Strand-Lafferty Easter take 7

There are few things that can elicit the same degree of excitement in our household as talk of the annual visit from Penny for Easter. This is now the 7th(?) annual visit. It started kind of on a whim from the Strands, and it has turned into an annual event that simply cannot not happen. It is written in stone. Commandment Number 11, if you will.

Now, if anyone ever doubted that Molly was an emotional girl, which you seriously shouldn't, the visit from Penny will eliminate any of those doubts. I swear, she turns into a screaming fan girl at a One Direction concert at the thought of Penny coming to town. (Or, what her mother would've been like had she ever been taken to a NKOTB concert. Which, I wasn't. I just had to imagine what it would've been like. No bitterness here, though, folks. I did make my childhood dreams come true a few years ago when I saw NKOTB at the Sprint Center as a 30-odd-year-old woman. And, it was every bit as amazing as I thought it would be. Step by Step, ooh, baby ... But, I digress.)

Molly starts looking forward to Easter on the day after Easter the previous year. Well, OK, after she stops crying about the fact that Penny is no longer here. But, it starts getting serious after Christmas. I can't really blame her. The months between Christmas and Easter do kind of suck. What with the snow and long, dark nights. Not fun. The countdown is on immediately after we pack the stockings away. And, it doesn't stop.

I realize the excitement is almost more for the idea of Penny (not that Penny isn't awesome). But it's just the idea of this amazing, fun-filled, candy-laden weekend that really excites Molly. This year, she made decorations, cards, bunnies, crafts, and even picked up poop in the backyard so she could earn money to buy all three girls matching stuffed peeps. This build-up has been going on for a long time. Molly has been trying to count the number of times in her life that she's seen Penny. When I tried to explain to her that she's already seen Penny more times in her life than I saw Laura for the entirety of my childhood, she just didn't care. No matter how often, it's just not enough.

(Have you noticed I haven't mentioned Charlotte at all? She loves the annual Strand visit as well, but her emotions are much more rational and even-keeled. Thus, not as interesting for a blog.)

So, with all this build-up and all this excitement, the weekend was finally upon us. The Strands were supposed to leave Minnesota at 3 on Thursday and be here by around 10 Thursday night. Well, on Wednesday night, Laura sends me a message that they are expecting 14 inches of snow on Thursday morning up there. WHAT?!?!? Mother Nature, what are you doing to me? How can I possibly explain to Molly that the Easter visit might not happen due to a snowstorm in Minnesota?!?! So, I did what I'm always eager to do. Ignore that a problem exists and hope everything turned out ok. And guess what? For once in my life, that plan actually worked!

The snow stopped, the plows came, the sun shone, and the Strands were on the road. It was glorious news. Not the least for me because I didn't have to deal with a broken-hearted 8-year-old. They got here late, and Molly and Charlotte both woke up when Penny came to bed. It did take a while, but eventually they all went back to sleep.

The next morning was another tradition. Laura coming to Bar Method with me. She's coming with me the last couple years. The first year was hard, but now Laura is in amazing shape, so she was a total pro.

We, of course, had to take a picture to document the start of the weekend.

We always look for different things to do with the Strands when they're here because they are super cool, adventurous folk. And, we want to seem cooler than the suburb-living, soccer-game going folks that we are. So, this year, we decided to take them down to the KC Public Library to see the awesome building that looks like books. And, of course, to take pictures.

The girls were not as impressed with the library as I had hoped. The roof was pretty cool because they could see out around downtown KC a bit, but we didn't actually have a library card for the library, so we couldn't check out any books. They thought the old bank vault in the basement was pretty cool, but we were pretty much done with the library in a short time. We walked a short distance to a cool lunch place, then found a bakery that a friend had recommended for dessert. We got there right as they were closing, but they let us in to buy some yumminess. We then went back to the library steps to eat our delicious treats.

The girls checking out the books.

We had to pose on the book steps.

Laura and Amy on the roof of the library.

The girls in the basement with the old bank vault.

We stopped by a bakery for dessert treats, and they gave us some baguettes. So, when Laura found a moped, she just had to act the proper French lady she is at heart.

The girls eating their treats back on the library book stairs.

