Feels like a new season.

It's the end of the school year around here - Fisher's last day is tomorrow, and Alla has her last day next week. I feel it just as keenly as they do, school careening to a close, a definite celebratory halt, and can see the gentle roll of summer pick up slowly thereafter. I can hardly believe that tomorrow I'll be snapping away at my little boy's last day of his first year of preschool, or that next week my daughter can say she's already finished two years of the long educational journey.

Tonight, though, I am thinking of summer. Of ways to learn, games to play, new ideas to explore, books to read, art to make. Summer is time for all the stored-up things, all the rainy-day ideas, all the grandiose ideas we don't have time for those other months. I can't wait, I am so lucky, to share the summer with my little loves.

Tonight, though, I am thinking of summer. Of ways to learn, games to play, new ideas to explore, books to read, art to make. Summer is time for all the stored-up things, all the rainy-day ideas, all the grandiose ideas we don't have time for those other months. I can't wait, I am so lucky, to share the summer with my little loves.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Took Fisher to the Mississippi River yesterday after dropping off Big Sister. A favorite pastime of ours, for sure, especially when we actually get to see a large barge go through the lock!

2. Today we're at the Minnesota Zoo with the entire first grade from Alla's school for their field trip. I have told Fisher that it is quite a privilege for the two of us to be able to tag along, since we aren't in the first grade, and am hoping that this will inspire angelic-like behavior.

3. Today is also Ron's birthday! Happy Birthday Dear Sweet, Thoughtful, Handsome, Wonderful Husband. Can't wait to have chocolate birthday cupcakes with you later. (After I recover from a day at the zoo with the first grade, that is.)

4. I am in the middle of Katherine's wonderful book and savoring every page.

5. Two weeks from Thursday is the last day of school!

6. The weather is just beautiful here lately, and Memorial Day weekend is shaping up to be just stunning too - hot, but perfect. Grilling, water balloons, popsicles, sprinklers.

7. Last night's dinner: Lettuce Cups, Corn-Quinoa with Lemon Honey Butter dressing, and watermelon. (See above.)

8. For breakfast we tried the no-flour banana oatmeal muffins, and they might be my favorite find ever. To be fair, though, the oats are basically being pummeled into oat flour, but, yes, it is a protein-rich flour instead of your usual stale-after-one-day gluten-free mix. If you make them, we only used 1/2 cup sugar (because I generally think you can always use less than the recipe calls for, and because we eat them for breakfast and don't like our breakfast to taste like dessert, but these are just my opinions).

9. I miss the beach. Like the real beach with an ocean.

10. TV shows are almost over. Looks like another summer of lots and lots of books:)

Watermelon season.

Once it's here, it is almost always in our fridge. It's a perfect side for every meal, or, sometimes, enough of it makes a whole meal for me! Sometimes I find a little personal one that is much too much but oh so cute, and these two can dive in and share it. I'm thinking they share my obsession.

Two reasons.

 There are a million reasons I love this boy, but here are two photographic ones.

His toes, dangling. And his need to grab the (pink) guitar when a song moves him to sing and play along.

Love you, Buddy.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Get this kid some Legos of his own, right!

2. Alla had her seventh birthday well-kiddo doctor visit on Saturday and is 50 inches and 52 pounds. I'm glad no one is blogging about my inches and pounds.

3. Fisher is all fired up about the Vehicle Fair this Saturday.

4. Every single school morning, I am waking the kids up at 8:00 (next year we are getting a reliable alarm clock), but, miraculously, today when Alla had to be at the dentist at 8:30, both kids were out of bed at twenty to seven. I feel a nap coming on for the little one.

5. Currently Fisher is into every single video in the Little Mammoth Media series. Today, The Big Space Shuttle.

6. After one of our marathon dandelion weed-pounding sessions, Fisher asked me, "Mama, why does it have the word lion in it?"

7. He and I started planting the garden at the end of last week. We planted seeds of peas, lettuce and broccoli, plus some wildflowers and gladiola bulbs. It should be an interesting and experimental year, as we are loosely attempting square foot gardening. I don't know why I didn't try it out sooner. The whole concept of individual squares is completely appealing to my organized/planner personality.

8. Unless we pick them out, our garden is likely to be growing lots of maple trees, as the helicopters have been flying this week. Fisher wondered yesterday if those helicopters would grow into the real ones, with one rotor or two.

9. I feel the school year coming to a close. I love summer, but I also love the anticipation of it, because once it is here, I feel time speed by too quickly.

10. This Mother's Day looks to be a very lovely sunny one! Hope yours is lovely and relaxing!

Seven.

I can't help but wonder if one of these days, I'll glance at post titles before checking dates and wonder which kid I was talking about who turned seven. Thankfully, this is only my first time around at seven; I've one yet to come through that gate. It all happens so fast, I'm reminded every year.

The birthday girl got lots of fun phone calls from people who love her. I think it's hilarious to always have to remind her to put the phone to her ear. Kids these days!

 Nana and Pappi picked out a few custom items for her with her own artwork on them - what a compliment!

 Right in the middle of it all, just smiles and family and gifts.

Cake of choice: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. We're still picking up sprinkles from the cracks between floorboards!

Last but not least, the 6:37 shots. I set a reminder so I wouldn't forget, as I always seem to do with Fisher (poor second child). I love to do these, partly to show how she's grown from this exact time each year, but also to distract me from reminiscing too much about what I was doing seven years ago on this day (waiting for that first cry) and how my life was instantly so completely changed. We love you, Alla Balla. Happy Birthday!

Any May a Beautiful Change.

I got my copy of Any Day a Beautiful Change in the mail on my daughter's birthday last week, and since then it's been celebration, a date with my husband, and then taking care of that daughter when she was sick for 36 hours. And now, I think I might be hoarding it. Either way, I want to participate in this lovely kick-off because I am so proud of you, Katherine, for the words I will soon read.

In this season of motherhood, I am reflecting on the beginnings of becoming a mother, on that beautiful change I felt in my life. For me there are so many moments that pointed out motherhood as a change from what life had been before I became a mom. Many of those are the wow moments, of bliss, of amazement, of fullness. Gazing at my newborn asleep in my arms, running my fingers through all of that newborn hair, calling for Ron to get the camera because my newborn must be hugging me. But on Friday, April 29, 2005, when I hobbled through the door of our beach apartment late in the afternoon with my newborn girl in my arms, I felt change. We were fresh from the hospital, eager to get home, and what I saw as I crossed the threshhold was sun streaming over dust, grown from a week of labor and cesearean. What I felt was hungry; we'd left the hospital right before our celebratory dinner. What I heard was my new child crying, hungry, wet, out of sorts, in no place familiar.

In that first moment in our apartment with our new girl, the light of day smoothing everything over as the nighttime cannot, I saw that motherhood was not just holding and rocking and changing and feeding and reading and singing and pushing a stroller; it was everything. In that moment I saw that my life had become more, and that I had to be more. I saw that I would be changing and feeding and dressing and working out and preparing meals and reading and dancing and singing every day now. I saw life, not that different from life now, seven years later (although the concept is no longer new), all of its parts, all ready for me to do at once.