The (sort of) Graduate

Last week was Arden's pre-K graduation. Given that she'll go to Kindergarten in the same school next year she didn't really officially graduate, but they celebrated moving up and recited a special poem. Yes, I cried. Don't judge. We're happy that she will be in the same class as so many of her friends again this coming year. It's amazing to me that she has been with most of these kids since she was 18 months old and here they are, approaching 5 years old and Kindergarten! She has, without a doubt, thrived at her school. We've been nothing but lucky to have such a great place for her to spend her days. Beyond that, they have been incredibly inclusive of our family, which is monstrously important for us, and for Arden. She has loved each of her teachers -- transitioning away from them as she has climbed the food chain has been difficult, but she always thrives once she adjusts. Hearing the relief from her current and past teachers when they learned she'll stay there one more year -- because they don't want to lose her just yet -- well, that's pretty special. We are, without a doubt, blessed.

Pre-ceremony!


Sandwiched between two of her fellows. The one on her left is in love with her, she said, but she's informed him she's marrying Charlie.

Showing off her certificate

Talking to Gloribel, her first teacher when we moved to this school

Adjusting her 2010 Graduate bracelet

With a friend

Unlimited sugar = lots and lots of spinning

....and interpretive dance

Where'd our tiny girl go?

Camping 101: Now with Children

I have a good excuse for the week long absence. We went camping. With a child. Well, technically, with 3 children, but only one came from our house. The moral of this story is that camping with a child takes a week, if not more, of prep, even if you are only going away for 2 days.

Though we've known about this trip for months and months, as things do, it crept up. A couple of weeks ago we finally evaluated the status of our camping equipment. Something we'd talked about doing since we planned the trip in February. You see, we hadn't been camping in oh, 6 years. Apparently, 6 years renders camping equipment MIA. At least in our household.

The good news is we still had our tent, the Kelty Mantra 7. When we bought it (read: invested in it) 7 years ago, it was the biggest and best one on the market. I guess that's why we were smart and chose to store it in the attic, not the garage. Even these many years later it was in perfect condition. Outside of a lamp and a mallot, there wasn't much else that remained in perfect condition or, apparently, in our possession.

And so the list making began. D spent an hour on the phone talking with Alisha, as the two of them were in charge of the meals. Wednesday evening before the trip, I hit the road armed with my supermarket list and my Target list. I figured two, maybe three hours and we'd be ready to go. I'd pack the car on Thursday night and be ready to hit the road late Friday morning. It appears that in our years of not camping, Target has decided to not have a very flush camping section. Two Targets and an REI later we finally had the stuff we needed to camp. And I still had to hit up the market. Needless to say, we got away later than planned on Friday, but managed to get to Greenfield NH in the early afternoon. Dora spent most of the drive through Nowhere NH lamenting about the need to live there but the lack of jobs. Indeed. I'm pretty certain cows outnumber humans where we were.

We managed to remember how to put up the tent while Arden took off with Bryce to explore the site. We had a great, albeit too short, time and are so happy that Juli and Alisha invited us to their annual Father's Day weekend camping experience. We swam in the lake, made s'mores, took the girls for bike rides and slept under the stars. We had perfect weather.

Due to the camera issue I have woefully few pictures....but I tried!

Locked and loaded. We need a bigger SUV, ours was packed to the gills. As you can see, Lucy joined us.


Day 1, off on her bike....

Always so willing to give me a smile.

The black dot at the left center is a Daddy Long Legs...Arden and Bryce's cousin, apparently

Here they are making a home for him.

Best pic I got of the girls

And bonus picture...Monday night Arden and I went to the local dairy to get our milk. Someone got a strawberry ice cream cone...

Gymnastics Show 2010

This weekend was Arden's stage debut. Her school, Interstate Gymnastics and Dance, put on a fantastic show. The whole thing far exceeded my expectations. Another feather in their cap, and another reason I'm so glad we live so close to such a wonderful place.

