April & May Updates

{Top Left} Back to school night at Nyah's Kindergarten class. It was so fun to see all of Nyah's projects, to talk to her teacher and see Nyah interact with some of her friends...she is growing up too fast! Nyah loved introducing Sade to Kindergarten life and even let Sade hold the class snake "Darth Vader".
{Top Right} All the Kindergartners had their silhouettes hanging on the wall & the parents were supposed to guess which one is their child. We didn't get it right, but as you can clearly see, this is not a very accurate profile.
{Bottom Left} Jeremy & I at the train station when we went to Olvera St.
{Bottom Right} Sade & Nyah with good friends Lacey & Mia at Sade's dance recital. We will post a video clip soon. Sade had so much fun at her last recital!

The End of an Era

We said goodbye for the last time yesterday morning. Nyah was up all ready for school. I had to wake up Sade who was sleeping soundly, I almost couldn't do it because I was expecting what would follow. "Wake up Sade. It's time to say goodbye to Leila now, she is leaving soon" I said. Sade stirred a bit then sat up. She looked at me and I held her stare as sleep wore off and the reality of my words soaked in. Sade began to cry, and my heart ached for her. I heard the soft knock at the door. That would be Amber and Leila coming to say goodbye. I held Sade's hand as I walked her to the door. Her hair was a mess from her disrupted sleep and tears were flowing from her eyes, she looked as pained as I felt. Sade hugged Leila and said "I don't want Leila to go, she is my best friend". -Crack- I think I even heard my heart break a little when she said that.
We all exchanged our last hugs goodbye and that was it. Our neighbors and close friends were gone. Nyah was strong in front of Sade but as Jeremy drove her to school she no longer needed to hold it in and the tears began to flow. Jeremy held her hand as they drove to comfort her.
After school the girls watched Jeremy help pack the moving truck for Keenan to drive up to Idaho the next day. Nyah and Sade wanted to stay out all night and watch till the job was done. When the girl's bed time arrived and after we said prayers and tucked them all in the tears for their lost friend came back. We tried to ease the pain with talks of visits to Idaho and possible Disneyland trips together to finally get our girls to sleep.
We have tried to get the girls excited about having a friend to write to, "You can send each other letters and draw each other pictures. I will get the address from Amber so we can send your letters right away." Sade agreed and started to dictate her letter to me "Leila, come back I love you. You are my best friend." Can my heart break anymore for my children? I didn't think it could. How do you convince children so young the good reasons for moving. To say that their friend may move back in a year still feels like a life time to a 6 and 3 year old. So for now we try to distract and hope that the sting fades. If only the open door to your empty apartment wasn't staring right at us. I guess if you haven't figured it out yet, Amber, Keenan, Leila, Shane, we miss you already and hope that next year brings you back :)

Uh Oh!

Nyah has a her first celebrity crush. She thinks Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers is so cute (especially his curly hair). I think it's really sweet, Jeremy on the other hand is pricing shot guns :) You might wonder how all of this has affected Sade? Well, here is a short video clip to answer that very question!