Long time...well...you know!

All right.  Once again, I have been horribly remiss in getting any new news or pictures up on my blog.  Life has a way of getting incredibly busy around these parts here lately.  But never fear, because today I shall fill you in on everything that has happened SINCE the ballet recital!

The biggest part of why I haven't blogged is mostly that I wasn't home!  I was in California.  And it's a VERY busy and hectic life there!  Chasing those kids and making sure they are properly supervised and exercised takes a LOT of time and energy.  Here I am in action...

Man!  It takes it out of ya!  The sun. The sand.  The sound of the waves crashing up on the shore.  The kids keep busy too!  There's lots of this...

 And this...

 And oh yeah...THIS!!!  Man!  This view never gets old!

I also got a little time in with honey!

While on vacation in California this summer, our big boy had a birthday!  We had a great time celebrating 17 exciting (and sometimes frustrating) years with Max!  Here he is with his summer time posse...

We've known all of these kids for years now and they are part of our summer time family.  It's so nice that Max has such a great group of friends away from home to share his big celebrations with!  His cake of choice this year was actually PIE!  We had turtle pie and key lime pie and oreo cookie pie and caramel sea salt pie.  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!  What a yummy celebration!!!  Turning 17 brought on some big changes in our house.  For one....

Max came home in this!  We bought a car.  For him to BORROW.  So long as his grades stay up and he adheres to a clearly outlined set of rules.  It's not a fancy set of wheels...but it IS a set of wheels.  Max is now the proud driver of a 2001 Ford Focus hatchback.  It has 154,000 miles on it, faded paint, black rims on the tires and fairly gimpy power windows that sound like they might die any minute!  But he loves it and it will serve his purposes nicely for this upcoming school year.    He proudly drove it all the way home (with mom in the front seat) from California.

Considering the new addition to our vehicle fleet, and my newly turned 17 year old, that launched our next big life event.....

HellOOOOOOO driver's license!  That's right!  He's officially legal and can drive ALL BY HIMSELF!   I'm proud of him and thought this might be a milestone we'd never see with this one!  He too is excited and is enjoying getting himself out and around to the places he needs to be!

As though we haven't had enough milestones here lately...I also had to register Max for his SENIOR YEAR!!!!!  My oh my!  Where has the time gone?!  I cannot believe I have a SENIOR in high school. Seriously!  Can you?  I mean...someone as young and vivacious and practically a baby herself?  Having a SENIOR in HIGH SCHOOL???!!!  It's some kind of crazy time warp phenomenon, huh?

But the crazy huge life events do NOT stop there.  NOPE.  Feast your eyes on THIS...

This is my girl picking up her schedule for MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!  Talk about where did the time go?!  WHOA!!!!!  And shut the front door!  I think this is the craziest life event of all!!!!  Girlfriend had a BLAST at schedule pickup.  She was SO excited to see friends she hasn't seen all summer and compare schedules to see who had classes with who...

She was over the moon to be assigned her VERY FIRST LOCKER and couldn't wait to try out the combination and get that baby open!

Of course...wouldn't you know...her lock was not cooperative and could not be opened by ANYONE! She was a bit dismayed, but the locker problem was reported to the maintenance people and they assured her that they would work on it and HOPEFULLY it will open for her tomorrow when we go for orientation to meet her teachers and find her classrooms!  She is SO hoping that she will get to keep THAT particular locker because it's a TOP locker and on the very end and uber easy to find....so here's hoping!!!!

All in all it was a CRAZY exciting day for her exploring the middle school and all the new opportunities waiting for her.  Although...she DID find one thing that she was NOT at all excited about.  It comes in the form of ...

the worlds UGLIEST and worst fitting P.E. uniform EVER!!!!  It absolutely SWALLOWS her!  She got the smallest size available and is still swimming in it!  On the bright side...they will all look ugly together.  AND, it has given me a fresh perspective on the PE uniform that I was issued in high school. In hindsight, now that I see this one...that green and gold get up just wasn't all that bad!    Here's to hoping that THIS is the worst thing that ever happens in the sixth grade!

On that note...you are all officially caught up!  Never fear...there is plenty of excitement coming up!  This week we have back to school orientation at the middle school.  Clara gets her braces off (she can BARELY contain her excitement!!!!!!).  And school starts on Thursday.  I have the rest of this week to sort through my VERY mixed feelings about sending my first baby off to his senior year of high school. In his own car.  Without me in the car!  And about sending my baby girl off to the crazy world of middle school.  Sniff, sniff!!!!  I don't know how all of this got here so fast.  Seems like just yesterday they were babies with the biggest decisions in life being what story we would read at nap time and how in the world to keep up with keeping all the toys organized and out from under foot so we didn't break our necks!  Well...here's to the ever changing excitement of life!  Stay tuned!  I'm sure there's a whole new bag of crazy just around the corner for us!

