5th Grade

Vanessa started 5th grade today, the top of the elementary school. She is excited to have a male teacher for the first time. She is not excited that she doesn't have any friends from last year in her class. She knows it means she can make new friends but it is hard at first. She rocked , tthat pixie cut!! 

Improvise

We decided against putting a slide in when we designed the pool. It just wasn't high on the priority list and took up too much space.

That didn't stop Vanessa. She just improvised and created her own water slide into the pool.

This girl makes my heart smile.

Play Hard. Crash Hard.

Vanessa has been playing so hard lately. She has been swimming several times, played at a friend's house, and went to the beach all the past two days. She finally crashed.

This is how I found her a few minutes ago.

Poor thing. Play hard. Crash hard.

We only have two weeks left of summer vacation. I hope she keeps playing hard and fits it all in while she can. You are only a kid for so long. Better make the most of it.

Girly Girls

I attended Savanah and Vanessa's Activity Days mother-daughter activity earlier this week. We had so much fun! They have me a pre-mother's day manicure. They each did a hand. They did a wonderful job!

We stepped into the "photo booth" and had a picture taken together. I love my little girls so much!

It was very nice spending some girl time together.

Soccer City

I have heard our new hometown referred to as Soccer City. It is the headquarters to the US Youth Soccer Association and FC Dallas. I have talked to people and when they hear that my kids play soccer and football they reply, "Oh, you'll fit right in here."

Both of my girls wanted to pursue another season of soccer.

They started out by doing a soccer camp at the end of the summer. After settling in and going on our vacation, the only camp left was one at the hottest time of  the year. They held the camp in the evening, which helped, but there were still several nights that week when I dropped them off at 6:00 pm it was still over 100 degrees. They played hard and learned a lot.

We joined the city youth soccer league. There are more competitive leagues in the area but most of them play games on Sunday and that is just something that we are not interested in doing. I view soccer as a way to get exercise, have fun, and learn teamwork. That can be done at any level.

Savanah joined a team that had  been together for several years and had not won a game EVER.
She played hard this season and was tested as the coach played her in several new positions.  They lost or tied every game of the season till they won their very last game and ended the season on a winning streak. She said she wanted to stay on this team because she likes the girls and they are fun to play with. She really doesn't care if they win or not. They played on turf fields in the shadow of FC Dallas' Stadium. Here are a few highlights from her season.

Vanessa's team won most of their games. They are a talented team that challenged her to step up her game and get serious about playing soccer. I have to say that I loved her short hair for soccer. It is so easy when it is windy and the messy look just looked better at the end of the game. Here are some highlights from her season:

The league allows each team to pick their own uniforms and team names. They also allow players to remain with the same coach from year to year. Both the girls were placed on teams that had been together for several years. I was impressed how quickly the other parents learned my girl's name and started cheering for them from the sideline. Both girls had a great season and we all look forward to spring soccer.

My Little Pirate

No. I'm not talking about Halloween costumes. This is for real.

Last week Vanessa came home from school and told me the nurse had checked her vision at school and she couldn't see anything with her left eye. I asked her why the nurse didn't send home a note. She told me that she memorized the chart with her right eye so the nurse never knew she couldn't see.

Luckily we go to church with an opthamologist so I made an appointment with him right away.

At her appointment we learned that on the eye chart she can see the second from the bottom row with her right eye (perfect 20/20 vision). With her left eye she can see the "E".

She is legally blind in her left eye.

I jokingly said to the doctor, "I guess I'll need to get her a pirate patch." He said "Yes, you will." Not jokingly. He was serious.

And so we have the cutest pirate in the entire world living at our house!

She has to cover her right (good) eye for two hours everyday in hopes that it will force her bad eye to strengthen. She is young enough that the doctor is optimistic we can retrain her bad eye and improve her vision without glasses. We go back for a follow up in a few weeks to see if her eyesight has made any improvements. We are are hoping she won't have to be a pirate for long.

Plenty of Pets

The idea of moving to Texas has been hard on everyone. We left a home sitting on an acre of land in a mountain valley for a subdivision on the outskirts of one of the largest populated areas in the country.The kids all felt that moving was the right thing for our family but we were were worried about how our cats would adjust.They love to hunt and explore so we were naturally nervous about moving them to the suburbs. The  fact that our new house doesn't have a place for a cat door meant they would have to be indoor cats.

Our cats come from a long line of pedigreed mousers. (OK, may not really pedigreed but they should be.) They love to catch mice and play with them until they are finished then they leave the carcass on our step as if it is some type of gift.They are not house cats, that's for sure. My kids have read the Warriors book series and I seriously think these two cats are warriors at heart. They just pretend to be kitty pets in order to eat and sleep in the house.

Colt, our cat formally known as Princess, is rather lazy. He thinks he is human.

Brightheart, named after a warrior cat from the above mentioned book series, actually lives up to her name. She thinks she is better than humans. She finds the oddest places to  sleep. None of which appears very comfortable.

A few weeks ago a friend mentioned that she knew someone who had lots of land, a barn, and a mouse infestation. After a sad and tearful family council we decided it was in our cats' best interest to live at their house rather than make the move with us. So, with heavy hearts we said goodbye to our family pets.

Upon arrival in Texas. Vanessa discovered that our neighborhood had plenty of pet opportunities.

She has counted 48 bunnies that roam free throughout the neighborhood. She has named them Fluffer, Furry, Thumper, Frisco, Linco, Bambi, Whiteness, Fredrico.... the list goes on and on. The problem is that this is as close as she can get to her "pets" before they scamper off.

