The Lewis Family

It makes you feel great when, in the middle of a fun-filled birthday party, your new five-year-old looks at you with all sincerity and says, "This is the best birthday party I've ever had!" And it truly was! We had a great party last night that Grace helped me plan. She told me what kind of cake she wanted, who she wanted to invite, and even helped me decorate.

Aaron's family came over, along with a few of Grace's friends (including her primary teacher.) After a dinner of pizza and salads the kids had a blast going on a "scavenger hunt" for hidden treasure (I hid clues that led to a chest full of Hershey's hugs and kisses.) We ended the night with cake, ice cream, and presents. The birthday-girl was delighted to be surrounded by people she loves. What a great way to celebrate your life!



Reading the clues...and finding the treasure! (I made the treasure chest out of a tissue box and card stock.)

Grace turned five this past week and she had a very special day. Since she had to wait until the weekend to have her party, we tried to as much as we could to make her birthday memorable. It started with breakfast-in-bed (it was just her normal cereal and fruit, but she felt like a queen!) She said, "I'm just like a mommy on mother's day!"

Later that morning, I brought a birthday treat to Grace's class. I really enjoyed watching her interact with the others at school. It made me happy to see her already forming little friendships with kids she'll be with all year (possibly through high school!) After school "Daddy" met us at the park for picnic, and later we had Grace's favorite meal for dinner: Pancakes, eggs, sausage and fruit! Grace was giddy all day and loved the cards and phone calls she received from family and friends. She even got a special birthday package from Grandma and Grandpa Parkin. Everyone needs to feel that special at least one day a year!

Grace started Kindergarten this morning...I can hardly believe it! She is really like Aaron in the way that she takes on new situations with such excitement and without any apprehension. I, on the other hand, had enough anxiety for both of us (although I didn't let her know that of course!) I even had a dream last night that it was my first day of school! All I remember is that I was sitting at my little student desk and it was taller than all of the other kids'!

Aaron, Eve, and I all accompanied Grace to her classroom to meet her teacher and have a look around the classroom. When it was time to say good-bye she was totally okay with us leaving. We gave her a hug and kiss, and out the door we went. I wasn't sure if I would, but yes, I did cry as we walked to our car! When I picked her up a few hours later she met me with a big hug and said she had "so much fun!" The only thing that went wrong was that she fell off the monkey bars once at recess, but she was okay.


Some other exciting news is that Eve wore "big girl panties" for the first time today. She had been only casually using the potty with the occasional success, but we decided that with Grace starting school it was a good time to advance Eve in some way as well. Although she has already had two accidents (which is to be expected for a first-timer) she feels so proud of herself. Just look at the expression on her face!

Last week Grace had a doctor's appointment in the Bay Area, so she and I planned to spend the day in San Fransisco after the visit. We had a fabulous time. It was great to be able to spend some one-on-one time with her...especially since she will be starting school next week. We went to Pier 39 and visited the Aquarium of the Bay. Grace was fascinated as we walked through tunnels that went under huge tanks of sea life. She especially enjoyed the sharks! We walked over to fisherman's wharf for dinner and had the classic clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. Grace thought it was hilarious that she got to eat her bowl when the soup was all gone!

I had a really great time just being with her, talking with her, joking with her, focusing all on her. She's growing up so fast and I'm in awe of the little person she's already become. She has recently started reading small words, and has the best time sounding out the story of Hop on Pop and the likes. She giggles with glee and is so pleased with herself for being able to read! She says she is like a magician because she makes words out of letters just like magic. I am so proud of my little girl and I really enjoy being her mom.

The Family Reunion was wonderful. The kids enjoyed themselves, the adults enjoyed themselves, and we did it all while living under one roof for three days! I got to see almost every member of my family and got to meet some new ones too! It was neat. Every one's favorite day was Friday, the day at the Lake. We had a blast riding rave runners, water skiing, tubing, swimming, digging, etc. What a great way to spend the day!

Another fun thing I got to do on my trip was visit my life-long-friend-through-thick-and-thin: Chelsea. I just love her...she is so much fun to be around and has been making me laugh for almost thirty years! We had a girls-night-out to Denny's for a late-night breakfast, and then the next day we enjoyed watching our kids play together as we did some more visiting. It was heart-warming to look at our little ones and realize that we had played together at the same age so many years ago (not to mention that Chelsea had the same haircut then as her little Boston has now!! I love it!)

My side of the family had our first official Family Reunion this last week. It took place last Thursday through Sunday. Because of distance we don't get to see my family very much, so the girls and I drove out almost a week early to visit my parents and siblings that live nearby before the actual reunion took place. My mom flew out to accompany me and the girls on the twelve hour drive across the desert. I am so grateful she did...I don't know how I would have been able to drive and entertain those girls for all those hours by myself! Aaron couldn't take that much time off work, so he flew out for the reunion part of the trip, and we all drove home together.

The girls and I had so much fun staying at my parents home and enjoying fun activities with them and the local cousins, aunts, and uncles. To name a few: we went to a kid's Fun Center with my sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews, had a birthday party for Uncle Jonny, swam a lot in the community pool, had endless playtime in Grandma and Grandpa's toy room, visited "Grandma-Great" (my Grandma), and I got to go on an early morning hike to a waterfall with my sister Tausha (Oh, how I wish I had taken pictures of the beautiful surroundings.) It really meant a lot to me and the girls to have had so much time with family that we don't get to see as often as we'd like (and this was all before the reunion took place!) More fun to come!

Being on vacation was great. We had a lot of fun and did all that we wanted to do. Even though it was good to return home, it was not so good to return to the workload awaiting me! Aside from the normal laundry and unpacking perils, I was welcomed by a huge stack of bills and invoices for Aaron's business (I have been doing the billing coordinating for him the last couple of months.) I have been knee-deep in catch-up work, doctors appointments near and far, cleaning the house, grocery shopping, dealing with work going on in our backyard, etc...So this is why I've been home for almost a week and written nothing about it!

I have so many pictures and events that happened that I don't even know where to begin! To avoid having the longest blog entry in the history of blogs, I have decided to break my trip up into separate posts. At this point I'm not sure if I will finish them all in this sitting, tomorrow, or next week...so stay tuned!