Time marches on (again!!)

Today was Hailey's last day of three year old preschool. I swear it seems like she just started last week. Crazy.

I took her "last day" pictures on Tuesday because that was her last actual day of class. Today we were supposed to meet at a park for a little farewell picnic. Unfortunately it was raining and cold so the picnic took place in her classroom and they got to go hang out in the gym instead of on a fantastic play set.

I am kind of stunned at the differences I see in her nine months later. When school started she still sort of had some babyish qualities. Not anymore - my baby is suddenly a little girl.

A little girl with long legs. Where on Earth did she get those? She is one of the oldest in the three year old classes and nearly the tallest. My future supermodel loved riding around on the big wheels and scooters today - showing off for all the parents.

Her first year of school is now in the books. It was a great year. She loved almost every minute of it. She hugged her teacher goodbye and is ready for summer - if only it would warm up around here!

Cookies for sale!

We had a garage sale this past weekend. We have had a lot of garage sales. We are pretty much garage sale experts by now, but this garage sale was different. This garage sale was a massive undertaking because this was the sale at which I sold ALL of my baby boys clothes from birth to size four toddler. Needless to say after the past week and weekend, I was emotionally and physically exhausted.

The kids, especially Evan, were super excited about our sale because they wanted to sell cookies and lemonade. I bought two packs of the chocolate chip cookies that all you have to do is slap them on the pan and baked them. I mixed up a batch of bright red cherry drink. They made signs advertising their goodies for a quarter a piece, anticipating how much money they would have by the end of the sale.

The morning of the sale came and they got out the little picnic table and readied their little stand. And then they sat there, like bumps on a log and wondered why no one wanted to buy anything from them. My kids are not aggressive. Their father and I are not aggressive, in your face type of people, so there is no way for them to have learned that kind of personality trait from us. If they have inherited it in any way from any other family gene, it was not showing up on this particular morning.

I told them all they had to do was ask people if they wanted a drink or a cookie and someone would buy something. No one with any kind of heart can pass up a kid selling cookies. Especially a cute kid. None of them wanted to ask - they wanted me or Daddy to ask and we told them that it was their stand, they had to do the selling.

Spencer came up with the idea that Evan should take the signs off of the table and tape them to himself in sandwich board style. He was sure that Evan walking around and advertising would get them a line up in no time. He also told Evan to shout "Cookies for sale!" as he walked, but Evan said he was too shy to do that, so he just walked with signs taped to his shirt.

After about an hour with their only customers being themselves and their mommy, I had to take Miss Fur Real Pony to her soccer game.

But not before she ate up some of the profits.

An hour later when we got home from the soccer game, things had picked up dramatically on the cookie selling front. Evan was still walking around with signs taped to his shirt but was now carrying the cookies around and yelling "Cookies for sale! Fresh cookies for sale!" Their inventory had really dwindled in the hour or so we were gone. Evan was thrilled with the sales they were making and asked me if I wanted to know how he got over his fear. When I told him I would love to know, he said he just started by saying "Cookies for sale" in his head over and over and just started saying it louder and louder until he was really saying it. I guess it worked because every time someone new came into our driveway he walked right up to them with his tray of cookies and yelled "Cookies for sale!" right at them.

He was out of merchandise in no time. Like I told him, no one can resist a cute little boy asking them if they want to buy a cookie.

Yellow

The theme at i heart faces this week is yellow.

I knew I had just the right shot.

Helper

I got home from running some errands yesterday evening and discovered the Hailey had decided to give me a hand pricing items for our garage sale. I guess the tractor beam-ish pull of the little green price tag stickers sitting out was just too much for her to resist.

Fifteen dollars for that glass candle holder - a good deal don't you think? The copper sculptures had stickers that said fifty and twenty five percent off on them. Mind you they didn't say fifty or twenty five percent off of what though. My favorite was the dog coffee mug with the sticker on it that said "Make offer".

Looks like some good prices for some pumpkin sippy cups that will most likely find their way into the garbage can late Saturday afternoon.

She obviously thinks her little pink potty holds great value with a sticker price of twenty dollars. The other potty underneath it is only worth a dollar to her.

