On Sunday night—I think it was Sunday—me and the kids drove over to the lake to watch the super moon rise. It was impressive, but mainly it was fun seeing the kids' reaction. Ainsley leaped in circles through the field, singing that she was floating in space, dancing among the stars. Hawthorne talked about the shade of orange, the size of the craters, how quickly it was rising centimeter by centimeter (I keep telling him this is the United States and he's supposed to measure in inches, not centimeters!), and how the geese were probably nervous. Then they both bemoaned forgetting the camera since their dad wasn't there to see the moon.
I don't know where the time has gone lately. Hawthorne, Ains, and I were sitting at the computer yesterday looking at all their childhood pictures, and I just couldn't wrap my brain around it all. They change so quickly, but they are constantly such themselves. Hawthorne celebrated his 9th birthday a few weeks ago. We took donuts to his class for his big day. For his party, we took a few friends to a local wildlife rescue center to visit the animals they were taking care of and get a behind-the-scenes tour. We saw baby-baby squirrels and rabbits, hawks, owls, a huge stinky black pig, raccoons, deer, turtles, snakes, and possums. The kids' favorite was the resident red shoulder hawk that posed for a picture and talked to them before we left. He was pretty cool. Hawthorne was very into Legos for this birthday. He can't get enough of them. (I might have to let the Easter Bunny know that the passion hasn't died down.) He was especially excited to have his Granna Di and Pappa John here to ring in his new year. I wonder if it's as weird to them as it is to me to think about his entrance into this world nine years ago.
Ainsley is on the verge of her 7th birthday. Oh, my baby girl. She promises that she'll stay my baby girl forever. I'll remind her if she ever forgets! She's counting down the days until the pool opens and trying not to be too annoyed that Hawthorne wants to play baseball every waking second instead of playing with her. Maybe she just needs to learn how to throw a ball. I'm thinking that as coordinated as she is on the dance floor that the soccer field might be more her speed than the baseball field. There's still potential for the tennis court, but she'd probably get lonely playing singles!
Carter has big news. He has been selected to be the graduate director starting in the fall. It's a prestigious position and one he'll of course excel at and love. I'm proud, proud, proud. I love that he spends so much time being a devoted dad and husband and is still one of the top criminologists in the country and so respected by his colleagues. That's my man.
We're headed to Sarasota later this week for the kids' spring break. There's no doubt we're rushing a beach trip. It's still not hot here, but we just can't help ourselves. We all miss the beach! Even Ains who absolutely hated it the first several times she went. Thank goodness that didn't stick.
Oh, there's so much more to fill you in on. It has been too long. But I'm so, so tired. All these conditioning and Zumba classes are kicking by butt. At least it looks better though.
Beach trips are probably our favorite thing in the world to do. We make as many trips as possible to the 30A stretch of beaches every summer. But this year, we just couldn't wait for summer, so we headed south for spring break: Sarasota. It was a great trip. We pet rays, saw a disgusting giant squid, and talked to sea turtles at a research aquarium; toured a bird rescue center where they had a dozen storks with wooden legs; marveled at all the odd and beautiful tropical plants at the botanical gardens; and, of course, played at the beach and enjoyed the lazy evenings of a beach town. It was a fun destination and a relaxing break from the day-to-day of school, work, and keeping a family on track. We're hoping the kids will decide to go to college there (New College of Florida!) so we'll have an excuse to visit all the time.