I, of course, just had to get a brownie with a peep on top. I only ate about half the brownie, but demolished the whole peep.

After fun downtown, we headed back out our direction and bowled a few frames at Pinstripes. We discovered that, at Pinstripes, even adults can have bumpers. Do you know what that means? I finally won a game of bowling! Score. After, Charlotte needed to take a picture on some bunnies.

As the Wheels Turn

We had a major milestone in our house this past week. This one has been a long time coming, too. A long time, with a lot of drama.

But now. Now it's official. Molly is a two-wheeling bike rider.

Yes, I do realize that Molly is almost 9 years old. I do know how old that is for someone to finally start riding a bike.  I know all this. But, hear me out.

So, technically, Molly learned to ride with no training wheels last spring break. Exactly a year ago. And, while she could technically do it, she was not comfortable with it at all. At all. We'd ask if she wanted to go ride her bike, and the answer was always an emphatic "no." I thought that she just hadn't been bitten by the bike-riding-loving bug. I blamed myself (as I am always wont do) for not pushing harder. She was too old when she finally learned. We should've worked harder with her. We should've been having family bike riding sessions. Yada, yada, yada. The neverending parental guilt, right?

Well, I really don't know what happened. I don't know why the change. Maybe it took a year of considering the ramifications of not riding a bike. Maybe she got tired of seeing all her friends ride by on their bikes. Maybe she just needed that much time to work up the courage. I mean, she is my child afterall. Taking time to work up to scary things might've been passed down in the DNA. No one would ever describe me as a jump-without-looking kinda gal. Ahem.

Anyhoo, back to the story at hand. Something shifted and all of a sudden, over the last week, Molly has become a bike-riding extraordinaire. She's ridden with Cory to get breakfast at McDonalds. She's ridden all over the school parking lot during spring break. She asks almost every day if she can ride up and down the street. And, yesterday, she begged to be able to ride her bike to school.

Now, keep in mind that school is less than a quarter mile from our house. I mean, we can literally see the school building from our front window. I'm looking at it right now, in fact. But, who are we to discourage this budding excitement? So, last night we trekked over to Academy because we just had to buy a bike lock to ensure that this morning's pilgrimage could happen.

And, this morning, she couldn't wait to jump on her bike and ride like the wind that whole .2 mile to school.

Oh, did I mention that Charlotte wanted to ride her bike, too?

"Look, ma, no training wheels!"

Using that oh-so-important bike lock!

Now that Molly is in the world of bike riding, I couldn't be happier for her. So many memories of my childhood revolving around riding my bike everywhere around the neighborhood (and beyond). And, I know I sound like the stereotypical old person here, but bear with me. My gosh, it was fun to just ride around wherever, whenever and however we wanted. Ahhh, the freedom and happiness we didn't even know we had or would forever be looking to reclaim.

Saturday night at the movies!

Well, Saturday night at eight o'clock

I know where I'm gonna go

I'm a-gonna pick my baby up

And take her to the picture show

Everybody in the neighborhood

Is dressing up to be there, too

And we're gonna have a ball

Just like we always do

Saturday night at the movies

Who cares what picture you see

When you're hugging with your baby

Last row in the balcony

Ok, are you hearing the Drifters crooning about going to the movies, yet?  Ahhh, love some old Drifters.

Anyway, this past Saturday, we had our very own night at the movies in our very own backyard. No balconies, and I was hugging my actual baby, but it was still quite magical. See, my little baby turned 7.

I can't believe Molly is now officially 7. I'm pretty sure I say that with each birthday, but, well, it's still true. Molly is a social butterfly. She wants to be doing something, seeing someone or going somewhere every minute of the day. Truth be told, it exhausts me. (Ok, if you know me at all, you are not surprised by this.)

So, when it came time to planning her birthday party, she wanted a huge party with everyone she knew invited. We started counting it up, and we were upwards of 30 kids. So, because I started having a nervous panic attack at the thought of that many children in my house, I told her we had to cut it down. I tried to convince her to have an art party at an art studio, but told her she could only have about 6 guests. And, she's been wanting to have a slumber party for a couple years now, so I said that we could do that, but, could only invite 3 girls. (No way am I having a ton of kids overnight!). Well, Molly, ever the people-pleaser and sweet soul, didn't want to leave anyone out. It was a no for the art and the slumber party.

