Growing Up

Every day seems so similar with young kids. Same routine, same foods for meals, same bedtime and naps....And then you have these days that are marker days: birthdays, graduations....Days with lots of drama and excitement. We've had a lot of those recently! Last Friday was Caroline's last day of Kindergarten. I went with all the kids to celebrate and have an after-school picnic with her classmates. Her class sang, "I am a promise; I'm a possibility..." and dressed up as what they hoped to be when they grew up. Caroline dressed up as a Mommy, which would be a huge compliment to me, except that she only chose to do that after I explained that you have to be born a princess. A princess is not a career choice. And she did not like my doctor scrubs when she considered being a doctor. She was very wise in asking,"If I choose this today, do I have to do it later on?". Here is a picture of her with her classmates singing:

Each child was given a character award. Caroline's award was "Seeking Wisdom". Her teacher, Mrs. Howard, told the group that Caroline consistently seeks wisdom. This is Caroline getting her certificate from her teacher.

After all of that we played in the 97 degree weather outside! The kids lasted for over an hour with ice cream and popsicles, but we were all exhausted afterwards.

Our next big adventure was Caroline's first role in a wedding. She was the flower girl this weekend for a dear former college student and family friend of ours, Lexie Robinson (now Martin!). We drove to Richmond (Lexie's hometown) Friday night for the rehearsal. It was just Caroline and me and we had a great girl date. Got frozen yogurt, told jokes. I had warned Lexie that if it looked like it wasn't going to work, we would just opt out at the last minute. Caroline was great though. She made it through rehearsal with ease. Saturday we got ready for the wedding after she took one of the only naps she has had all year! This is a picture of us before we left Williamsburg Saturday afternoon.

Caroline did great during the service. Brandon and I sat in the aisles waiting for her. She walked down after the bridesmaids and just before Lexie, so she had some special "waiting time" with the bride. It was a beautiful wedding. Lexie and Chris were clearly thrilled and it was special to celebrate with them. I am so glad Caroline got to see that for her first wedding. This is Caroline and I waiting around after the ceremony.

The reception was a wonderful sit down dinner at a nice country club. Caroline and the ringbearer and several other young relatives got treated to chicken nuggets and fries and a video in the back room. She loved it. We kept checking on her at 8pm, at 9pm....are you ready to go? are you tired? No sirree...she loved every minute of it! We came home with a wide-eyed happy almost six year old at about 10:30pm.

And the next day? It's her 6 year old birthday! Oops...forgot to mention that in the midst of all of this she lost her other front tooth! The night before the wedding she pulled it out herself! She asked the tooth fairy for a "pink diamond" and was quite upset the next morning when she found a red Ace of Diamonds card under her pillow. She did not appreciate the humor one bit.

Back to the birthday....she woke up about 8am (late for Caroline) and we were all off to church. We did allow her to open one gift first, her HOT PINK Bible that she had wanted. A gift we had promised her for when she started to read on her own. It is really hot pink. Church was fine and then we scrambled back home to have a birthday party for Caroline and John Mac with a few family friends at the river. Here are a few pictures from that:

Caroline with her two closest friends, Sydney and Noelle:

John Mac had a wonderful time, until he fell asleep afterwards sitting up on my lap....

And finally, Hannah was a trooper. Despite missing her afternoon nap, she was still delightful and enjoyed the ice cream cake a lot!

I don't have any good pictures of Henry from the river, but I will tell you what he said to me after a day full of friends both at church and at the river....He got up from his mandatory "rest time" and asked me, "Mommy, who are we going to see now?". His introverted Mommy who had been social all weekend said, "No one Henry. No one today and no one tomorrow either."