I am not sure if Kimberly tried it just to get Annie off her back or because she really thought now was the time to ride, but they asked to go out front and try. I humored them since Annie was willing to help Kimberly. (I am quite sick at the moment so running beside a new biker wouldn’t work.)

We went out to the middle of the street. Annie gave Kimberly a good hard push and off she went. Annie ran along side her and coached her on how to steer. She still hasn’t gotten the hang of steering but she is riding!

Way to go Kimmie!

My Girls have grown and their taste in clothing is a different as their hair colors. I was shocked beyond belief today when we went shopping for dresses for the Father and Daughter dance. All three girls picked the exact same dress and they were all excited to be matching! I quickly paid and left the store before they had second thoughts.

Inside I was anxiously awaiting seeing all three of them in the matching dresses. The way the three of them looked was adorable and as expected I did have some heart melt.

“Mom, did you used to be a vet too before we were born?” ~ Kimberly
“No” ~ Mom
“How do you know how to give the cats medicine?” ~ Kimberly
“I know how to take care of you when you are sick too, and I am not a doctor, am I?” ~ Mom
“Yeah, I guess so.” ~ Kimberly

Kimmie is always so curious about life before she arrived. So cute.

We did the treatment, cleaned her bedding, vacuumed the couch and her mattress and are doing many more measures to ensure this doesn’t spread. It is exhausting! Aside from the fact that even though my mother checked my head for lice I feel like my skin is crawling!

Hopefully tomorrow morning when I comb through her hair in the morning light I won’t find any nits or lice.

Today she was saying how, while she thinks it is perfectly fine for me and Daddy, she doesn’t want to have a husband. She thinks it is just plain gross and not for her. I told her that she may change her mind on that one day. I also told her that when I was younger I had no plans to get married and have children, I was going to be a career girl, but then I met Daddy and my ideas changed. She said she didn’t think that would happen to her.

After the discussion of how she wasn’t going to have a husband she began talking about how she should probably get her one child a pet since she is only planning to adopt one child so that it won’t have anyone to fight with. Her reasoning: When she is at her sweet shop the child will have someone to keep her company. I told her that maybe the child could come hang out with her Grandmother while her Mother worked. She hadn’t really thought about that before but said, “maybe.” I just chuckled.

It will be so interesting to see what comes of my Girl and all her ideas.

Last night I throughly check through Annie and Kimberly’s hair for any trace of lice and didn’t find any. Today I went and bought some preventative shampoo just to give us another way to prevent it from attacking us. Along with that I told the girls how important it was for them to not share jackets and to not touch the hair of their classmates.

Hopefully all of this will work and we will be lucky enough to not become hosts to those little buggars.

Finally they are coming around to having me fix their hair in the mornings. This morning they asked me to do some braids and pony tails. It isn’t much but I welcome their desires. (On a side note: I can’t do fancy schmancy hair styles anyhow so pony tails and braids work for me.)

This morning I had to sit on my hands when I saw Mimi. Kimberly had done her hair for her and they were both so proud of it. Kimberly had pulled it back in a simple pony tail at the base of Mimi’s neck and had put a headband around her head to secure the extra little hairs. It was a cute hairstyle and wonderful that the two of them had worked together on the hair, but I would have loved to have been able to comb through it once and put it back. So many lumps and bumps in the pony tail.

It is nice to see them finally more concerned about the appearance of their hair.

The troop worked hard to sell nuts and chocolates in order to support those in need. I am proud of their efforts.

We all have a couple from our childhood that we look back on and wonder, “wow, really?!?” Now they offer all kinds of photographs and different angles but I just go with the standard photo so that I can get a good gauge of how they are growing and changing each year.

Paul’s Preschool Photo

Madeline’s First Grade Photo

Kimberly’s Second Grade Photo

Annie’s Second Grade Photo

I love how cute they all are. I explained retakes to Annie but she didn’t want to have her photo redone because her earring was so shiny. Crazy girl. Now we know that one day she has a picture to look back on and wonder, “wow, really?!?”

She always delights in her birthday and today was no different. We woke up and got showered. Daddy ran to McDonalds to get her her Sausage Muffin for breakfast. After breakfast she opened up her presents. She had asked us for an American Girl doll and was so happy when she opened Kanani up.

After opening presents she had to go to school. We brought her some Taco Bell for lunch and ate with her. When we picked her up we came home and played with some of her birthday toys. We even busted out the twister game and played several rounds.

Grammy and Aunt Steph came over for dinner tonight and we had pork chops, grapes, noodles, and buttered bread. The dinner choice was picked by Kimberly and she loved it. For dessert we had cream puffs with hot fudge.

Just so you can see a glimpse of how delightful she is. . .

She had such a fun time. We played many fair games including a bean bag toss and a bottle toss.

The kids even got a chance to throw darts at balloons.