After much discussion, we finally came up with a compromise. We were turning it into a girls-only party. And, because she really wanted a sleepover, but wanted more people, we started brainstorming. That's when someone happened to mention that they'd had an outdoor movie birthday for one of their kids. Perfect. It would be in the evening/night, so it was almost like a slumber party, but all the kids went home, so she could invite all her girlfriends.

Of course, next step: Pinterest. There are some great ideas out there, and I just took 'em all.

With the end of school happening, the party kind of got pushed back into the recesses of my mind, so I didn't start planning as early as I normally do. I did manage to make the invitation in advance. Honestly, of all the invitations that I've made, this is my favorite. I thought it turned out super cute.

I really should've planned better and done my shopping for the party before school was out. But, well, I didn't. So, I did all my shopping with both girls in tow. They really aren't bad, but when you have a million places to go, getting in and out of the car with two kids just makes everything take longer. I was ready to pull my hair out on Friday afternoon after a whole day of errand running, let me tell you.

What was a pleasant surprise is that Party City has a whole movie night section. I totally scored with a lot of stuff such as the plates, napkins, tablecloths, etc. I ended up having HyVee make the cake. I of course found one online that I liked and brought the picture in to them. They said "no problem." It was great, because that was only about a week and a half before the party! Cutting it close, people. Though, I'd originally told them a number of people, then we got more RSVPs, so I started freaking out if we would have enough cake. Cory to the rescue. He made cupcakes just like I'd found online.

We also kind of freaked out all day because it kept spitting rain. We had a whole plan for the backyard and rain was not in this plan. Luckily, it finally turned around and cleared up. It ended up being a beautiful night.

So, enough prep stuff. It's party time!

My little songbird

Even though I was in church choir in middle school and high school, I'm not really a singer. I mean, I can belt out a mean Journey song when I'm tooling around town in my car by myself, but, actually sing? Yeah, not so much.

My sister can really sing, and I did enroll each of my girls in Kindermusik classes for years when they were young. I want them to have some musical aptitude, even if it doesn't really come from me. If you remember last year, we had a little incident in which I had to cram a learning session of  "Jesus Loves Me" for Molly so she could sing in a church video. She did great singing that song, but when I approached her with the idea to join the children's choir this year, it was an absolute, definite "no."

Melanie, the director of the children's choir, and I slowly started working on sneaking the idea into her little brain. Parent manipulation at its best, right? We even brought my sister and good friend Leigh into the plan. Every once in a while, we would bring up the idea of singing in the choir around her. And, slowly (very slowly) she started to maybe, sorta, kinda come around to the idea.

I have no idea why she was so terrified. But, oh, was she. Molly is not a timid girl. She ran right into Kindergarten with nary a tear, the same for first grade and every dance class, art camp or gymnastics class I signed her up for. I could not for the life of me figure out her hesitance for this.

Finally, we found the right incentive. Jake! (Leigh's son, thus her involvement) We asked Molly if she wanted to join choir so she could sing with Jake. Now, we love Jake, but he and Molly don't go to the same school and everyone's schedules are crazy, so we honestly don't see a ton of each other. I really think that Molly was excited to be able to see Jake more.

She finally agreed. We went for the first time a little over a month ago. We waited for Jake outside, and they went in together. After that, it was all good.

Wait?!? What?!? I have a 1st grader?!?

I know everyone says the same thing when school starts each year, "I can't believe my kid has gotten so big." "I can't believe school is back in session." "They are growing up way too fast."

Yes, those are all cliches, but oh, man, they are so true. I thought every single one of those this morning as I walked Molly to her first day of first grade. Seriously, 1st grade?!?! I still remember them handing her to me in the hospital and not even thinking that school was anywhere close to my future. I distinctly remember hearing other moms talk about their kids going to school and I couldn't even comprehend anything about it because it was so far from my realm.

Man, it did not take long for me to be smack dab in the middle of that realm. I don't remember okaying that.

Molly, however, has been super excited for school to start. She loves school. She's never been nervous about it at all. For her first day of preschool, she jumped out of the car, waved her hand and said, "Bye, Mom!" without even a hug or kiss. I've never had to worry about her being sad or nervous for school. Me, on the other hand?

