Growing up is hard on a Mom...

My baby girl is growing up MUCH too fast. This year she is a 6th grader and doing all the lasts for her elementary career. Last student of the month ceremony, last Halloween Pumpkin Run (this year she had to walk it due to a stress fracture in her foot), last Halloween dance, last movie nights, last Valentine's dance, etc. I've been trying to get to school and do as much with her as I can. I've been lucky enough to attend 2 fieldtrips with her, get to every class party, but I've been letting her do her own thing at the dances and movie nights. Mom doesn't want to intrude on her friend time.
Tonight was her Valentines' dance and it's a BIG deal for the 6th grade. They get to pick out the music, they nominate a king and queen, boys ask girls to go to the dance with them (although I don't know what that exactly means in 6th grade?), and they go ALL out for their outfits. Like high schoolers do for Homecoming, these girls do for 6th grade. It's INSANE! Jojo is super tall (she's 5'3 at age 11) so she can fit into clothes in the junior department. This is usually a good thing because she's tired of the cartoon characters and hearts on the t-shirts. But shopping for dresses was a bit rough. Most of the junior dresses were strapless or had built in padded bras (ummm...no way!) and the girls department were too babyish. Luckily within 5 minutes she found a really cute dress that had spaghetti straps. She was happy and I was happy so it was a win-win.
Tonight I got to do her hair, put on some makeup, and help her with pantyhose and I had a great time. But when it came time to take pictures, I got a bit emotional. My little girl is growing up. She has no trace of baby fat on her anymore, each day she gets prettier and prettier and looks so sophisticated. We smiled for pictures and made a big fuss out of the whole thing (she was also nominated for Queen but lost to her best friend. She was okay with that because she didn't want to dance with whoever won King. lol). As I drove to the dance, I kept sneaking glances at her, sitting in the passenger seat, super excited and looking well beyond 11 years old.
I wish I could find the magic potion that keeps her and her brother tiny and innocent.

Jojo and her Daddy

Jojo and I

Jojo and Jakey

What a beauty she is!

If anyone does find that magic potion, would you send me soon ASAP please!

Think I'm doing something right...

The kids and I were filling out their school books by adding their weights, heights, friends, pictures, etc. yesterday and Jojo had a question on her page that said "Where do you like to hang out with friends?" Her answer "At my house."
O how I hope that answers last well into her teenage years!

Jakey-ism...

Ever since school started, every single day has been filled with running here, there and everywhere. From the time our feet hit the floor til about 7 in the evening, it's a constant stream of activities. I'm not the kind of parent that throws my kids in everything, they each pick what they want to do and if I can get them there and it doesn't interfere with anything else, they can do it. So now we are a Cross Country, Football, Cheer, Band Family. Hence the complete lack of blogging.
Last night after all the practices were done, movie night at school was finished and grocery shopping for the week was complete, we were all yawning pretty early for a Friday night. We decided to do a sleepover in our room. After getting the kids all settled and lights off, we usually end up talking and laughing. Jakey yawns and says "I'm done talking, time to head off to slumber land. Love you everybody." "I love you too buddy, I'm about to head to slumber land too." I say. "Looks like I'll meet you there Momma." was his reply.
Where does he come up with this stuff? lol

DIY for my little munchkin...

Jojo has been wanting a desk in her room for quite awhile, but we just couldn't fit one in her room. She tends to be quite a pack rat and stuffs things wherever they will fit...drives my OCD/anal self insane! Recently we had a free day and I told her we were going to go through EVERYTHING in her room. As we started cleaning and getting rid of things I looked at her overflowing bookcase and an idea popped into my head. "What if we turn that into your dresser, have it fit under your bed, and then you'll have room for a desk. You'll have to get rid of quite a bit of stuff, but we can make it work." I wasn't sure she'd be okay with throwing things out, but with the idea of a desk in her room, she was all for it.
Here is her bookcase after we took everything off it.

When Jason got home, I picked his brain to see if my idea would work. I wanted it to fit under her bed and be easy to pull out and push back in. He sent me to Home Depot to get some EZ Sliders and some rope (we happened to find some in white and pink...extra bonus!) And then we headed to Office Max to look for a desk. They had a back to school special with a desk, small bookshelf, rolling chair (in pink!), and a floor mat for a great deal!
When we got home, Jason already had the plywood on the back of the bookshelf. He drilled two holes for the rope handle, then we carried it inside and slid the EZ Sliders underneath and VIOLA! We had a storage spot for clothes.


It took a full day for me to put together the desk, bookshelf, and chair, but the finished product is so cool. Just what my munchkin dreamed of. Her room isn't too girly and I think this look will last her many years.
It's also nice to have a handy hubby to help make my visions a reality.
Here's how her room turned out:

Beach bum....

