New Beginnings? What?

Maile, Chloe, Julia and Madison

A knock at the door came not too long ago. It was the Ashdown girls, dropping off an invitation for Chloe to New Beginnings! What is going on? Chloe can't possibly be old enough for this! I know she will be 12 in November...but I was just really taken back to realize that she will be 12 in November! :) She is of course thrilled beyond description. She is very disappointed to be the only girl in her class that won't be going to girls camp. She is 5th grade, and the other girls are 6th. By the way, when would you let your daughter start to shave their legs...our latest issue! :) Anyway, Chloe is so wonderful! I can't believe my baby is getting so big.

Time Flies!

Last summer, while driving to Missouri, we stopped at Grandpa Jess and Grandma Helen's home in St. Johns. We had a wonderful time, though short, with them. While there, Grandma mentioned a bag of clothes that were ours as kids. Mom had stored them in the basement, probably when they moved to MO. Anyway, Liz and I had a fun time going through them, they brought back good memories. Mom always dressed us so cute, in fun bright colors! I was so excited when I found this red and white dress that mom made for me! And Liz was so excited to find that same dress that mom made for her! :) We both loved that dress! It fits MaryJane and she wore it to church last week. It is a timeless dress, don't you think? LOL I still love it, and it I loved seeing her wear it!

MaryJane age 6, 2009

Broadbent kids, 1984

See, Liz, I have proof! I'm wearing it!

Mom made all the dresses in this photo. Right, Mom? I think that is right. We are so adorable, huh? I'll try to guess on our ages...

Miriam, 2; Liz, 3; Jesse, 5; Ben, 6; Rachel (me), 8; Jed, 6 months or so; Rebecca, 9

How'd I do, Mom?

April Fools!

I am not a funny person. I really love funny people though! Ellie certainly has a good funny bone! And she displayed a little of it on this April Fools Day! Bright and early, she got up and went downstairs before anyone else did. She secretly traded the bags that were in the boxes of cereal! What a little sneak! So, Porter came downstairs and poured himself a bowl of what he thought were honeycombs. Whoops, he got chex. He was confused! Not a minute later, Chloe arrived to pour herself a bowl...Ellie was so good at keeping a straight face too. Once I discovered her prank, I couldn't help but giggle a bit! Chloe was none to pleased! :) I thought this was a very clever little trick. And we all had a good laugh!
Ok, fast forward to after school. I picked up the girls as usual. They piled into the car and Ellie immediately tells me not to be mad but that she got a blue slip today. (Our school sends home blue slips for bad behavior.) I was quite surprised because this is very unlike her. She is a model student. (Not to brag or anything.) Then she started in on all the things she did wrong...like she was missing homework, was making poor behavior choices in class and that she was benched during recess. This did not sound legit! I started laughing and said you can't trick me!
So...
Fast forward to when Rusty comes home from work. It's bed time and the kids are tucked in and Ellie comes in to me and asks if she can do the blue slip thing to dad. Of course! She takes the blue slip (written on by her teacher, I might add) and tells him that he needs to sign it. He looks at it and says wow, this is serious Ellie. Have you talked to mom about this? She answers yes and says come on dad, just sign it. He says no, he wants to talk to me about this. I've been listening upstairs in the hall the whole time...trying to not giggle at his serious tone. I come downstairs and he looks at me as I'm trying not to smile and says something like this is not a laughing matter...Ellie is smiling too. Finally, I can't take it any longer and laugh outright and Ellie says April Fools! She got him big time!
I'm surprised Rusty didn't have any good ones up his sleeve this year. He usually tries to pull a few fast ones on me!