I know I should be used to this. I did it last year. I had the whole sobbing in front of the school librarian after dropping her off at Kindergarten fiasco. But, I'm still sad. She's my baby. I've been hugging her a little bit longer and squeezing her a little bit tighter these last couple days, just trying to steel myself up for today.

And, today came:

The second half of beach week

The second half of our beach vacation roundup. Amanda arrives!

Almost every morning we spent at the beach, I would get up early, lace up my shoes, and head out to pound the pavement ... er ... sand. It was a little ridiculous how much I was looking forward to my morning runs, even before we got there. The first morning, I tried out a paved path not on the beach, but every day after that, I ran on the beach. It was awesome. Such beautiful views. And, I could take as long as I wanted because the kids were not going to be home alone. When  I got back to the house, I would sit on the porch, watch the ocean waves and wait until I semi-dried off.

Some mornings, I would read while I waited for the sweat to dry. Yup, that is the life. 

Wednesday was a very exciting day, as it was the day my best childhood friend and her daughter were coming to join us. Amanda lives outside of Charlotte, NC, now, so when my mom said we had space open in the house, I asked Amanda if she could come spend some time at the beach with us. Growing up, when we would go on vacation to the beach, we were sometimes allowed to bring one friend along. My mom thought it was easier (and way more fun!) for the kids to each have someone to play with. I always brought Amanda. So, needless to say, I was beyond excited when I found out that she could come. Her daughter, Mallory, is only a year older than Molly, so it was going to be great fun all around!

On Wednesday morning, before Amanda and Mallory arrived, we discovered some boogie boards in the laundry room of the beach house. We had been wanting boogie boards all week, so this was a very exciting discovery.

Cory helping Molly float on a boogie board. Floating is pretty much all she did on it. She didn't really understand the whole "ride the wave in" business.

Jake named the dragon on his boogie board Ocean. It was a little confusing to hear "Ocean knocked me down. Ocean hit my leg," until I was told about the naming of the boogie board.

Some moms and their kids. Amanda and Mallory arrived.

I wanted a super beachy picture. Instead, I think I look like I came out of the 40s. Oh well.

Mallory and Molly hanging out on the boards. 

Mallory figured out how to ride the waves, though.

Gathering water to work on some sand project.

Molly and Cory heading back out into the water.

A week at the beach (part one)

I'm splitting this into two parts because it was just that awesome. Oh, and there are about a million pictures. 

I grew up in North Carolina. And, many of my childhood vacations were trips to the beaches of North Carolina. My mom would rent a beach house, then us kids would spend a week splashing in the ocean and digging in the sand. I have lots of memories of spending time at the beach, including my one-and-only trip to the ER for stitches. (Darn you sharp-tailed sea creature, I still have a scar!) But, despite the emergency room visit, I still loved going to the beach.

Obviously, living in Kansas hasn't afforded us nearly as many opportunities to beach it up. Especially having kids. But, my mom had a big birthday this year and wanted to celebrate with a big family trip to the North Carolina shoreline.

So, July 14th, we packed everyone up and headed to the beach. My mom rented a house again, and 16 people were going to be staying in it. Many of those 16 people chose to drive to the house in Emerald Isle, NC, but we decided to take the easy way with two children and fly.

My dad also flew with us because he had decided to have neck surgery two days before we left, and didn't think it would be wise to drive. I'm not so sure flying was that smart, either, but he made it there and back and is still alive, so I guess it turned out ok. But, that explains the neck brace in all of these pictures. I promise, my dad's fashion sense is iffy at best, but not that completely crazy. :)

Molly, Charlotte and my dad after getting off our tiny plane in New Bern, NC.

We rented a car and drove from New Bern to Emerald Isle. The girls were dying to see the ocean. It was both of their first times to see or be at the beach. So, after unpacking, we immediately went down to check out the water.

Such a great view from the deck of our beach house.

Sea shells!

Our beach house is the one on the right. We were majorly intrigued by the monolith on the left. We finally did some cyber-stalking on it and discovered that it rented for a mere $11,000 a week. 

Some girls and their dad.

