First day of 6th grade!

Wow, my beautiful girl is growing up!  Today was her first day of 6th grade.  She reported it was a "great day".  Praying for a fantastic year!!!!

6th grader in the house!

Contact Lenses and camping

Learning to put in new contacts

So it's no secret Lily has despised her glasses.  Getting her to wear them has been a constant battle.  We found an ophthalmologist who would fit her for contact lenses.  She has done great!  She had absolutely no problem taking them in and out and has been so proud of herself!  Plus she actually likes to wear them.  I don't think she realized how much she really couldn't see without her glasses!

Also, we just came back from one of our annual camping trips with the Guatemalan Cuties crew.  It's so hard to believe how much they have grown and changed!

Guate tweens age 11

Guate tots ages 4

Lily continues to amaze me with her maturity.  She really does have a good head on her shoulders!  Tomorrow is the first day of 6th grade!  I am so thankful that she gets to stay in the same school!  I pray that she has an amazing year, makes some new friends, and that her faith becomes more and more personal for her!

Niagara Falls

Watch out Canada here comes the Gjerde kids!

It's no secret I love adventure and new experiences.  I love taking my family on little vacations to experience something new.  This year I talked Olav into taking a road trip with our camper.  Destination, Niagara Falls!  It was a long drive up but with a little bribery for good behavior, the kids did very well.  Together we explored Niagara Falls on both the American and Canadian sides.

The view from the rainbow bridge

Family Shot on Rainbow Bridge

Horseshoe Falls, Canada

 One of my favorite things was walking across the rainbow bridge into Canada and Lily doing the splits across the countries borders!

We also went on the iconic Maid of the Midst.  Lily really enjoyed it! 

She also wanted to see the Niagara Falls movie, so we went to the one on the Canadian side that I think I may have seen when I was a young child in Niagara Falls.  We also did a little bit of hiking and tried to find a swimming beach, but because of the rising Lake Ontario swimming beaches in good condition were not to be found.  I think they enjoyed it, but honestly, I think given their druthers they would probably be content just to sit at the campsite and watch their kindles.  Hopefully one day they will appreciate all the cool experiences I give them!

At the bottom of the Niagara River Gorge

Hiking into the Niagara River Gorge

In other news, it's hard to believe that as I write my 11 year daughter is in the bathroom trying to use a tampon.  So young!  She has a swim party tomorrow night with the youth group and I know she really wants to go!  I am praying hard that she will be successful.  Maybe not having too much pre-knowledge will work in her favor!...UPDATE:  Within 3 attempts she has done it!  Yay, Lily!!!!

Also Lily has been begging for contact lenses.  She hates wearing her glasses and every day is a battle to get her to wear them!  So we have an appointment right before school starts to see if she can handle them.

She is in such a push/pull cycle with me.  Sometimes she pushes me away and wants to be independent of me and my governance and other times she is clinging to me like an octopus literally.  I guess that's adolescence for you!  Sometimes I have to restrain myself, I feel like I am literally pulling my fingers back off her little by little.  Parenting her is definitely a learning curve!

Walk around the sun

A Montessori tradition to celebrate children's birthday's they typically do a "walk around the sun".  Lily's class did something slightly different this year where each child went around the room and said something nice about Lily and Ms. Edwards, the classroom assistant,  compiled the compliments and printed out the comments on a paper for Lily.  What a special keepsake!  Lily received it at the end of the school year and I kept forgetting to post it until now!

Can I wrap her in bubble wrap please?

Last day of 5th grade

Today is Lily's last day of 5th grade!  The end of 5th grade has been a whirlwind socially for her.  Many of her girlfriends are developing "crushes" on boys, sending notes to boys, and "asking boys out".  While she is not there yet, she sure is enjoying the drama of it all!  Lily appears to have a really good head on her shoulders, she doesn't seem to give in to peer pressure.  Apparently, her fellow classmates have been goober-heads and while the teacher is disciplining the group, she silently mouths to Lily "Not you".  She is however experimenting at home with boundaries. Sometimes being disrespectful and argumentative.  While I don't want to crush her spirit,  I'll admit it is hard to know where to draw the line in the sand.  I feel like it is a big learning curve for both of us!  I just want to wrap her in bubble wrap and keep her little!

Feeling emotional

Lily is growing up so fast!  Last night we had her welcome to middle school youth ministry.  I found myself teary-eyed!  I just can't believe she will be a "middle schooler".  I am thankful that she doesn't have to change schools and in some ways, she will be "sheltered" a little longer, but the writing is on the wall,  the next 3 years are going to be huge in terms of change and what she is exposed to.  It is my prayer that she really connects with some girls whose families know and love Jesus.  I pray that she will be protected and spared some of the hard parts of middle school. 

Today her class is going on an outdoor education camping trip overnight!  Next week she has puberty education.  Again, so grown up!!!!!

Outdoor Education 2017

I think we have a young woman in the house!

Bittersweet today!  Lily thought in April she may have gotten her period, but today she was more certain that she had gotten it this morning.  We double-checked and yes it's real!  So bittersweet! I guess that explains why she was so moody within the last few days!  We will be celebrating her journey into womanhood this weekend!  She wants to go out to eat Chinese buffet:)