We have another teen?

Karsyn's birthday fell on the last day of school. She was happy about that, but was not as happy about getting up early to have her breakfast in bed. Mark did snap a quick photo of her in her grumpy state, but she asked that I not post it so I will honor her wish ....

Emmrey got right to work making little notes for her and Kars was greeted with all sorts of sweet messages as she got ready for school:)

 She even found one wrinkled up in her shoe:)

so cute she included her time of birth:)

 When she got home from school she found her room had been decorated by her YW leader and kids

We waited for Mark to get home to get on with the celebrating. When I asked Karsyn a month before her birthday how she wanted to celebrate, she told me she just wanted to do something as a family (what she didn't quite know yet). She finally decided that she wanted to go to the Drive Inn. We were kinda holding our breath because, first they don't post the new movies until Friday (her birthday) so we weren't even sure what would be playing and second, the weather pattern had been afternoon/evening thunderstorms. I got everything ready in hopes the weather cooperated and if not, we would have a movie night at home.

She opened gifts before we headed off to dinner. Emmrey picked her out a book at the Book Fair a few months prior and she made her this 3D poster decorated with guitars and "Emmrey and Karsyn Forever Buddies"

Bailee was a little short on cash with her Nauvoo trip right around the corner, so she gave Kars some movie nights with her in this creative little envelope she made.

She got cash from Smith grandparents and a skirt, top, and a little birthday cake from her Fortie grandparents

She also got a cool guitar strap, shirt, Bath and Body stuff and a pre-ordered Insurgent movie. She wanted this so bad I was bummed to discover it doesn't come out until August. It will give us more time to finish the book;)

She was most excited to get a Penny Board (well .. ... since she didn't get the puppy). She was on this thing lickety-split . One more option to keep this girl moving!

We headed to dinner at Old Chicago.

And decided to give the Drive inn a try. As we were pulling in it started to sprinkle, but cleared up and was just right.  They show a feature and co-hit at this one, which at one time we (Mark and I) would have been all over, but when the first show doesn't end until 10:30, there was no staying for the second. Mark was asleep half way through:)

We saw Tomorrowland, which I had heard it was pretty good. I didn't care for it, but it's really about being cramped in the back of the car with all the pillows, blankets and treats right?

Kars had chose Root Beer Floats over cake for her treat and it was so late when we got home (like 11:00), I thought we might just save them for the next day.  Then we figured, what the heck lets really celebrate this kiddos birthday until the bitter end. So we enjoyed our floats right up until midnight when the birthday was officially over.

Boy do we ever love this funny girl of ours:)

Happy 13th Birthday LU!

Schools Out!

Friday was the last day of school around here. Bailee didn't have to go since it was a makeup day for finals, which she had already taken. Karsyn and Emmrey had school until 11:00. I didn't have a lot of information about what the morning would look like at the Middle School. Kars just said they didn't have any classes?? Come to find out they had, among other activities, an award ceremony where Karsyn was recognized. I know it's not the end of the world, but I thought it was weird that they didn't inform parents in case they wanted to be there. She was awarded for improvement in Spanish, Excellence in Pre-AP World Geo, as well as the Edison Award in Science for her contribution of ideas:)

 Emmrey had a few mini parties as a reward for AR points, classroom behavior etc. They also celebrated the 5th graders who will be promoted. I have been fighting a cold/cough that is at times debilitating, so I didn't feel too bad about staying away. We gave her teacher this little framed tree a day or two before. She LOVED it!!

When the girls were all home, I took them to Pizza Palace, a local joint on main street. We have picked up a pizza from them once, but never tried the sandwiches. I figured it would be something different and although it wasn't the best sandwich ever, we enjoyed taking in the "small town charm" and talking about their day. Look how excited these girls are to be out of school!!

 Emmrey wanted a silly one. Her sisters didn't quite get what she wanted them to do, so this is what we got and she was pouting:(

I made the observation that 2 of 3 had on the same outfits from the 1st day of school. Coincidence?

13

13 years ago this little bundle entered our lives 2 1/2 weeks early.

She continues to keep us guessing and surprises us all the time! 

We love you the most Beans!!

Field Day

Emmrey had Field Day on Tuesday. In conjunction, the school held their "traditional BBQ", which parents were invited to come and join in for lunch. I was kinda looking forward to having lunch with Emm and eating a little BBQ for 3 buckaroos. What that really meant was a trip through the school lunch line with a hot dog added to your tray:( Oh well I got to hang out with my cutie anyway. Honestly, the schools here have a pretty decent hot lunch menu by my standards, but the couple of times we have been invited to "special occasion lunches" (ie Thanksgiving and BBQ) I have been pretty let down. Could be our hopes were too high?

blurry photo of an old fashioned sack race

she nailed this one ..  I mean look at the poor kid in the next lane;)

waiter race made nearly impossible by the breeze that was tipping over all the cups and frustrating those little ones

Octopus. They had to use some teamwork on this one

Volleyball with a whole lot of balls to go around

It was a fun afternoon and we were all just thrilled that it finally wasn't raining ..  .. at least for a few hours!

Authors Chair

Last Friday, Mark and I were invited to Authors Chair in Emmrey's class. The kids each got to pick one of their favorite pieces of writing from the year and read it to the class and parents from the very special chair. Emmrey chose to read a poem she wrote titled "February"

 February

by Emmrey Smith

February is here

Valentines appear

Hang up the hearts

And the fun starts

Make some cookies

Mabe for the movies

Pink and red are everywhere

White is only here and there

But Love is everywhere!

