The task at hand

Annabelle has been reticent to join me on my juicing binge. On Friday I took her to the doctor and had him tell her that she had to drink carrot juice every day. She pinched her lips together and gave me a look that said, "I don't like this, but if the doctor tells me to do it, then I guess I have to."

Luckily my folks arrived to spend the weekend with us and I told my mom she had to figure out how to convince her to drink the carrot juice. So far so good: she's sucked down a glass full two mornings in a row!

Wolf

A small gift to the fourth grade last week.

Boast

I suppose you would have to be six years old to brag about this with overt pride.


Annabelle :: Mom, I can fake cry REALLY good.

Over dinner

Annabelle :: Mom, did you have bangs when you were my age?

Me :: Yes, but they were different. Mine were curly.

Annabelle :: I know.

Me :: How do you know that?

Annabelle :: Because. I watched you have them when I was in heaven.

Me :: Really?

Annabelle :: Yes.

Me :: What was it like there?

Annabelle :: It was fun. VERY fun.

Me :: What else did you see when you were in heaven?

Annabelle :: I don't know anymore. I forgot.

(pause)

Annabelle :: I used to know. When I was veeery teensy...

Birthday and Mother's Day weekend

Dave with Little Cousin Sophia

Judge Vern playing Mother-May-I with the girls outside. (Vern was the judge that married Dave and I!)

We celebrated Frank's 70th.

The helmet, marked with previous decades: Kiss me I'm 40, 50, 60, 70...

Very serious about her chocolate.

A fun birthday gift: a painting of their home in Taos. The artist is in the background!

Frank and Vern.

Candid. Doesn't she look sweet with those bangs?

Reading Alice in Wonderland.

Mother's Day afternoon.

Sweet family.

I had brought some clay along and was inspired at the last minute to get some hand prints from Annabelle and Sophia.  

Cute tiny feet.

Perfect.

We did a couple with the girl's hands together.

Playing on the front porch.

They are like best friends. Seriously. Sophia even called her name: Egg Bah!

A big girl now...

...with bangs! I hated to cut her hair. And it took me only about a millisecond to miss her fancy A-line bob. But a recent vision screening showed a weakness in her right eye, the same eye that was always covered by her hair sweeping across her face.

I couldn't help but notice (out loud) how much older she looks with this hairstyle! When I was done, Annabelle stepped up on her stool and looked in the mirror. She looked extremely pleased, grinning immodestly at herself in the mirror. And she was notably pleasant and upbeat for the rest of the evening.

The picture of Annabelle above reminded me of this picture of me. Sometimes she looks so much like Dave and other times she looks just like me. What a funny thing!

Bonfante Gardens

We celebrated Annabelle's birthday in many ways: that day was the day of our school's May Faire, so the whole school was in a light, happy, celebratory mood. Dave and I shared in a celebration in her kindergarten and again later I joined a special birthday celebration with the children in aftercare. We went out to a special dinner too. She had the best day!

But nothing can compare to spending a whole day in Gilroy with her best friend... so that Saturday we took them both to an amusement park.

They are quite the item. Annabelle told me they kissed last week.

There they go... on their first date. Good thing it was only four minutes, I heard afterward that they were speeding and the police sirens were very loud. Notice Annabelle is driving. Like mother, like daughter. Ahem.

Post-lunch dancing. Are they cute or what?

Turning Six

I really can't believe she's six. Pictures will have to be enough because I'm rather speechless...

Just like Christmas and Easter, we woke at dawn on her birthday.

A sleeping bag was most anticipated!

She could not believe this dress from Grama. In mere seconds she was out of her birthday outfit and into this sundress.

Our new neighbor upstairs made her homemade marshmallows.  The perfect "cake" for Annabelle.