Spending Time with Samm

Monday Bea went with Samm to the Southwick Zoo, and Tuesday Anthony took them to the Providence Children's Museum followed by the mall.  They really have so much fun together (despite the moment in time on Bea's face in picture #1)!

Father's Day and the Tooth Fairy

We spent Father's Day sleeping, going to the movies, shopping, and eating dinner at Anthony's pick, Longhorn Steakhouse.  Bea was not herself at all since her very loose tooth was really bothering her but she refused to let us take it out.  She barely ate, barely spoke, and barely smiled:

We did enjoy 3D Inside Out however!

Monday morning she woke up and asked me to please pull her tooth out before she headed to the zoo with Samantha.  She tried to change her mind, but my will plus a foot of dental floss did the trick and she sprang to life immediately.  Goodbye tooth #3!  Hopefully the remaining 17 aren't as tricky....

June Catch Up!

Life is going by too quickly these days and I save photos her and there to post on the blog, but don't get to it for longer than I'd hoped.  Finally, here goes...

The Friday before Bea finished school, I dropped her off from the car.  She was heading into school when she suddenly ran to the garden, dropped a rock, and brought it to me at the car window, exclaiming as sweetly as possible "Here Mama, this is for you.  To remember..."  She hasn't done this in a while.  A year or so ago she went through a phase of picking up and keeping rocks at the end of events she wanted to remember and we have a bucket full of them on our porch.  I kissed her goodbye and then quickly put the car in park and asked her to come back and pose for a couple pictures.  I wanted to remember more about this morning.  How beautiful she looked, how grown-up she was getting dropped off from the car, something that was unthinkable a year ago, how in-transition she seems with her crooked and loose teeth all over the place.  I wanted to hold this bit of water in my hands for a second longer before it seeped through, as it always does.

I took the pictures and a few tears came down my cheek as I saw this very big girl walking confidently into school all by herself.

And I gently placed the rock in my cup holder.  Another moment to savor.

She's continuing to love aikido and especially the sword part!

On her last day of school, we hosted an end-of-the-year party at Owen Bell.  We decided this in lieu of a friends birthday party, and waited because the Splash Pad doesn't open until Memorial Day weekend.  A great time was had by all of these now second graders!

She spent one of her first days off, as I'm still in school, at J.J's house, exploring magnets and making play-doh jewelry.  So fun!

This weekend we met up with Rachel and Martha at Kimball Farm, a great ice-cream-stand-turned mini amusement part that's right smack dab in the middle of our homes.  The girls had a great time on the bumper boats, in the arcade,  playing mini-golf, and just running all over the place:

We will definitely come back here some day soon, and we are looking forward to Vietnamese Culture Camp with this awesome family!

Four days left for me, and then summer officially begins!

2 reasons why I love this girl so much today

Beatrice had an assignment to write "at least 12 words" for homework.  I numbered the paper 1-12 to get her started.  She wrote them all and insisted on doing one more because "look Mama, it says AT LEAST. I should do more!"   Such a good work ethic my girl has, and not from my preaching either.

After thanking her father for giving her some spaghetti tonight, he responded "why do you have such good manners Bea?"  She replied "Mama makes me, and God wants me to." 

I started this blog post a couple weeks ago and am only now finishing it.  Much has happened indeed!

My sister fell about ten days ago and broke both her arms and a couple of teeth.  She had surgery and is staying with us for the time being.  I also had my International Week, this year focused on Australia, and it was a big success.  That same week was Bea's pre-dance-show week filled with rehearsals so it goes without saying that we have been ridiculously busy.

One new thing is that Bea has befriended out next door neighbor, Caeden, a first grade boy who has shown her the ropes around our swingset and thanks to his modeling, this girl has gotten much braver! 

She's also been growing.  She just had her physical which revealed that she has grown FIVE INCHES and is four pounds heavier than a year ago.  Her height is now in the 16th percentile, the first time she's broken above 5th.  Weight is still hovering in the 4th, but the doctor predicted she could hit 5'2" some day.

She's been enjoying wearing her hair in a bun to practice for the show:

Hera graduated.  It was a beautiful day and we were so sad to say goodbye to her:

At her recent dental checkup, the hygienist counted five loose teeth in Bea's mouth.  One is hanging by a thread at the bottom, and both of the top front ones are loose, so I suspect this smile's going to look pretty different very soon.  Sweet friend Samm came to Bea's dance show:

Bea is done school next Tuesday and the next pics will likely be from her end-of-the-year party. I'm ready for my year to end but have to wait until the 25th of June.  We are all very, very ready for a nice summer.