Five! 5! Five!

CARISSA GRACE IS 5!

Dear Carissa,

When I look at you today I no longer see a baby. I see a little girl who has begun to take shape. You are amazingly beautiful and smart. You have a this wacky sense of humor that can throw a whole crowd for a loop. I know you see so much and feel it deeply. I know you love your family with all of your being. You are content to steal Dad's bible and find a quite corner to read stories about Jesus to your bite but also just as happy to go wherever Audrey has suggested. You are a perfect little sister.

This year I know you will stretch out past your usual limits. You will learn to read and a whole new world will open up for you. You will notice I am missing you and you will fight leaving, even though you kind of really want to go. I will let you... because that is what Mommies do.


In the meantime, I will suck in every last ounce of that baby smell that you sometimes get right when I am putting you to bed. I will let you keep climbing right onto my lap when you stub your toe. I will savor each day of your 5th year.

Happy Birthday ~I Love You, Mom

Talent Show

When Audrey came to me and said she wanted to sing in the talent show, in front of the whole school, without any music, to her made up version of a song... well, I felt like I had to protect her somehow. From what? Now, I am not so sure.

As a Mom I just don't want her to ever feel failure or embarrassment. I don't want her to suffer or have her heart ache. But I realize now that is just silly; that my hardest moments have created a stronger me. So I stopped discouraging her. I let go and let her try out at the audition. When she got the notice that she had made the Talent Show I listened to her sing the song 1,000 different times 1,000 different ways. I took her to buy a cute new shirt and I did her hair in the morning. I watched her little self sit and wait until the second to the last act. And after one whole hour and 15 agonizing minutes she finally performed... and she was beautiful and she was amazing.

Volcano Science Experiment

Making a homemade clay for her volcano...

Being way to silly...

Who said Science was boring??!?

Ingredients :

Warm Water, Dishsoap, Food Coloring, Baking Soda, and Vinegar

Weekend at White Spar

It is easily forgotten but we have a travel trailer that we pay for every month but doesn't get nearly enough use. Last weekend I was bent on making sure we went somewhere in the trailer. Typical of us, we didn't decide where we were going until about 2:30 Friday, so I threw a few things together and convinced Justin we didn't even need to bring the trailer to our house - we had everything we needed... Let's just load up and go...

The girls didn't seem to notice but we forgot TONS! First off we left without any water in our tanks assuming we could get some up in Prescott. After driving around until 9:00 at night (not fun) we gave up and pulled into the last camp spot available with no water. In the dark. Backing in... ugh!
First thing in the morning the girls got right to work building fairy houses. They collected treasurers and climbed and built.

They laughed and dug in the dirt. They found sticks that were magical and rocks with a story.

While I spent Saturday night in the trailer with a sinus infection Audrey braved the cold night air wearing Dad's jacket because I forgot to pack hers. I don't think she noticed as she had made a great new best friend at the campsite right next door.

We woke up to a morning with no spoons for cereal but a visit from the tooth fairy instead. A good S'more will loosen a tooth right up!

We ended the weekend learning that being spontaneous doesn't always equal relaxing and fun. A couple extra minutes to plan out our trip would have probably saved us a few hours of heartache.

Happy to report - the girls noticed nothing and we have made yet another camping memory :)