I’m not sure how it happened, but Shannon is now moving up to middle school. I could not be more surprised if unicorns came flying out my butt. Ok, that might hurt a bit, but you get the idea. Seriously, this caught me off guard.
You see, Aidan is graduating next month. NEXT MONTH! Can you believe that? Craziness. It feels like just yesterday I was rocking that kid in the nursery while listening to Raffi on the cassette player. Never-mind that my kids have no idea what a cassette is. As it is, the idea that I would rock any of them to a song called Banana Phone has them doubling over in fits of giggles.
I personally thought Banana Phone was a jaunty little tune. And do you remember Baby Beluga? Another melodic masterpiece.
But I digress. Aidan is graduating from high school and Shannon is moving on to middle school. And you all wonder why my head is about to spin off my spinal column.
Really, this is all very good stuff. I’m so proud of my kids. They are growing, maturing, becoming more independent and these are all very positive things.
But at the same time I’m anxious over it all. More for Shannon than for Aidan. He will go on to college and be fine. But my daughter is about to enter some treacherous years and I really want to insulate her from some of the social crap she’s about to walk into.
I remember those years and let me tell you, they aren’t fond memories.
But that’s the thing about parenting, we can’t protect them from everything even though we want to.
So, I will have to pull back on my helicopter mom rotor blades and let her fly her own aircraft.
And this is a huge step for me. Stepping back is something I struggle with. But I recognize that it’s in her best interest that I do so.
Yesterday we had a walkthrough and meet-n-greet with the teachers at her new school. Watching Shannon walk the halls and classrooms was so surreal. It was like watching a video on fast forward.
But this isn’t a movie. It’s the real deal. My daughter is growing up whether I’m ready for it or not.
I’d much rather push out unicorns.
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Our Easter was a very quiet one this year. Just the six of us. Well, as quiet as anything can be when there are six people together, but you know what I mean.
We did the egg hunt in two stages. One for the boys and one for the girls. That way the girls would have a fighting chance. There was even a golden egg for the girl’s hunt. And of course they were both determined to find it. Can you find it in the picture above? It was even hard for me to spot!
We hid the girl’s eggs in pretty obvious places. On tree branches. Peeking out of shrubs. And some just laying on the ground. The girls have a very low frustration threshold which we really didn’t want to cross.
But the boys? Yeah, my husband had a bit of fun making it very hard for the boys to find their eggs. Once the boys found out that their eggs were not filled with candy like their sisters eggs, but with cash instead, there was much more passion in their search.
You know, it’s pretty cool how something so childish as an Easter egg hunt can make even the teens smile. There are very few activities all four kids can do together that they all can enjoy, but this one got them laughing and helping each other out. Except for that golden egg. The girls were each determined to find that one on their own.
In the end, Leela was the victor. And this did not go over well with Shannon. Next year there will be no golden egg. There should be no tears on Easter. Unless they are shed in gratitude. I’ll make an exception for that type of tears.
Leela being the tender hearted kid that she is, she shared her prize with her sister. While the pastel eggs were filled with candy, the golden egg was filled with two dollar bills which she split with her sister.
And that did my mama heart good. With that, we all went into the house and stuffed our faces with chocolate. The end.
Our weekend in New York City started with the girl’s very first cab ride in the city. Now, they’ve been in cabs in other cities, but those rides did not prepare them for this experience.
Now, I have a few things to say about American Girl Place. Of course your children are going to want to bring their dolls into the store. This sort of goes without saying. But there is a problem with this. Your girls will then have to take said dolls and packages all over NYC with them for the rest of the day.
After American Girl, we visited the Hershey’s Store. Located conveniently right across the way from the M&M’s store, the Hershey’s store made my girl’s eyeballs pop out. Candy bars as big as their head, Hershey Kisses as big as a bowling ball and a machine that rained miniature chocolates. It was a lot for my cocoa bean loving offspring.
It was hard to steer them away from the M&M’s store. With thousands of lights on their ginormous billboard, it got their attention.
I’m not really sure what the girls were more fascinated by in NYC. Certainly the lights were a hit. Everything seems just a bit more grand when illuminated by tons of sparkly lights. The ordinary becomes quite extraordinary.
On Sunday we slept in for a bit, and then we made our way over to the event that was the reason for our trip. 
