Happy Birthday Mom

Mom's good friend Jean had a surprise party last night to celebrate Mama's 65th birthday. There is something extra special about gathering with good girl friends for yummy food, wine and lots of laughs to celebrate someone we all love so much. Happy Birthday Mama. I love you.

love you baby

cheers to the birthday girl

taking it all in

dead flowers make a beautiful centerpiece

the best gift

Do you really want to know?

yummy cake

Grammie and her big girls

the party

Sara Abbett is in Love

Oh yeah she is and the object of her affection is only one month old. We kept baby Cade for Hannah and Jared on Friday night so that Han could go to Jared's first football game of the season. We girls were especially excited to have lots of time to love on a new baby. Sara Abbett wanted to hold him or at least have her hands on him every minute. I feel so lucky that Hannah feels safe with us taking care of her tiny precious little guy. Hopefully we can do it often. Life is so good.

A Contradiction

My boy is a huge sports fan. You name it he and his daddy will watch it. Well, for the last couple of nights the Red Sox have been playing the Yankees. For anyone who doesn't know they are pretty big rivals. Just check out the attire Josh chose to cover himself with last night to watch a couple of innings. When we asked him who he was pulling for he said both teams. Gotta love that boy. Life is good.

And How Was School

The children had a great first day of school. They adjusted well, much to my relief, and are happy with their classes. I am not sending the kids to daycare this year but bringing them to work with me for the afternoon instead. I may not have any co-workers speaking to me before too long but it's what I have to do. They have been in daycare since K-3 so I have never had to deal with the line in the afternoons to pick up. WOW was that a sight. It took almost 30 minutes to get all of the children loaded up and on their way. I left work at ten minutes after two thinking I had given the masses time to clear out and would breeze through and pick up my angels. Not quite how it worked today. I think it takes a week or two to get a good routine going with that. Tomorrow I will be leaving a little later from work. Patience is a virtue not wasted on me. I do NOT like to wait in those lines. When I picked the children up today I asked each of them what their favorite part of their first day was.

Josh: Playing with Cameron. ~ I just hope it wasn't during class time.
Sara Abbett: um, um, um, um everything ~ clearly a thought through answer
Anna Grace: Math ~ interesting to me

Hope this is a sign that we will have a great year. Life is good.

Back to School

Where has the summer gone? Today is the first day of school for the kids at REL. The Kirven kids were all ready and only slightly apprehensive about starting their new grades. It was easy to get them all up and out the door to school on time this morning. Since I was up from 3:00 on I even had a good hot breakfast cooked for them to eat. I wonder what tomorrow will be like. I have a sneaky suspicion that it will be a bit more difficult to rouse the troops and likely be a cereal breakfast. Anna Grace is now in the fifth grade and has moved into the middle school building on the hill. My how she has grown. It is so hard for me to see her move up. Sara Abbett is in Mrs. Hickson's second grade class with a lot of her good friends and Josh is Mrs. Stock's first grade also with a bunch of his friends and his cousin Cameron. Life is good.
good morning girls


Josh was weighted down by his bookbag full of supplies.

Wake up Gracie.

They do love each other. Here's proof.

Josh in his desk. He looks so small.

Gracie and Kamryn didn't want me to bother them with the camera.


Rabbie and Morgan C. getting reacquainted

Cheer Camp

Sara Abbett and Lacie attended cheer leading camp last Monday through Wednesday. They both had a blast. As with most special activities like that they had a little program on the last day for the girls to show off their newly learned skills. Each group got up and did a cheer, chant and a dance. Cute is the only way to describe it. Life is so good.

Beach Week 2009

Our annual family beach vacation was last week. A good time was had by all. It is so amazing to see the changes in our children from year to year. They are growing up quickly and learning how to better get along with one another which makes for an easier time for everyone.