Taya's 6th Birthday Breakfast

Happy Birthday to my little Taya girl.  I can't believe she is 6 years old already.  Where does the time go?  I still remember driving as fast as we could through the forests of Germany trying to get to the hospital in Trier, Germany before she came.  I seriously didn't think we'd make it.  We made it to a room at least, then Trek, an anesthesiologist, & a 16 year old candy striper delivered her into my arms.  Our lives have never been the same.  We love our little Squick.

For her special birthday breakfast she begged me to make her some chocolate chip pancakes, sausage, & of course the Potter birthday tradition of Ding Dongs with candles in them.  We woke up at the crack of dawn (also known as 5:30 am) to celebrate her special day.

Taya is funny.  She can be SO outgoing, spunky, & tornado-like at times, & then so demure, shy, & quiet at other times.  She was very shy for her birthday this year which made me laugh.

Happy 6th Birthday Taya!  We love you more than anything & are SO glad you are a part of our family.  The Potters just wouldn't be the Potters without our little Taya.

The Oboe

Here in VA where we live they don't offer string orchestra which really broke my heart being a devout string player.  Yes, I could teach it myself, but my kids really need a teacher other than mom.  Plus I want them to have the opportunity to experience music in SCHOOL.

So, band it is. . . not that band is a bad thing.  I was in band too, remember.  So the more I ponder on my band memories, the more excited I'm getting about Cadence being in the band at school.  We went to the parent info meeting & talked to the band teacher about instruments & started the decision making process.

Cadence is a lot like me.  I never could handle being the girl that played the most obvious choices for instruments. . . violin, flute, clarinet.  Nope, that just wasn't me.  I opted for the unusual guys like the viola, bassoon, & vibraphone.  (In the end I played well over 30, but I had my favorites for sure.)

Cadence wanted to be different.  I jumped in on the possibility of the bassoon immediately.  I love the bassoon & I play it well so I could help her.  Nope.  They don't allow bassoons at her school.  They said maybe in high school, but not at this age as a starter instrument.  Hmmmm.  I asked the teacher about maybe allowing an oboe & her teacher jumped on it.  She hadn't had an oboist in 15 years & LOVES oboe.  Cadence got really excited at the thought of being the ONLY oboist in her entire school.  SO, oboe it is.

Turns out, oboe is a perfect match for her.  Double reed instruments are sometimes a lot more difficult to get air through for younger kids than other woodwind instruments so I didn't know how she'd do, but after 3 days she's already playing scales quite well.  I'm very proud of her.

I can't wait to be your "Band Mom" Cadence.  We are going to have a BLAST together.

Mother-Daughter Make-Over Night

I was in charge of Activity Days again for the month of September so I planned another 2 parter for my two nights with the girls.  The first week I sat down with the girls & we talked about hygiene.  I know, not the funnest thing to talk about with a bunch of tween girls, but it's one of their goals in their Faith in God booklet & you know, sometimes you just need a refresher.

I gave each of the girls a little gift bag with travel sized shampoo/conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, & a washcloth in it to help them remember their hygiene is important.  

THEN, we started planning for our 2nd activity that kind of goes along with our hygiene talk:

Mother Daughter Make-Over Night.

I let the girls make homemade invites to invite their mothers to our activity.  We planned to bring blankets & pillows & have our mom's dressed up in their pajamas for the fun night.  We would do mud masks with cucumbers on our eyes, paint nails, eat cupcakes, & simply enjoy some one on one time with our moms.  Then I had each of the girls make a small jar of bath salts to give to their moms as a gift.  Each girl wrote a letter to their moms & attached it to their gift.

Then on the 3rd Wednesday of September we had our fun girls night!  I think the girls had a blast.  I had my own two girls to play with & all the other girls had their mom's.  One girl in our group lost her mom last summer so our other Activity Days leader (who just got married a few months back & doesn't have kids yet) jumped right in & played this girl's surrogate mother for the night.  We ended up having SO MUCH FUN.

I think these girls had fun feeling the masks tighten on their face & they thought those cucumbers were beyond awesome.

Me & my beautiful girls

I painted zebra stripes on my girls' nails.

This was Aaliyah's LAST activity days activity.  She turns
12 in two weeks & will be moving on to Young Womens.
We will miss her terribly!

I still say I have the best calling in the church.  I love Activity Days.

All Grown Up

There are days where you just feel really old.

