My How Time Flies. . .

Clearly summer has been one crazy, fast-paced whirlwind, judging by my absence here.  I could recount the minute details of our summer, but I will hit only the high points--the ones with great pictures.  Starting with our trip to Utah.

Four years ago, on August 20th, Rob and I flew to Washington from Utah to house hunt.  Three days and 60 houses later. . . we found one!

Leaving Utah was hard.  I wanted to leave, was so ready to leave, but once the actual leaving took place, I was a MESS.  Leaving my friends was really harder than I imagined it would be.  Or maybe I just hadn't taken time to imagine that aspect--I was too busy imaging the new place!  So it is strange that despite one trip back a couple months after we moved, I had let three and a half years pass before making another trip. Time flies, I tell ya.  In the past years I feel like as a family we have grown and changed in loads of fun and fabulous ways, as I am sure all our friends back in Utah have, but it was so fun to go back and have it all seem the same as when we left.  Nearly all our neighbors still live there and it was like one big reunion party.  We hung out in the street like old times while the pack of kids roamed and the adults chatted.

We had a picnic lunch in the park behind the neighborhood, the kids picking up practically where they had left off four years ago!

We had dinner with various neighbors (the lovely Aki & Family and Nicole & Family) kind enough to feed us and entertain us.  And we took the kids to Farmington Pond to swim.

Funny thing--I lived in Farmington for 8 years and never took my kids to swim in Farmington Pond.  I think I visited it once.  I was schooled in what we had been missing.  Though Nicole took a more hands on approach, I just sat back and snapped loads of pictures.  It was such fun, we think we might make it an annual event--the whole trip, not just the swimming! But I am sure the swimming will be on the list of things to do while there, if the fun they had is any indication.  I leave with you the evidence of said fun. . .

Now THAT is what summer is all about!

(I even got one picture of me, snuck in by Nicole while my camera was not strapped to my neck--but alas, it is only my backside!)

Arming them with knowledge

A funny thing happens when you become a parent.  You learn how to worry about someone else more than yourself.  It becomes a fine balance between protecting your children and teaching them to take care of themselves.  I think as a father, it must be so much harder to deal with when your kids are girls.  The father-daughter relationship is certainly a unique one.  Since we have only two girls it often leaves me as the disciplinarian for the simple reason Rob has a hard time telling his girls no.  He has been known to say, and I quote, "Anything for my girls!"  Granted, when that statement includes me (as it often does) I like hearing it.  But when I see it creating spoiled girls who would take their father's last bite of dessert out of his mouth, I worry.  Nobody wants their children to suffer, but on the flip side, we don't want them to be selfish and self-centered without a care for others either.

I think my girls are pretty balanced, but the big worries are still in our future: the teenage years.  Hannah is fast approaching 12. . . then 13.  Signe may be four years behind her, but with an older sister to teach her, she is a fast learner.  Rob and I have often discussed how to create just the right balance that will give our girls confidence to know their worth and not make choices based on insecurity and lack of self worth.  Some days I vote for Rob's suggested method:  Make them snobs so they think they are too good for all the unworthy boys.  Of course, we don't get to dictate who they think is worthy or unworthy, and that plan could have unwanted side effects. . . like snobby daughters.

So instead, we encourage them to pursue sports and activities that they like and will excel at, in hopes that they will feel important, and know their own value.  We praise them for their good work, remind them we love them often, and make them work hard for their rewards, so they don't take things for granted.

But in the end, it will be hard to send off our beautiful daughters into the world where we can't be their constant protection.  Because even confident, well rounded, beautiful, smart girls can find themselves in bad situations. . . so we are stacking the deck in our favor (or their favor, rather).

We signed them up for Taekwondo.

And while I admit it is rather disturbing when the instructor says things like, "You want to be sure to strike them in the proper place on their inner thigh to crush their artery." or "Once you have pushed them to the ground and broken their wrist, securing the knife, carve your initials in their chest."  It is also rather reassuring to see my seven year old take down a stranger who comes up behind her and grabs her by the hair, or know how to react when someone tries to abduct her.

Signe during her novice test

Plus, as an added bonus, they are getting a good physical workout, learning self discipline, and gaining personal confidence.  A win win. . . win, win.  

Part of the endurance test

All the white belt and yellow belt students holding horseback stance while being grilled on their  terms and definitions

Holding horseback stance while waiting to perform their novice test

We figure we have covered our bases. We want our girls to be beautiful, smart, accomplished, confident, talented enough to play the Brandenburg Concerto one moment. . . and skilled enough to take out a possible threat to their safety in the next.  Really, it makes it easier to sleep at night.

Last Wednesday they passed their first test to gain their white belt.  It was three hours long.  Part physical endurance (which was hard enough to watch--if I had been the one doing it I might have wept!), part memorization or terms, part performance of the novice moves, and part board breaking--which is really more mental strength than physical.  Here are the videos of each of their board breaks:

Signe

Hannah

A Grown Up Perspective. . .

Over spring break we packed up our car and headed to Idaho for a fun filled TEN days.  Half of that time Rob flew out to Scottsdale, Arizona for work and left us girls at my parent's house to get reacquainted with our long lost siblings and cousins (since moving to Washington we make it home a lot less often than when we lived in Utah).  Typically, when we do visit, we stay at Rob's parent's house, and how we fill our days differs at the two homes.

With Leesa, we shop and eat out and run around a lot--which I love.  At my mom's house we sit and chat and cook at home and the kids run wild--which I also love, and which the girls generally love as well (there are no cousins at Leesa's (aka Mana) house. At Mana's there is always a freezer full of ice cream, a closet full of toys and lots of new movies, and, of course, a lot of shopping--which often works in their favor--plus, in the summer there is a pool, lots of walking pathways and the Boise River for throwing rocks into.  But while my parent's house is no longer a farm (the land has been sold off and developed), it still feels like a farm.  Ducks, chickens, dogs and cats make for high entertainment, in additions to half a dozen or so girl cousins and a handful of boy cousins that show up to join the fun.