Whee! My feet in the ocean.

Having fun.

The girls then decided they needed to be in swimsuits.

Molly loved being in the water.

Charlotte decided the sand was more her speed.

Dance like a lion

Molly has been taking dance classes for three years now. We're not doing competition, and she's not a mini Ginger Rodgers or anything, but she has a good time. Plus, this year, I scheduled her to be in the same class as Melese, my friend Terah's daughter. It worked out quite perfectly because Terah and I could hang out for an hour each week while the girls danced. Sometimes we would bring our younger daughters (Sydney and Charlotte) to play, and sometimes we'd just sit in the car and talk for an hour.

But, as most dance classes do, this one ended in a recital in June. We drove up to Lawrence a couple weeks ago for the big event. The theme was a showbiz theme, and Molly's class danced to music from The Lion King. So, of course, they had to dress up like lions. These costumes dropped feathers like there was no tomorrow. I had piles of them around my house, so I made a rule that the costume could only be put on at the recital and rehearsal.

Backstage at the recital is always crazy, but once the girls got dressed with their makeup, I made Molly and Melese pose for a picture.

Molly as the Lion King.

Two adorable lions.

They had dress rehearsal first, then a break, then the recital. We are allowed to get up close to get pictures during the dress rehearsal. Unfortunately, I still don't really know how to use all the functions on my camera, so the pictures aren't the greatest.

6-year-old rerun day

Molly turned 6 on May 28th. I know, I already wrote about her party here, but I decided to include a few pictures from what we did on her actual birthday. Because I was tired, but also because it went over so very well with Charlotte, I kind of stole a few ideas from Charlotte's actual birthday day.

We started the day with breakfast at Papa Pancakes. This was the first one Molly's been able to attend in a long time, what with school and all. As a bonus surprise, my sister-in-law, Aime, came with my adorable nephew Thomas in tow. The girls were super excited about to see their baby cousin.

Molly with Aime, Thomas and Gigi.

While we were eating, one of the waiters came over to deliver a birthday card to Molly. It had been left by two of our favorite servers, Corey and his wife Alyssa. Molly loved both of them and was sad when she couldn't come see them anymore. I thought it was incredibly sweet that they took the time to leave a card for her, especially considering neither of them work there anymore!

Molly with Papa. (In the corner of the picture you can see the card from Corey and Alyssa.)

Next up on our special day was a trip to the mall to pick out something from the Disney Store. In a small world coincidence, we happened to run into her friend Riley at the Disney Store. That made for some fun play time.

She tested out a couple things ... (I was rooting for Miss Piggy)

But, finally decided on Merida from Brave.

The next stop was the nail salon. Can't have a birthday without getting your nails painted.

Molly said her favorite part was having the guy hit her legs. Me, too, Molly. Me, too.

Charlotte sat with me and got her toenails painted, too.

And, because we were at the mall, we had to stop by the carousel. I got dizzy, again, but managed to keep down my breakfast.

Molly picked a dolphin.

Charlotte, a bear.

We ended up going over to my friend Alyisa's mom's house because Alysia was in town from Wichita. Molly and Charlotte had a blast playing with her daughter Rylee. Then, we headed to dinner with Cory once he got home from work. I'll give you one guess where we went?

Noodles & Co.

I may have stolen the ideas from Charlotte's celebration day, but Molly had a blast, and really, that's all that matters, right? (That's what I keep telling myself, anyway.)

Wait, how is kindergarten over already?

Almost three weeks ago, on May 22nd technically, Molly officially completed her last day of kindergarten. While part of me was scared stiff about how to occupy this energetic and constantly "what are we doing next" questioning child for an entire summer, the other part of me was sad that my baby was finishing kindergarten. So, really, no part of me was doing great that day.

Tell me that doesn't freak you out. She went from a baby to a little girl!

Molly's school had a special "Farewell Kindergarten" program on the last day for parents and family to attend. And, for weeks before the day of the program, I could overhear small snipets of songs as Molly practiced in her room or in the car. She warned me, "You're going to cry at the last song, Mommmy. Mrs. Clutts says you will."

Great. Yup. That's just what I needed.

