Speaking Larsen

 And boy, does Catelyn know her pronouns, too!   We had a great time watching the 3rd grades perform a show this past week. Catelyn was a Pronoun Queen. She knew her song really well, and seemed really happy to be performing!  They worked especially hard on it, I believe, as there were a lot of parts and songs and lots of children. After all the singing and such, Catelyn was the one to get to say "Thanks for coming!" to us all. She got all A's with the exception of two B+'s this year.  Her reading has picked up pace, and her math skills are still pretty great!  She's a social butterfly, always wanting to have a friend over.  She's also really getting to be a pretty good little babysitter for us, when left for short amounts of time.  She's even been in charge for long amounts of time, but only when we've been right here in the neighborhood. I am excited for her to enjoy summer with no homework,  and to play with all her ...

 While barely there, her hair makes a statement. See for yourself. On top of this, one of her favorite things is to have her ningertails painted. She'll ask for a color, usually pink, and then glitter on top. And if you noticed the grapefruit sized bruise on her head its from when she darted around the banister on the stairs and clipped it, knocking her out flat on her back.  It scraped the skin, but didn't break it.  The impact was lined up perfectly with a strong blood vein, which did rupture on impact and the bleeding caused a golf ball sized mass of blood under her skin, to swell within a 5 minute window. I rushed her to our home, where Collete - a nurse- took a look at it. She helped determine that we would be okay, and to not go to a clinic or ER. Brooklyn barely cried, I think from shock, and instead just wouldn't let me put her down.  We kept a close eye on her, and she did great, falling asleep easily and the swelling went down...

Landon's had the best first grade experience that any kid could ask for! Mrs. McLaren was such a wonderful influence in his life this past year.  She even organized her class into a cast, and did a show!  Landon and his little best buddy Cooper were the characters Chicken Little and Rooster.  They were so funny and cute. They had their lines memorized and the songs down square.  Landon's still singing them.  I need to get the soundtrack.... I had a moment where I realized that this woman he adores has been more involved with is life than I have over the last year on some level, and I was slightly envious and overwhelmed with gratitude for her. She was anther Mother for this class this past year, there is no doubt.  I don't think that every teacher has that quality to them, though I wish they did.  She has a special gift to love those kids. As he moves from 1st grade to 2nd, my heart is wishful that she'll move up a grade, and then every ye...

Oh dear Catelyn. How I do not want you to quit dance. You light up when you're dancing. You're pretty good at it, too! You sing along and dance where ever you go. But you're begging me to quit. So you can do gymnastics. Which, my dear, is basically the same thing, WITHOUT music!  Why would you want to dance to silence? Music is so wonderful, if it's the right kind of music, that is. Please consider changing your mind and sticking with your TEAM. They love you. Your Coach loves you. And the NEED you. Just think about it, okay? On to other things about you.  You're finishing up 3rd grade.  How did you get so big? I had a great time going with you to the Idaho History Museum and learning about dinosaurs. You're a fun girl to spend time with, you know it?  You're friends in your class seem to like you a lot too! And we both know you're always begging to go play with friends! When you decide to be happy and clean your room, YOU DO!  An...

  Landon has ideas on how to make money that I've never thought of. He didn't ask me to bake up a doze cookies or whip up some seriously watered down Kool-aid. Oh no.  He's much wiser. ;) And never mind the neatly organized line that also served as a deterrent for car owners to drive or park in our driveway. It's the stuff rental cars and airports are made of. I'm sure Landon's just protecting his chalk art. And the best part about all of this, it isn't the $1.50 he made.  It's that PEOPLE DO BUY ROCKS!  Think about all your landscape designers or people who drive all over the valley collecting river rocks to decorate with.... I'm tellin' ya.  He's genius. On top of that, wrapping up first grade is monumental.  With Mother's Day, I got art and poems and all sorts of goodies! Along with all this, I am amazed at how well Landon is reading.  It's like a light when on and he's now graduating first grade at a reading le...

Dance has come to a end, and while one of our dancers is ready to be done, Jocelyn is not.  She has loved it.  Her little friend Tayci was always there to dance with and be her dance partner on occasion as well.  She loved the Tu-tus, the hair, the makeup, and the music. She loves to swing her hips and rock out and do heel stretches, and she's a JOYE to watch.  She reminds me of me, when I was her age and dancing.  Silly, but delightful. Other than that, Jocelyn's excited for Kindergarten, even though she has all summer to wait.  Which is good, because we're going to need to work on a few things, like not crying when I can't come help her.  She needs to work on her home address and her phone number. When I left for Arizona, she had a hard time, crying constantly over the smallest things.  She cried while I was gone too.  She's tender-hearted, that much is true, but she also has a temper. I keep reminding her of things we're going t...

BED TIME. For the school season it's 7pm. Just to set the story straight. Okay, you can go on with your reading. Sweet, right?  Of course. They're always so cute when they're sleeping.  Lately Brooklyn's been the WORST about going to bed.  Two nights ago? She was up until nearly 11pm!  She won't stay in bed to save her life. She'd tucked herself into our bed, with pillows on top of her, for her blanket. Extra sweet, right? Yup, and then when I pan out from the close up, we see where she really tucked herself into bed.  Between the bed and wall, in a two foot cave by Kyle's nightstand.  {Don't mind all the paperwork.} On top of this bedtime crazy, she's super stealthy.  No joke.  She moves like a ghost.  We've caught her, in full swing of: Painting her own nails (9pm) Using up all the band-aides (8:45pm) Getting herself a drink. (11pm) Making a jam sandwich-with Jam all over everything- (10pm) Reading (10pm) ...