Happy Meowloween!

I love a costume that comes from the closet with the bare minimum of investment.  When it comes together as cute as this year's, it's a real score.  Mama cat and her kitten were really happy about the way it turned out.
Two weeks before the holiday, Maryn had a call from her best friend asking her if she could trick or treat at her house.  Wham!  I was caught off guard with that one, and the question hit me like a punch in the stomach.  I knew it would happen someday, but this was only her third Halloween after all.  How could our little girl be ready to go trick or treating with someone else?  I thought about all the neighbors who welcomed her home along with us, knowing they'd want to see her, too.  I told her she could go, but when she hung up the phone I gave her a sad mom, frowny face and asked "How come you're growing up so fast?"  I love it when she looks at me and says, "Mom, I'm ten now."  Then with all her worldliness and maturity she says, "It's okay, mom, I won't go.  I'll stay here with you."  So I acquiesce, swallow my disappointment, lose the frown and tell her I want her to go, but only because that's what I should do.  Giving roots AND wings, right?  In the end a little compromise was the best option - one hour of trick or treating at her friend's house and one hour in our neighborhood.  She was happy, her friend was happy, we were happy, and I know the neighbors were happy because I heard them say it.  After her friend went home, Maryn and I went out together hitting the last few houses we could squeeze in before the night officially ended.  My growing up fast girl and I walked hand in hand carrying a bulging bag of candy.  Our best Meowloween ever.

Summer Wrap Up

Our summer drew to a close on a high note with a reunion of kids from the same city in China and their families. So many beautiful kids in the same place and smiling parents watching them having the time of their lives.  It was particularly incredible to see the kids who are old enough to remember each other talking, laughing, playing and just being together again on the other side of the world. 

A morning of pouring rain gave way to overcast skies by pool time, and it was pure sunshine as we closed out the afternoon at the beach.  It was perfect and looking at the pictures we took on that memorable day will get me through a long winter as I look forward to the next time we can all be together.

Family Day 2011

Oh, the many blessings! Here are just a few of them.

Picture slideshow created with Smilebox

Double Digits Day

The big day started last evening with a birthday/movie/slumber party for one of Maryn's friends. Thanks to Ali's parents for hosting a party that slid right into Maryn's birthday without us having to stay up until midnight. I picked her up at 10 this morning and crowned the birthday princess immediately. Ame, Jen and Louise joined us for lunch at our favorite place, and then we were off to the doll store with a gift card and cash just itching to be spent. "Daisy" is now completely outfitted in this season's hottest ski fashion with all the necessary gear to get her schussing down the highest mountains or just standing on the carpet in the family room. In the evening, Grandma and Grandpa joined us for a cake party and presents. It was a great day of celebration, and I think Maryn would agree that 10 is looking good so far.

We're Back!

We didn't disappear, we just experienced a significant blogging loss with the death of our computer. A month and a half ago I emailed a friend at 11 p.m., and when I went to the computer the next morning to check for a response, it was dead. That really rocked our world, but it certainly would have been worse without "our guy" who takes care of us when situations like this arise at our house. Of course, our timing couldn't have been worse as he and his family had just moved into a newly built, big, beautiful home with all kinds of stuff to put away and all kinds of trick things to try out like a really sweet media room, oh, and a previous home sale to get closed. With all that, he still managed to find time to get over to our house to confirm our computer had died, decide what we should get next, order it and then spend two more half days at our house getting everything set up. Thanks, Mr. B., for getting us back in business.

In the meantime, a lot has happened as you can tell by the pictures. We closed out the school year and said goodbye to second grade. Maryn had a hip hop dance recital. Jen graduated from fifth grade, Bill graduated from college. We enjoyed cookouts at Ame's house for Father's Day and Fourth of July. We even managed to enjoy some seahorse bacon, or, rather, bacon that looked like a seahose, when we were out for lunch one day. It won't be easy to top all that, but with a couple of weeks of summer vacation left, we'll give it a good try.

Bravo!

I was front row center for the best show in Room 8 this morning, and it didn't disappoint. A few weeks back the script came home from school with no fanfare, so now and then we divvied up the lines as a great way to practice reading. It wasn't until last evening that Maryn let us know she wasn't allowed to have the paper with her when she did the play this morning. Gulp! I surpressed the overwhelming urge to shout out, "You mean you have to have the lines memorized?" Shouldn't she be learning the word memorized at school and using it correctly in a sentence? Shouldn't there be a note that comes home for the parent(s) to sign that states I/We the undersigned parent(s) is/are fully aware that these lines must be memorized? She never noticed my bulging eyes or the rapid rise in my heart rate, as I calmly picked up the script, and we started to practice. Lucky for us, her teacher had it under control all along, and they have been practicing the plays at school for a while now, so Maryn had a good handle on her lines. We merely had to put some emphasis on words like identify, disgrace and actually, and she was ready for her close-up. There were classroom lights, parents had cameras, and the kids provided plenty of action that made me smile for 20 minutes. When it was all over, my favorite actress asked me to stay to have lunch with her. I declined the offer letting her know I didn't want to sit in my car for 45 minutes waiting for that to happen. Someday when she's an even bigger star, she'll thank me for keeping her grounded.

Encore!

Hangin' With Her Peops and a Butterfly

We spent time with some of our favorite people recently, a few of them smaller than Maryn. We think Olivia, Chloe and Will are some of the cutest people we know, and we can't wait to see them again.