One would think, that since I grew up with wild liters of puppies and kittens roaming free, and climbed trees with the practiced agility of a monkey, and competed for the highest jumps on the trampoline, not to mention swimming in the canal (which the cows drank from. . . among other things) and dozens of other "country" activities, that I would want that for my children. . . and I do, BUT somehow scaling a tree to nose bleed heights seems less innocuous from the grand old age of 33 than it did from 7 or 11.  Cats have loads of germs.  Roaming puppies are in danger of being hit on the road if not kept under constant surveillance--kids too for that matter!  And don't get me started on the grossness that is the ditch!

I find myself constantly torn between letting them explore and be kids--after all they are outside, for pete's sake, and not on some electronic device--and reigning them in to keep them from killing themselves, breaking their necks on the trampoline, aka launching bone breaker.

I survived.  They will too. . . I hope.  I just have to keep remembering the old saying, "Everybody dies, but not everybody lives!"  I need to let my children live, albeit with an ounce of caution.  Just like Hannah proclaimed at the end of our trip (in reference to the go-go-go of Mana's house and the stay-stay-stay of Grammy's house) "Can't there just be balance!"

Wise girl.  I must be doing something right!

Spring. . .

Spring is in the air, it's in the trees and in our hair!

The rain isn't gone, but we are finally getting stretches of no rain and some blue skies between the clouds.  But the blossoms popping out everywhere are certainly making it feel more like spring.  Around here, the world is purple and pink from the flowering plum trees that dot the landscape and line the roads.  The sight of them makes me slightly giddy.

Other things are blooming, but the mass of pink makes the biggest impact for now.

Last week I devoted a post on House of White to frogs.  Frogs are a sure sign of spring and we have been hearing them sing their chorus, and spotting them in the yard for some time now.  This guy has taken up residence on our back patio. . . much to Chuck's chagrin! He doesn't, however, seem to have much spring in his hop.

Next week is spring break and we are headed to Idaho to see family and have some fun.  So in preparation, Hannah and Signe and I took a trip to the salon for new spring dos.

My hair was getting unmanageably long. . .

So I had it whacked:

Hannah has been begging for highlight. . . so I let her get a few, along with some sassy layers.  I think it turned out super cute! (The girls' picture were taken on my cellphone, so they are a smidge grainy.)

Signe didn't have an appointment--because I didn't want to get her hair cut off--but she came and looked through a hair magazine and politely asked my hairdresser if she would give her the haircut she found in the magazine.  Soooo, I let her do it.

She couldn't have been more thrilled.  The smile didn't leave her face for hours and she kept touching her hair.  So I guess it's okay after all.  Short hair, long hair, that girl is always adorable!

Now that we are ready for spring, the warm weather can go ahead and join us. . .now.

Happy Spring!

Happy Valentine's Day

When we were dating and during the first year of our marriage, Rob used to buy me the most beautiful flowers. What I loved most about the bouquets he sent me was their uniqueness.  He never sent me roses.  I have only ever received roses from him once (on my 19th birthday he sent me 18 long stem roses because he knew my ex-boyfriend was stopping by and would see them).  Instead he sent me orchids and birds of paradise and lilies.  Then the honeymoon period wore off and the flowers stopped coming, until a few years ago when I told Rob I was going to buy my own Valentine flowers--because I love any excuse to have fresh flowers in the house.  So he took me and we picked out a bouquet for me and one each for the girls.

Tradition was born.  We got flowers and Rob didn't have to pick them out.  Over the weekend while running errands Rob pulled into Costco.

"What are you getting at Costco?" I asked.

"I have one thing on my list here." He stated, and then handed me his blackberry to look at his list: buy the girls flowers.  "I was going to buy them and bring them home as a surprise, but I thought you might not like what I picked out."  He explained.

Of course I would have loved anything he picked--because he picked something on his own!  But none-the-less, the girls were thrilled to pick out their own flowers.

Hannah decided right away on a bunch of lilies.

Signe took longer, but settled on a bouquet of red, white and pink carnations--she liked the pink the best.

The woman working there then asked what I wanted and directed me to the $15 bouquets of roses.  She seemed rather surprised when I picked out two dozen pink tulips (even muttering something along the lines of "Everyone has their own taste in flowers").  Nothing says spring like a shock of pink tulips!

Of course, now that I think about it,  Rob is the only one without a Valentine's Day gift.  I guess I better go make him some cookies--they are his weakness.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Flutter of Ideas. . .

. . . beads in a jar.

. . . cheerios on a page.

. . . colored pencils stuck in a foam ball. (Signe is nothing if not creative!)

. . . "signe's" on a page

All ideas of what to do for the 100th day of school celebration.  Signe had been putting off her project for nearly two weeks because she couldn't think of just the perfect thing to make for her 100th day project.  It had to be something that could hang on the wall, and it had to be something that no one else would do.

I was no help either.  I kept shooting off ideas while I worked on a new strand of garland.  Then suddenly the paper punch next to me inspired an idea. . .

and a flutter of butterflies were born--100 of them, actually.  

Signe was thrilled! 

Funny it took me so long to think of it considering the plethora of butterfly projects around here lately (not to mention the ones on my idea list--as yet uncreated). . . 

The butterfly wreath:

The butterfly cake:

(And my most recent project) The butterfly garland:

(currently hanging in Signe's window)

Maybe I should have just sewn up a string of 100 butterflies!  They could have hung that around the classroom.