What ELSE is going on?

Life goes on, thank God, and we have had plenty of action in the few days I've been home. Well, truthfully it's been pretty slow, but it feels active to me since walking to the kitchen and back to my bed again wears me out!

The kids are both ecstatic that I am home again...




Hey, this is the best you get of an almost-eleven-year-old. He's truly an adorable boy! If you notice that I rarely post pics of Blake, it's NOT that I love him any less, but rather that they all look like THIS.

These pictures, along with a slew of others, were taken during our The Camera Has Returned celebration. And thank God it happened just in time for Nadia's pre-school graduation, a once in a lifetime event that I'm so glad I was able to document.



Although today was actually her last day of school, the graduation ceremony was last night. Next year she is going to 4K! And to think it feels like just yesterday she was not even yet a glimmer in our eyes.

When each child was asked "What was your favorite part of the school year?" many answered that they liked playing outside or coloring or... whatever. When the mic was put in Nadia's face, she replied with:

My favorite part of school was... My favorite part of school... My favorite part... Well, I always wanted to graduate! :)

Here Nadia giggles with her beloved Caden (left) and one of her best gal pals, Marae (right).



Left to right: Miss Marcia, Nadia, Miss Shiloh

As we were leaving, Nadia did some of her typical scavenging for all things shiny. She found, under a chair, one of those balloon weight things that are used to hold bunches of helium balloons down in a bouquet on a table or the floor or something. It had been cut off from the balloons and all that remained was the weight itself, wrapped in glittery cellophane, and gobs of curly ribbon. We allowed her to bring it home, knowing that she would recall my 24-hour junk rule where junk gets trashed after a brief period of enjoying it in the house.

This morning Nadia woke up and immediately began dismantling the balloon weight, tearing the cellophane off from the weight and discarding the ribbons. When she got down to the concrete mold which was the weight, she shouted, "Hey, it's a rock!" No sooner was she naming it than she was drawing on eyes, nose, mouth and hair with a pencil. The rock's name is Sarah Sally Rocky, and she played with it, sitting in the same spot at the kitchen bar, for approximately three hours!

This kid's imagination is out of this world...



Here she is tying some of the cellophane around the rock so that she can swing it because "it likes to swing at the park."

Oh, and our street is torn up! Well, the entire city is getting new streets this summer, and it appears this week is Our Street! We woke up at 7 a.m. on Thursday to shaking windows and a banging that felt like a giant had a 100 foot sledgehammer outside and was banging it on the street right in front of the house. I did not get up and take a pic right away, but here is what the street looked like about two hours later when I ventured out the front door.





As messy as it is out there right now, it's nice that the streets are being redone, as they all really needed it. The bumpy dirt base that we are driving on in the meantime is actually a smoother ride than the pot-holey roads that haven't been busted up yet! Get 'er done, City!