These three tables hold almost every item of clothing I have acquired for my boys - at least the items from birth to five years old. I saved some of my favorite things and am down to one bin full instead of ten. It hasn't been quite as hard to get rid of these things as I feared it would be. Of course I am sort of sporting the Scarlett O'Hara attitude right now and not really thinking about it too much as I do it. This weekend when people start buying the stuff, it might be harder. Especially if they plan on dressing animals in it. Last year at my garage sale I had a woman that bought a bunch of my baby blankets. Not my favorite blankets, ones that had mostly been in the car or diaper bags for emergencies and whatnot. Anyway when she came up to pay me she told me how excited she was to have them because they would be perfect for her ferrets. I seriously could not even think about ferrets using blankets that I had wrapped my kids in without wanting to cry. I'm not going to think about that today, I'll think about that tomorrow.

Anyway, back to my little helper. I should have known something was up with her last night when she didn't get out of bed her normal thirty five times before falling asleep. She only got up once and came downstairs and informed us that she couldn't go to sleep because she was Princess Rockstar.

I swear this girl has more energy than the other four of us combined! Princess Rockstar indeed!

Field of gold

Tis May; and yet the March flower Dandelion
Is still in bloom among the emerald grass,
Shining like guineas with the sun's warm eye on--
We almost think they are gold as we pass,
Or fallen stars in a green sea of grass.
They shine in fields, or waste grounds near the town.
They closed like painter's brush when even was.
At length they turn to nothing else but down,
While the rude winds blow off each shadowy crown.

Excerpt from "A Rhapsody"

Source: "Poems Chiefly From Manuscript, by John Clare

While her brothers were at tennis lessons, little sister could not resist frolicking in the dandelions. I was really glad that I had my camera in the car.

A first

Spencer rode his bike to a friend's house for the first time yesterday. My boy who just learned to ride a two wheeler a year ago. It was strange. There was not a lot of thought or long drawn out decision making about when is the right age and time to ride your bike somewhere on your own. A friend of his from school rode over on his bike and wondered if Spencer could ride over to his house and play. Spencer really wanted to go. I told him that he would have to ride on the sidewalk all the way and there was a kind of busy street that he would have to ride on. With cars on it. Going fast. I know Mom! I will be careful Mom!

Watching him ride off down our hill my brain just starts reeling and having a conversation within itself. Is he old enough to do this? Sure he is, he is almost ten! You were riding your bike to 7-11 at his age! Will he be aware of what is going on around him? Be on the defensive? Does he even know the way home? Sure he knows the way home, it is the street just past the beach. He has walked it a million times.

Even though I convinced myself it was OK. I still called Trent to have him convince me it was OK. He did. He told me he would be riding his bike a lot to places in the coming years and it was probably time to set the boundaries on how far he could go on his bike.

It is hard to fathom my baby boy - independent - able to get himself from here to there on his own. As he took off down the rode yesterday it felt literally like a piece of my heart was riding away. I know I am a worrier, but it is so hard to let go of your kids and let them do some growing up without you. I am not ready for them to be this old.

It turns out he did know the way home. And even though I was tentative in the beginning, I was very proud of him when he walked in the door all red faced and sweaty from riding.

MVP

Evan got to bring home the game ball from his baseball game last night. I heard the coach say to the team while they were huddled. "Evan had three hits. No outs. And he scored a run. Evan gets to bring home the game ball. Let's hear it for Evan". Then everyone on the team started clapping for him and giving him high fives.

I don't know if bringing home the game ball really means that you are that night's MVP. But I am going to think it does.

He was pretty excited about his game ball, but even more excited about his new team hat which is exactly the same hat that Boston Rob wears on Survivor. Kids are funny.

If the suit fits...

Evan is my most intense kid. He takes things very seriously and that is how he lives his life. Most of the time. I love when he decides to let loose - even though his letting loose involves some pretty serious dress up costumes

Even costumes that are made for a four year old to wear that he insists still fit him.

Fits like a glove don't you think?

Later he turned in the Batman suit for a Ninja get up. Little sister princess decides she wants to get in on the make believe action as well.

They were playing very nicely together. The sword near her head is just supposed to add drama to the picture. I think anyway....

Who's that girl?

These are some of my latest favorite photos. I can't get over how different my little girl looks with long, dark hair. She makes me laugh and so do these pictures.



I am trying to clean up my photo files and I found a bunch of pictures that I meant to post but never got around to it. You know with being busy with soccer, baseball, scouts and tennis every night of the week on top of everything else that comes along in our daily life. So this week I am going to try to play catch up and get some of those oldies but goodies on here. In reality they are not that old - a month maybe - when I think how far behind on my scrap booking I am, it makes this blog look up to the minute. Evan just turned one year old in my scrapbooks. He will be seven in five days.

Does anyone else think she looks a bit like Bella Swan in this wig or is it just me? I need to have her work on her pout and jutting her chin out, then she would be a dead ringer.