Girls Camp

This morning at 6 AM Ryan and I dropped off Haley for a week at girls camp.

Haley with Grandma and Grandpa.

Girls Camp is a program through our church, and it's for all girls between 12 and 17.  Haley isn't quite 12 yet, but since her birthday is right around the corner they extended the invite to her as well.

Now, Haley went to Camp Big Springs (a school district camp out) last year for a week...so this wouldn't be her first camp out away from us.  She was pretty nervous last year about being away from home for that long, but it gave her a lot comfort knowing she was just going to our local mountains and would only be about 30 minutes away.  This time, however, she is going to Lake Powell...about 5 hours away.  She has been so excited about this trip...that is, until last night.  She barely slept, and was so worked up and scared...she even crawled into our bed at some point in the night...she NEVER does that!  

As a parent, I know this is going to be a grand experience for her...I mean really, they are going to have so much fun...and, they're going to be on a houseboat for crying out loud!  How fun it that?!  She's going to be with other girls she knows, and the most fantastic leaders.  BUT, it has to be her choice...I will not force her to go.  

By morning, she was ready...she wanted to go, she was nervous still, but we could tell, she really did want to go. So Ryan and I drove her to the church where she got a bit emotional again about leaving.  I kid you not...as a mother, this part kills me.  I have to fight every fiber in my being not to just whisk her back home and have her not go.  She may be nervous and scared, but little does she know, I'm completely falling apart inside, fighting back tears.  As moms, we have to put on our brave faces and convince our children that this is the best thing for them.  It's a great opportunity, with great people, and a she'll make life long memories.  But why is it so hard to let them go?!!  As we drove away I could see the other girls starting to swoop in and hopefully taking her under their wing.  

I know, it's silly...she's only going to be gone til Friday.

But, I worry...that's what I do best.  I hope she's having fun.  I hope she doesn't get homesick.  I hope she remembers to put on her sunscreen.  

I miss her...a lot.  My heart aches.

I'm allowing myself one day to wallow...but that's it.

I just love that girl so much.

Welcome Summer!

Yesterday marked the very last day of school, and to be honest, I welcome it.

Yeah, it can get pretty crazy around here...okay, it WILL get pretty crazy around here, but no schedules and NO homework is a relief!  (Although, I do have my own summer school program I do with the kids...but it's different than actual school...ya know.)

So the last couple of weeks have been packed full!

 We went to the school Extravaganza, always big fun!

Lots of booths, and food and tons of activities...my one rule, DO NOT win any goldfish!

Do you realize that we still have the three goldfish the girls won at this very Extravaganza two years ago?!  I know!  Who knew goldfish could even live that long?!

And thankfully it turned out to be a warm, beautiful day!

Piper graduated from Kindergarten!

She thought she could start first grade the very next day...I had to explain that she had to wait until after summer.  She was not happy about that.  Ha!

 And then Haley and Morgan had their annual, end of the year, dance festival.

Always a hit!

Now here we are, Summer!

I'm so ready for HOT days, ice cream cones on the porch, warm summer evenings, lounging at the pool, and no more morning school routines!

Bring it!

Peter the Rabbit

After our devastating loss of Poppy, I agreed that we would give this whole bunny thing another try.  And this time lay down some serious ground rules!

A couple of weekends ago, we picked out the cutest little baby bunny.

We named him Peter.

He is a mini rabbit, should only get to be about 3 to 4 pounds when he's full grown.

We already have a small rabbit hutch outside and the lady at the farm store said they do just fine outside but we should probably wait until he's a little bigger before he slept out in the hutch overnight.  There also happened to be a storm too that weekend, so I decided it best to keep him the house for a couple of days.  He basically lived in a cardboard box that weekend...in my room.  I was terrified that our cat was going to jump into the box and tear him to pieces (I think we're all a little traumatized still).

So when Monday rolled around I thought I'd poke around and look at some cages to keep Peter in when we bring him into the house...on stormy days only...you know...because he's an OUTSIDE rabbit.

Buuuut, I found a top notch cage (on sale!) that happened to fit perfectly where our pot bellied stove would go (if we had one to go there that is...but we don't, so why not put a rabbit cage there?).  Aaaand, it came with a little fence thing that hooks onto the cage so he can run around in an enclosed area...pretty nice, right?

Soooo, long story short, our outside rabbit just turned into an inside rabbit.

 Just like that I became super protective of this little guy.

I just can't bare to have him outside, where scary things might get him (like our dogs for instance).

And actually, so far Misty (our cat) doesn't seem too interested in Peter.  She's rarely downstairs anyway.

And all this took place while Ryan was in Quebec for work. When you leave a house of all girls, you just never know what you'll come home too, ha!

Weekly Race Series

Last Wednesday Haley competed in her very first mountain bike race...and pretty much her third ever real mountain biking experience.  I decided to ride with her in the beginner group.

