Staying Young

While I wait for my pictures from this past weekend to load up, I will take a moment to take us back in time. Back to June, back when Sam was four and Uncle Jack and Aunt Lene were here to help us celebrate his 5th birthday. That is how far behind I am in editing pictures. Where does the time go??

These pictures of Jack, really made me smile and made me remember this quote.

You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.-- Michael Pritchard

Can't you just picture Jack as a little boy in this picture?!

Jack is in his 80's. But you'd never guess it by watching him play with a couple of kids at the playground. I love Jack! He is my Irish partner on Keith's side of the family.

Aunt Lene has a good time at the park too. I love her too!

Sam had a great day playing with Aunt Lene and Uncle Jack but I think he had the most fun trying to run from me and my camera. He is pretty much over me taking his picture.

Dear Aunt Lene and Uncle Jack,

Please come back real soon. We have lots of fun with you. Oh, and bring Papa and Curly too! Thanks!

The Farnsworth's

Note to Jen - here is a sneak peek just to tease you. I have a lot of catching up to do! ;-)

Whitney

Our hearts are broken for Whitney. We met Whitney a little over a year ago when she answered an add I posted for a part time nanny to watch the kids while I worked from home. She was starting her last year in Cosmetology school and we instantly loved her. She has been a great help to me over the past year.

Yesterday was supposed to be her big day. She completed school, passed her state board test and was to have her first day at her first "real" job at a Salon near us. She made a big decision to try to move down here and start her career away from her hometown of Fort Bragg. Unfortunately, her older brother died very unexpectedly on Monday in a very tragic way. She is home now with her Mom whom she is very close to. We are so sad for their loss. Please think, pray, hope (whatever works for you) for Whitney and her Mother and Father. Their lives will be forever changed.

First day of Pre-school!

Elise started pre-school today. She was so excited! She insisted on bringing her backpack to school just like Sam does. So she brought an empty backpack to and from school. When I opened up the garage door and she headed toward the car she said, "Oh! It is a bootiful day!"On the way to drop Sam off, I listened in on the brotherly advice Sam was offering.

"Elise, if you are playing with a toy and someone wants to play with it, don't scream at them, NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just tell them you will let them play with it when you are done and then play a little more and give it to them. And be nice to the other kids if they want to talk to you."
We dropped Sam off and Elise was eager to get going to her "regular" school.

When I picked her up she exclaimed, "That was a fun day!"
She colored, painted, made a puppet and apparently impressed the teachers with her eating abilities at lunch. In this last picture she is looking at me and talking in her silly low voice saying, "Hi Marisa, I am a puppet."

I am a proud and happy mama.

Kindergarten!

First day of Kindergarten!!

We woke up bright and early this morning to be ready to get to school by 7:50. I am now an early bird whether I am ready or not.

I am so excited for Sam and I think I am going to love his teacher! Here he is with Max. Max just moved here from the Bay Area. We knew Max when he was in the womb. Who knew we would end up being neighbors?! Sam quickly followed the teacher into the classroom and that was it. Not even a goodbye. You can see from this next picture how busy it was. The teacher swiftly closed the door, said goodbye to the mom's and dad's and we were left standing outside peeking through the window at our big kids in their new school. I saw one Mom start to get teary-eyed and I had to turn away before my eyes started to water too. I am a tiny bit sad that he is growing up so fast but mostly, super excited for everything he is going to learn this year. Our school years have officially begun!

My Baby is Free

Elise turned three yesterday! She still has troubles with her 'th's' so when she says how old she is, it often sounds like "free." We had a relaxing day hanging out with Papa and Curly who are here visiting. I love that they hate to miss a birthday and came down to help celebrate. We started the day with a long walk to go check out Sam's new school. We went to Target and Papa and Curly let the kids each pick out a present. Elise knew exactly what she wanted and picked it out in about 2 seconds. Sam took about 45 minutes to make his final choice. He was overwhelmed with the selection and he has all sorts of internal rules that he likes to follow. Like, he really wanted to get some race cars from the Cars movie, but he wants them all at once, not one at a time. So, he looked at them for a long, long time and could not decide on only one. He was also worried because he already wrote a note to Santa Claus asking for all the race cars that he doesn't have. He thought Santa might get confused if he suddenly had one in his possession that he did not have when he wrote the note. He finally settled on four hot wheels cars and we were off. We enjoyed a late lunch at Pei Wei. We played. We opened a present or two and had ice-cream sundaes for dessert.

Not once, all day, did Elise ask for a gift. She was just so happy to be "free" it never occurred to her that there would be presents to open. She, of course, was happy when we presented the gifts to her but it was not her focus. She was so stinkin' cute all day. With both Sam and Elise, so far my favorite age has been 2 and early 3's. The attitude with Sam didn't surface until almost 4. Hopefully it won't ever surface with Elise but I won't hold my breath. I will just enjoy this age as much as I can because it goes way too fast.

In other exciting news, one of my bestest girlfriends, Jen, gave birth to her third child yesterday. So Lucas, the new baby boy, and Elise will always share the same birthday. I can't tell you how excited I am about that! I can't really tell you why other than it just makes me so happy that out of all the days he could have arrived, he made his appearance three weeks early on Elise's birthday. Somehow that just means the universe knows how close Jen and I are and gave us the same day to celebrate the birth of our children. I love it! Jen has terrible pregnancies so I am also happy that she gets to feel better three weeks early. Congratulations Jen! You are one of the best Mommies I know. I learn a lot from you and I cherish our friendship!! I love you!

Full Circle

In other big life moments last week, we were blessed with a new nephew. He was born 3 weeks early and still came in at over 8 pounds! Mara, Keith's sister, arrived at the hospital at I think 9ish on a Thursday morning. By 10:15 AM this little guy was here. Mara didn't even have time to get an epidural. She pushed this 8 pound bundle of joy all by her own self...no drugs needed. Well, maybe they were needed but they wouldn't let her get 'em. Go Mara! I am impressed! We were so excited for the news and then we waited. We waited and waited and waited and waited to find out who this little guy would be. They were stuck on the name. Last Monday, four days after his birth, they named him...
Maxwell.
Welcome to the world Maxwell!!