As per the usual, May kicked our butts. If you have kids in school, there is a never ending list for what May brings, including concerts, performances, competitions, school events, class parties... no wonder I'm seriously dead by the time Memorial Day comes around and we head to Durango for the Ironhorse. All I want to do is sit in a hotel room and eat. Or sit by the pool. Or sit in a restaurant.
Grace participated in Ride Your Bike To School Day. She decided she's never doing it again because riding back up the hill to our house with a back pack that weighs 35 pounds is no fun.
Random adorable pic of Harriet from same vintage
Somewhere along the line, I lost my freaking mind and decided to foster a dog for Watermelon Ranch. Stryder's birthday was coming up and I was reminded that we have him BECAUSE someone else fostered him and got him along to the point that we could adopt him at a Watermelon Ranch adoption event. I wanted to return the favor to another pup. I picked him up in North Rio Rancho after he had spent a long hot day in a crate. He dragged me to the car on his leash and then plopped down in the back seat, utterly exhausted, and utterly content and grateful. It was heartbreaking to see his relief to just have someone pick him up.
I knew it would be hard to take a dog in and not keep it, especially if it turned out to be sweet and obedient and adorable, which he did. Tenant spent the week with us and celebrated Stryder's bday with him. But, true to his name, he only remained a Tenant, and I dropped him off the next Saturday at the adoption event, where, yes, he was adopted! Mission accomplished. I was so proud of myself for having the willpower to let him go and let another family have him. It was definitely hard.
I don't know if we will ever do it again, but I'm glad we did it at least once.
So, Happy 2nd Birthday to our Stryder!
He and his party guest got ice creams with doggie treats on top.
Harriet started off May with what would turn out to be her final cheer competition with Razzle Dazzle: Mayfest. The girls went in on FIRE and came out with TWO first place trophies in both cheer and dance! Their team was unstoppable this year. I could not have enjoyed watching these girls more. They were so dedicated and had such team spirit and had so much fun doing it. Their coach is one of my favorite people of all time - Kristen McKinley, and her daughter, Alexis is one of the most beloved friends Harriet has ever had. Harriet and Lexi worked so so hard on their tumbling all year and were each able to do tumbling runs in the performance, along with front walkovers, back walkovers, high kicks, splits, and stunts.
Harriet and her coach Kristen
TWO BIG TROPHIES! The girls all got medals as well. I was so proud I cried. I would have cried even harder if I realized that it really was THE LAST competition she would have with this team and this coach. Not long after, Kristen told me the news that her family (including Harriet's BFF, Alexis!) would move to Kentucky over the summer. Needless to say, Harriet and I pretty much cried our eyes out for the next 3 months and still do if we even think about it.
Then, it was Mother's Day sometime, and I did get a pretty sweet gift this year - an outdoor fireplace! I love sitting on a patio and I love being warm, so this was just perfect. We spent a lot of fun nights around it last year.
Stryder and I like getting out too.
Then, David left on another international trip. He called us one night from his hotel room. I took these screen shots of Harriet talking to him as he showed us the view from his window in LONDON! She was ripe with jealousy. She has always wanted to go to London. She loves all things British. Shoot, I should find his pics and post them too. This post is already so long!
David came through with some pretty great travel gifts for all of us though. He brought me a teacup and saucer from the Royal collection. I adore it.
Grace scored with this awesome beanie and t-shirt! He also brought her a guitar magnet with the flag on it.
And, Harriet loved her t-shirt and light-up Big Ben sculpture. The big prize for her though, was a little gold bracelet with her NAME ON IT! She can never find personalized things in gift shops here in the US. No one uses the name Harriet here. But, in England, Harriet is a pretty popular name, so he was able to find gift shop swag for her! She was so thrilled.
Let's see, Grace had her spring band concert where her rock band played. They sounded really great. She was especially excited to be able to play her new guitar and show it off. So stinking proud of this kid and all her music skills! I can't believe what a performer she is. She never gets nervous.
Random cuteness: Harriet has to have super curly hair for her cheer stuff, so we have tried all kinds of things to get it curled the night before. These were fun to put in - like the old rags Grandma Pearlie used to tie in our hair, but they didn't work. The only thing that really works is a piping hot curling iron and a bottle of hairspray in the morning. It means getting up pretty early. Suffer to be beautiful!
Then, Grace's youth program at church had a fundraiser where they had to dress up to serve food. Grace refused to wear a dress and thought she was pretty sly showing up in a bowtie and pants. She was surprised to see her friend show up in the exact same outfit - not an original idea! But, they looked great!
More Cheer: To end the year, the coaches had a drill down competition at school and an awards ceremony and then a pool party at night. The drill down is kind of impossible to win. Harriet competed with all the 3,4, and 5th graders - at least 40 girls. The coach calls out drills and anyone who makes the tiniest mistake has to sit down. Last one standing wins. Usually they are over in about 3-4 minutes. This one went for over 8 minutes! It came down to Harriet and one of her very best friends. I was dying - I didn't want either one of them to lose! Harriet has tried to win a drill down the entire year and had a goal to win the competition. I could not believe it - SHE WON! It was a very crazy thing, but she was flawless and did not allow herself to make a mistake. I was so so proud of her. She also took away an award for getting all 3 of her splits. Kristen said she almost didn't make it and was about an inch away from her center split. When Kristen came to judge her, she forced herself to the floor to make it. She has been so determined and goal-oriented this year.
It has been inspiring to watch.
Harriet with her drill down trophy! She has ALWAYS WANTED A TROPHY. She has gotten a few medals, but this was her first ever trophy! And it felt so amazing to have truly earned it by beating everyone else in the competition and being the best one after working so hard.
