Celebrations

My first Mother's Day was the day after Lulu was born. She was born on Saturday, May 9th and we found out on Sunday that anyone having a baby on Mother's Day received a free digital camera, a gift from the Eastman Kodak Company. I remember feeling quite cheated, had I known there was a prize I felt like I could have mustered up enough focus and control to delay her birth by a mere 24 hours!

So...that was 1998, thirteen years ago. As of Monday, we will officially have a teenager in our house!! I still remember walking in the house with Lulu for the first time, we set the car seat and baby on the living room floor and The Mayor and I looked at each other and one of us actually said, "now what do we do?" We were both 27 years old and pretty smart but it still seemed like this little baby should have come with a big, thick owners manual!

So, go us! for getting her through the first 13 years of life, it is amazing to think how much she has grown and how much she has learned in that amount of time! So, in celebration of you, Lulu and your 13th birthday I will do the top 13 things I love about Alexa Laine (aka Lulu)...

13. You make glasses and braces look good!

12. You make one doozy of a pen out of duct tape!

11. You always replace the toilet paper with a new roll if you use it up! (you'll be a great wife someday 'cause that is our main job, ya know ☺)

10. You play the oboe very well!

9. You still love to do perler beads!

8. You have the lovely fingernails that I have always wished for

7. You aren't afraid to get on stage and sing, act and dance!

6. You talk to adults

5. You love flip flops and pig tails

4. You work harder in school than anyone I know and it pays off!

3. You always say "I love you" when you say goodbye or goodnight to us

2. You often fall asleep reading your Bible

1. You love the Lord

Happy Birthday Lulu, you make us proud!

Love ya girl!!

Okay, now here is a funny story about Lulu's brother, CJ. He is in fourth grade and is by far the funny one in our family. I do admit we are often laughing AT something he says or does and he probably could become offended but I think he realizes how goofy he is and enjoys his role of family comedian. So, CJ was chosen to take the test to be part of the gifted learner program at school (no, that's not the funny part ☺) The test had several parts and one was an essay. He came home and told us about it. The essay question was...if you could become any person or object from any time what would you choose? So, we are thinking that kids are going to answer that they would want to be the first astronaut to walk on the moon, or go back in time and be George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or maybe someone rich and famous. In my head, as he is telling us this, I am thinking that I will be so very proud if he said that he wished he could be Noah or one of Jesus' disciples or... So, what did CJ say??? He would like to be a coconut. Yes, a C-O-C-O-N-U-T. We all look at each other, a coconut? Yes, he says, because then I could just relax in a palm tree and look out at the beach and the ocean and enjoy the birds. Hummm...We all bust out laughing. CJ busts out laughing too. We start thinking about the teacher who will read the essays...Suzie wants to be the First Lady, Charlie wants to be a famous athlete, CJ wants to be a...coconut?! We laugh harder, and then Lulu says, "he'll probably get a lot of points for that answer!" He is a nut, if not a coconut!

I wish I was a coconut

And now, what was the best thing we ate this week? Lulu and I agreed it was a fresh dole pineapple. It was so juicy and sweet that we ate it up and didn't even take any pictures!

Happy Mother's Day!