the question. It was time for us to look at what we had put aside this week and do some quick catch up.

They opted to go outside and play ball tag with their dad while I drove to the school supply to look for bulletin board ideas. I laughed at myself when, upon attempting to check out, I realized that not only had I grabbed my husband's car keys (leaving him stranded at home) and my phone (leaving him no way to contact me), I had also left my driver's license and credit card at home. I quickly drove home to get them and additionally realized that I had literally and whole-heartedly checked out of reality and enjoyed an entire week in the land of no responsibility! In letting go of our schedule, I'd let go of thinking about what was coming next including making sure I had everything I needed to leave the house and go out and make a purchase. Silly me, but what a great week it has been!!!

So for day six we ended up at BOGO to purchases shoes for Jenna, and at Target to purchase two new bouncing balls for the girls (the last one exploded while I was at the school supply).

While I worked on my bulletin board materials, the girls played swinging kick-ball with their dad.

Kelly and the girls accompanied me to the church building. While Kelly put up chairs for Primary the next day, and the girls played with their new balls, I put up my board. I was glad to have Kelly there for safety and for the use of his height and long arms!

We had dinner at In N Out which will be the last of our fast food for a while! We need some good home-cooked meals and a little less outpouring of the cash. Jenna had fun dipping her fries in her shake.

So...although we didn't have a spectacular event type of day, and the girls had to do with a little disappointment, we did accomplish some needed things. I thought about the disappointment and felt that although I wanted the girls not to be disappointed, they had had a pretty good week, and a little disappointment is good. We can't play all the time, even if we wanted to. I am resolved, however, not to let the carefree feeling of this week get away from me. We will go to a movie this week, and we will visit that park. I have been so entrenched in the serious for so long that this break has turned out to be more refreshing than I had expected. It was needed, and the message I seemed to get was that I needed to relax a little bit.

As the girls went to bed, I found that Jenna's new ball, which she has named Ocean, had a bed all for herself complete with blanket. That made me smile. This mom needs more smiling time, and I intend to have it.

Spring Break Day 5 - Friends & Play #2

Today was a great lazy morning day. PJs until 11:00 a.m., computer time, video games...it was lovely. At 1:00 p.m. friends started to arrive. We had adult friend time today as well as kid friend time.

LeAnn, Darrell, Michelle and Kathy B. joined me for some creative time. We worked on projects and gabbed and ate chocolate. Kelly came home and joined the table as well as the conversation.

Our little girls played together for hours. There was dress up fun...

swinging fun...

and handball fun.

Kelly joined in some lively conversation about the Love Languages. It was cracking me up so I had to shoot a photo of him sharing his opinions with LeAnn.

Kathy turned out some beautiful card creations. The photo doesn't do them justice. Our last guest left at 9:30 p.m.

What a fun day! Heather had two friends arrive for a sleep over during this time, so I have a few more hours "on call". This is what Spring Break is all about right? Monday we'll be back on schedule. It has been wonderful not to have a schedule, and it was so fun to keep saying today, "Stay as long as you want! We have no schedule!"