Ooh La

School is winding down, only two more days!
To celebrate the end of the school year,
Zoe's class is having a Luau today
or "Ohh La" as Zoe called it.

Um, where did May go?

Sprinklers and Mud Pies

It reached around 90 today for the first time this year. So just an average Saturday afternoon was spent jumping in the sprinklers. Just the girls, Jack decided to spend the heat of the afternoon taking a marathon long nap.

There is a bare square in our back yard where the old sandbox used to live. When it gets wet it is apparently awesome for making mud pies.

The girls had a blast making a big lake of mud. When Jack finally woke up (after a three hour nap) we did not let him out for fear he would have been rolling in it.

Phone Pictures

A big part of our everyday life is taking pictures on my phone. Its just not handy to carry a DSLR around ones neck all the time, so for many pictures my phone is my point and click. Equally as often my phone gets used as a child distraction and random pictures are taken. The resolution isn't great, but it uploads automatically into my photobucket account.

Athena received an award for perfect attendance today and her best friend got a Core Virture award. Athena was one of only three Kindergarteners who got this award so she was pretty pleased and I was awfully proud.

When we picked up Athena from school yesterday she had another take home friend. Jack absolutely insisted on carrying the back pack even though it was waay too heavy for him. He's just up from his nap here, as he is most days we pick up the girls, so still kinda bedhead and askew. I literally pluck him, all warm and sweaty, out of his crib and pour him into his carseat still half asleep as we go to pick up the girls at 3:00. Otherwise he would sleep until nearly 4.


Zoe in the car last week. I thought she was looking pretty cool here and just had to snap her picture.

Pajama Dance Party

After the dinner dishes were cleared, homework finished, backpacks packed for school, baths taken, teeth brushed and jammies donned, we let loose with a little pajama dance party in the dark tonight. Athena's sneakers broke yesterday and Chris bought her some snazzy new Twinkle Toes to replace them. Everyone decided they looked really cool when she danced with them in the dark and now Zoe wants some too. Everyday life.

One Word Wednesday

"Arrrrrrrr!"

This is the start of an "Everyday Life" photo challenge.
I'm going to attempt to post one photo every day this week
that captures our everyday life.
Dress up is a big part of our everyday, even the Dude gets into it.

And she's off!

Mimi and her buddy, Jeffrie, embarked on a ten day cross country trip today. They will be visiting friends and sightseeing along their journey, taking their time to enjoy the trip. Jeffrie is going as far as Missouri and Mimi is heading to NY to spend the summer running the Shakespeare Festival, checking up on her business and spending time with Mom.

Oh the minis were sad to see her go. It's been nice having Mimi in our home the last three months and the girls lately have taken to calling Mimi "Momma Too". We've tried to prepare them as much as possible for her leaving, and she will be back after the summer, but four months is a long time when you're small. They each gave her many hugs and kisses and promised to call and text.

And they were off. We waved until we couldn't see the car anymore.

*********

Since then, Mimi has sent me pictures via text, documenting her journey. As she does not now, nor never will blog, I'll post them here so family can keep track of her whereabouts. Check back as I will update with every picture I get. So far, I have:

Grand Canyon
May 15, 2011

Four Corners
May 16, 2011

Snow in Telluride, Colorado
May 17, 2011

More Telluride, Colorado

May 17, 2011

On the road to Ft. Collins
Vail, Colorado
May 18, 2011

Visiting with Dougie

Fort Collins, Colorado

May 19, 2011

Somewhere in Kansas

May 20, 2011

St. Louis

May 21, 2011


Reaching Kentucky
May 22, 2011

Traffic Jam in West Virginia
May 23, 2011

Spring Concert

Athena's school held a Spring concert with just the K, 1st and 2nd Grade performing. It was an evening of concentrated cuteness. The Kindergardeners sang "John Jacob Jingle Heimersmith," "Hush Little Baby","Jesus Loves Me" and a "Spanish Words" song. All with hand gestures to match. The dress was "Fancy Spring," so, you know, a new dress was in order. Luckily Kohls was selling its Easter dresses for over 70% off!

Athena wanted everyone to be equally well dressed and tried to put one
of Chris' ties on the Dude but he wasn't having it.

I had hopes that my little hammy star would sit through a few photos before we left.

Cute...but maybe not for Yiayia's wall?