Real Photos

Well, we have officially wrapped up ballet recital WEEKEND and another year of dance is behind us.  Seeing as how I had to wrangle the princess into all the ballet costume and hair and makeup AGAIN this morning, I decided I wanted a few REAL photos of her.  I decided not to order pictures through the studio with their photographer because 1) they were ridiculously expensive and 2) they were incredibly lame.  No thank you!  I can take pics at home that are super cheap and most definitely NOT lame!!!  And so...I did!  Not that I didn't love the snap shots by the kitchen table!  Those were lovely.  But, I thought it might be nice for the girly down the road to have something that looked a bit more, you know...sophisticated.  And I must say, my princess is definitely sporting a VERY sophisticated look this year!  And so...I present to you...my bella ballerina!

Taking Center Stage

It's that time of year!  The time that all the other time has been building up to!  The time when all the practice and hard work really pay off and get put on display in "the big show".  Also known as...ballet recital time!  This weekend is Clara's weekend.  And I DO mean weekend!  Her recital covers two days.  She dances both today and again tomorrow.  Same show...just twice!  If you count in picture day and dress rehearsal day, that means I get to put this gorgeous creature together FOUR times!  FOUR times I get to make the ballerina bun and pin it extra securely so that it won't budge!  FOUR times I get to work magic and create some stage drama for her face.  FOUR times I get to wrangle her into her itchy dress!  Oh yes!  It's been big, big fun around here for the past week!  She danced her first recital this morning and did a GREAT job!  She's SO talented on stage!  Here are some pics I took before we headed across town!  More to come soon!

A Special Treat

I've been SO remiss about keeping this blog updated!  Life just keeps getting in the way and things are busy, busy, busy!  You would think that now that it is summer and the kids are out of school I would have all the time in the world to sit here and blog, keeping you endlessly and accurately in the loop, huh?  You'd think!  But alas...summer has been busy around these parts.  Nothing entirely crazy, mind you.  Just, you know, life!  Max is working through some of his Senior coursework online right now so he can finish high school early.  That means, I can not often get to my computer because HE is at it!  So, there's that.  And both Clara and Max are on swim team.  Two DIFFERENT swim teams, two DIFFERENT organizations entirely.  For the most part, their practices overlap.  A bit.  But it still has me running up and down the road constantly!  We will get this figured out!  Eventually!  Ballet recital time is also approaching.  So we still have ballet classes, and in the next couple of weeks we also have ballet recital pictures and dress rehearsals and other fun excitement thrown into our mix.  Needless to say, we have NOT been bored!  Our very best friends in the world are getting to move away.  They load up their truck tomorrow.  This brings us GREAT sadness, and so we are also trying to cram in as much together time and play date time as humanly possible in the next 36 hours!!!  I imagine I will have an extremely sad little girl after she says goodbye to her friend tonight.  It will be a year or more before we see them next.  SO so sad.  But let's not dwell on that bit of news. There will time enough for tomorrow's tears tomorrow!

The treat I am referring to in the post title is a little musical demonstration by my sweet girl.  She RARELY lets me catch her on camera!  It has been QUITE some time now since I've gotten any kind of recording.  But yesterday...she gave me a pajama performance!  She woke up all kinds of sweet and agreeable and before she could remember that she hates for me to record her piano playing...I had captured this!  Enjoy!!!!  I know I sure am!  Click on this link!!!!


Clara's Pajama Performance

It's About Time...

And time is REALLY flying!!!!  I mean...YIKES!!!  Seems like I blinked and the school year just zoomed by and summer vacation was suddenly in full swing!  Seriously...it's crazy!  Is time flying like that at YOUR house?  Or is it simply a Tucson, AZ phenomenon?  There has been SOOOO much going on!  I almost don't even know where to start!  And so...I will just jump in with events...pray they are in some semblance of order and let her rip!

First of all...Sometime between the last post with my itchy, allergic ears and this post, my amazing and talented daughter WON FIRST PLACE in the DARE essay contest for the Amphitheater School District!  Every single 5th grader in the district was required to write and submit an essay explaining why drugs did NOT have a place in their future. Out of ALL of those hundreds of essays, MY BABY GIRL won FIRST PLACE!!!!!!  I was just bowled over!  So happy and surprised for her! SHE was totally surprised and shocked!  The best part?  My girly won BIG prizes!!!!  She won a beautiful certificate and a gift card to Outback Steakhouse.

And she won a BIKE!!!!  Holy Cow!  Was she ever SHOCKED!!!!  And delighted!!!  What a prize?!!!

And doesn't everyone who wins a new bike park it smack in the middle of the front foyer?!  Talk about wrapping up elementary school with a bang!!!  Way to go Clara!!!


