We Do Things

A WHOLE MONTH? SERIOUSLY?

Can any of you really believe that I've gone a full month without sharing my sarcasm, wit, and beauty?

Yeah, me too.

I'm not sure where to even begin, so I'll get it rolling again with The Girl's Birthday Post.

The Girl turned twelve. And she got grounded. All on the same day. Why we are running for Parents of the Year. How did you know?

The Girl is officially above themed parties. I thought I would miss all the planning and prep that went into my elaborate themes. I didn't. I was thrilled.

She invited a few of her bestest buds over and I took them to see Where The Wild Things Are. Which we all loved.

Then, we all returned back to The House for presents.

Joy

Cake

 

And proof that I can still be cool with the pre-teen crowd.

 

I bought this shirt for her. They all loved it.

I rock.

The End.

Except for the part where the next day, her actual birthday, The Dad and I had to sit her down and ground her because she was a total bitch to her friends at her party and the following day.

We rock.

The End.

THE GIRL'S DAY OFF

Now that The Kids are in two different schools, they are also in two different districts with two different schedules and few of the same days off.

The Girl's Fall Break was this Monday and Tuesday, while The Boy's Fall Break is all of next week. It's okay with The Girl though, because come Christmas time, she gets three weeks off instead of two.

Since The Boy and I so enjoyed our one on one time together, I wanted to do something special with The Girl as well.

Then, she got herself grounded for being a self centered, stinky, pre-teen, bucket of hormones.

The Dad and I discussed it and decided that since she's been working her brains off in school, we would put her in the early release program, out on probation.

This way, I could still take her out for our Girls' Day of Fun.

First stop, pedicures.

If you know me at all, you know this is a gigantic sacrifice on my behalf and that I truly have to be dragged to any "girly" activity. I honestly get my hair cut only twice a year. It works for me.

The Girl however is much more balanced than I am. She's girly and not girly when she needs to be.

I even let them put PINK nail polish on my toes!

The Girl went with the much more fashionable (and expensive) half hot pink, half white with polka dots.

While I headed over for my every two years eyebrow waxing, she had herself a manicure to match.

I'm really not sure why she declined the Mother Daughter waxing experience for a manicure, but whatever floats her boat.

Then, I decided to surprise her with a real hair cut! In a real salon. At a real JC Penney's!

I knew I had been depriving her when The poor Girl didn't even know how to answer the stylist's questions about shampooing much less where to go for the shampoo! I vow here and now to no longer neglect my daughter's beauty upbringing. As you can tell from the photo above, she obviously (joking) needs all the help she can get in the beauty department.

Before the haircut.

After haircuts.

A little hard to tell, but she got lots of layers and now looks way too grown up. She is definitely a Jr. High'er now.

Both the stylist and myself commented on how she'd left her elementary look behind.

The Dad then met us for lunch and he oohe'd and aaah'ed appropriately over us.

We had a lot of fun together. It is really fun and a privilege to walk her through these years. Even if she really scares me sometimes...

NOW WE ENTER JR. HIGH

Today is The Girl's first day of 7th Grade. She just called home during lunch, because "they let us use our phones during breaks!" and told The Dad about how wonderful it is.

Glad to hear she's having a blast because she was not the only nervous one last night.

 

She's defining her new style.

She's calm, confident, and capable.

She's a Jr. High'er now.

GRADUATION PRESENT

The Girl was forced to patiently await the arrival of her graduation present.

 A texting phone, like all good teen girls, or soon to be teen girls, need. Like, totally NEED.

Now she can text until her fingers callous over.

I'm sure she will.

ANOTHER REASON THE KIDS LOVE ME SO.

I am one of those mean moms. Not just a little mean, but very, very, very mean.

While some children frolic aimlessly throughout their summer, The Kids are forced into the manual labor of daily chores and something much, much worse.

 

I have forced The Kids to complete workbook pages every single summer, until last summer. We paid the price for it at the beginning of this past school year and I am refusing to let their minds mold this summer.

The Kids have never really minded, up until last summer, and I allowed them a hiatus from all things learning. (Shh, don't remind them about all the history we studied last summer, ghost towns=fun, not learning).

This summer, The Boy is grudgingly being a good sport, knowing that fighting The Mom is a useless task that will just take more time away from the things he really wants to do.

The Girl, however is fighting the injustice of it all. She is a right fighter, even when she is not going to win. Ahh, to be a young pre-teen again and to believe that the world is a righteous and fair place!

I have almost successfully crushed her ability to believe she won't be forced to endure workbook pages all summer long.

The Boy, has gone completely to the other side. His spare moments are wrapped into finishing this workbook as quickly as possible. We are only on day 4, but he's already up to day 7.  He is our child who fights the rules while staying inside of them. He sees that if he finishes his workbook quickly, he will have nothing but lazy summer days ahead of him.

