Weekend Fun

Couldn't it have been Snow White and Goldilocks?

Brenna and her friend, Lindsey had a sleep over the other night! They get along so well and Lindsey is an absolute delight! They play soccer and basketball together.

In a few weeks the first graders at school are going to perform plays based on fables and stories we grew up hearing. Well, based on these darn cute pictures, any guesses for who or what they'll be?

Brenna is going to be one of the billy goats in the Three Billy Goats Gruff and Lindsey......Lindseykins is going to be Snow White!! Hardly seems fair, does it? Lindsey is the perfect Snow White, but what does that say about Brenna?? :)

My Heart Outside

I am volunteering to work on the slideshow for the graduating 5th graders from my children's elementary school. I love doing it and am really excited to do it for Noah next year. So, needless to say, I am gathering pictures through email and the school. This morning, I opened my email and found the following note below. I tried to copy it as a picture, so you could get it, but I had to cut and paste instead.

I choked me up and I still choke up when I think of it. I guess I had to brag a little bit. I realize that with the prolific forms of communication that these kinds of messages from parents in the community are much more likely to happen, but it still put a smile on my face and a tear in my eye. Thanks for letting me share with you.


Realized after sending the pictures that you are Tobin, Noah, and Brenna's mom. We have enjoyed your children so much. They are all so polite and friendly. We will miss seeing them on the corner after school and seeing Noah continue in Tobin's patrol duties when we go to Lakelands next year. Clover (the beagle) will really miss her friends. For now we'll enjoy the better weather and their afternoon company. Thanks for all your work on the slide show. I'm sure it will be great.

Shout Out to my Mother

Being a mother is a thankless job. Even when you have grown up kids, I can imagine it is still a thankless job. I think that is why they invented Mother's Day; it gives us a moment to be still and be thankful for mothers. I am thankful for my mother and for all of the baggage she puts up with us!

For so many years, more than I care to count, my mother has been there for me/us. And she is still there for me today, and even though I am a mother, myself, I know that I still need my mother. There are things I don't know how to do and I know that she does. But I can't tell her that; I'm an adult. I should know everything, right, ok, most things.

Recently, I went to her with a problem. I knew that if I talked to her about it, I would be able to gain an insight that would help me figure out my approach to the problem. It was a problem that I had no control over, but felt that I did. Anyway, her advice set me on a different path, and even though I am still on it, I think in the end, I will feel happier for having done this thing that my mom suggested. You know what she said; she said, "All you can do is be there." Simple. Sound. True. Working.

What was amazing about this advice is that for the last 17 years, I have been trying to temper my dramatic responses to things around me. I was all set to add to the drama of this problem and yet, there it was, my mother's advice promoting an alternative. I don't want to overstate this, but it has turned out to be exactly what I needed to do.

So, Mom, I want to raise a glass and toast to you. I love you and think you are still the best mom in the world. You turn my grey skies, blue. You turn my lemons into lemonade, and you make cotton candy out of cloudy days. I love you with all my heart and I can only say that I am the mom I am today because of the mom you were yesterday, today, and I can count on you to be tomorrow. I love you.

Mother's Day Morning

From Brenna:



The card says: I hugged it before I put it in the envelope! Brenna is so full of affection, this card simply spoke to her. She cuddles and loves me like I am the best mom in the world. I only hope it stays this way through the next ten years!! The roses in the vase behind the cards were my mother's day gift and part of what I woke up to this morning.


From Noah:


The card says: Please have a happy Mother's Day! I don't want to have taken a bath for nothing!

You don't know how appropriate it is from Noah. He is in a 9 year old boy stage that he doesn't want to get showers ever! I mean it, unfortunately! Not after a soccer game, not after wearing helmets and unicycling, not after a hot day and running around at recess. Not ever. So, he took three showers yesterday. And hence, the card is hilarious for its timing.

From Tobin




The card says: Happy Mother's Day Mom from the best kid in the WHOLE world!
Inside: What do you mean "who?"

