School in 2020 has been the weirdest thing ever. I remember thinking that we were so relieved to get cheer tryouts in before our schools dismissed back in March. It was wishful thinking, but we expected to travel for cheer camp in July and to have a very normal football season. It's so bizarre to realize how far from reality that would be. One of the things we were most looking forward to this year, was having these two girls on the same squad, cheering at the same games. Molly is my cousin -- I'm the oldest in my generation and she's the youngest -- but she's only three years older than Ella. They are four years apart in school, meaning they would never have the opportunity to cheer together and wouldn't be in high school at the same time. We were so lucky that Ella was able to try ...
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The Bookend Birthday Party
If there was one terrible mistake I made during the pandemic, it was hosting a pretty big birthday party for two. At the time, the numbers were steady and our families were all healthy and being careful and the news had encouraged us to make outdoor activities a priority. No one got sick and our two girls loved being celebrated, but in hindsight I feel guilty for the potential exposure and a little gross for flaunting our get together on social media. As we reflect on the previous year, there aren't many things I would do differently, but this is something I might would have reconsidered (written in December 2020). We arbitrarily decided, long ago, to only do big birthdays while the girls were in elementary school. Golden birthdays and milestone birthdays are the exception, but we ...
Ella’s Seventh Grade Interview
I took these photographs on the very first day of school -- August 8, 2019. I had them inserted into blog posts, with blank first day of school interview questions, but never managed to sit down with the girls. We've talked off and on about my failed interviews (the first year we've missed since Ella went to kindergarten) and when to squeeze them in, but it never happened. I'm not calling anything related to COVID-19 a "happy accident," but when the first day of distance learning rolled around, I thought it was high time I got answers to my questions. And even though I'm sure my girls would like to pretend they looked this cute today, I couldn't help but share a photo from our first day of remote school, as well. As weird as this season is, I'm trying to be really good about preserving ...
Recital Recap | 10 Years
I wrote parts of this post weeks ago and never hit publish. It was going to be really hard to say Ella has decided not to dance this season, so I was trying to be extra careful with my words. It can be hard to share about your life, while also holding moments sacred and trying to protect your daughter's feelings -- all at the same time. As luck would have it (more likely divine intervention coupled with dramatic thirteen year old feelings), I registered Ella for her eleventh year of dance this month. It's going to look a lot different than the last seven years have, but I'm so grateful that I get to watch her on stage again this season. I had been writing this post in my head for almost six months and still couldn't find the right words to describe what I was feeling. It's not that ...
On Being Twelve | an Ella Update
Much like Sophie's post last week, here are some of my favorite recent moments and memories with our favorite biggest girl! This has been a hard year for Ella, but man has she thrived. The transition from elementary school to middle school has been pretty seamless -- her grades are still fantastic and she amazes me with her determination and grit. It is different, though, and we are still learning to navigate all of big emotions, tight deadlines, and pure exhaustion. We knew when competition season started that it might be our last one that looks like this. Now that she's getting more involved at school, we're trying to figure out how to balance dance and cheer and a really full social calendar and it's just plain hard. We're still not quite sure what next year will look ...
Homecoming 2018
One of the things I love most about Ella is that she's insanely humble and unassuming. She's beautiful and talented and kind, but she doesn't always realize her own worth. A few weeks before Homecoming at her school, she mentioned that they were voting for Homecoming Class Representatives at school and talking about who she was thinking of voting for. I casually said something about her being the rep and the look on her face was hilarious. I don't think she had even considered that as an option, but she reminded me she was on the Railroad Safety Committee and that she would be riding in the parade with that group of students and that she had other responsibilities that would conflict with being the sixth grade rep. A week or so later, Polly and I were napping when I got a message from ...
Ella’s Sixth Grade Interview
I always say I'm going to share more video on the blog, but with our camera upgrade earlier this year, it's actually possible. I'm hoping to up my video game as we get closer to baby's arrival and start sharing regular vlogs here on the blog. I'm not sure that I'll try and set a rigid schedule, but I'm hoping to capture more of what our family is really like and -- hopefully -- that means sharing more of them with you! Our first video project on the new camera was capturing the girls' annual back-to-school interviews. While we've done a video format once before, but we usually stick with a list of questions and answers. The girls were excited to see the camera set up when the got home from school on Tuesday and we were able to capture their first few thoughts about a new school year ...
Recital Recap | Nine Years
I'm drafting this post in August of 2019, despite the fact that these photographs were taken in June of 2018?! My only excuse is that I was pregnant and who knows why these were never edited and shared on the blog. I realized it when I was drafting a post about this year's dance recital and couldn't find these photos to link. I'm back dating the post so that it goes back where it's supposed to be, but I figured I would offer a disclaimer since it will probably show up in your feed reader when I press publish! Since it's been an entire year since this recital happened, I'm not even going to try and recap what we were thinking or how things went. I am thrilled that the photos from this year were so beautiful and that I managed to get a photo of every costume in front of the backdrop. That ...