My Baby Cuz is All Grown Up

Today I went to Andrews high school graduation. Where have the years gone? Seriously. Everyone says it, but until you live and look back it doesn't really seem important.

Andrew is the second one of us kids to graduate, me being the first. Anyone who knows anything about our family, knows this is a huge accomplishment! So, I love ya Andrew and I am so very proud of you. I know no matter what you do in life you will be great!


The speakers at the graduation however were pretty boring. My ex-husband was also on police detail there, and his MIL as well, so they were patrolling in front of me the entire time. I was with my uncle, and his ex-wife (my aunt whom I don't speak to much either) was also there. It was the day of the ex's! So we stuck together.


I took pictures of Piper during the boring parts to keep myself occupied! Even though my aunt snuck up behind me and punched my arm hard enough to bruise, my ex was there, and my other cousin came to the celebratory dinner with us..acted friendly, then talked a ton of shit behind my back later... it was a good day. I am glad I had the chance to go.


Here's a few more pictures from the day...

This is the infamous family. Andrew of course, then the cousin that hates me Matthew, my aunt Barbara, and my grandfather. I was hoping I'd make it out without contact. As you can see... that didn't happen. Eh. The sacrifices I make for Andrew..

...he owes me..

Learning Through Playing

Here's a few pictures of the things we've been doing lately. Ivy has been painting every single day. She's really into it right now. She uses big brushes, little brushes, sponges, stamps, fingers. You name it! Sometimes we only put out one or two colors, and other times we put them all out.

I'm so impressed by how much she has grown these past six months. She can count to 20 with only one or two extra numbers thrown in for good measure. She can sing her ABC's and to my amazement, she knows them all. I was blown away. I owe that one to Sierra and her endless singing that she does loudly and offkey, despite my pleading with her to lower her voice just a tad. My bleeding ears were not in vain however, because now Ivy knows her ABC's!

Stringing beads is another activity that Ivy likes to do. While Mama makes hemp necklaces, Ivy makes her own too with jumbo wooden beads. She calls them her snakes. ;-)

She likes to sit down right next to my chair and make her snakes.

Oh! I also picked up a bunch of wooden food for her to play with, and she absolutely loves it! I have decided that I'm going to slowly start to weed out her electronic plastic toys, and replace them with wooden ones. Her imagination has soared since I've bought the few things I have.

Since we will be Unschooling the girls, I'd love to be able to get any many learning/exploring things as we can in the next few years. For Ivy's birthday next month we'll be getting her a wooden kitchen set. I really wish I could afford the solid pine handmade ones, but wow! They are $$$. If I had the money to spare I really would get them though. And the Haba website is a dream to shop at! I love looking at all the realistic wooden foods. I'll be getting her some more of those soon too.

Blessed be!