Tobin has turned out to be such a funny person; he loves to make people laugh and enjoys finding opportunities to do so! He knows I can be serious, so sometimes he loves, loves, loves that he can get me to laugh when I am being stern mom, or serious mom. I love his humor and see him being like Andy in that way!!



Mother's Day evening


This pictures was taken after our mother's day breakfast, after church, after our mother's day brunch at Manish and Katie's where we really didn't see the kids at all. I know they played rockband and pool, and after they were messing around downstairs--having fun! This was great because there wasn't one sour note during their playing. It helped make it a good mother's day

Mother's Day begins early

On Friday, Brenna's reading class at school had a mother's day tea for us. Brenna was very worried that I don't drink tea and what was I going to drink. (So cute, right?) I ran home from work on Friday afternoon, grabbed my camera and ran up to school. I got to Brenna's class a little late and was one of the last mom's to arrive. As I walked in and sat down, Brenna beamed and ran to me and jumped into my arms.

Not sure why, but lately Brenna clings to me whenever she sees me (and she is back to sleeping in bed with who ever will let her! Lately, it has been Noah in his twin bed!). However, the chairs in Brenna's reading room were little, meant for little children, and I didn't want to live the literary experience of Goldilocks and break the chair, so I had Bree get up and go sit back down on the rug where her classmates were sitting.

Things happened so quickly and Brenna was up in the stool next to the chair of "honor" meant for the mother's to sit. Brenna was so excited and called me up to the chair and really started reading before I even had a chance to sit down. So, by the time I was comfortable and ready to listen, it was over! That was okay with me as I really wanted to read the poem (I use the term loosely) Brenna had written for me later on in private. As such, I wasn't all teary eyed like I usually am at the end of these things, which is a great thing!!

But then I sat and listened to the other children read their poems to their mothers and I became an overflowing watering can! The unique relationships that these children revealed through their words was touching. Although they all loved their mothers, it was for different reasons and revealed that mothering encompasses so many experiences. One child loved his mother because she made the best (this is significant) spaghetti, another daughter loved her mother because she played cards with her and let her win, another boy loved his mother because she took pictures of him, and Brenna loves me because I cuddle with her when she sleeps!! If you say you don't need a tissue right now, you have a heart of steel, no actually you have no heart like the grinch.

If you need images, here are some I took that I love.





More on mother's day later.

Brenna's dance recital

Brenna's dance recital was April 30th and it went something like this:

"Wait, do we walk out together or at the same time?"

"Which song do we do first?"
"Let's Dance" (this is the answer and is a song by Vanessa Hudgens)
"I can't dance if I don't know the song!"

"Can we trade places in line?"

"I'll only dance if you do."

"Do you like my hair? My mother made me wear it like this!!" (This was Brenna, of course).

"Ms. Christina, can you dance with us on stage?"











I wish I could have been a fly on the wall backstage, right as they were about to go on stage. Brenna looked so darn cute, but as noted above, after I had done the two ponytails, she decided against them. I thought I had spent way too much time on them to just take them out without having anyone's eyes look at them, so I told her it was too late, she had to wear them. But in typical Brenna fashion, the minute she had her last bow, before she left the stage her hand was in her hair pulling out the ponytail holders. Why?

The dance was painfully cute until I figured out the secret. I'm not sure what the expectations should be at this age, but watching misstep after misstep was hard. I know they practiced, I know they knew the steps, I know they were excited, I know they were nervous, and I know they were performing; I just wasn't prepared for the recipe it cooked up! It seemed like they had a little too much nervousness and excitement. They seemed like they had forgotten every practice they had had. And then.....

And then....I looked at Brenna's face and it wasn't so hard to watch anymore! Her smile and her eyes were all I needed to know this was a heart stopping, moment of joy for Brenna and for me. When you watched their faces the steps faded away as something in the background that didn't quite matter. Bree was having a great time up there on the stage!