I just sat down to unload my camera (and my mind) after an incredibly long week and weekend. Well…the weekend wasn’t nearly long enough, but it was quite a week – especially when I realized I had over 500 photos that I needed to do something with.

So a little post with photos and happenings that didn’t quite manage to make it out of my camera and up here over the past week or so. A little mishmash, if you will.

Addie was so excited to finally get to wear her fancy, white shoes to church on Easter. I must have told Em at some point the white shoe rule (not after Labor Day, and only after Easter) because she kept telling Addie that she couldn’t wear them until Easter.

And then Addie proceeded to wear them every single day to school this week. They are hardly distinguishable as fancy “white” shoes any longer.

Emmy had her first real testing experience last week. The second graders took the CST (California Standardized Test) Tuesday through Thursday and they take the second part this week. She kept telling me that the test was very easy, but I think the stress of the testing definitely got to her for we had more than our share of meltdowns this past week. At one point she put herself on the bottom step on our staircase after I had yelled at her to stop harassing her sister. When I was walking by, I asked her why she was pouting and she started crying and said “I put myself here because I was hurting my sister. I’m in TIMEOUT!”  Oh, brother. Yes…she was pretty strung out. But she was rewarded on Friday when she was awarded Super Cougar for her trustworthiness!

And then…it was Dynamite Girl time.

Em and her friends Bella and Audrey have been practicing since December for the Variety Show. And, oh sweet fancy Moses were we happy that it finally came. They were the Dynamite Girls and danced to the song “Dynamite” – the KidzBop version. And they were…AWESOME. I’m not just a biased Mama here – they literally brought down the house. They couldn’t even introduce themselves because there was so much cheering when they walked on stage. It was so fun. And all of their hard work paid off – they rocked it!

(Miss Arlene choreographed the dance for them.)

They truly were Dynamite.

I’m still amazed that they got up in front of hundreds of people and did their thing. Actually I’m amazed at all of the performers and the show just reconfirmed my faith that we have a great community and school. The support for the kids was astounding and it was really cool to be a part of all of it.

After all of the craziness of April, we needed to just unwind this weekend. Addie has been waiting so not patiently to plant her garden, so we got some of that done this weekend.

I’ll show more details on our planting plan later in the week.

She was happy to get her plants from school “into the ground!”

And then we thought maybe it was time for her to take the training wheels off of the bike. Addie was not so sure…

Pep talk from Daddy…

Em, the veteran looks on…

And finally Daddy shows her how it is done…

No solo riding for Addie today. Mommy did walk away with a bee sting on the bottom of her foot (I had flipflops on) which is swollen and hurts still and the weekend did not seem nearly long enough to fully recuperate, but it is on to another week.

No rest for the weary.