M.I.A.

Family pics by our family friend, Becky Farrell. Love!!

So I've been missing on my favorite little side project for more than a while. At some point, when I'm 35 or 40 or 70 I'll be real pissed that I forgot to write down some of the super fun stuff going on with the kids over this entire period. Just real pissed.

We've done some big stuff over the past three months that I failed to chronicle. Derrick registered Ellie for kindergarten. I can't believe it. She'll be going to the neighborhood school this fall and she's pretty excited. She's doing really well with her numbers and letters recently (thanks iPad) and she's even getting her own version of the cool technology for her birthday. (I'm pretty sure it's just so she stops asking to download apps onto Pope's iPad.)

Ellie turned 5 this week. She's big and smart and amazing. And real sassy. And exactly like me when it comes to controlling and planning everything. EVERYTHING. I have to give her an itinerary for the next day every night at bedtime or she won't go to bed....

Parker is well on his way to actually being potty-trained and real "big boy who wears underpants" if we could actually get anyone in this house healthy enough to work on real potty-training. The kids have been sick on and off since January.  And Pope has been sick for three months straight. Of course moms don't get sick, though. Because if they did who would take care of all the sickies!?!

And Parker is registered for pre-school, too. I don't actually know what I'll do with myself with they are both in school this fall. Madness, I say. Absolute madness. I'll probably just fill up the time with work because I'm cool like that. I like to stuff my self a little full. 5 open minutes in the day? Fill it with something, STAT!! But it will definitely be exciting and I just can't believe how quickly we went from having "babies" to having "kids."

And our kids will be celebrating said birthdays with a big olde family party in the coming weeks. We've booked our family holiday to the coast for this summer. I dusted off the old grill last week to make carne asade. SO GOOD. I'm getting this grilling thing down. Mr. Pope better watch his back. Tonight is blue-cheese macaroni and BBQ chicken. I love cooking in my cute little kitchen with the windows open and the kids playing. Well, Ellie is playing. Parker is sleeping because he's sick...

We're getting back to it. Fun stuff to come for the Popes.