Tuesday Tidbits

Last week in the car Camden made the comment, "Mama, my goal is to make it to being a grown-up without a criminal record." And Rory piped in, "Yeah, we don't want to go to jail!" Aim high, kids.

I made the mistake of opening up the birthday discussion with Rory, and now it's all we talk about. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she giggled and replied, "It's so hard to decide because I want everything. Except a car. Well, actually, I *do* want a car."

Kind of sobbed my way through this post yesterday morning: When You Just Want God To Show Up and Answer Your Prayers. Worth the time to read.

Yesterday's back-to-school schedule ended up feeling good. The kids pulled it together; we kept Addison for the middle part of the day and they kept each other entertained. Brian started in-service, and while I'm sure teachers don't share my way of thinking, it was good to get back to the ebb and flow of things. I like having a start, middle, and end to my day. Although my 5:45 wake-up times the last 3 days have made me rethink my whole lets-get-back-on-a-schedule mentality.

And it's possible I went to bed at 8:30 last night.

I've recently become obsessed with hair braiding tutorials for Rory's hair. Unfortunately, either I am very, very bad at braiding or Rory's hair type just doesn't work so well. Rory is not at all thrilled to be my guinea pig although if I pretend that *we're* the ones making the video she's fairly happy. You'll notice some of my failed attempts in the pics, although the regular old french braids I attempted today turned out the best yet.

I'm taking the kids to see Turbo (as a surprise) this afternoon and tonight is parent orientation at school. Tomorrow? I'll have a first and fourth grader.

So it's a pretty well-documented fact that we'll all act like fools to get smiles from Addison. Here's further proof.

This little owl in her hands in most of these pictures is her favorite item in my house. She goes for it first thing and then carries it around the entire time. She also sleeps with it while she's visiting.

Turned the phone over to Camden and the only in-focus shot he managed to get was this one where she is OVER the pics.

But here are cute out of focus ones anyway.

Yes, out of focus, but it cracks me up because Addison's face is so cute. She is at the stage where she wants to copy us, and she really wanted to be seated on the floor like I was.

The kids laid down on the floor so she had to, of course.

And I know this one is bad, but she literally said "cheese" for the camera - definitely first time.

She might have gotten it from this big kid.

We tried to take the party outside, but the mosquitoes were insane.