The Story Of Us

Good morning everyone.. how was your week? Ours was busy.   On Tuesday the eldest graduated middle school. They had a really nice ceremony.. similar to a high school or college graduation, heavy on the pomp and circumstance.  We celebrated the event with dinner at K-Pot a Korean BBQ place at the graduates request.  Then on Sunday he turned 14. He had a friend over on Saturday night.. we cut a cake and the boys played endless video games.  On the day of his actual birthday we made french toast.. the boys continued to play into the afternoon. Sadly it was in the 90's and with a heat advisory in effect they were relegated to staying indoors.  In the late afternoon we dropped off D's friend and picked up his cousin and headed to an escape room. We completed it with 15 minutes to spare! We ended the night with stuffed shells and garlic bread - as requested by the birthday boy and leftover cake. Yum                     Etsy             Instagram             Twitter             Redbub

This is a big month for D.. not only will he be turning 11 this week but he also graduated elementary school! They held a simple outdoor ceremony. Guests we kept at a minimum but it was special nonetheless.          He received a certificate of graduation from his principal   and a dragon pin (their school mascot) from the vice principal His two teachers. and my parents who live on a whole different continent yet decided to come visit us for a couple weeks. We went out to celebrate that night at The Melting Pot. The kids had never had tried fondue before. I can't believe D is going to be a middle schooler soon.. I am both excited and terrified for him.   D's thoughts on going to graduating elementary school on moving on to middle school: 'I am looking forward to lockers and picking classes. I will miss having recess because there is no recess in middle school. I am scared about forgetting things and the possibility of detention but still excited to be going to middle school

Ah! Summer vacations have finally begun. I.. we have been counting down to this day for weeks now. Finally no alarms. The kids don't go to camp.. and save for a swim crash course later in July we are free. A few years ago I read somewhere.. and it's the most obvious thing but it hadn't occurred to me before then; 18 summers is all we get with our children.. maybe more if we're lucky so we need to try to make each one count. Which means I may disappear here and there.. The weeks leading up to today were crazy busy with the end of Ramadan and Eid celebrations.. I had friends visiting. One I hadn't seen in 5 years and another in 3.. I met some of their kids for the first time.. and while we only had a few hours together we had a wonderful time catching up and it was a joy to watch all our babies playing together. We celebrated D's 9th birthday over the weekend.. more details on the birthday to follow soon. And H graduated Pre K.. He's off to public