Hinder's Gymnastics Showcase

Hinder performed in his first ever gymnastics showcase last weekend.

Imagine 50 kids, ages 3-5 plus all their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings AND their camcorders. It was mayhem. Awesome mayhem.

Seeing his cute little face when he received his medal and applause was the highlight for me.

 Playing "chop chop timber" into the foam pit was the highlight for H.

 He did an A+ job on all of his little routines.

Here's a few blurry, one-handed photos.

Thank you to  all of his patient, talented coaches.

We're genuinely sad to have to say good bye to Madison Gymnastics in a few months.

We Can Do Hard Things

"I Can Do Hard Things" is our family motto.

And by family motto, I mean the thing I say to Hinder twenty-seven times a day when he uses the 'I can't' excuse to get me to do things for him that he easily could do himself.

 But I cannnn't put on my socks....

But I don't know hoooowww to do it...

But it's toooo harrd to pick up allll those toooyyyysss...

You can do hard things!

(I'm hoping that if I say this enough times it will stick with him at a time when he actually is facing something more challenging than donning his stockings. But I digress...)

Lately, I feel pretty proud of our little family. We've accomplished some hard things lately.

Miss Vy, cute as can be, has learned to roll from her back to her tummy. I realize this is a natural developmental milestone. But apart from the birthing process, this is the first truly challenging thing she's accomplished.

 (I don't count rolling over from tummy to back as an accomplishment. Babies heads are so big...they just tilt those noggins and gravity does the rest, right?!)

You should have seen the look on her face the first time she did it.

So smiley and pleased with herself.

 As for me, I've FINALLY managed to get all the pregnancy pounds off.

It's like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Literally.

 And this grown up boy, he had his first days of preschool.

 He asked dozens of questions the night before. Whether or not I could stay? What would they do there? How long it would be? Would I come back to get him? Would they have real T-Rexes there? Would his new preschool friends like T-Rexes?

I was concerned he would be nervous and not go without some tears.

 But the next morning he confidently walked up to his teacher, took her hand, and walked up the sidewalk without looking back.

The only one shedding any tears was me.

And Riley turned 28. Older and handsomer.

But that's not the hard thing he accomplished.

He got accepted into Pharmacy School.

We're moving to Portland, Maine at the end of the summer and we're dying with excitement over it!

 Endless adventures await. And many difficult challenges are looming in the future.

But it's okay, because we can do hard things.