I keep in touch with people from every part of my life.  Being in the military we move a LOT & I have to say good-bye to friends all the time.  But there's always that chance that your paths will cross again in the future.  It really does happen more often than you realize.

This week I had the opportunity to feed the Spanish missionaries for our Stake, & guess who one of those missionaries was?  My old piano student BJ Lovin!  When we were stationed at Hill AFB (2001-2007) I had about 12 piano students & BJ was one of them.  He was 9 at the time.  I still remember him playing the Star Wars Theme song at one of my recitals.  It's crazy how fast time flies.

Now BJ is all grown up & serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints here in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission.  I KNOW, what are the chances?  It was SO MUCH FUN having him over for dinner.  To me he'll always be that fun loving kid who LOVED to play the piano as fast as he could without counting.  He grew up, became a drummer (who has to count perfectly & at the correct speed) & then served a mission.  It was a pleasure having him over for dinner.

Lovin' on my Crazy Boys

I love being a mom.  I really do.  Sure you have those days where you just want to lock yourself in a closet with a half gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream, but for the most part it's so much fun.

Canyon is growing like a week.  He's HUGE.  I wish he's stop.  He's my last baby so I want him to stay small forever.  He is rolling all around the room & likes to roll to the toys the kids leave around.  He's especially fond of Trek's old dog Russ.  We've had this old smelly dog for YEARS.  Trek got it when he was 8 years old so basically it's 25 years old.  But Canyon will roll over to it & lay on it.  It's the cutest thing ever.

And then of course there's Craiger, aka MONSTER.  Yup, he's always finding ways to make a mess.  This time he literally FELL into his dinner plate as he was clearing the table.  Good times.

I love moments where I can cuddle with my kids.

My kids are my world.  I love them all so much.

1st Day of School 2013

This year was a very exciting 1st day of school for the Potter Family.

#1: My beautiful children get to go to ONE SCHOOL this year.  You heard me right, no more moving 3 times during the school year. . . no more 3 schools & 3 teachers & too much change.  They are at their schools & nothing is going to change for 3 more years.

#2: Our little Miss Taya got to finally start Kindergarten this year.

Taya got the teacher we requested for her last Spring.  I got to meet each of the teachers & I had Mrs. Mann pegged as the perfect person for Taya to relate to the instant I heard her speak.  I'm SO THRILLED she is Taya's teacher.

Taya was SO excited on her first day of school.  She had her new glasses, her new Minnie Mouse backpack, her new clothes. . . she was just excited as she could be.

Lorien started 3rd Grade this year.  She has Mrs. C. Evans as her teacher & so far they are clicking quite well.  Lorien is loving school & all the new things she's learning.  She's even READING & ENJOYING it.  Hooray for 3rd Grade.

And my little Cadence is now in 5th Grade.  How does that even happen?  She starts band this year as well as the SEARCH (gifted) program.  She has Ms. Pyrtle for homeroom, Ms. Callet for Science, & Ms. Fortner for SEARCH.  She's SUPER excited about all her new activities coming up in 5th Grade.  She's going to have a blast.

I love these girls!

The Westside Elementary (4th-6th grades) bus stop grew this year.  We have 8 kids there now (only 5 in the picture, but there's 8 total.)  I love walking the kids to the bus stop every morning.

Now you want to talk about HUGE. . . . the Carrollton Elementary (grades K-3rd) is HUGE.  This isn't even all of them.  There's about 15-16 kids here this year.  How exciting is that?  I love the kids in our neighborhood.

Lorien is looking out for her little sister this year.  She makes sure she gets on & off the bus okay.  I love how much my girls love each other.

This one last little wave from Taya made me
break down to tears.  She waved, smiled, & got
on that big school bus without mommy.
I hate that they grow up so fast.

Bladen had the worst day of his life on the 1st day of school.  The minute he saw his sister (Taya) get on that bus, his life was over.  They have been best buds since the day he was born.  They are only a year apart in age & they have always done everything together.  It broke his little heart to have his sister gone.  He cried all day long, & at Walmart he kept panicking looking for Taya.  "Where's Taya?  She's lost from us!"  Poor kid.  When we got home from Walmart he cried himself to sleep on the couch.

The first day was rough for him, but it's gotten better since then.  Bless his heart.

The girls LOVE school & they LOVE their teachers!  I'm happy my kids love learning.