While Shannon gravitated towards the clothes, Leela enjoyed checking out the whimsical pillows and sticker books from 
But the highlight of their day was getting their hair done with 
We wrapped up our day by filling cups with candies from the jelly bean bar. The perfect thing to do before a four hour drive home. Hence, the singing along to the Mama Mia soundtrack at ear splitting decibels, complete with dance moves. My punishment for letting them partake in Hershey’s chocolates, M&M’s and jelly beans all within 48 hours.
Please forgive the crappy iPhone photos for this entire post. Sometimes I get snippets of my life on my phone when I don’t have my big girl camera around. Not nearly as eye pleasing, but what’s a story without pictures?
Aidan on the other hand made me worry the other day. He decided to bake for the very first time. He was hankerin’ for chocolate chip cookies and I wasn’t in the mood to make them. Shocking, I know.
Lastly, I want to share with you a partial parenting victory. Sort of…
This is Aidan’s senior year. A year filled with all kinds of activities. Most of them prohibitively expensive, but he doesn’t seem too worried. This makes total sense since he isn’t paying for any of it. Funny how that works.
My girlfriend Judy shot Aidan’s senior photos and I tagged along to watch her in action. She’s really good and I hoped to get a few pointers.
And I couldn’t help but panic a bit…
Today we celebrated the girl’s birthdays. And as many of you know, their birthdays are in the winter. You see, last winter I was still recovering from the accident and there was no way we could do a big party. So, it was decided that we’d have a summer party.
The girls are both uber into Hello Kitty. Hello Kitty bouncy house, Hello Kitty birthday cake, Hello Kitty favors. There was a lot of Hello Kitty in our yard today.
Are you into Pinterest? Well, I love it. But I’ve come to learn that I will never be one of those moms that has the perfect party table.
Since it was a combined party, there were a lot of kids. So, we bought two pinatas.
Thank God for the bouncy house so the kids could bounce off the sugar before we sent them home.
Speaking of kids, my longtime readers might recognize the friend that is standing next to Leela in the picture above. Do you remember 
After the little friends went home, the big kids got into the bouncy house to play.
Can you believe I was in a wheelchair one year ago today?
Laundry. It never, ever ends. And yesterday I should’ve been working on it. I mean, if I miss even one day of that endless task, it grows. Sort of like Tribbles from Star Trek. Anyone remember those? I’m probably dating myself with that one.
So, why waste anymore precious time folding laundry? Especially considering that Macy’s had an awesome sale yesterday that included a coupon for 25% off your entire purchase if you bought their Shop For A Cause pass. The laundry could wait.
And I needed someone to carry the bags. I couldn’t hear his protests under the mountain of pillows. His feet were still moving, so I knew he was ok.
After making him try on roughly thirty pairs of pants and tops which I made him model for me, boy did he hate that, and after having him carry enough packages to kill a pack mule, we went out on a mother and son lunch date.
As we sat at our table yesterday munching on a shared Caesar salad, we chatted about life. We laughed about things we saw at the mall. We talked about his entry next week into high school. His concerns and hopes for the coming year.
Today marks the second time my son has driven a vehicle. Once yesterday with his father around an empty parking lot, and now today with me. Two parents with distinctly different driving styles trying to impart our wisdom on our eldest son.
Whose hand is that? That looks like a man’s hand. Not a seventeen year old boy’s. How did we get to this day so quickly? I remember holding him when he was a baby and thinking about this very day. I used to shoo that thought away. There is no more shooing.
I may want time to stop, but hands and feet wait for no one. They keep growing if you like it or not. On the bright side, they are just the right size for stepping on a brake. There’s that.
It’s funny how we each have completely different perspectives on this momentous event. He is thinking freedom, girls, adventure, girls, new life experiences, but still…. mostly girls.
I’m thinking oh my God this is my baby, distracted drivers, breakdowns, deer jumping out of the woods, rage filled drivers, drunk drivers, and girls. All very dangerous each in their own way.
I’m also thinking about him leaving. Like growing up and leaving. A thought that I haven’t really entertained much until recently. You see, this kid of mine- we’ve been butting heads a lot lately. I hear that’s normal. Teens and moms sometimes don’t mix.
We spend all of these years raising these little ducklings, and then we are supposed to let them fly? Part of me wants to clip his wings so he can’t. Wrap him up in bubble wrap so that he bounces his way through life.
