Dancing with Daffodils

 Then Saturday was Lily's 16th birthday! She spent the morning at her dance studio helping out with their open house (her choice; she loves helping the little kids) but I got up early and made her cottage cakes for breakfast. I had an awesome playlist of all sorts of songs about turning 16 and she "loved" me singing to her. Curtis had baseball practice and Josh was supposed to go to a wedding but was too sick so he spent the morning at urgent care.  That afternoon we played Skip Bo and Uno (Lily's request) and then we watched some videos from when she was little. Then I ended up taking her and a few friends from dance out to a fancy seafood dinner on the water. I just dropped them off and then sat on the river walk for an hour and a half while they ate and it was so weird. She is grown up enough to go out with her friends but I still have to drive her and pay. It was also weird to not eat dinner with my daughter on her birthday. Everyone else stayed home and had lefto...

Whoops, typed this up awhile ago and never posted! What a week. Tuesday was my birthday and it was one of the best I have had in a long time. I woke up and read for awhile because my kids had told me I couldn’t come out until 9:30. I came downstairs and they were dancing to our birthday song and had a beautiful breakfast on the table. They had decorated my chair and had all my presents on the table, just like I do for them. It was so sweet. After a nice breakfast (Josh had a very busy day at work but he left me flowers) Lily told me it she had some entertainment for me. I had no idea what she was talking about but we went downstairs and she showed me a video she had made of some of my friends wishing me a happy birthday and sharing a favorite memory of me. She had the idea all on her own and contacted my friends without me having a clue and it was incredibly thoughtful and totally made the day so special.  Then I got ready and we went to Elms beach for a little while. We didn’t swi...

 August used to be my favorite month of the year. When I was a kid that is when we would go on vacation to either North Carolina or out to Utah to visit family. It was also girls camp and my birthday and of course it is summer so no school. In more recent years Lily was born in August and it was such a joy to become a mother and to celebrate her each year.  However, now August is when school starts. It is when I have to think about school supplies and fall baseball schedules. Josh is super busy at work and has been very stressed so that also means we don't travel in August. He has basically been working non stop for the past three weeks and we have hardly had a chance to talk. Curtis wants to do cross country and try outs are a week before school starts. Baseball also starts next week during our last week of summer. I need to figure out my piano schedule. Lily wants us to drop her off with some friends for a fancy dinner out on her birthday. Our vacation is just about over and...

Summer is so wonderful. I love sleeping in and doing what we want to do instead of what we have to do. It has been a great two weeks of summer relaxing. Brandon did swim lessons so we were at the pool every day for hours. It was so nice to swim or read or talk with friends.  The first week Lily taught at a princess ballet camp for 3-5 year olds from 9-12 and then had her dance class from 3:30-6. That meant a lot of going back and forth to the dance studio but luckily it is close.  The second week she did an intensive so she was there from 9-3 and that was a bit easier. We would come back from the pool between 1-2 and take showers and then if Emma and Brandon had practiced the piano and finished their job for the day, then they would watch a movie in the afternoon, which would be nice down time for everyone. We did also go to the library and I took Lily to get her ears pierced; she finally wanted it done so off to Ink Wizard we went and she didn't even flinch when they stuck th...