Overheard

McKay was just finishing up his with his speech tutor and he went running downstairs. I let the tutor out and came walking downstairs and I asked him, in passing, "McKay, how do you feel?"

McKay's immediate response?

"Flattered!"

The party of the century...

Or so it felt.

It was so much fun. By the time all was said and done, there were 29 different kids who were at the house that day. Twenty six who came to the party and 3 who stopped by afterwards. We were pretty busy!

But all the girls got their nails painted, complete with little gems on the toes and embellishments with the paint.

Then we did a pinata and cake and ice cream and presents. I thought I was being generous allowing 2 hours for all the festivities, but no. We were rushing like mad people trying to fit everything in at the end.

The first group of girls washing their feet in the bubbly wading pool.

The basket of nail polish, towels, clippers, nail files, cotton balls, nail polish remover, gems, etc.

Hannah waiting for her polish.

One of the girls getting her toes done.

Hannah's finished nails

Hannah surveying some of the cupcakes.

Hannah's cousin Andrea after enjoying some cupcakes.

Hannah hugs Alanna after opening her present.

FIVE?!?

FIVE!

Hannah is FIVE???

When did this happen? Why didn't someone tell me it would happen this FAST? I think the years start going by exponentially faster the more kids one has.

I knew her birthday was coming. I was preparing. I am ready. The party is in a few hours. But it hit me. She is FIVE! Like...not a baby anymore. Come to think on it, she hasn't been a baby for quite awhile. But in my MIND, I can still remember bringing her home from the hospital as a little newborn. I can still remember the thrill when she started talking--and she has not stopped yet.

Here's to five years full of smiling, and loving, and friends, and talking, and princesses, and nail polish, and giggling, and pink Power Rangers, and helping, and learning, and accepting, and Barbie, and bracelets, and all of the wonderful things that having this wonderful, friendly, open, loving girl in our family means.

We are really blessed aren't we?

But seriously...FIVE?

Back-to-School Night

Well, this is it. We are down to the wire.

Back-to-School Night was tonight. Hannah met her new Kindergarten teacher. I think Hannah is totally excited to go to school and was thrilled to see her new classroom. She knows her teacher and we're working on walking to class by herself. She still has a week before she starts, but she's getting geared up. In fact, I think we'll need to discuss how to stay calm during school, because she is so excited.

Michael knows his teacher, even though she is new to him, and he is excited to be in her class. He wanted to bring her a present (he brought her some paper cups ;) ) and he knows the classroom since it was his last year.

McKay was not sure about going back to class yet, but once he saw his teacher's AWESOME classroom theme...he was won over. It is a Disney/Pixar theme. McKay can't wait to go to class with Wall-E and Buzz. Woohoo, we have a winner! It is great. I think by the time Monday is here, McKay will be fairly begging to go back to see his classroom.

Update: Yup, McKay is hooked. Last night, as McKay was lying in bed he said, "Can I go back to school to see Wall-E?"

The toughest job

My friend Heidi is such a devoted, informed, involved mama. She totally hit the ground running when she started this parenting gig, and I have been nothing but impressed.

But what sets Heidi apart is she is a foster mom.

She has had her adorable Bamm Bamm (her nickname for her foster son) for about a year. He came to her a little before he was one year of age. She has chronicled him endlessly, been devoted to him absolutely, and loved him fiercely. I have followed her journey through her emails and her blog (I grew up with Heidi, she was one of my best friends in jr. high and high school) and seen the amazing job she's been doing all year.

She loved him as completely as any mother ever loved her son. And she did this knowing she was going to have to step out of his life at some point.

That point came this weekend and I cannot say that I have ever known someone I am more proud to know. She has so selflessly given to this little boy so much love and stability. http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/blog/view/180 Here is her post about his goodbye. It just had me in tears, and yet, it gave me such a warm feeling to know that there are people like Heidi out there. So completely genuine in wanting to make a real difference in the world, and then selflessly doing something about it.

Foster parenting is not for everyone, but Heidi is an example of the best of the best. It reminds me of the story of the man walking along the beach each morning, throwing the starfish that had washed up during the night back into the ocean, saving their lives. Another man approached him and said, "Why are you doing this? There are thousands and thousands of starfish that wash up on the beach and die. You can't save them all. You can't make a difference." And the man reached down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean and turned to the questioning man and said, "It made a difference to that one."

Anyway, I just wanted to salute Heidi and the difference she is making.

Our lake trip

We haven't really gone anywhere this summer. There's been a myriad of reasons for that--McKay running so much, Darwin's work schedule, a new baby--but the end result is we've been major homebodies this summer. It's been nice in a lot of ways, but we needed a bit of time to feel like we were on vacation.

So this Saturday we just spent the afternoon at Deer Creek Resevoir. We kept it really simple. A few sandwiches and crackers and drinks and stuff for swimming was all we brought, since we needed to carry it all down from the car to the beach along with all five littles.

The kids were in heaven. They've been asking for the beach all summer. Obviously landlocked Utah doesn't have ocean, but the lake worked for them. They liked the swimming and the sand and all that being near the water entailed.

It was a lovely day and the water was refreshing. The resevior is often quite chilly, but it was tolerable on Saturday. A bit on the cool side, but easy enough to get used to. There was enough cloud cover that the day was not burning hot, and it didn't rain until later in the evening.

Ella slept under her carseat shade and an umbrella for the bulk of the time.

Hannah was a big fan of digging, building "castles" and just feeling the mud. She swam a little, but the seaweed kind of freaked her out.

Garrett liked running in the shallow water and along the beach and digging in the sand. He got his feet pretty dirty. He is usually very tidy, but he didn't seem to mind much, as long as it was just his feet.


Michael was pretty much in and out of the water all day. He didn't care much for getting sandy. He got home and crashed after all of the swimming all day.

McKay just loved laying in the sand. It looks like a rough life, doesn't it? He even got Garrett to try, but Garrett was not as thrilled about laying the dirt and getting it in his hair and all over.

Of course, all this getting covered in sand meant McKay had to go wash off often. He looks pretty broken up about that, doesn't he?

This is the bay we swam in. It was still very cool water. But a little warmer than the deeper parts of the lake, since it was so shallow. Picturesque, eh?

Woody has anger management issues

Garrett is sitting by me, playing with Buzz and Woody.

He made Buzz knock off Woody's hat. And then Woody started to have a fit. So, Buzz said (in Garrett's sweet two-year-old voice), "Woody, let go of your anger."

That is good stuff. Hee hee!