Amundsons

At this point in her life Charlotte wants to be a Ballerina Botanist.  When she was 3 in preschool she used to get into trouble all the time for picking the flowers on the playground (they actually used to call her Flower).  Anyway, I regress, the love of flowers has continued and when I asked her what she wanted to do for the science fair it seemed obvious to her that it would be something to do with flowers.   As my knowledge of science projects and flowers are pretty limited, it seemed obvious to me that we would have to start with the white carnations.   She researched, she observed, she charted She learned how to create a display, learning about words like hypothesis and control sample.  I attempted to make the same connections for her with my dissertation... she mentioned that my dissertation may "need a little work" as it didn't have anything cool like changing the color of a flower.  This is true, sigh . She learned that...

Claire.  My sweet little Claire.  After her entire conscious life of dropping Charlotte off at ballet and then leaving, it was her turn.  The big game was before her- and she was ready.  There isn't much that Claire isn't ready for, or excited about, or waiting for until she is just a little taller, stronger or older. 

Greenville has a town-wide Easter egg hunt.  Claire only went for the pink eggs, intentionally walking over all the other colors- to the delight of the other kids and the horror of her parents.  Quality of quantity seemed like a good strategy, until she realized there was chocolate in the eggs.  Perhaps we learned a valuable lesson about how the outer color is not as important as the inner value... perhaps I am giving a 3 year old to much metaphorical credit. We made some Carrot Cake for our Uncle Richard. Perhaps Claire will protest some day that I am posting this picture.  All I can say in my defense is that I did tell you to get dressed prior to hunting the Easter eggs, but you were pretty intent on making up for the lost chocolate from the pink Easter eggs fiasco.  AND I did mention that there might be a certain cultural reference to wearing the bunny ears while scantily clad.  Is it really my responsibility if you didn't understand those impl...

This morning Claire told me that when she grows up she wants a butt as big as mine. "For then I won't to fall in the toilet."  "Mom can we go to subway tonight? Cause I really want to be the boss of my sandwich." New Years Day- Charlotte snorkeled through a field of corals and schools of thousands of fish, then played for hours with a little 6 year old girl from France who only knew French. After Charlotte stated: "lucky thing I read Fancy Nancy..." Knowing Charlotte, I wanted her to hear about the school shooting from us first. She got a very brief overview, no details except that the man was "ill in his mind". I mentioned he should have gone to the doctor first so that he wouldn't hurt anyone. She looked at me like I just didn't get it and said, "well if he was ill in his mind, he wouldn't know he needed to go to the doctor, other people should have helped him." Yep. The 6 year old gets it. C...

She is 7.   No party this year, didn't mean no fun.  Instead we went to see Flight of the Butterflies at the Omnimax in StL- so cool.  Then a little Monkey Joe's with our favorite Mohrs- so crazy. And finished it up with a little ice cream cake from the DQ- so yumm.     I cant really believe how amazing you already are Charlotte.  Your inquisitive mind, kind heart and beautiful face are beyond anything I could have imagined.   Sometimes people tell us that you look like me, it is one of the most unbelievable compliments I have ever received.  Being compared to someone that I consider so amazing. However, your teeth gross me out.  

The Hallmark holiday of the year... Valentines day.  Although it has long been one of my least favorite holidays (thank you Junior High), it is Charlotte's favorite.  She loves LOVE and the idea that we have a day set aside for just that purpose thrills her, well at this age it does, she hasn't hit Junior High yet. With this all this passion, I attempt to suppress my resentment and try.   We have stated having dinner with the Ackermans on Valentines Day.  I think this is mostly because Carrie and I have a long standing wish that our children will spend Valentines together- FOREVER... if you know what I mean.  This was dinner at their house- cause Carrie is super cute.  Her super cuteness helps to hide my deep resentment. So as I said, Charlotte loves this day.  Long before Valentines day was on my radar, she was plotting and planning.  Just after Christmas (no joke- "before it was on my radar") Charlotte came and told me that she was g...

We left Greenville as the snow began to fall.  We needed an adventure from our daily lives and nothing screams adventure like an island off the coast of Honduras.  Needing to make sure the swimsuits still fit we clearly had to try them on before we left.  Utila is not a quick hop on a plane and you are there.  Once we landed it took two boats to get to the island, it adds to the feel of the adventure, unless you are sleeping. Once we got to the island we stayed just outside of town (a nice little walk down along the ocean).  To this beautiful resort of our good friends CJ and Tonya. Before the students from Greenville arrived we had a week to ourselves.  The island is mostly for scuba divers so the beaches are fairly open.  It was great as we got to spend a lot of time by ourselves enjoying the peace of the ocean. Charlotte experienced her first time snorkeling.  Her comfort in the water was amazi...