Claire did, indeed, break her arm.
It was the classic first grade story: falling out of a tree.
Her handwriting has taken a turn for the worse:
(It’s her right arm that’s broken.)
That picture was taken on the day the cast was put on. Fast forward almost five weeks and I’d like to report that that white stuff is now dark gray and is pulled all askew (nasty). That cast looks like it’s been plastered on that arm for a century.
And it smells like it too.
Luckily we have a lunch date to get it taken off today!
Our first nephew left to serve a mission for our church.
He will be gone to teach people about Jesus Christ and share this message in Argentina for two years. We are so excited for him, as he will make an amazing missionary. I love how seeing him go helps me remember my mission to Romania all those years ago.
Max is hoping he will surpass his older cousin in height by the time he gets back.
We copied our friends the Farnsworths and had a gathering called “Pies & Ties” before he left. (Everyone brings a pie and a tie to send him off with).
Here he is surrounded by a bunch of cousins and friends:
We sure love that Jameson!
Our kids still continue to enjoy being upside-down as much as possible any time they can find a trampoline.
And I still get to work with these ladies (and others who somehow escaped this picture) in the Young Women program in our church.
(They are making smoothies for a fitness activity we had.)
I can’t explain how grateful I am for their examples in my life.
Nor can I express how much I love the girls I get to work with. They are examples to me in so many ways!
Here are the oldest of the 39 we get to work with at our “New Beginnings” program back in January that I never had the chance to write about:
They were princesses since our theme was based on Elder Uchtdorf’s wonderful “Happily Ever After” talk (click here to read it).
They did such a great job!
(oops, please pardon the red eyes!)
I don’t have my camera around much for our activities but here are a few:
“Just Dance” dance-off:
(They even cajoled me to dance which was pretty funny…my girls think they belong with the big girls)
A Mother/Daughter “spa night”:
And here’s our line-dancing night:
Here’s Elle walking off the stage for her last orchestra performance for who knows how long. (She is quitting orchestra in favor of moving on to choir next year.)
My “tiger mother” heart aches that she’s leaving this era behind (and there’s a whole discussion for another day that goes into that).
But somehow I get the feeling that her heart isn’t very sorrowful about the change in the music chapter of her life. (Case in point, see below:)
She and her friend are walking away without so much as a thought about how it may crush their mothers’ hearts 😉
Goodbye for now, orchestra…we will be back someday.
I got to watch Lucy do her show-and-tell at school and I know it sounds silly but don’t know if there’s much more of a heart-melter than that.
She got to sit on a little chair and go around the circle to ask each child by name, “_______(insert name of child), what is your question?” Yeah, ok so maybe you had to be there but believe me, it was cute.
I got to go to “Field Day” with Grace & Claire:
Yes, that is water all over Claire’s shirt from her carry-your-sponge-filled-with-water-under-your-chin race.
Here are the bulletin boards from my beloved Art Masterpiece days at school:
(Somehow I didn’t get Grace’s class, darn it!)
Here’s Lucy’s new doctor and his assistant who I love:
(Does that look like a nice face or what?)
We’re trying to get a good picture to put on canvas for Max’s room so we can finally finish it off:
Elle and her friends were waiting to greet us when we got home:
We got to take a ride in this awesome car on a date night with our friends:
The kids are swimming in full force even though the water’s still pretty chilly…
Dave’s parents have come to visit a few times:
How we love them and the game nights we’ve lucked out to have with them.
Elle and her friend are good posers:
We went with all the girl cousins to see Cinderella:
They got to meet the step-mother and step-sisters after the play was over.
…the Prince and Cinderella were favorites for Lucy:
Here’s Elle:
Here’s March where all those blue things at the top of each day are birthdays:
Yep, we had a lot of them.
The neighborhood off to school:
Good friends and a birthday get-away:
My dear mother:
A sleepover with cousins:
Yeah, I’m a little bit behind.
I cannot believe another school year is drawing to a close.
Time is spilling away so much more quickly than I can seem to bottle it up.
Shawni,
I love that Lucy's doctor looks a little "quirky." My son's endocrinologist is the BEST, and he looks quirky, too. What is it about great doctors looking quirky? 🙂
There are a lot of really fantastic things about living in Western North Carolina. But when I see gyms FULL of young men and young women, I can't say I don't long, just a little, to live somewhere where there would be more youth. (Right now, in our branch, we have two young women, and four young men… and it's the biggest group we've had in a long time!)
oh i loved that post Shawni, i keep thinking, what a great neighbour hood you live in, looks like so much fun!!! any homes for sale ahhahah!!!
I loved Lucy's doc too, he looks like he loves what he does, and thats the best thing ever!!
i forgot to say too, i nearly died when i saw your calendar.. i am not going to complain again!!!
Please consider bicycle helmets for those precious children of yours. One second is all it takes for a distracted driver to take a life. Kind regards
Still wishing for a constitutional amendment banning teenage girls from pursing their lips for pictures. 😉
meg, here in Ab, Canada, it's illegal for them not to wear helmets. Is it not inthe US? I did notice that too. But i also loved that picture, how fun for everyone to ride together.
random question and I love all the beautiful pictures – isn't this weather great!! what program do you use to post all your great happenings and pictures? I'm impatient with blogger and the pictures I can't add the way I want and the program I was using decided not to work AT.ALL. if you could email me, that would be great! thanks! sorenmay@gmail.com
Oh poor Claire! Good thing it's off in time for the heat. (Although it's probably already been steamy there?)
My favorite pic is the kids riding off to school. Looks like such a fun neighborhood to live in.
Okay, I have to comment about this.
I was dying when I read that about Christy's son, Jameson. (I grew up with Christy.)
My Jameson Paul, (who was born, I think about 3 weeks apart from her Jameson Paul–we didn't know about their common names until after the fact…) has been called to Argentina, too! He leaves later this summer.
Which mission is it? Ours is Buenos Aires, North.
And we're stealing Melissa's family's tradition as well…only for us, it will have to be long distance. 🙁
Ask Sean Young to get in touch with his godmother.
Thanks.
you rock sis. i was so glad for some photos.
Love your blog!! I know your aunt and uncle on their mission in Toronto…just have to comment on the "no helmets" though too! I work with head injury and see the effects of no helmets…so sad and injuries are preventable. Please please become a leader in making helmets mandatory and cool in your neighborhood!!
I don't live in the US either, but children by law must wear helmets here, and our laws are behind 20 years for the most part. That's why I'm so surprised to see children in the US without them- to me it's like riding without a seat belt. I hope my comment didn't come across as critical towards you or your blog. I love the rest of the post and the spirit of your blog.
Totally random comment but I was not feeling the love for Arizona lately (we're moving there) and I saw your YW pictures and I stopped and just got excited. There's no way we could do that here. Most of the moms probably wouldn't come, or aren't actually even in the picture and to think we could have a whole ROOM of girls.
Anyway, thanks for giving me a little AZ nudge. 🙂
Grandma and I are having so much fun looking at all this. That doctor looks like someone straight out of Willy Wonka! Love it!
The girls, Max,everyone looks so great! Sorry about the violin. She will be happy for all she knows forever!
alright shawni. i know i'm late to the game that is this post, however i had to stop and laugh at myself, because at first glance the step-mother photographed above had me confused. i wasn't sure if she was cruella de vil or sharon osbourne! hahaha. but i get it now. 🙂 have a great week!
::hugs::
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