Andreani Family

I look at the kids in these pictures and I get a little sad. It is not until I see my kids photographed that I really see how much they are all changing. They are all growing up so fast. Emma told me she wants to stop growing when she turns eight. Not sure why eight, but she is very aware of time and ages. She is always asking me how old she'll be when Elise is a certain age and then she'll ask how old I'll be. She tells me she wants to live in the pink house on our street when she gets big and that she'll come and visit me everyday. Ethan says he's never moving out of our house!:) I have been so busy lately. Homeschooling is more detailed this year. I like to get the lesson ready the night before along with cleaning house so we wake up to a clean house and just eat breakfast and get started. This year we homeschool from 9-12 then eat lunch with Mario and then from 1:00-3:00. We really don't break much. The kids are loving History, Science, Math, and Geography. I am very happy with our curriculum this year too. We also do Abeka for Phonics, Spelling, and Language. So it makes for a busy week. Emma started Ballet this week. We don't do the what I call Britney Spears-ish dancing Emma takes traditional ballet. She loves to go and I thinks it is good for her to spread her wings a little. Last year when I would drop her off at her class she would always look back and give me a hug and kiss and tell me she loved me. I wondered if she had out grown this so I tried to prepare myself because I found I looked forward to it last year. So today when I said I would see her soon she walked into her room and didn't look back. Ethan must have noticed my eyes get a little watery because he immediately grabbed my hand and said, "Come on momma I want to read to you in the van." But as we were walking out she came back and grabbed my hand and said, "I almost forgot" hugged me and then said those sweet words, "I love you Mommy" then ran back into her room. I am very aware that there will be a time when she won't say it anymore so I was very relieved to hear it. I still remember when my own mom used to hold my hand and I remember saying to her one day when she went to grab my hand that I was too big to need to hold her hand anymore. I was around 8 years old, we were walking into the grocery store. For some reason I still remember the expression on her face but at that time I was to young to understand. Now looking back I know how she must have felt. But Emma remembered our routine and it made my day!:)

I took a picture of our Japanese grasses we planted a few years ago, I can't believe how big the one on the end has gotten! We are going to need to split it. But it is beautiful!