I have some pictures from before and after, but we'll have to wait for Auntie Nette to sent me whatever photos she took since our camera is still broken and we were limited to the iPhone. We did get a video, and someday we'll figure out how to get it uploaded. Arden had an absolute blast, I don't think she stopped jumping around and dancing for 30 minutes after the show ended.

We were so happy that Nonna and Annette came to see her perform, and I spent the entire time she was on stage in tears. No question she'll go back in the fall!

Her routine was to the Squeakquels "Single Ladies".

Before the show ... I call this "FIERCE"

Showing off her curls!

Ever so excited to be going on stage this afternoon!

Post show, with her medal! I think that's the stance of a real gymnast, don't you?

With Nonna!

Showing off her flowers and medal

More of the same, because she's just that cute.

Too many cameras to look at

If you like it then you should have put a ring on it...

Post gymnastics show dinner at Arden's choice...Cracker Barrel. Nonna had never been before and she loved it. Well, once she got over the price of a cup of hot tea...$1.69! "I'll just have water." (disclaimer, we ordered her hot tea against orders not to. we decided we could splurge for the 93 year old, just this once)

Why yes, it IS 2AM

This post is brought to you in the middle of the night by Continental Airlines. Dora had to go to New Jersey today for a last minute business trip. Apparently, rain cripples the airlines now, and therefore her already absurdly late flight home was delayed two hours and didn't manage to take off until sometime after 11pm.

Being that it was Wednesday, I was working at home. I chose to keep the child home with me today, although I'm relatively certain she was bored out of her tree. I worked, she watched a couple of movies, worked on an art project and played.

Before she left, D called over her shoulder to remind me to water the flowers. I am not what one would call a green thumb. It must skip a generation, given that my mother is so talented in the garden and had the most beautiful roses when we were living in CA. Nevada really only allows for the growing of cactuses (cacti?).

D has always had the wildflower vision for our backyard and each year it comes together even more. These pictures don't do the whole garden justice but they were new bloomers as of today. Or maybe they weren't, but this is the first time I noticed them. Shhh...
Some sort of orange flower!

I love these, as does Arden, who is a big thing of all things fuschia. I think she just likes the word fuschia. Who can blame her?

And some tiny little yellow flowers. I believe that is their formal name.

We also took Lucy to the vet this evening. She needed her annual check up and shots. She didn't enjoy the experience, but she was extremely good. She had her blood drawn, hence the pink bandage. She was pretty annoyed at me for the rest of the evening and would only accept cookies from Arden from the second we walked into the vet all the way through this evening.

Arden workin' on some Curious George games.

Chicago: A Recap

Dora and I had our Chicago adventure over the weekend. It was, first and foremost, a business weekend, but we managed to sneak in some time together, which was great.

Mandy met us in the gymnastics parking lot to get the kidlet. Arden wasn't phased and barely glanced my way as I said goodbye. I suppose it's better that than sobbing...right?

I headed for the airport (I can't tell you how much I love Manchester Airport, if I can avoid it I will never fly out of Logan again). I gotta tell you, I haven't traveled without the kid since her arrival and boy that was a different experience. I bought a couple of books and got to read the entire flight without worrying about keeping a small child entertained. Amazing. And a little bit odd, frankly.

I made my way to the hotel and had no idea what to do with my free time. You see, we just don't get a lot of unplanned time anymore, so I was at a total loss. I ended up just hanging out at the hotel waiting to hear from Dora, who texted me and said she was on the way back to the hotel so we could go to dinner.

We went to a restaurant in our hotel "ItaliAsia" -- italian/asian flare. It was delicious.

The next morning we decided to take a walk and see what we could find. We ended up taking a water taxi over to Navy Pier. There is a river through the middle of the city. Amazing. We strolled and explored and had lunch at Bubba Gump, which neither of us had done before. We planned to take their Architecture Cruise around the river but the skies opened and it started to pour, so we passed. Of course, just like MA weather, it was sunny 3 minutes later, but we didn't trust it.

