Nora turned two on Saturday. We spent her birthday camping at Lake Powell. (For a great re-cap of the trip check out my friendVicky’s blog). I knew the day would be spent rolling around in the red dirt, but I still wanted to make it a special day for her. I made a cake to take with us, and we all sang Happy Birthday to her around the campfire. It was a bit windy and we had a hard time getting the candles to stay lit. Then, one of our friends twins kept getting upset that she missed singing. We ended up singing about 3 times–which was great for me because it gave me more opportunities to get a good photo

Emma was really excited about Nora’s birthday. She made her and adorable card and some drawings before we went on our camping trip. First thing in the morning Emma gave her a big hug and told her happy birthday. All day, whenever anyone said happy birthday, Nora said it back to them. It was adorable!

She has been the sweetest and cutest little girl lately. She has such a likable personality. She is so friendly and outgoing. She loves to smile at people and is constantly saying “hi” and waving to strangers. She has such a cute little smile and people are just drawn to her. She is cute and tough at the same time. She gets hurt and she just rubs it and goes on with hardly a whimper. Lately she has had a speech explosion. It seems like she can say everything now. She is so funny when she talks. She says somethings that are hard to understand. If you say what you think she said, and it is wrong she keeps saying no and correcting you until you get it right. When you finally get it, her face lights up and she says “uh-huh”. I am still savoring all the little baby talk and cute little baby things because I know the time is just flying by.

This birthday, for some reason, I wasn’t quite as emotional. I know she is growing up, and it is all going so fast. But I felt OK with it this birthday. Maybe it is because she is at such a cute stage and I am enjoying her so much. Whatever the reason, I am so glad that she is my little girl and that she is a part of our family.

Emma woke up this morning and had a change of heart. She came upstairs and asked if she could still go to North Carolina. We called my parents, and they still hadn’t canceled her flight, so she decided she wanted to go to North Carolina after all.. I thought for sure she would come home from school with another change of heart, but she didn’t. She came home very excited about leaving.

She is all packed and ready to go. My parents are picking her up at 8:30am. She will be off on her first vacation without me.

As I tucked her in tonight I wondered if she would miss me. I know I am going to miss her. I have gone on trips without her, but it is different when she is the one going away without me. It feels like she is so grown up!

She has been acting so grown up lately, too. She took a shower all by herself tonight for the first time. I turned the water on for her, and she got in all by herself. I watched her to make sure she did a good job washing her hair and rinsing all the soap out. It felt like a big milestone to me and I was reminded how fast she is growing up. She has been so helpful around the house. She gets herself all ready for school, usually the first time I ask She picks out cute outfits and makes her bed all on her own. I know she is growing up, but her shower today was one of those moments that made me step back and notice.

I am sure my big girl is going to have a great trip with her grandparents!

My mom and dad have been planning to take Emma on a little trip to North Carolina this week. She has been really looking forward to it, and counting down the days. I got an email last week from Emma’s school about a carnival they were going to be having this Friday while she was gone. We talked about it and I explained to her that she would miss it, since she would be on her trip. She said she didn’t mind missing it, and she still wanted to go on her trip.

Today she came home from school and burst into tears when she got in the car. She had a flier from the carnival with pictures of all of the bouncy houses and slides and treats that they would be having. I told her we had talked about missing it, but she said she didn’t know that it was going to be so much fun. She loves bouncy houses and cotton candy, so missing that would have been really tough for her.

I talked to her and explained that the trip was her choice if she wanted to stay home, she could choose to stay home. I could tell she was very upset and conflicted about the whole thing. I asked her why she was upset and she said she didn’t want to hurt Nana’s feelings, or make Nana disappointed. I was proud of her that she was able to think about it from another persons point of view. I was happy to hear that she considered Nana’s feelings too. I told her that I was proud of her for considering Nana, but that Nana would understand.

She decided to stay home this time. I’m sure there will be other times for her to have a trip by herself with Nana and Grandpa. I was proud of her and happy with the way she handled the whole thing.

Here are a few more shots from Princess Day. We stopped at a park on the way home and took these. At least Emma looks a little bit happier in these

My friend Vicky told me about “Princess Day” at the Paul Mitchell School. They were doing a charity fundraiser where they invited little girls to come and be treated like princesses. They did their hair and gave them tiaras to wear. They they did manicures and made a picture frame. It sounded like it would be so much fun for the girls. We took them, and it was cute. I think Emma and Denali were both more interested in watching “The Little Mermaid” that they were showing on flat screen TVs. Emma looked like she was being tortured most of the time. I am not sure if she had fun or not

Emma did not want to smile. This was the best I could do. We did stop at a park on the way home and I was able to get some good shots of Emma there. They turned out pretty cute. The lighting was terrible in the Paul Mitchell School, but it was nice in the park. I’ll post some of those later in the week.

Last night was New Parent Orientation at Ian’s school, Soaring Wings. Being there made me feel so good about my decision to change schools. They did a few little presentations mostly to show what a Montessori education is all about. I just found myself nodding in agreement with so much of what they said. I really love the Montessori method and all that it does for my kids.

One of the the demonstrations they did showed a language work called the step board. I hadn’t seen that work before, and it was amazing. There are “problem strips” that have words on them. The child takes the problem strip and looks at the picture, then spells out the word. Only the correct letters will fit on the problem strip. Once the word is completed, then they take a paper and trace the words with a pencil. You can see a demonstration of it here.

As Ian’s teacher Ericka was demonstrating it, she explained that it is usually a skill that the 6 year olds work on. A little light went on in my head, as I recognized the small strips of paper with the words spelled out on them. We had a whole stack of them taped to our refrigerator at home! Ian has been working with the step board all week, and he has been doing great with it.