We spent plenty of time clowning around!

Competing in 3 legged races and hanging out eating popcorn with friends.

This was the first time the Girls had requested separate birthday parties. It was interesting to see what each girl would choose for their birthday party. Kimberly really wanted a game/fair/clown birthday party. I think we captured the essence of that for her today.

It was the first time that during a birthday party that we sung to her only. Generally there would be a mishmash of ” dear Kimberly Annie” and “dear Annie Kimberly” which never really worked out all that well. It was a truly special moment to have all her friends surrounding her singing to her only.

Happy Birthday Kimberly! We love you more than you can imagine.

It was a brisk day up there so we all wore long pants and brought sweatshirts.

We picked perfect pumpkins.

Pretended to drive tractors.

Pet animals in the petting zoo.

Took a hay ride and ate kettle corn.

Found our way through the corn maze.

Took pictures next to the cut outs.

Measured ourselves.

Paul was the only still young enough to ride the mini tractors.

Annie and Kimberly were even brave enough to dance on stage!

We waited patiently for a train ride.

And had some delicious apples!

Perfect day. Perfect weather. Perfect family.

“Yes.” ~ Mom

“Do they have that for people?” ~ Kimberly

“Yes.” ~ Mom

“Oh good! When I get older I want to do that and then adopt 2 or 3 kids.” ~ Kimberly

“That is a good idea. Lots of kids need good families.” ~ Mom

“Yeah.” ~ Kimberly

I wonder if this desire will still be in her when she is older.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great having a pool in your own backyard. You can act on a passing desire to go swimming and we control the chemical balances, keeping it nice and gentle on the eyes. On the other hand, you miss out on the melting pot that is the public pool. I think it’s important to get to one at least once a swim season.

We take them down to the school the next day and get them settled into their classes. Since we now have two second graders and one first grader there really isn’t any clinging and everyone goes happily off to their classes.

Once Bill and I get home we create their first day cakes. This year we colored them with each girls favorite color. Kimmie’s was purple.

Annie’s was pink.

Madeline’s was yellow.

When the Girls arrive home from school we have the cakes set out and we sing “Happy First Day to You”. We replace the words birthday with first day and sing it to the tune of Happy Birthday. The kids make a wish for the school year and they blow out their candle.

This year I borrowed an idea from a friend and did a Girls Night out for the kids in each class. On Friday night we hosted girls from Annie and Kimberly’s 2nd grade class. It was so nice and easy to do, we served pizza, fruit, veggies and homemade cookies. The girls swam and screamed and bonded. We did the same thing for Madeline’s 1st grade class the following night. The kids had such a wonderful time I know we will continue this tradition.

The school year is off and running. Paul and I are at home adjusting to the quiet. (Paul doesn’t start preschool until the end of the month.) I know the kids are going to grow and change so much this year, just like every other year. So many memories will be created and cherished.

It was a very weird moment for me. While I welcome them reading the blog, I wondered how she would take each and every one of the 2,377 entries we have written. Would she be upset about some of the information shared? Would she notice that the category that has the most posts is not the one titled “Kimberly”? How would what we have created here impact her?

I let her read through the current page. Then I showed her the entry that was made the day she was born. She couldn’t believe that I had been making a website about her since 2003. I am not sure if she will ask more questions later, but she seemed satisfied with the knowledge that the blog exists.

Hard to believe we have two 2nd graders and one 1st grader now! The years certainly are flying by.

Today I helped each of them sew a sock monkey from socks. I HATE hand sewing so the fact that I got through both of them is a true testiment to how much I love those ladies. I can’t say I would hand sew that much for anyone else, except Annie or Paul, and thankfully they didn’t want a sock monkey.

Just look at the happiness they exude with their new stuffies.

Madeline with Candy Corn. Yes, Candy Corn has a belly button. Get it! Madeline thinks she is so clever insisting that her monkey have a belly button that is a real button.

Kimberly with Rosie, which I suggested many times should be named after me considering I did all the handsewing on her. Kimberly wasn’t big on the idea.

She found a heart button in my button stash and wanted to use it for Rosie’s nose. Cute idea, even though I thought it should be sewn to the chest. Again, we disagreed. Since it is her sock monkey and I was just the manual labor putting the thing together stitch by stitch* we went with her ideas.

*It should be clearby now how many stitches were done by hand and how each one pained me more than the last. Next time Kimberly or Madeline suggest that I “never” do anything for them I am going to bring these monkeys out and have them count the stitches.

With all that said about how much I can’t stand hand sewing the girls really do adore their sock monkeys and I loved spending the time with them. They read the directions to me and I worked my fingers to the bone. Yes, I love them that much!

I took that time to drop my own coin in the fountain with a special wish for each girl. My wishes and hopes revolved around a successful school year for them. I wonder what their wishes were for.