This "trophies for everyone thing" is for the birds.
Harriet and Lexi with their trophies. Lexi won team choice for girl of the year.
Harriet and Paige C.
Cheer Pool Party!
So, the team was asked to perform for the school - rightfully so! I'm so glad they got to perform at their own school! They performed during the break at the jog-a-thon event. Then, since Harriet and friends were in 4th grade, their run was right after, so they had to go run!
So proud of these kids I can't stand it.
Twin day at school - dress like your friend!
Ok, this is just one of my favorite things, ever. In the thick of election season, Grace was assigned to make a board game that would test a person on their knowledge of NM History. Grace's disdain for Donald Trump at the time was pretty significant. "THE WALL" was being discussed heavily here in NM since, well, we'd be hosting it if it was built. So, Grace made a game where you have to answer NM history questions and beat the wall. One team in the game is trying to escape NM (because who wants to live here if Trump is prez?) and get to Mexico before the wall is built. The other team is playing for Trump and building the wall. As each team gets a question right, you either build a piece of the wall, or make it further south towards the border. I am dying that this is even a possibility for a game. I cannot believe that anyone would come up with the idea to build a wall to keep people out in 2016. Sigh, at least it was a big hit at school. Leave it to Grace to design something like this.
This picture of him on the side of the box sums up everything I think about him.
Harriet's 4th Grade Field Day: The PTA took over this year after the coaches kind of had a stand-off. We turned it into more of a carnival kind of celebration than PE games. They rented some giant water slides and such. On this particular day, Grace decided to ditch school. I 100% approved her decision after some things that had happened with the teacher that she would have had to spend the entire day with on this day. So, she came along too since I had to be there all day. Sorry kids - middle schooler crashing your event!
yeah - poor kid whose mom lets her ditch
The same day, we had our 4th grade end-of-year celebration party as well. The kids voted to have KFC for lunch, so I ordered $100 worth of fried chicken for the little darlings. Kristen and I planned it all out. This was also the day she broke our hearts by telling us she was moving! She and Mrs. Blaisure and I had to keep the tears back.
It was also dress like your favorite super hero day, so Grace and Harriet represented with Batman tees.
Batgirls - definitely batty.
Grace, coming off the bus on her "last" day of 7th grade. I say "last" because she ditched on the true last day. So did Harriet. I pulled them both out.
Ok, let's be honest, I was really bad and convinced their friends' parents to let me pull them all out! We had seriously JUST HAD IT with school and all that it entailed. We did not want any part of that weird last half day where you just help the teachers clean the desks and wait for the last bell to ring. Grace's entire 7th grade class was stripped of their end-of-year field trip, very unfairly, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. We knew we'd be leaving for Durango the next day, and the kids really wanted to blow off some steam with their friends... so... we went to a movie (the newly released Jungle Book), and then grabbed Chik-fil-A and headed to picnic and swim at the pool for the afternoon. WAAAAAY better than school. See ya later, 4th and 7th grades!
Let's talk some more about Grace. She has dress and modesty standards for herself that no one can ever live up to, not even the LDS church. They want shoulders covered and skirts to your knees, and nothing too low cut? Ha! No worries here, Grace won't wear anything that isn't to her collarbone, elbow, and below her knee. She won't even go to the pool in a one-piece swimming suit. She insists on a boys' rash guard that goes to the elbow and knee length board shorts over her suit. I admire the heck out of her for genuinely liking to be this modest, but it does prove to be very difficult to buy clothing for her. I think I am THE only mother of a teenage girl who wishes she would just wear a shorter skirt and a lower neckline! It would be so much easier. After a few seasons of going to the mall, buying 15 dresses, bringing them all home, and then taking them ALL back and starting over, I got desperate and searched for a way to have her dresses custom made. If I was better at sewing I'd sew them myself, and she'd totally wear them too. But, eShakti saved the day! It is an online dress shop that custom makes dresses to your measurements (also a problem for Grace - super super long legs, short torso, and skinniest girl ever -impossible to fit.) They also allow you to choose your neckline, sleeve length, and skirt length! I still can't believe it exists. It has been amazing. This is the first dress I ordered for her. Not only is it made well of good materials, and fits perfectly, they are pretty inexpensive, and they always offer really good discounts.
This one came out to about $50, maybe.
I digress, back to May festivities. Finally, blissfully, Memorial Weekend came. We headed to Durango for the Ironhorse, but decided that this year, we REALLY needed to do some of the other things in the area that we never do. First up was Mesa Verde National Park. Bless President Obama for his "Every Kid In A Park" program! Harriet proudly applied for her 4th grade National Park Pass and grinned as we showed it at the gate and they waved us into the park.
Then, yes, the crazy dude got on his bike and rode the Ironhorse race again. This is all I ever see of him - as he leaves for the start. Then, the girls and I head out to play for the day. This time, we tended our friend, Catherine's, toddler while she rode the quarter horse! We met her up at the finish line at Durango Mountain Resort. She treated the kids to some passes for the fun things there!
Grace chose to do the ropes course.
Then, we headed back to town to hang out on Main Street - a favorite haunt.
Please explain to me why teenagers do things like this - a winter beanie on a hot day in the desert with her shorts and t-shirt?
ah - finally, we convinced her to go put a baseball cap on! sheesh.
Ah, the headline news of Memorial Day though.. We got back from Durango on Sunday. Monday, David was driving around, running errands in the Pathfinder, and calls me to say that it is not running well and he has to keep pulling over to restart it. He does limp home, but it essentially dies in the driveway. We had no idea how dead it was, but it turns out - MOSTLY DEAD. All dead for us. More on that story later. May, your'e the gift that just keeps on giving!
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