Claire is 7, Winterball is Done & I Blogged Again!

Here I am blogging again!

Can you believe it?!!

Me neither!!

So, Claire's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year.  She wanted to open her gifts before school so here she is at 6am...

 She found my hiding spot and peeked at the majority of her gifts this year.  She randomly mentioned one night at dinner how she'd like some Frozen Legos.  I got her some Frozen Legos, but she hadn't mentioned she wanted any so I thought that would be a great surprise.  It was weird that she mentioned this, so we asked her if she had looked at her presents.  She promised she hadn't, but I knew she had.  Earlier in the week she was counting up some of the birthday money she has received and she pulled a crumpled up five dollar bill from her backpack.  I asked where she got that and she said, "Oh, Peyton gave it to me."  A friend from her class.  I told her that it was very nice but that she cannot accept that and to return it to Peyton the next day.  The next day I asked if she returned it and she said she had. But... a couple days later she was once again counting her money and I saw that same crumpled up five dollar bill!  So I asked her if that was the same bill she was supposed to return to Peyton?  The same bill that she said she did return to Peyton?  And she very shamefully lowered her head and muttered  a "Yessss".  I was so disappointed in her.  She went to her room and Mr. Hass and I both had a very serious talk with her about the importance of honesty and telling the truth.  It was the second time this week she was caught in a lie, and after talking to her I think we made her feel pretty bad and I don't think she will want to lie again anytime soon.  And if she does, Lord help me!  

Mr. H and I got Claire a set of Clementine books for her birthday and last night Mr. H was reading to her and there was a part in the story about how Clementine's friend was telling her how there is usually one easy child and one hard to handle child in each family and Claire said, "Yeah, like us huh Dad because that is Hannah, she's the hard one for you guys."    Ohhhhh Claire.  Insert all the laughing face emojiis right here.

 After presents and cinnamon rolls for breakfast I dropped the girls off at school and headed to work for a couple hours.  I finished work in time to swing home a few minutes before I had to pick them up and shove some lunch in my face.  Just as I sat down to eat, the girl's school was calling my phone.  The school nurse said that Claire had gotten hit in the nose and it was bleeding and there was blood in her hair and on her clothes and that she needed me to come down there.  I felt so bad and the first thing I said to the nurse was "Oh noooo, but it's her birthday!!!" I grabbed my keys and rushed down to school.  Good thing it's only 3 minutes away by car.  When I got there she was in the nurse's bathroom by herself, trying to stop crying, and with shaky hands attempting to wipe the blood off of her nose and face.  My poor baby.  I gave her a big hug and told her she was okay, and then I helped her wipe off the rest of the blood.  Poor girl had it in her hair and on her new shoes and all over her shirt.  When we got home she finally said that she was just walking fast on the playground and bonked into another boy's head.  He cried too but didn't have to go the the nurse.  She wanted ice when we got home but there was no bruising or swelling and she was fine, thank goodness.  

This happened right before the bell rang so the girls got to come home about ten minutes early.  Then it was homework, snacks, and time to change and bundle up for their first tournament game down at the softball fields.

Their last game was on Hannah's birthday and she has really started to connect the dots with her batting and she wanted to hit a homerun on her birthday so bad.  She never had a chance to in that game, and before this game she said,"I'm gonna hit a homerun today!"  And sure enough, her first at bat, the very first pitch,and she hit her very first homerun!!!!  It went straight to left center, and we were jumping and cheering so loud for her!!! The look on her face as she rounded those bases was absolutely priceless!!!  I'll never forget it.  

 She was the star of the game.  She had two more awesome hits after that homerun, and a total of 5 RBI's!  Way to go Hannah!!!

It was a fun game because, well, because we won, because Hannah hit a homerun, and because the girls had friends on the other team too.  Payton is the same age as Claire and they met last season when their big sisters were on the same team.  These two discovered they share a birthday so they call each other their twin.  Payton's parents brought doughnuts since it was her birthday for their team and Claire and Hannah were lucky enough to get one too.  The twins on their birthday...