We just got back from a wonderful week down in Virgina Beach, VA. Jason and I lived down there for 2 years and I absolutely loved it. Except for the fact that I had no family and no friends (all my friends were Navy friends and when the ship went out to sea, so did my friends). I loved living in a military town. I loved living so close to the ocean. I loved the warmer climate. I just wish my family could be there as well. Anyways, I digress.
This past week wasn't the best weather - 3 of the days were dreary, rainy, and cool. We still made it into the ocean each day, even with red flag warnings. The undertow was very strong, so we only went waist deep. It was still glorious to feel the ocean breeze, hear the rough surf, and see the dolphins. When we lived near the ocean, we didn't go nearly as often as you'd think. This vacation showed me that my kids are beach bums just like me. Jakey was so upset when we left and Jojo wanted to be in the ocean the whole time.
The whole atmosphere of being oceanfront made me so much more relaxed that I am at home. I'm a stickler for schedules (not so much in the summertime, but during the school year - definitely!) and as babies my kids were on pretty strict schedules. Since I was the primary care giver, I was on a pretty strict schedule as well. I ate when they needed to eat, I went to bed when they went to bed, etc. This vacation, any idea of schedules went right out the window along with the ocean breeze. We could eat dinner at 8pm and no one complained. We could swim for hours and didn't need to rush it to get back for nap time. We walked a lot and for long periods, and I didn't have to worry about bringing bottles, wipes, diapers, etc. I didn't have to push a stroller. We just opened up the hotel doors and went! I always worried that my strict schedules would make it hard for the kids to veer off them, but not once did they complain about anything we did on vacation. I wasn't stressed over anything while on vacation, it was really a nice change of pace.
I know if we did live down near the ocean, we wouldn't get there everyday like we would all want to. The kids school schedule, sports schedule, etc would eat into that. I'd still have kids to babysit and dinners to cook and a house to clean and places to run the kids to. We'd have no family around to watch sporting events or help out with babysitting. My kids would only know their Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins via Skype or short visits. That would stress me out. I like being able to travel 10 1/2 hours to my happy place and let the stress leave and the calmness return. I like that my kids know their extended family pretty well and that they have a big cheering section when they do sports. I like feeling the soft sand and cool surf hit my feet to remind me that, life is good. I like where I live and I like being able to afford to visit my happy place every so often.
I'm a beach bum when I can.

Headband making Diva...

Jojo has always been very creative...whether it's drawing, writing, painting, crafting, you name it, she can do it. A few years ago she got a handheld sewing machine for Christmas and we've never used it. (I know bad Mom, but I never had scrap fabric or a project on hand) Recently on a trip to the craft store she says "I think I'd like to try making headbands". We found scraps of fabric already bundled and elastic and figured we were all set to go. On our return home, we opened up the box of her sewing machine, read directions, and started to sew. And then I realized that the bottom bobbin, wasn't threading and it kept getting stuck. A quick phone call to my master sewer Mom and we packed everything up and headed up to let the pro show us how it's done. I swear my Mom has the master touch, she briefly read the crappy directions, and viola! we were in business! Our test one wasn't the prettiest, but we knew we'd only get better.
The next day, we were determined to make some pretty impressive headbands.
We measured our fabric pieces.

We cut our elastic.

We folded our fabric so the outsides were together.

We turned the piece right side out, then ironed it flat.


Inserted the elastic and sewed that in on both ends.

And our finished product looks pretty darn fantastic!


Can't wait to make more of these with my creative little Diva!

Please stay young...

I knew eventually that my kids would get older and not need me for every little task. I knew that, but it's still not easy to accept.
I also knew that they'd make a ton of friends and some that I wouldn't consider friends. I always said that I wouldn't pick their friends, but at this stage, I find myself slowly weeding out the not so good friends. I still let them come over and hang out, but it's in small increments and under supervision...tight supervision.
I knew that with age comes attitude, trust me I was all about attitude when I was a pre-teen. It's something you just cannot control and it's usually geared towards the mother. Yep, we are there. I get the sass, the rolling of the eyes, the "how you kidding me" stare, I get it all. But then 10 minutes later, she wants to snuggle and laugh. Ahhh, the joys of being a girl.
I knew that my kids would get many boo-boos, ouchies, scrapies, etc. I grew up with 2 brothers, I knew we'd go through band-aids like crazy. I just forgot about the part about being the one that needs to clean said boo-boos. When the bike you are riding at Mach 3, decides to just fall from underneath you and you go skidding down the sidewalk, it's up to Mom to clean up the road rash that covers a good portion of his leg. It's tough to keep cleaning as he's writing in pain and screaming at the top of his lungs.
I knew that there would be sleepovers and things happening at sleepovers. I forgot about the updates that follow from parents. It's nothing horrendous, just eye opening.
I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep them busy with chalk, a bucket of water and a paint brush forever, but I was hoping for a few more years of the laid back activities. Enter sports camps, art camps, baseball, cheer, etc. I love seeing them active and in fun activities, and I'm thankful Jason's job allows them the chance to do these activities. It just seems like we spend so much time running from place to place, but it's what my kids find enjoyable now...so we run.
I love my kids to the moon and back, but I want them to stay little longer. Time needs to slow down so I can keep them under my wing and protect them for everything. I'm not ready to let them fly and leave my nest. I'm not babysitting at all this summer (first time in about 7 years) so it's a summer for me to enjoy every moment with my kids and make tons of fabulous memories and keep them tucked under my wing, just a tiny bit longer.