After the presentation I went to talk to Ian’s teacher. Her eyes just lit up as she told me how much she likes Ian. She was so excited to tell me that he had been working with the step board that she demonstrated. She was thrilled with how much Ian knows, and how willing he is to work and to learn. That is one of the best parts of a Montessori education for Ian. He is a bit advanced compared to some of his peers, but since they teach to each individual child’s level, he is continually challenged. He is lagging behind a bit on his writing, but they didn’t seem too worried about it.

I was happy that I juggled my schedule to be there last night. It just reinforced for me that the move was a great choice. Now I get to hear positive things about what a special boy Ian is, instead of hearing about all the negative things he did on the playground. I am so happy that they are able to see Ian for what he is–an energetic intelligent BOY!

One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip to the east coast was spending the night at my Aunt Linda’s house on Long Beach Island. My mom grew up in New Jersey, and they had a house at the shore. They bought the house in Beach Haven in the 1948. It was a tiny house on the bay side with 4 lots. They paid $500 for it! My mom spent every summer there from the time she was a little girl until she was married.

I can even remember spending time there when I was around 4 years old. There was a little shed in the back of the house that I can remember playing in. My mom’s dad, who died before I was born, and my dad’s dad built the shed together. I think it is so neat that they were friends like that. Everyone always says that they were a lot alike. That makes me kind of feel like I knew him, in a small way. My dad’s dad, Pop-Pop, was a kind and hardworking man. I can still remember how much he liked working in his garage and how organized it was. Everything had its own place, and he knew immediately if someone had moved things around.

All around the house there were these small tan stones. I can still remember the crunch they made under your feet. Those stones still remind me of Beach Haven. My mom said that every year or so they would get a new load of them, and they would have to spread them around. There was a water tower in the back yard, too. My mom said that every summer some neighborhood boys would climb it and get in trouble!

We went to see the place where her old house used to be. We knew that it was gone, my uncle had visited recently and told us that they had torn the house down and built a new one in its place. I felt sad when I looked at it. I imagined the old house there and the fun times that we all had there. I wished that the house was still in our family, and that it still looked the way I remembered it from my childhood. This little house across the street was for sale. A part of me wanted to buy it and recreate the fun beach memories I had for my kids.

This is the house that stands in place of our old house. It is a nice house, but it isn’t our old house. The trees on the lot are the same ones that my grandfather planted. The stones look like the same ones that were always there. The same water tower stands in the back ground. The house was different, but standing there I still had those same old memories running through my head.

I know that I already posted 2 of these earlier this week, but I had to post them again because I loved them so much. The photo of Emma and Ian is one of the best shots I have ever taken of them together. Sorry for cheating

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P.S. Thanks to OMSH for my new watermark. I have been wanting to create a watermark for my photos for so long, but I just couldn’t get the creative juices flowing. I think she did a great job!

The kids started school on Monday. I really can’t believe that our summer is over already. It went so fast!

This year the kids are in two different schools for the first time. I have to juggle two different schedules and different start and end times. Luckily, both schools are close together and it all seems to be working out. Emma starts at 8:10am and Ian starts at 9:00am. Emma is starting her first grade year in a new school. She is going to the elementary school down the street from our house. It feels so strange to have her in such a big school. I can’t believe that she is already in first grade!

For the first day we all got ready together and the whole family went to take Emma to school. She did great! We drove up to the school to the drop off area. I decided to walk her over to her classroom. Her class was just lining up outside the door, ready to go into the classroom. She got right in line and literally ran into the class. She hardly looked back to wave. I was just glad that she was so comfortable in her new school. She came home in the afternoon just raving about it.

After we dropped off Emma we had some time to kill so Scott and I went over to the bagel shop and had a little first day of school bagel with Ian and Nora. Then we were off to drop off Ian.

He was excited about his new school too. I walked him in to his locker. He knew just what to do. This is a new school for him, but he is not new to the Montessori method. He just marched right into the classroom and immediately got out a work to do.

He hardly said goodbye either. But, I wasn’t sad about it. I am just happy that my kids are well adjusted and happy to try out new things.

The first few days have gone really well. Both kids have come home from school saying that they loved school. When I picked up Ian yesterday the head of the school, Duna, had some nice things to say about Ian. She was his substitute yesterday. She said she really enjoyed Ian and that he had a big personality. It was so nice to hear some positive things about him. I am glad they are able to appreciate his personality because he really is a funny and sweet kid.

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Ian started soccer this week. He was so excited to start. He has been sitting on the sidelines watching Emma play for the past 2 years and he has been DYING to play. This year he finally gets his chance to be on his own team with all preschool boys.

It was hilarious watching them play. Watching them was so different from watching Emma and her teams. The boys are so much more aggressive. The constantly run into each other. They kick the ball so hard they fall over. They had a little scrimmage and the whole team would chase after the ball. I swear the whole team fell down on the field at the same time.

Ian was great! I knew that he would be aggressive and love getting in there. He tried so hard! He ran after the ball and just kept trying to kick it into the net. I was watching him run and bang into people. He fell down a few times and I wondered to myself what he would do if he really got hurt or bumped his head out there. I found out a few minutes later. he and another boy collided and they bumped heads. I looked out there and I could see the breath holding spell coming on. His coach picked him up, but he had no idea what was happening. I took him from the coach and laid him on the ground. He did his normal thing–turned blue, twitched, and peed his pants. We were calm and mostly everyone just kind of ignored us, which was good. He woke up crying and said his head hurt. We have become old pros at this I just got him a drink and he went back out for the team meeting.

It was so much fun to watch him play. I am excited for him that he is finally able to be on his own team!