 And Hannah had fun getting to play against her old teammate Jayden, Payton's older sister, just days apart from Hannah too.

 I just love the friendships and the memories that we are getting to watch these girls make on the softball field!

 After the big game Grandma and Geeps and Noah and Aunt E came over for In N Out and I made PW's chocolate sheet cake for dessert.

Another night that week the girls received a very special delivery package... on ice!!!...

 chocolate covered strawberries and brownie cake pop bites from Don & Kaylen!!!

 They made their night!!!! Thanks Don & Kaylen!  You guys are the best!

 On Friday Hannah received the Academic Excellence award for reading, so proud!

I've joked with Mr. H that at least our girls are playing softball because the softball fields seem to be the only place in town where it gets cold enough for me to wear some of my Fall layers.  The girls played Tuesday and Thursday night this week and it was chilly.

 They had an 8am game on Saturday for the end of the season tournament and they won, so they played again at 3pm for the Semi Finals and lost.  They had so much fun this year and had such wonderful coaches.  They wanted to stick around and watch some of the older girls Championship games so we didn't get home from the softball fields until 7pm that night!  It was a long day and a long week. 

We were supposed to have family pictures yesterday and Hannah came down with a fever.  I knew she had been fighting a cold and I'm sure after the busy week and three late nights on the softball field it just finally got to her.  So we laid around all day and rested.  And I got to watch like 8 episodes of Gilmore Girls which made me very happy.  ;) 

 Today Hannah's fever was gone and I was antsy to get out of the house so I took the girls to lunch at Panera.  This picture of Claire just cracks me up because it is so Claire. I posted it on instagram and wrote 
'Maybe it was the sunshine.  Maybe it was her new mermaid tulle dress.  Maybe it was the cookie... but I think it's safe to say her first day of Thanksgiving Break was pretty damn good.' 
I love how relaxed this kid always is.  And I love how she doesn't care what other people think in the slightest.  I hope she always hangs on to that.

After lunch in Target waiting for Hannah to try on some stuff.  I took them to spend some of their birthday money and they had a blast.  Looking at this photo it's crazy to see my dark hair and those two blondies next to me.  

After all our shopping I needed wine.  We came home and watched Rookie of the Year.  I had a few laughs remembering some lines from that one.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving this week!  

I'm off to sneak in a little spa time.

Alright and maybe some more wine.  ;)

Shopping with those two wore me out!!!

 PS- Thanks so much to everyone for still reading this ole blog!  I was so excited to read your comments and to know that people really do still want to read my blog! Makes me want to try and keep up with it even more! :)

What's Up With Those Hasses...

Well hello there!

Looooong time no bloggy blog.

I've missed it.

And the idea of trying to pick up where I left off is a daunting task.

So how bout I just jump right in with recent random haps and we see how that goes huh?

First let me ask, is it Hass', as in What's Up With Those Hasses? Or is it Hass's?  Or is it Hasses?  That darn "s" at the end really throws me.  Be glad those of you whose last name does not end in "S"!

Okay, moving on.

 You do remember me right?
And Mr. Hass?  I know it's been a while so I'm just making sure. ;)
This picture was in the parking lot at Panera before an impromptu Wednesday lunch date.  I had a slow day at work and whaaaat, the opportunity for us to have lunch sans kids never happens so it had to be documented!

I'm not sure I even remember how to pull together a blog post so let's just go with random shall we?

 The winterball softball season is coming to a close for the girls.  This is Hannah's second season and Claire's very first!  We wound up having them both on the same team and it was so much fun to watch them play!  Claire was so timid at first, but I think she really enjoyed being on the same team as Hannah and she has learned so much!  They've had some awesome coaches this season and it's been a fun experience.

 This was on Halloween.  Their team is The Great Whites and the Coach dressed up like a shark (I think it was more his wife's idea but the girls loved it). 

 Later on Halloween night Noah came over to trick or treat with the girls.  

 Just waiting for go time.

 I love this picture of Mr. Hass.

 I was at work and he text me this picture one morning.  The poor guy has been dealing with some really awful bone spurs on his heels and has not been able to run for several weeks.  It was really getting him down but he's recently been able to ride his mountain bike a little bit after a cortisone injection to aid his recovery.  

