JUNE - A review of month 6

Summer started with a bang! We spent most of the month of June at the pool taking swimming lessons and playing with friends. Both girls have become great swimmers and 3 or 4 hours at the pool mixed with snacks and buddies was almost a daily occurrence.

Isabelle attended Tomball High School's basketball camp again and loved it as expected. She also tried her hand for the first time at softball with Klein Oak High School and said although she wasn't great, to sign her up for a season. She loves sports and isn't discouraged when she has a lot to learn.


Olivia loves to have her big sister home to play everyday and would be happy to just follow her around all the time. She thinks she is just one of the big girls with Isabelle's friends and they are all pretty good to include little Livi. Olivia spent time baking and doing her own dishes of course and always loves a ride on the merry-go-round at the mall.

A highlight of the month was having a short visit by our old San Antonio friends, the Becksteads, as they traveled across country on summer vacation. Isabelle loved having a "real sleepover" with Brooklyn in her new bed and although I didn't get a picture, Olivia and Lexi had fun changing into princess costumes over and over again.





Hooray for the lazy days of summer and spending the month of June with those we love.

**Happy 13th Anniversary to Ben and me as well. We are officially old now since we paid a sitter to go on a date to Home Depot and Lowes. We bought an extra freezer for our laundry room to celebrate our 13 years.

My baby

I hate my babies to grow up. I held on to Isabelle as long as I could (still am) and I am trying to force Olivia to stay small as best I can. Either way, they continue to grow. The last baby item in our house has been our crib. Isabelle LOVED her little bed and slept in it until 3.5 years old when Olivia was on the way and we were moving into a new house anyway. She and I both shed tears as she moved up to her big girl bed and she asked to sleep back in the crib for days. Fast forward several years and we were at the same turning point with Olivia. This time there was no new baby on the way, nor a new house to move in to, but sadly I knew that 4 years old was too big to be sleeping in a crib and had to face the facts.

We all loved Isabelle's bed so much and finally decided that rather than buy another matching set, we would buy the even bigger girl bed of the same style and brand and move Belle and Livi both up. Olivia mostly was interested in buying fancy sheets and pillows and of course a canopy on top, so the actual bed frame made little difference to her. Isabelle was excited to pick out some new grown-up-even-more sheets and has loved having a bigger bed that even mom has slept in with her a few nights.

And just like that, the crib and my baby was gone. She falls out of her bed often still and would gladly get back in her crib if we let her, but we are all trying to embrace this new phase in our lives. When did we become middle-aged with elementary school children? Don't blink.

Hooray for Dads

Ben is the best dad. He loves being with the girls and it shows. He is known around the neighborhood as "Isabelle and Olivia's dad" and I often have other parents comment on how great Ben is at participating in his kids things. The girls were beyond thrilled to buy their dad his very own scooter for Father's Day this year. Now he can actually keep up with them, weaving in and out of parks and pools. Happy Father's Day Ben!

**Happy Father's Day to my Dad, Grandpa Elmo, as well. He was the perfect example of what a great dad should be like.

Adios 2nd Grade

We keep thinking Isabelle's school teachers cannot possibly get any better. Mrs. Grimes started our school years off amazing and then we all fell in love with Mrs Cordera in 1st grade, but 2nd grade with Mrs. Steed may just take the cake!

This was a big "growing up" year for little Isabelle. She learned words we wish she hadn't. She heard stories we wish she hadn't. She watched friends be mean to one another and tease others. Boys started being a little different than just your normal friends and we had to answer a few tough questions. We know that we cannot always keep her young and innocent but we are doing our best to try.

Academically this was another stellar year for our brainiac. She excelled in all areas and was even selected to represent her school in academic competitions. She continued to love to read and write and was the best speller in the class. She loved P.E. as usual and was the first girl in 2nd grade to qualify for her colored running charms. She learned to play chess in Chess Club and always looked forward to GT with Mrs Karamath. Mrs. Steed was the perfect mix of academic and fun and was beloved by every student in her class. She read with great voices during snack time, ran her class with an economy where Belle was the librarian and had to pay rent to use her desk and made even boring things exciting. She danced with the kids during video announcements and cried as the students left her on the last day of class. I was Mrs Steed's "Wednesday Helper" all year and I loved seeing her and the kids having so much fun learning each week.