Her teacher gave her a certificate of Achievement and said she has a future as an acclaimed author and is gifted in her exceptional writing skills.

 This girl does love to write and has a real gift for it. She writes in her spare time and has taken several of her stories to share with her teacher/class. Mrs E has also talked to us about her skills at PTC and has used many of her writing pieces as examples as she teaches. We are pretty proud of this little Author of ours;)

Historic Tour

I was able to chaperone on a field trip with the 2nd graders and take in a little history. Our first stop was the Avery House which was home to Franklin Avery and his family. He was responsible for surveying and laying out the city of Fort Collins in 1873. He was also instrumental in developing water projects that allowed agriculture to flourish in Northern CO.

 We walked all through this old historic home and I was in love. I was also in love with our Docent who was the cutest little lady.

 We then headed to Grandview Cemetery where we received a walking tour by the graves of some of the influential people of Fort Collins.

 Lunch break and play time at City Park

Izabella, Kira and Emmrey

 We then headed to Old Town for a walking trivia tour and a visit to Old Firehouse Books. This historic building built in 1881 was originally the Firehouse in Fort Collins and is now a bookstore complete with the fire pole (kids were sad they couldn't slide down it). Apparently, this building was used as a model for the firehouse on Disneylands main street:)

The cute little tour guide took the kids around back to show them the adjoining building that served as the jail complete with bars still covering the windows.

That just about rounded out our visit to Old Town. It sure was fun tagging along with Emm and learning some interesting stuff:)

Go Rapids!!

Emmrey finished her soccer season last week. She played on a rec team with a cute little group that named themselves the Rapids. Although there is no official score keeping at this age, they played very well and "won"most of their games. I have to remind myself that coaching through the rec is all volunteer. Bless the sweet woman's heart she was dependable and organized, but had no coaching skills whatsoever. The Rapids held their own and stayed strong despite not having much of a coach to speak of. 

 Emm got right in there and gave it her all. She LOVED playing and was so disappointed when the had to cancel a few games due to rain.

 She was so excited for every practice and looked forward to every game. Not one complaint all season .. ...  she even discovered that the porta-potty by the field wasn't so bad and "actually smelled pretty nice". Bonus.

 

Go Rapids!! 

(back) Jasmine, Jacob, Joseph, Coach Arvill  (front) Jean, Emmrey, TJ

Nesting

For the past several weeks we have been watching a Robin attempt to make a nest right at the top of one of our porch pillars. With all the wind we were having it seemed futile at times. Just as she would get some twigs and grass collected, it would blow away. She picked a pretty nice spot, high and tucked away enough to be protected and eventually she had her nest.  After several days of observing her sitting in her nest, we had to sneak a peak.

 Within about a week, our camera captured this.

Not sure if that last one ever hatched, but I have been watching mama bring food to the nest so I am hoping to see little ones soon. We are trying to keep our distance so as not to disrupt things:)

Skin Cancer stinks

Just after I had Bay in 1999, I had a basil cell carcinoma on my right arm. I had never been a huge sun worshiper, but I must admit I had my ignorant days of going to the tanning beds and too many bad sunburns as a kid. After that little scare, I became very diligent about sunscreen for me and the girls. I have had pretty regular check ups with the skin doc and aside from some precancerous stuff I had a burn treatment for last year, things have been pretty routine. Back in December or January I noticed a little dry patch on my neck. By February, it had gotten pretty bumpy and scaly and quite frankly a little gross. I wasn't super concerned about it other than it didn't look very good and I found myself always wanting to make sure that side of my neck was covered. I went to my annual appointment with my OB/GYN and asked her to take a look at it. She didn't seem worried and said it looked like a wart. A WART? I have never had a wart in all my life so that alone kinda freaked me out. When I made an appointment for Bailee with the Dermatologist in April, I decided I may as well make one for me and get the thing removed along with a few other spots. It's pretty much procedure if they remove a mole etc, they send it in for a biopsy, so I was expecting a letter at some point stating that it all came back normal. So you can imagine the panic that sprang through me when I got a voice mail from the nurse saying they needed me to call them back in regards to some results. Honestly, I had been more concerned about a couple dark moles on Bailee's back that we hadn't planned on removing, but the Dr. felt we should. Those came back fine, it was that ugly wart of mine that was the trouble! The biopsy came back positive for skin cancer....a squamous cell carcinoma. So surgery was scheduled to get it cut out.  The surgery itself was pretty painless other than all the shots to numb the area. I was a little freaked out about the thought of them cutting into my neck and possibly hitting an artery. The doctor thought that was pretty funny since those arteries are a little deeper than that. I was surprised how big the incision ended up being. I knew it would be "football shaped" but thought it would be about half as long. I was sent home with this fancy bandage to wear for 48 hours. It made it very difficult to turn my neck at all which I guess in some ways was good as I wasn't to do anything too strenuous.

 After I removed the bandage it looked like this. I ended up with 12 stitches outside and I think she said they did 4 inside that will dissolve. It bruised over time and got pretty sore for several days.

 After 10 days I went back to have the sutures removed. By this time the wound was itching like crazy!!

 At nearly a month out .. .. I think it's looking pretty good. She did it as close as possible to a crease line so that hopefully it won't be quite as noticeable over time. The only problem now it that my body has reacted strangely to those inner sutures and I have these tiny bumps where they are/were. Hopefully that diminishes too.

I am so glad they caught it and that at this point all the margins came back clear. Sadly, because this is my second, I am that much more at risk and therefore my life will forever involve skin check ups with the Dermo. But I won't complain, things could be worse!