 One week after Halloween Hannah turned 9.
Nine!
9?!?
Nine.

 I know all parents say it, but I simply can't believe it.  Nine just sounds so old, and so close to ten, which sounds SO old, and so close to teenage years!!!  And then of course that makes you ask yourself, "Have I really been a parent for Nine years now?!?!"  And then your parents laugh at you because they ask themselves the same thing, only their oldest is 35 now, so wow, yeah, I get it now. It really does go by that fast.

I started this book a couple days ago.  So far I think it's going to be a great read.  There's something about these next few years that makes me nervous.  Hoping to gain some insight in this book.  

On the Friday before her birthday Hannah came home with a card that each of her classmates had made.  They were all so sweet but this one in particular immediately brought tears to my eyes.  It was so sweet, and so spot on about Hannah.  She is always so happy and radiates such joy that I loved reading this from one of her peers. So so sweet.

I am helping out in the girls classrooms every other Friday and they just seem so grown up to me this year.  Claire has really grown since Kindergarten, and Hannah too.  They've both grown more than an inch in height since school started this year!!  Walking into the third grade classroom it is just so crazy to realize how old these kids are getting.  Hannah seems especially older to me this year.  That jump from second grade to third is a big one!!!

Hannah started the Harry Potter series this year.  I've never read them before so I told her I would read them with her, but she is reading them so darn fast that I cannot keep up!!!  She is halfway through the 5th book!  They are huge books too and she has been earning lots of AR (advanced reading) points for them in school.  Each 3rd grade students goal for AR points for the year is 40 and Hannah now has 97 after taking the comprehension test for the last Harry Potter book that she read.  She found out she will be receiving a special AR trophy and last Friday the principal took her picture in the library holding all of the HP books she's read so far and her picture will be going inside the school trophy case in the office.  She was thrilled.

A friend recently told me about Jen Hatmaker's fabulous book For The Love.

It was hilariously funny and so raw and honest about life and parenting and motherhood and fashion and finding grace.  A great read.

I've recently become obsessed with something that I feel the need to tell you about.
I'm usually not one to watch a ton of tv.  I mean, we have our shows but lots of times I would rather read than watch a show.
But this show... oh this show...

I'm obsessed.  I never watched it when it was on years ago.  I think I was in that in between age of having an interest, a little bit older than Rory, but not quite old enough to relate to Laureli.  But now I just want to move to Stars Hollow and become bff's with Laureli Gilmore and have Rory babysit and be a role model for my girls and drink coffee and hang out in Luke's diner... soooo yeah, I'm obsessed.  Good thing I'm only on season two and I've got hundreds of episodes left to watch!

I chopped my hair off sometime after my last blog post.  It was fun and I like change but now it's growing back out.  I'm happy to report that I can now sport a baby pony.  And now that I am going to try to make an effort to blog a bit more maybe I'll even bring back a What I Wore Wednesday post here and there...

I shared this photo on instagram today saying "Today has just been one of those days... woke up feeling rested, had time to braid both girls hair, yoga was awesome, dinner's in the crockpot, it's sunny and only 65 (hello Fall wardrobe!) birthday gifts are wrapped for the big 7 year old tomorrow, and I might even blog today!  I said might..."  

Well I did it!  I blogged!  What an accomplishment.

It was no small task let me tell you.  I started this post after dinner while Mr. H was helping girls finish up some homework, and if only you could have heard a soundtrack to this evening, or seen how many times I almost threw in the towel on this post, went upstairs to shower and called it a night!  When the girls were little it was so easy to blog when they were napping and I was home. Now when they are in school I am either running errands, trying to get a workout in and dinner planned and a shower done, or I'm at work, and once they get home from school it's a whirlwind. Everyday.  But I miss documenting the days and I miss having a place to share my thoughts so that one day my girls can look back at this blog and recall some of these memories, and to also have a glimpse as to what their mother was like when they were young.  

So I will try to be back.

Soon.

Or soon'ish. ;)