It started out a little rough...there is major climb going out and Haley was ready to throw in the towel right then and there, but I coaxed her on.  Once her legs warmed up a bit she felt better.  But this girl cracked me up...she lacks that competitive spirit (as of right now anyway)..which is weird because Ryan and I are both very competitive.  She would be riding behind me and every now and then she would call out, "Mom!!  Look at this view!!!  It's so pretty, we need to stop so we can take it in!".  I would remind her that we were racing and that probably wasn't a good idea.  Or another occasion I saw two of her competitors up ahead on trail and I would tell Haley, "Let's catch those guys!!  They're right there!  You can do that so easy!"  She would just say, "Oh, that's okay mom.  This speed is perfect."  

She just floats the pedals and takes in the views.  

That's my Haley, and we love her for it!

She finished, although  we nearly froze to death in the process.

But she was still smiling at the end and that was my goal.

I'm so proud of her!

Happy May!

Actually, May would be a lot more "happy" if this darn rain would quit!  Okay, I'm being dramatic...it's not even raining today...but it's cooooold!  Where are my 70 degree spring days?!  The other day we had a massive hail storm...it was nuts!  And the wind has been crazy!!  I seriously thought the roof was going to blow off the other night.  So yeah, when we do have a warm day, we really have to make use of it because it will probably rain for the next week after it.

So anyway, to kick off May the girls passed out their annual May Day flowers to our neighbors.

 The girls and I absolutely love this tradition!

Now if I could just get them to not fight over who gets to ring the doorbell I'll be one happy mom.

 We recently had the girls' 5K.  And hallelujah, it wasn't raining!

Ryan ran it with Haley.

 Jeff ran with Morgan.

 And I ran with Piper...and Rory.

The kindergartners had a shorter loop around the school.

 And speaking of running, I've started running a bit again.  I have a 3.5 mile loop that I do and it has a killer climb (that I usually end up walking up) that hurts like a son of a gun!  It hurts so good, right?!

And then of course we had Mother's Day last Sunday.

It was lovely!

Haley and Morgan got up early and made eggs, hot chocolate, plated the cinnamon rolls, and set my place so nicely, complete with all their little gifts.  It was really sweet!  I'm so proud of these kids of mine!  I'm pretty darn lucky to be their mom!!

Unfortunately, it rained ALL day...but, whatcha going to do?

It made for really good napping weather though...which I did partake.  What's a Sunday without a nap anyway??

Tomorrow we kick off the Mountain Bike Series...and by the way, my first race will mark my first day on my mountain bike this season.  Probably not the best way to go into it!

Wish me luck!

Poppy

A family, a few houses down from us, have two white rabbits...they actually got the rabbits from friends of theirs about two months ago.  Anyway, they are planning on moving soon and didn't want the rabbits anymore and offered them to Haley and her friend (Haley visits the rabbits often).  This was Friday.  We told her we would sleep on it.  That night when Ryan and I went upstairs this is what we found on our bed...

I mean, really...this is hard to say "no" to.  Haley is our animal/nature lover, she always has been and I believe always will.  She recently started volunteering at the local animal hospital...she rides her bike there once a week.  She loves our dogs, has taken in a stray cat, captured and nursed an injured dove back to health, visits the deer in cul de sac and leaves them food to eat (from my fridge...grumble, grumble), this by the way would probably upset the neighbors as they despise the deer.  

So yeah, animals are her passion in life...and with that, we said "yes" to the rabbit.  This was Saturday.  She and Morgan got everything set up...I didn't do a thing.  All day Saturday and Sunday the girls were in bunny heaven, they named her Poppy.  

 They adored her.

Monday rolled around and after school Haley took Belle (our dog) for a walk.  All the kids were outside playing, and even a few neighbor kids.  While Haley was gone, Etta (our other dog) hit the back door to the garage open and with that was able to escape the backyard...she went directly to Poppy's cage and bashed it in.  Morgan was close by and ran as fast as she could to grab Etta (she even got a bonk to the head from the cage door doing so), but she just didn't have the strength to pull Etta out...Poppy didn't have a chance...Etta killed her.  Morgan witnessed the entire thing...the rabbit's squeals still haunt her.  By the time Ryan and I ran outside it was too late...I was hysterical...screaming at Etta...the children were wailing...it was awful...just awful.  I hated Etta...I still have a hard time looking at her.  I know that sounds juvenile, but it's true.  Why such violence?!  I know she's a dog and that was an instinctual move, but why the rabbit?!!  

I don't need to tell you how devastated Haley was when she came home and discovered what happened.  It was terrible.  As a parent, you just want to take away the pain and heartache...I just hate seeing my children so sad.

I put Poppy in a shoe box and we buried her under the pear tree.  The girls cried and cried.  It was just the most awful evening ever.

On my fridge is a small Polaroid of Poppy that Morgan took and a drawing from Piper.

RIP Poppy.