We have a newly minted 8 year old Lily in the family. She is not one to keep it on the down low when it comes to her Birthday; she counted down the days and made all her wishes known repeatedly on how to ring in the big 8. I love this age on her. Lily says she wants to be an astronaut on a mission to Mars and also star on Broadway when she grows up. She likes her alone time at some point after school for a little bit and it's usually playing Playmobil or reading books. Lily is on it with knowing the rules and with what's going on. She is more of an introvert focused on a few select friends and staying quiet in new surroundings. But not when it comes to trying new things; Lily has so far always been up for trying new things. Dancing, Singing, Tennis, and Swimming are probably the activities she's done most consistently this past year and she doesn't love one more than another.
I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking for this past month
Lily's 1st Communion at St Mary's Cathedral (same church we got married in and where Lily was baptized).
The occasion was meaningful to all of us but in particular to my parents.
Lily requested a sleepover Birthday party this year.
One of our neighbors has a poem box outside his home. He asked Lily to find a poem for him. She was so honored and instead, she wrote a poem the next day. When she saw the poem in the box a few days later, she was beaming and said "I'm famous."
Tee ball has been a big hit and Daddy as coach is the heart of the reason why. Lily is super helpful as assistant manager and it's been a lot more fun than I expected.
We signed the kids up for a fun race with our club to give them the experience and Elise was fighting it the whole time. We didn't think she'd do it but when they asked for their age group to line up, Elise ran over and as you can see was the only one to be in racer starting position. No idea where she got that. She got 2nd place by a hair!
First of probably a few daddy/daughter dances. Nate and Opa did such a nice job showing the girls how they should be treated on a date.
Last dinner with Oma and Opa before they left for Chicago. Yup, I'll miss the help. No question. What sucks more is that they are more than just help - they are my loving, supportive and entertaining parents that are an integral part of our day to day lives. I like looking out the window and seeing my Mom planting in the garden. I like walking by the house and seeing my Dad at the computer. I like opening their door to say good morning and hear about their latest disagreement and I like opening the door at night to say good night to my Dad wearing his head phones so he can hear the TV better without waking the neighbors and Mom rolling her eyes that it's politics on TV again. And that's just me. I didn't even mention all the interactions with the kids. Darn it. Come back.
Nate's Grandmother passed away a few weeks ago. She was such a sweet woman who gave such soft long hugs and held my hand that extra second. When I first met her 16 years ago, we did a big load of dishes together and she told me about her time as a nurse during WWII and then going to Indiana for college and bumping into her future husband who'd she happened to have met during her service in the war too. Meant to be. We saw her last July at her lake house. She was practically blind and mostly deaf but she insisted on hosting us for dinner and made chicken salad. She was such a calming and loving presence in the years I knew her.