Not to say he doesn't try to just put in the minimum amount of work. Today, one of his tasks was to write a haiku. You know, first line has 5 syllables, second line has 7, and last line has 5? Except his first try didn't even come close. He quickly threw some summery type phrases down on paper.

He did successfully complete the assignment without too much pressure from me.

I present to you, his haiku.

  Summer

    Heat beating down and
    dried grass outside in warm air
    it's hot summer now.

Yes, he is a genius.

Try to remember that it is only because I push him to succeed that he actually does.

Not that I could actually read most of what he had written.

Hope your kids are enjoying their summer just as much as mine.

THE GIRL'S MOST WONDERFUL GRADUATION SPEECH

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

F4F: ELEMENTARY CAREER

The Girl officially graduated from 6th Grade last night. The ceremony was beautiful and I only almost cried twice.  It is such a great group of kids, I am so excited to see them make their way in the world.

The Girl gave one of the speeches, amazingly, she got up in front of the 300+ people and confidently spoke.

She is so her father's daughter.  I never would have been able to do this at her age, much less have volunteered to do it.

The awards that were handed out last night were surprises, neither the kids nor the parents knowing who the recipients would be. Except for the Perfect Attendance Awards. That one is kind of obvious.

To our delight, The Girl received a Silver Presidential Award, for excellence in education, and for maintaining a B+ average in all areas.

You can click on it to read it larger. It is complete with the Presidential Seal and signature. Included was a note, from President Obama.

Her best buddy, TGFFGirl received this award as well. She keeps good company.

Then, finally, she was awarded her diploma!

The Aunt, Uncle, and Littlest Nephew all came to watch and cheer her on. After the ceremony, she received the best gift of all.

Uncle hugs. The Littlest Nephew decided it was time to head back home, so they left and we headed off to our local Japanese dinner and a show restaurant with TGFF.

The Boy had never been there before, but he soon decided it was his favorite restaurant ever. Especially once things started catching fire.

The Volcano...

The Girls were exhausted. They spent most of the meal staring at the grill.  Poor kiddos!

I'm pretty sure they were happy though.

On to Jr. High, 7th Grade...

The world is theirs.

   

A DAY AT THE HORSE SHOW. AGAIN.

Our first Ranger show of the year was in Mid-May, yet, for some odd reason, I am just now getting around to showing off my gorgeous, beautiful, growing up way too fast, daughter.

Every show starts out the same way, french braiding, uniform polishing, and trying to get everyone to keep their boots clean.  All so we can stand Inspection in the arena for an hour. Luckily, it was neither too hot, or cold this show.

Inspection is not just about the condition of our uniforms, they are also quizzed on what they know about Rangers. Horse knowledge, military knowledge, and upon the basic beliefs of the organization.  It can be a little intimidating for the shyer kids, but the Officers always get them to smile at least once.

Riders, trot your horses. Of course, The Girl got the only horse in her group that spooked every single time the announcer gave a command. She didn't place, but she kept her horse under control and didn't ever lose her cool.

Judging time.

This is her new favorite horse, Lincoln. She loves him to pieces, even if he's a fraidy cat.

The only part of the whole day she really cares about is riding their drill.

This is called an 'Oblique'. I knew you were all wondering. They need to have their horse's head lined up with the lead horse's shoulder, then they must all stay lined up and cross to the opposite side of the arena, so here they are doing a 'right' oblique. Very pretty in real life.

Focus and concentration are required at all times. It might not look it in the pictures, but they are performing the drill at a trot and sometime canter. If one rider loses focus, it could be very ugly. Can you believe the kind of pressure these kids are under. By their own choice! Heck, if I could ride drill, I totally would! It is just that fun.

Instead, I sit on the sidelines and cross my fingers for them the whole 8 minutes.

We've spent the past 5 months teaching, correcting, yelling, and cheering, it's all up to them now.

I think it worked out pretty well. They placed 2nd out of 4th for Drill.

Go Troop!

Our next show is in October and they can't wait.

TWO FOR ONE

The Girl waited all year.

She couldn't have been kind to us and done it at the beginning of the year.

Nope, she waited all year to receive awards at school. Not one, but two awards.  At the last award ceremony of The School year. The longest award ceremony of The School year.

Our pride almost out weighs our angst of being stuck sitting through two hours of awards.

Almost.

Award #1, Effort. She received this one for a mighty mishap in Science, from which she learned a mighty lesson and a lot of respect from us and her teacher.  Sometimes, even good students need to make a mistake or two to learn how to better themselves.

Award #2, Writing.  This is the one area where The Girl always shines. She loves to write.

I wonder where she gets that from?

EIP: I HAVE FAILED.

I give up, she wins. I can't take this anymore. I simply am not strong enough for this kind of sheer torture.