A Right of Passage

This summer was time for a right of passage for our growing girl Kennedy. She had decided that since her best cousin Laynie had gotten her ears pierced that she too, was ready to gather her courage and get it done. She looked forward to it for most of the year so the anticipation was thick. 5 Aunties, 2 cousins, her sister and her mom were all there to cheer her on. It was fun to all be stuffed in the Claire's store together for this small but special moment.

The piercing on tape: she doesn't even flinch or break her smile, I did notice she squeezes that bear pretty darn tight though! Way to be brave Kennedy!

Every girl remembers getting their ears pierced, but I doubt many have as fun a memory as Kennedy does now. Lucky girl!

Battling Jet Lag

(Checking out the horses before the parade)

Living overseas with a bunch of other expats you learn that most of us have ideas about what helps with jet lag. Nathan has about 15 years of experience so he's definitely earned his tenure.
We've learned it's important to get on the eating and sleep schedule of your destination place as soon as possible. For example, if you get off the plane and just feel blah but it is dinner time, you should still try and eat. Then the goal is always to stay awake. At least until 7pm that first night, but the later the better. Another key that is super difficult for me to not give in to is NO NAPS. Because if you take a nap in the middle of the afternoon, your body feels like it should go into a deep sleep like you would be back at home where it is the middle of the night - it'll mess you up for days.

So this year we got off the plane after roughly 24hrs of travel and headed to Meridian Diary days. My older 3 had essentially not slept on the plane at all but were so excited to see their cousins and Aunts and Uncles that they all had freakish amounts of energy (this is a phenomenon I do not understand but envy deeply).
My BIL does the shirts for the Dairy Days parade and so this year Nathan walked the parade with Kennedy, Kohen and Aly, throwing t-shirts out to the crowd. They had such a fun and memorable time. I guess Aly did get a little tired during the parade so she was able to ride in the truck and hand out shirts from there. But they had a great time. Thanks Tara and Brandon! for letting them participate.

I watched the parade with my SILs and BIL and Ander and Scarlett. Scarlett passed out in Trevi's arms before too long, and Keith helped me keep Ander from getting run over. I just worked on forming my sentences properly and not acting as mentally handicapped as I felt from lack of sleep.
When I picked up Nathan and the kids we were surprised to find it was already 9pm! The sun stays up so late in the summers here and we always forget in the beginning. But it worked out so perfectly for getting us a good head start on jet lag.
Poor Nathan had to turn around 24 hrs later on Father's Day and go back home to Taiwan. It's a darn good thing he is our families resident expert on jet lag.

Aly's 6th Birthday

Shortly after our arrival in Boise our sweet Aly, who is both middle child and middle sister, turned 6 years old. Aly is a friendly, outgoing, comical, creative child and I feel like her placement in the birth order in our family has probably enhanced some of these qualities even more. 

 She really is the comic relief of the fam. Aly will do ANYTHING for a laugh. We actually have to remind her on a pretty regular basis that she is funniest when she doesn't try. But once she gets a genuine laugh out of us you can bet she is going to repeat the same winning phrase or obnoxious sound until the spontaneity and charm are completely beaten out of it.

Aly spends a large portion of her time in this life make believing she is in some other more beautiful, romantic, funny and dramatic world. Her imagination is engaged more than the average 6 year old and I love to sit and listen to her weave magnificent tales in her pretend play.

(Scarlett, 10 months)

 This year she was a good sport about "spreading out" her birthday. This is another trait I admire about Aly, that she has a sunny, positive disposition. Reality was we were all jet lagged and I was trying to get my feet under me with all of the kids and Nathan now gone and I couldn't quite pull off everything for her birthday in one day. So she would happily announce to people that she got to have her birthday for days because we were just spreading it out.

Though really, who doesn't love spreading out their birthday?! On this day the cousins came over to swim and have cupcakes and wish Aly a very happy birthday. It was a great time.
I love this cheeky middle child of mine. I am proud of how she handles challenges in her little life. Love, Love, LOVE her.