Vanessa spent the first few days taking anyone and everyone bunny hunting (She calls it bunny hunting but it's really just bunny sightseeing.). She said to Uncle Mark, "Now you have to look really careful like this." as they headed down the sidewalk on  "hunting" expedition.

Bunnies aren't all the pets she has now. In the community pond there are ducks to feed.

Vanessa wants to feed the ducks all the time. She is happy when she convinces others to join her. As soon as the ducks sees people standing on the shore, they come over as fast as their little feet can paddle.

 When the ducks don't eat the bread fast enough than the catfish gobble it up.

We also discovered turtles and herons near the pond. My nephew Ayden tried to get a closer look at the heron. You can see it in the background.

Vanessa even saw a stingray although we don't have a photo of it for some reason.

I'm just grateful that she has all these pets that we don't have to feed, clean up after, or worry about when going on vacation. With these types of pets, I say bring it on!

On Purpose This Time

Vanessa is sporting a new hairstyle these days

You might even consider it an old hairstyle if you remember a few years back. This time around it was completely on purpose. In fact, she begged me for weeks to cut it short and I finally gave in. She has been worried about moving to Dallas and her hair being too hot.

Earlier in the year she tried growing it out long. Her hair is so thin that it just didn't look great. I think I like the pixie cut better. She has the facial features and the personality to pull it off.

Spring Update

This past spring has been very busy, thus my blog posts have been few and far between.

There were school programs.  Savanah participated in her class poetry program.

 For one of the poems she had to "bandage" a fellow classmate. I was such a proud mamma and nurse.

They also had a 2nd grade program. Savanah is right in the middle.

There were dance recitals. Vanessa danced in all her glory not smiling once. It takes a lot of concentration you know.

April Fool's Day dinner was burgers and fries. They don't even look realistic but the cookies, frosting, green coconut, and caramel fudge "fries" were a big hit.

There were dangly teeth,

that finally fell out. Yeah! (I hater danglers.) Here is a look at the photo Vanessa took with my camera showing off the loot of cash she got from the tooth fairy.

The tooth fairy resorted to putting money under her pillow at any time of day because she kept forgetting to do it at night while Vanessa was asleep.

There was LOTS of spring soccer. Enough to warrant it's own post. Stay tuned......

There was a friend that move in. Random.

There were field trips. I went on the kindergarten field trip with Vanessa. She LOVED the fact that I rode the bus with her.

The kids enjoyed visiting the local zoo.

We celebrated the last day of school. Yeah!

Of course, we didn't miss our annual bon fire burning all the work from the school year.

Something about s'mores cooked over burning kindergarten papers that makes them tast even better.

 AJ joined the all-boys-braces club. You are looking at a nice $12,000 investment right there. (They all better marry cute girls after the money we spent on their smiles.)

Our orthodontist, who drives a Porsche for which we contribute money to on a monthly basis, makes a mold of their teeth. When you look at their teeth outside of their lips,  it is makes them look even worse. Then the orthodontist holds up the mold and with a smile on his face and says, "Only $4000 to fix this." Okay, tha may be a slight exaggeration but you get my point.

There you have it. A season of fun all wrapped up in one post.

She Did It Again!

This is the photo from last time.

This is today's photo.

Vanessa chose to get her ears pierced again. The last experience was very traumatizing for her. She wouldn't let me clean her ears or twist the earrings. Therefore, her ear became infected and we decided it was not worth the battle so we removed the earrings and let her ears grow back in.

Lately, she has been asking to get her ears pierced again. She told me she was older now and she could take care of them herself. She has done just that. She loves to show off her new fancy earrings.

Dance! Dance!

Vanessa decided to take a ballet/tap class with her best friend Madi. She loved the classes until she realized she would have to perform on stage.

Here's a photo of the two ballerinas before the big performance.

I don't love their outfits. (A little immodest for my taste.) I do, however, LOVE the dance moves on stage.

Here  are the two ballerinas after the big performance. I didn't know I was supposed to bring flowers. Good thing my neighbor bailed me out on that one. I also learned all about little girl make-up and sparkly hairspray.

I was never a dancer so this is a whole new world for us but, it was fun to see her perform. We'll see if she stays with it in the future. So far, so good.

The Princess' Big Day

No, this blog post is not about this Princess and her big day,

This blog post is about my little princess.

My princess' big day was her 6th birthday back in January. The festivities started when my mom took her out to lunch and surprised her with her cousins that are her age. The three girls had lots of fun as Grandma took them all shopping for new dresses.

Vanessa picked out a lovely dress with built in bling. She loves bling! She was able to wear her new little black party dress to her friend's birthday party later in the afternoon. Vanessa and Livvy were born on the same day and love the fact that they share their birthday. She didn't seem to mind going to a friend's party on her birthday. Livvy was nice enough to share her seat of honor. This photo makes me wonder what they are whispering about.

 We opened presents from her family that night. She was so easy to please and was excited about every gift.

Her cousins, Maddie and Hannah joined us that night for the pinata. What do gringos do with a pinata in the middle of winter? Well, we just did it in our kitchen with Aaron standing on the chair. Luckily, nobody whacked  him in the shins with a stick.

As with all royal events, the festivities lasted for days. The next day she invited her friends over for a Princess Pig Party. (Her idea.) She wanted a princess cake that I spent all morning working on. It looks nothing like the picture in the book but, she is only six and really only  cared about the tiara on top.

She had lots of fun with her friends and once again was happy with whatever gift she received.

I don't like the idea of my princess growing up. I realize that one day her photo will be like the one at the beginning of the post. For now, I will remember to enjoy each day I have my little princess beside me.