We spent far too much time talking about the child, shopping for the child...but really it was nice to be just the two of us for awhile.

We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon and went off to our respective events. The next morning we headed for separate airports and made our way home.

Arden had a fantastic time with Uncle Bobby and Mandy. They went to the Zoo, the Rainforest Cafe, painted nails (with glow in the dark flourescent orange nail polish, to boot) and just had a wild time in general. They said she was perfect and even declared herself ready for bed at 7:30 the second night since she was so wiped out.

She wasn't particularly happy to see me when I picked her up, but the dog was, so I'll have to take some solace in that.

So, we're home and trying to readjust to life. Unfortunately D learned today she has to go to New Jersey tomorrow. Thankfully it's just for one day but given that her flight there is at 6:15AM and she won't be home until midnight...well...it's going to be a long exhausting day on top of an exhausting weekend.

A few pics I took with my phone. I really need to get the camera fixed!
View from the front of our hotel

Chicago architecture is beautiful, who knew?

This tree was a conversation piece for us. We still don't understand the significance. Any Chicago experts know? I swear they piped chocolate scent under the street around the tree.

Bound for Oprah's City

In a wacky turn of events, our work worlds are colliding this weekend and both D and I are going to Chicago. Naturally, that left the little issue of where the child would go. Bobby and Mandy have generously agreed to take her for the weekend. Two nights! I realized a couple of days ago that this is the first time the kid and I will be away from each other for that length of time. She's almost 5. I suppose it's about time, huh?

Arden waffles between being incredibly excited ("Mommy, is C making you go to Chicago because she knew I wanted a sleepover at Uncle Bobby and Mandy's house?") to telling us she won't have any parents anymore. Ouch. Last night she came downstairs and told me she'd packed her bag. Inside she'd put a feather boa, a race car and her pirate jammies. Guess she's all ready.

Dora left this morning and I leave tomorrow after gymnastics. I promised Arden she could pick a special activity tonight. Her choice? Baking a cake. Turns out it was for me...she put candles in it and sang Happy Birthday to me. Oh, and the icing on the cake? She told me I turned 23 tonight. I'll take it!

The One in Which I learn I Will Have Two in Horses

We've had a busy week and it appears there is no end in sight. We finally created a google calendar to try to manage it. This past weekend was our only relatively unplanned weekend for the next two months. It's all with really great, fabulous stuff, but the fact that we need a calendar to manage our social lives is well, ridiculous. Needless to say, our unplanned weekend ended up full, but fantastic. We have such great friends, new and old. I will refrain from breaking into song and present you with pictures....

Last weekend Arden and I went to Juli and Alisha's house, and Arden and Bryce had big time sprinkler fun.
Back home we played a little t-ball

And did a little gardening

All dressed up for an impromptu trip to Target. Yes, she wore the crown.

Ready for pizza and pj day at school...wearing the result (and reason) for the aforementioned trip to Target. One needs new jammies for pizza and pj day, right?

We are on the hunt for new couches. This is how Arden felt about the selection at one of the stores. We agreed.

I'm not certain, but I think she was in the middle of rapping Ice Ice Baby

It appears we're going to be working our way into the poor house with another horsewoman in the family. Saturday we went to a horse show to watch our friends ride. This is Brego. He is gigantic. Arden was ecstatic. She stood right next to him with her hand on him until he had to go in the ring. I'd say it was about an hour of just standing there petting him. This does not bode well for me.

He's HUGE. She did not notice.

Happy girl. Apparently the genetics did *not* skip a generation in this case. Damn.

I feel the need to go out and buy her a lot of football padding.

More furniture shopping. At this store we learned that we have very, very good taste. If we sell the horse, we can afford the furniture we like. I just want to put that out there...

Monday (Memorial Day) we went to Daun and Alyssa's farm. Oh, Brego is their horse. Anyway, Arden was overjoyed to visit the goats and we had a great time.

Here she is in the middle of their acreage with the goats.

She took this picture

On a big rock, deep in thought