Although I cannot believe our Jelly is prepped to move to 3rd grade, I know she is ready and I expect will thrive there as well. For now, we are going to read books together every night and squeeze our growing babe a little tighter each day as we enjoy the summer.

May Day - Review of month 5

The heat finally found us in deep south Texas in May. We melted at Field Day and the last weeks of school activities. We tried to keep cool on the 2nd grade field trip to the Arboretum where I was the lucky parent volunteer who chaperoned. We spent family date night at Market Street and cheered on some of our boy friends in the championship little league game. Olivia baked as expected and played at the park despite the warm temps. We celebrated Grandma's birthday and went bowling on Memorial Day. Again the days ticked by and it was summer before we knew it. Thank goodness for journaling, so we can remember all of these fun days that blaze by at lightening speed.  Hats off to May.

The Busy Bees at Kids of the Kingdom Preschool

Olivia was ready for preschool to end. She had a great year with fun teachers and new friends, but she still struggled to go lots of days. She was fine once we got inside the building and was excited to put her folder away and her lunchbox in its place, but getting her TO school was often a battle. She, just like Isabelle, would rather stay home with mom everyday and go to Target and play. Isabelle is going into 3rd grade and still has not outgrown this....I thought kids loved to go to school?!

On the last day of preschool a mini train came and took the kids on a ride. It was cloudy and looked like rain, but drops never fell fortunately. Livi loved riding around with her friends and loved having a special lunch and dessert after. Every week we got a weekly report of Olivia from school and it almost always said something like this: Olivia is so kind to everyone. She is a great friend and loves to share and push her friends on the swing. She is a great leader and always is first to follow directions. We love Olivia.

Similar to Isabelle also, Olivia didn't really go to school to learn so much academics. She knows her letters, numbers, colors, shapes, can write her name and several other words and is on the brink of reading. Instead, she went to preschool to learn to open her own lunch and eat herself, learn to follow other people's rules, meet new and different types of friends and be without her mama. It wasn't easy for either of us, but we did it!

Olivia gave a quick wave to her teachers and friends the end of May and sprinted out of the building. She is hoping the summer goes by very slowly...and I am too.

The ballet production of Cinderella

Isabelle and Olivia love to dance. They love going to ballet every week and they love to perform. Their Spring production this year was Cinderella and the girls were beyond thrilled. Isabelle danced the role of a Wildflower and Olivia performed as a Garden Fairy. Tara flew into town for the weekend and Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Van drove down from Dallas. The girls looked beautiful and loved all of the makeup and hair buns and costumes. They both had butterflies before they took the stage but danced lovely when their time came and we could tell that they had practiced and practiced. They love watching all of the older girls perform as well and dream about the days when they will be the star of the show.

Listen to the beat of your heart, and keep on dancing. -Barbie and the Pink Shoes

The tale of the scooter

Olivia loves her micro mini scooter that Santa brought her. She is super fast, can turn on a dime and can go more than a mile on just one leg. She often rides it half the way to pick Belle up from school and then when she gets tired, she and her scooter hop in my bike trailer to ride the rest of the way. Olivia on her scooter was a common site around the neighborhood. Until one day...

It was a Thursday. I know for sure because I was following Olivia on my bike and she was scootering towards the school in her ballet leotard. We were about halfway to the school and her little legs were going strong, maybe even too strong. Just as we began to pass Lake Paloma, Livi started speeding down a hill at a high speed. She was going a little too fast and instead of using her brake to slow herself down, she jumped off her scooter as it sped along and it kept cruising and went straight into the lake! It happened so quickly that I could see it happening but wasn't fast enough to jump off my bike and save the scooter before it sank to the bottom of the lake. (Thank goodness Olivia bailed and didn't go under water herself!) A fisherman was fishing nearby and at the same moment he busted out laughing at the scene and Olivia burst into tears. He tried to reach the bottom of the lake with his fishing pole but couldn't reach the bottom so he told me it was at least 8' deep. Just then the school bell rang in the distance and we were late to pick up Belle. I had to throw crying Livi in the trailer and say goodbye to her beloved scooter now buried in the lake and pedal fast. It was such a sad day that Livi has still not gotten over, although I am sure we could have won Americas Funniest Home Videos if we had it on tape. R.I.P. Scooter.

This picture was taken the day Olivia rode her scooter all the way to pick up Belle at school, 1.5 miles one way, without stopping.