11 years old!

C turned 11 today. Amazes me that she is that old already. We had her party the other night. It was a lot of fun. We made a big human board game in the driveway. The kids were the pawns and they had to move around squares that said things like:

Move Ahead 3
Sing the National Anthem
Show Us Your Best Dance Move
Give Us Your Best Animal Impersonation

and more. The dice was made out of a box. It was fun and very silly. We had pizza and cake/ice cream. I had set up a candy buffet for them to fill bags and they ate that while watching "College Roadtrip", which seemed to be a hit with them. Instead of "goodie bags" I bought 10 different little gifts and wrapped them. The girls did a Yankee Swap with them and that was fun too. All in all it was a really great party and C seemed to really enjoy herself.

She and I have certainly had our tumultuous times, a lot in fact. But in the last 6 months or so I feel improvement. Not a magical fix but some movement in the right direction. She still is very challenging to me but we seem to be doing a little bit better at getting along.

She's a good kid. She is so smart. She is a wonderful friend as evidenced by her wide circle of friends. She is creative and thoughtful when she wants to be. She is a very hard worker and has a strong drive to succeed and please. She is a really good horse rider. :) 11 years, whew, where did that time go?

In other news J's party was also a rousing success, alligator and all. The animal lady was great, the kids got to hold things like snakes, a ferret, a tarantula, lizards and the infamous Walter the alligator. A good time was had by all, even the alligator seemed to have a good time.

Swimming lessons are over, cut short by our town lake closing Wednesday due to high bacteria counts. Nice. So lessons were cancelled for the rest of the week. Kind of a bummer, I feel like we got gypped. The kids won't even get to test since they are doing those on Monday and my 3 will be at a different day camp all next week.

In other news it is just 20 days till my completely self indulgent, Mom needs a break trip. I am getting so excited! My suitcase is out and being filled. My Pre Trip report is in full swing and I've inspired a few other Moms to take the solo plunge over there on the DISboards which is kind of cool. My college pal S is driving over from Tampa one day to go to Epcot with me. We have not seen each other in over 4 years so that will be really cool. I am also attending a DIS meet and getting together with a bunch of folks I talk with over on the DIS boards, fellow freaks like me. So it is really cool and almost here. While I am away R and the kids are going back to Maine. My MIL rented our house for that week and they'll go up for 4 days. It will be fun for them.

And then gosh the kids start up school again! Summer is truly whizzing by this year!

I got the new Rick Springfield CD this week. I'm going to save that for its own post!