In the blink of an eye.....

she turned 14!

My bald-headed, blue-eyed first born is growing up WAY TOO FAST. It seems like yesterday that I was lamenting about 'missing' Mother's Day when my due date came and went. For a child that took her own sweet time to enter this world, she sure is growing too quickly for my taste.

She keeps me on the go (along with everyone else)......these days she is in rehearsals for the part of Adult Amy in Little Women. She is in her fifth year of doing shows at MTV. Her first role there was a nightingale in Once Upon A Mattress and now she is in an amazing March family so many shows later. This past year she was the Artful Dodger in Oliver; Freida in Charlie Brown; and Louisa in Sound of Music. She is continuing her passion for performing arts with her high school elective choices. She is signed up for Creative Drama and Dance Tech II (which she was thrilled to make it into after a jam-packed audition process). Much to my dismay, she isn't planning to continue with the french horn. She has really enjoyed it these past two years and even though she is quite good at it she doesn't want to do marching band or persue that avenue. Can't win them all...........and, boy-oh-boy, am I trying to figure out which battles to pick.

Another BIG milestone for her this year ---- PIERCED EARS! She simply was too afraid for the longest time and then one morning she woke up and declared that she was ready. She is enjoying that added fashion accessory while I just try to keep her from losing them.

After lunch at Ruby's (b/c Collin had to work tonight), she spent her day helping with the Little Women set before we ended the day at Farrell's. What a way to end the day.......with balloon creations, zany birthday songs, and The Zoo (that we finished about 1/2 of).

Ian the chicken head; Amanda a dog face, Suzy and Sean have giraffes and Maggie has cat ears.

He didn't know how to make a fleur-de-lis so I opted out. (shoulda got the flamingo!)

And if you think this was a topper to her day after gifts of clothes, money, and new bedding.....

Suzy topped it all with her gift of Cody Simpson concert tickets.

How sweet it is.......

Biting off more than I can chew

Those eyes tell it all.....overwhelmed! And that's exactly how I feel.

I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Our computer died in February. Well, the screen did and since it was an all-in-one deal thingie we were dead in the water. I managed to read facebook occasionally from my phone but that is too much of a pain to do for any amount of time; not that I really have time for that time-vampire anyway.

We managed to finally get a new system. THANK GOD! Driving to the library daily for homework for the kids was making me even more insane than I already am. SO nice to have the internet at my fingertips again. (Yes, I know I can search on my phone for stuff but you can't type assignments, etc.)

And now the daunty task of recovering photos from the old system that we had copied over AND praying that I can merge my Memory Manager vaults to access all my photos from the last six years. Slow and steady with a commitment to GET IT DONE!

I've missed blogging and hope to be able to jump back in and keep going like I did when the year started. Still cooking random stuff that I love sharing; being a taxi for kid activities; and looking forward to the summer that is fast approaching. Maybe I'll do some kid posts to catch everyone up on their adventures.

Never fear, I'm still out here running on the hamster wheel of life.