We even attempted the ever elusive photo with Mommy but this was the best of the series.
And we couldn't be late for the concert, so we had to go.

As the concert began, the audience sat in rapt attention.

Except for Jack who was more interested in Chris' phone. Chris met us at the event and had to leave directly from there for this softball game (hence the tee shirt).


At the end of their last song, I stood up for one final photo, and check out what my shy girl did when she caught sight of me.

After the lovely, and brief, performance, we took some photos with our besties outside.

Athena's best friend is suffering from some health difficulties, so some prayers would be welcome for this little one.

We love her alot and Athena is desperately sad at school without her. Hopefully she'll be back before the end of the year (in two weeks!!).

I'm not exactly sure what the Dude is doing here.
It's like some still from 70's police drama, is anyone else getting a Starsky and Hutch vibe?

And to cap off a lovely evening we went out for dinner with our Mimi - a send off for her craoss country trip to New York where she will be for the Whole. Entire. Summer.

All is well #2

I wrote a whole post about how great Zoe is doing and Blogger ate it.

It went something like this...

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers and emails, Facebook posts and blogger comments, your support has really helped us through this stressful time. We've had alot of requests about how Zoe is doing and I have just one word...fantastic.

After a few stumbling blocks at the beginning, the road to recovery has been actually quite short. I cleared a week off our schedules to keep her quiet at home, but other than a deep scab on her lip, its unbelievable she had surgery just a few short days ago.

The day of surgery, she was an exhausted and compliant patient, dutifully taking her pain medicine and sleeping on and off. The next day she woke up angry. She refused to speak to either of us, even nod or shake her head. She refused her medicine, water, food, practically everything I offered her. Just stared at me with a furrowed brow and huge eyes and giving me the silent treatment.

Her main complaint was a debilitating sore throat, from the intubation, so sore she wouldn't swallow anything, so, eating and drinking and talking have been a challenge. We allowed her a constant diet of Jello and Gogurts and ice cream for breakfast. Everyday it has gotten better and today was the first day she ate normally, with only a few complaints about not being able to finish her vegetables, milking it.

The time of coddling is over lest she start to become insecure. And with perfect timing, Uncle Stu arrives for a visit.

Zoe is all smiles and joy. Its wonderful to see her so happy again.

(That was the gist of the original post, but I can't help thinking I wrote it better the first time...)

Recovery

The hard part is over and we're well on the road to recovery.

It's these kinds of days that will be forever ingrained in my memory. So many powerful moments - good and bad. Zoe was incredibly brave and (as Chris said) I "Mommed up" and took care of business and we got through it.

Right now Zoe looks like she was on the losing end of a bar fight, but her Doctor is very happy with the results, and the worst is behind us.

Thank God.

Moving forward.

(Megan - your comment moved me so much - such a huge part of today - email me, I would love to talk to you more: sacrebean@yahoo.com)

On Surgery Eve

Zoe's lip reconstruction surgery is tomorrow at 9:30 am. Please pray for her. And calling all guardian angels, we need you to be with us every step of the way. Please comfort her and if you got time I could use some comfort too.

I'm working on staying in a place of calmness, faking it as best I can. Luckily, I have a Chris by my side and Chris' are excellent in intense situations.

So far, its been lovely, actually. We checked into a hotel close to the surgical clinic, had dinner and took Zoe to Target to spoil her with all sorts of bribery toys. Mimi is holding down the fort in Bakersfield.

The luxury of having only one child to lavish our attention on is not lost on any of us. Zoe is truly enjoying her moment in the sun, although she does miss her siblings and even secretly packed a picture of her and Athena, so that she could look at it in case she missed her big sister.

Tonight, I'm concerned about all sorts of things. Fearful. But this was always the plan -
a second surgery "before school age" and "in the summer of 2011" which all sounded very far away when we made this plan. And now the day is here.

I know it's all part of her progression, but I love her face as it is, her scar is a part of her and it's weird to think of her looking any other way. I couldn't stop taking pictures of her beautiful face today, and yes, that is Moon Dough on her nose.

I just have to have faith that its all part of God's plan and all will be well.
Praying helps.

"Dear God, thank you for this wonderful child.
Please look over my sweet Zoe tomorrow.
Please comfort her and guide the Doctor's hand.
And please bring her back safely and quickly into my arms."