So, because Molly had warned me about music and singing performances, I knew I needed to be able to record it. The problem with that was ... our videocamera. See, we had bought it right before Molly was born. And, while I still think she is my baby, she is graduating from kindergarten. Our videocamera was six years old. Now, as you all know, six years is practically an antique in the electronics world. I'm surprised we don't need an archaeologist specializing in hieroglyphics to read the menu on it.

That meant, I really needed to get a new camera to record the performance. I mean, who wouldn't want to keep rewatching and keep crying, right? Because I like to plan way in advance, I headed to Target the night before to pick up the camera. I had actually been in Target earlier that same afternoon checking out what they had, then went home and gave the reviews a cursory glance.

In actuality, I picked the camera because it looked pretty cool, was a decent price, and the guy said it was a good one. I took it home to show Cory. He opened it to get ready for the next day, and we realized that while the camera seemed cool, we couldn't try it out because it didn't come with a memory card. NO memory card! Aha, now I see the reason behind the reasonable price.

Fine. I would get one the next day. So, the morning of the performance comes, and Charlotte and I have music class. As is always the case whenever we have to get somewhere early in the morning, we were running late. I left the house without the camera. When I got to Target to get the memory card, I realized I didn't have the camera with me. I would have to guess at which kind I needed. I know you see where this is going. Yeah, I guessed wrong.

And, again, I didn't try it out until about an hour before the program was to start. At that point, I realized that the regular SD memory card would not fit in the Micro SD card slot. Well, crap. I called Cory, and made him stop at Target on the way home for a new, correct, card. If you're keeping track, that would be five trips to Target (including the one to return the wrong SD card). Geez, this program better be amazing.

Sprint to Six

For the last couple years, I've been sure that it has been the last year for us to have a big backyard bash for Molly's birthday. Each year, I'm sure that the next year will involve gender-specific theme and invite list or going to a place for the party.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, and I'm sure it will happen eventually. But I LOVE planning a big party at our house. And, each year that we can have a backyard party at our house, I'm one happy mama.

So, this year, with Molly being in kindergarten, I was sure we would be done with my kind of parties. When we started talking about her party, Molly was sure she wanted a sleepover party. Well, I nixed that idea. As much I love big outdoor parties, I also love sleep. And, I was not ready to give that up, yet.

Her next idea was a tea party with her friends and all their dolls. I was ok with this. I had been preparing myself for it. So, I told her that a tea party would be fine and fun, but that boys probably wouldn't want to come to her tea party. That made her pause. "Well, maybe they could play outside while we have the tea party?" she said. Um, yeah, no. I explained to her that that was not going to work.

Then, we started brainstorming on party ideas that were gender-neutral, because she still wanted to have her big backyard birthday party. Yay for me! 

Then, the theme came to me. A race party. Molly loves running in the kids races at all my races, plus she just completed her first 5K. Oh yeah, we could do a lot with this. So long as the weather held up ...

We started with the invited and the name of the race, which was "Sprint to Six" because, well, obviously, Molly's turning 6. Awfully convenient with that alliteration.

Next up, we had to have Packet Pick-Up. You can't have a race without race packets. In the packets, we had race t-shirts (oh yes, we did) and special race bibs that had "Sprint to Six" on the top and "Happy Birthday to Molly!" on the bottom. I could only order in quantities of 100, so if anyone else is having a Sprint to Six party for a girl named Molly, I've got about 75 bibs for you. The only way I could convince Cory that we should do shirts was by showing him my design for the sponsors on the back of the shirt:

Yes, those are all of Cory's companies, clubs and web sites. I threw my blog in there just for me. Now, a bunch of kids can run around advertising for Cory's companies. And, that is how there came to be t-shirts in the packets.

Anne kindly volunteered to be helper extraordinaire for the party. She worked packet pick-up like a pro.

Kiran picking up his packet.

The Taylor kids getting theirs. 

After packet pick-up, we had a sign making station (what's a race without awesome signs to cheer you on?) and a face-painting station and hair spraying area. The kids were big fans of all of these.

Aunt Sarah painting on Molly's hair as Charlotte watched.

Charlotte had her hair sprayed blue, and Jake made a rocket ship sign.

Spraying Alana's hair.

Riley and Molly super proud of their "I rock" signs.