Seven Years Later... Our So-Called Frenzied LIves

Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. Seven years ago we had such a great wedding - perfect weather, delicious food, great dancing, spectacular fireworks, and a meteor shower. (The Perseid meteor shower occurs annually on August 12 - check it out tonight!)

Just to give you some perspective, our niece Léa is now 17, our niece Anya and cousin Ellie are 15, and Cooper turns 14 next week. Yeesh. How's that for blowing your mind?

Fast forward seven years, and life is great, but pretty different.

Charlotte officially started Junior Kindergarten (or, as kids in the know say, Junior K) today. She's been off and on in the class for the past year because she does Phonics a couple times a week, but now she's in their full-time. It's good because she'll actually be with kids who will be in her grade - California changed the cut-off for starting Kindergarten, and starting next year, kids will have to be 5 by September 2. As a result, she's been in classes with kids who are a grade above her, but in some cases, almost two years older than she is. She handles it great, but it will be nice to get to know the kids who will be starting public school with her next year.

 

Charlotte on her first day of Junior K

Also, last week, she started soccer. Her team, "Pink Lightning," is comprised of 11 girls, all of whom should be around Charlotte's age. The soccer league organizes recreational teams by area schools, so all of the girls are either going or will be going to her elementary school, which means that we should all live close by! The birthdays for her age group (U5) are August 1, 2008 to July 31 2009, so Charlotte is definitely the youngest on her team. I don't know if it's because they're all five or closer to age five than she is, but they all seem taller, older, and faster. Charlotte also has a tendency to kind of space out and sit down in the middle of the field during practice, but at least she hasn't cried or gotten upset yet. Chris ran some "drills" with her yesterday, and she's picking things up really quickly. She also pretends to blow a whistle and asks us to shout out "Go Pink Lightning!" or "Have fun!", so that's a pretty good indication she's enjoying herself. Plus, you can't deny she looks adorable in these socks!

 

The hardest part is that we're now booked three nights of the week. Soccer practice is on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 to 6:15, and Gymnastics is on Thursdays. Soccer games start in September and are on Saturday. Chris and I both went to her first practice last Monday, but our little fiesty Phoebe kept wanting to "practice" with the big girls. Plus, we didn't get home until after 6:30, which made us rushing to cook up something for dinner. So, instead, we're going to trade off Mondays and Wednesdays. Phoebe is starting the Toddler Gym on Thursday (we were planning on waiting until she was two like Charlotte was, but she's such a crazy climber that we figured getting an outlet to do just that would be good for her).

Anyway, it's preparing (a nutritious) dinner that's difficult. Phoebe is such a fireball that we have to watch her pretty much every second she's not strapped into her booster seat. I think I'm going to have to start prepping dinner the night before and then pop it in the oven or heat it up. Otherwise, we'd have to resort to take-out and frozen meals, and that's just not sustainable.

Any ideas on how to beat the frenzy? This is going to be our life from now on, isn't it? Shuttling the kids from one activity to the other, hoping we don't leave cleats/balls/hair bands at home. It sure is a good thing that I have such a great partner to ensure that we don't both go crazy. He also makes some mean Side Cars after the girls go to bed. Oh, and cute little girls. That always helps. :)