Walking On Sunshine

I was very convicted a few weeks ago about my weather-related-grumpiness so I have tried to be very aware of finding the joy in every day life regardless of what is falling out of the sky or not.  Yesterday I didn't have to try very hard.

 Yes, that is grass. Yes, that is a short sleeved t-shirt.  Yes, that is a bike that until yesterday was hanging upside down along with all of the other bikes in our garage.  But most importantly, that is the most thrilled little girl in the neighborhood.  Some time around her birthday just before we put the bikes up for the winter, her dad took the training wheels off for a second attempt at learning and she was successful.  For some reason, I missed it and we have no pictures.
Yesterday she was disappointed when she didn't have instant success and I was frustrated that I didn't know how to help her since I wasn't around the first time--not to mention we had to be at the school at a certain time or else we'd be late to pick up her brother.  The girls rode all the way to the school to pick up Nathan and she leaned pretty heavily on my arm the whole way there.  I was sure that she was going to need her dad to get her confidence back up, but on the way home we got into a groove and she got it.  The bike was a hand-me-down from some friends in Belgium and it is too small with pedal brakes that confuse her since her first bike has only hand brakes, but she is making it work for the time being.  Today she's been riding up and down the sidewalk like she's been doing it for years and not just two days.

I can honestly say that I have never seen her as proud of herself as she was yesterday.  She is thrilled. 
This week I was hit with a sudden awareness that kindergarten is almost over.  The girls have been playing so well together each afternoon and one day it suddenly occurred to me that she'll be gone all day next year--no more afternoons with the girls.
She has been working on a "book" and yesterday whipped out three pages with a sentence and picture on each page.  This is not something she has done on her own ever.
Last fall at the conference with her teacher, I left feeling a little unsure that she was going to meet all of the goals by this time.  (Her report card came home today).  We can see more progress at home than is apparent in school.  Thank goodness for Nana the former kindergarten teacher and all of her reassurance.  I think just like with the bike, I have to remember not to give up so quickly.  Just another one of the many lessons I'm learning in this parenting journey. (Nothing more humbling than blogging my organization skills one day and losing something the next--had to let my son know that I was sorry for being so hard on him and that moms make mistakes too).

Today she and her BFF have enjoyed another beautiful day and have played and played.  Their current project is writing birthday messages for Hannah's Nana which they plan to put inside empty Vitamin Water bottles and float from our neighbor's pool to Texas or possibly from Memaw's pool in Texas to the water park pool we'll be visiting in a few weeks. :)  Listening to them discuss how that might or might not work, has been quite entertaining.  Just after I took this picture Hannah showed Kate Max's wart.
Kate: "He has a wart?  Why?"
Hannah: "Well, that just happens when you get old.  Ya know, like all the witches have them and stuff".
Kate: "Oh yeah, just like the door man on iCarly.  Except his came off and got on her shoe!"
Both Together: "EWWWWW, DISGUSTING!" (hysterical laughter)

Gotta love 'em.