My baby is 6!

The past week has been a very emotional and hectic time. As many of you know, Mike's grandfather passed away and Mike and I made the return trip to Michigan for his funeral on Monday. We opted to keep the kids in school (thanks to the extra help from Carol and Loretta) and let them have the memory of visiting with Grandpa Clare when we were there for Christmas. Please keep his family in your prayers as they work to make arrangements for his Grandma.

Mr. B has also been having problems sleeping and I think I've tried every trick in the book, from switching his bedroom to get away from the road noise, to reading, playing soft music, etc. I think he's he had a few difficult nights falling asleep over the holiday break and now he's convinced himself that he can't. Hopefully the situation will resolve itself soon, as we all need more sleep ;o)

Miss Monkey turned 6 yesterday...I can hardly believe it. She seems so grown up most of the time (well beyond her years), but then there are days when I think she's reverted to the behavior of a two year old ;o) Oh, the joys of growing up...

Miss Monkey was very excited about bringing in a birthday treat for her classmates and on Tuesday night we made no bake cookies (one of her favorites). Imagine the disappointment she had when I had to tell her that school was closed on her birthday (power outage that morning). She immediately broke into tears. To help her cheer up, Mr. B broke into two renditions of happy birthday (one in English and one in Spanish...he's been taking Spanish this year in school). That combined with learning that she and I would be going to High School Musical on Ice as part of her birthday gift seemed to help. She had a great time playing at Carol's that day (she even had cake and ice cream there) and enjoyed dinner out at Bahama Breeze. However, when it came time for her evening bath, she realized that she hadn't milked the situation for what it was worth (or maybe that was just my impression of the situation) and she decided to throw a crying fit in the bathtub. When I asked her why, she said she was mad they didn't have school on her birthday. I just left her alone to stew and she finally calmed down. I guess she still has some growing up to do afterall :o)