The end of the school year was not all bikes and games though.  No.  There was definitely work to be done.  A few dreaded projects that needed wrapping up.  And I DO mean dreaded.  Mostly because I HATE taking on overly creative projects that require huge amounts of my time and brain power.  I feel I have so little left after birthing and caring for these three kids...every morsel is precious.  Thus...I was totally distressed when her teacher sent home a notice of a "Living History Wax Museum".  It seems Clara's class was chosen especially for this project.  The other 5th grade classes got a pass.  They all simply had to write a report on their historical figure.  But not girly's class.  Oh no!  They got to go over and beyond.  A full written report.  Followed by a costume dress up presentation...and the icing on the cake?  A backdrop of refrigerator box size to support their character AND a special parents night at school to view our child and all the OTHER 48 historical projects.  Try not to jump out of your seat with jealousy.  Contain yourselves.  This joy is ALL MINE!  You may find it interesting that Chris Roberts, magically, yet again, managed to be out of town for this historical event.  Imagine that!  Ahem...I digress.  Anyway.  Back to our historical project.  Oh yes.  Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross.  That was Clara's figure.  On the bright side...she only had to memorize a new LAST name for her speech and presentation!  She wrote her paper/speech.  She memorized all two minutes of it.  We gathered her costume and created her backdrop.  And, just as I feared, it was quite the headache and more effort than I EVER would have wished to put forth right at the end of the school year.  But alas...the night arrived and with it...Clara's finished project!

Clara Barton in front of her Red Cross tent.  

It was a truly riveting night.  One where I got to wander from booth to booth hearing two minute speeches about more historical figures than you can imagine.  I listened to Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Einstein, Sacawagea, Audry Hepburn and many, many others.  Like...MANY, many, many others.  But the pain wasn't all mine.  Poor Clara had to give that poor speech of hers over and over and over and over again, only catching a break if a group of parents happened to stop in instead of just one at a time.  We were both exhausted by the end of the night and I was so full of newly acquired historical information that I hardly knew what to do with myself.  We went home and I promptly gave thanks that THAT was over.


In other news...I have new hair.  New color.  New cut.  Lost several inches in the back this go round...but it's all good in the end I think.

Jump ahead again and we find ourselves at the VERY LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!  Can you even believe it?  My goodness, but time has flown by!  It seems like just yesterday I was looking my baby jumping off the bus at the end of her very first day of 5th grade!  And now...here she is on her very LAST day of 5th grade!  And her last day EVER of elementary school!  WOW!!!!!!!

First day of 5th grade!

Last day of 5th grade!!!

 The last day of school festivities were a blast!  We had a huge picnic on the grounds with all the students, teachers and families.  This is Clara with her homeroom teacher.  We ADORE her and will miss her terribly!!!

 After our picnic, we went into the auditorium for the 5th grade awards ceremony.  Clara received a VERY big award!  She was presented with the Presidential Achievement Award.  In order to get this she had to have had straight A's throughout 3rd, 4th and 5th grade on her report card.  There were only FOUR Students in her school who achieved this!  It was SUCH a proud mama moment!!!  I cannot tell you how excited I was to hear her name called and see her head up to that stage and get that award!

Collection her Presidential Achievement Award and certificate signed by Obama!

 After the awards were all wrapped up, the goodbyes began.  Some were heart wrenching!  There were hugs all around!

 And flowers!  One MUST have flowers when one graduates the 5th grade!

 And more goodbyes!

Clara with her language arts and math teacher.  We LOVE this lady too!  How blessed we have been this year to have such awesome teachers in Clara's life!

And now that school is out, we are officially on summer vacation!  It's looked a lot like this....

And this...

And swim team is going in full force...so it's also looked a lot like this...

Cooper continues to keep us on our toes, getting into any and everything that he can find!!!  The baby gate we recently put in the pantry to keep him from 1) getting locked in there by accident and 2) to keep him OFF the shelves is obviously not working real well.  Mister Mischief strikes again!

We are still volunteering at least once a month downtown with the homeless.  These are shots from last week's adventure.

Clara and Max served the drinks.

Benjamin learned how to make the biscuits!!!  

They taught Max how to make gravy!  Did I mention how GREAT this experience is for my kids???!!!  I LOVE that they learn some new things while we are there serving!

In other huge news...Benjamin now has his learning permit and is legal to LEARN how to drive.  I call him "Need for Speed" after a comment when he told me he was a great driver because of how he drives on this certain video game.  I can tell you that after our first driving lesson...Need for Speed has plenty of room for improvement and will be needing every hour he can collect behind the wheel!  Pray for this mama as this boy is a bit heavy footed with the pedals.  It's a little scary really!

And finally...here's my girl in her team swimsuit.  Isn't she just the cutest?!  They are the Pusch Ridge Pirates and I am digging their flashy new suits for the season!  Love the metallic skull and cross bones!!!  Yes...I do indeed love this particular little pirate!!!!

And now...you are officially caught up on life here in the desert!!!! SO sorry for the long post and the LONGER time in between posts!  Must do better!  Yes, I must!