So learning to ride a bike is a lot like life

Today was just a normal, regular day. Full of the usual fun and frustration. Until about 1pm, which is when Chris asked Ainsley if she wanted to try to ride her bike without training wheels. And her response "I've never done it before, but I'll try." And it was so interesting- to see her learning to ride a bike was a microcosm of everything in life.

the false bravado (or at least unknowing excitement) at first to mask fear....

The try and try and try agains...

The inevetible falls and set back... which is so hard for Ainsley (and me) to accept as part of the journey, and not failure but a guidepost to success...

wanting to give up, but being reminded"you're stronger than you think, smarter than you know" and we will always be here to hold you ...
but most important (and hardest for us as parents) that moment where Chris had to let go, never far behind, but let go and let her ride...

and boy was it a ride!

And then, as will be true for Ains for most of her life, having a little sister, watching her do her best and wanting to try. And the proudest moment of the day for me, came when Ains cheered her sister on as well. Because, as she said "It will be so much better when Emma can do it too!" What a fantastic, wonderful, normal day!

"Stories about Love" by Emma and Ainsley

So we love Kids Place Live on XM, and Mindy (the afternoon show) is advertising a Valentine's Day story writing contest- write a story about love, and the Story Pirates may "steal" your story, put it to music, act it out, etc. Below are Ainsley and Emma's contributions. The rules only that it's about love and that your parents can't help. I've also translated Emma's below hers.

Ainsley

The Skrrll (by Ainsley Foca)
There was a skrl who loved nuts so much she did nutheing but eat nuts. Her fother said you ned excrlis ("excercice"). She said I can't do it. She did not know wut to do. The skrl did wut her fother tolled her to do. So she jumpt tree to tree. Then she ate. The end.

Emma
The grl hoo luved hr blankit
one da a grl had hr blankit. One da she lust hr blankit. She couldn't find it hr sistr wit outsid she found it. hr sistr wit too see. she wus hape. the end

Translation: The girl who loved her blanket
One day a girl had her blanket. One day she lost her blanket. She couldn't find it. Her sister went outside. She found it. Her sister went to see. She was happy. The end.

There you go story pirates, steal that!

New Year (Almost) New Blog Update

Well it's super embarrasing to admit that this will be my one and only update for 2010. Guess one of my New Year's resolutions should be to update more frequently. One of Ainsley's goals is to set up a website for herself, so, who knows, it may be a much better source of information than my blog will ever be. Won't be surprised at that one!

All that to say, we've had a great (albeit apparently undocumented) year. Wanted to share some Christmas joy and let you know the favorites of each of the girls:

Ainsley: favorite (by far) was her new nutcracker. She's been dying for one, and Santa brought it (along with a much more expensive bed for Kit, but that's a whole other story). She loves her beat up nutcracker- and no one can say that she's not unique!

Emma- her favorite is actually the webinz frog that Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Gary gave her for her birthday. LOVES it. and considers herself a big girl because she has something attached to a computer now. Also loves all things involving art, and recently unfortunately cut Rapunzel's hair on Christmas Eve to try to make it come back brown (apparently this is something to do with the new movie Tangled, but all I know is that on Christmas Eve I walk up into my bathroom and find lots of blond hair on the floor...

Gabby- loves her new dress up outfit that matches her sisters from Aunt Alissa and Uncle Steve and also her new pillow pet from Jacob and Payton. It's actually at school with her today, as she told me she "neeeeeeeeds it"

Happy New Years from ours to yours!

spring 2009

We wanted to catch you up a bit on some of our spring fun.

Here are Ainsley and Emma at Dollywood. Emma is FINALLY big enough for the veggietales roller coaster... Below, Ainsley is getting ready for her ballet performance (thanks again to Lisa for helping with their hair!)

Here are Chris and Emma riding the cars at Dollywood... and below are "mommy and daddy" that I found in the playroom one day when they were supposed to be resting...

and here are "mommy and daddy" with their little baby Bethany

Ahhh vacationing with children

Well, our 2009 vacation was certainly one for the books. We began in Virginia at Smith Mountain Lake, with our dear friends the Romans... you'll know why we consider them so dear shortly! About an hour and a half after our arrival, Emma tripped, propelled herself into an unsuspecting entertainment center (which is now permanently dented) and burst her head open, on her forehead, to her skull. That's what the intake personnel at the emergency room (which was the second stop after an urgent care center that felt that the cut was too severe to handle outside an emergency room) actually wrote on the intake sheet "I can see skull." Lovely, after 7 and a half hours and 11 stiches, we arrived back at the cabin at 4am, grateful to have her in one piece and VERY glad to have left Ains and Gabby at the cabin with our friends. Then Sunday came, when Ainsley decided that she wanted to stand too close to the edge on the floating dock... she fell in (without a life jacket) daddy jumped in to get her, only remembering after rescuing her that he had his blackberry on his belt... one blackberry down, one child fine... it's a wonder if the Romans ever vacation with us again (unless they have an odd sense of humor and actually get joy out of our travails :))... unfortunately, we don't have any pics from this portion (can't imagine why!) but we have some great memories...

Onward we pushed to Isle of Palms in Charleston, SC where things for the most part turned around. We had a wonderful time hanging out with Uncle Jimmy and Ms. Kate, were treated to a fabulous dinner sans kiddos thanks to those two in Charleston, and had my parents come in for the end of the week as well... Lots of memories there too, including having to move out of our original villa at around midnight because there was water coming out of one of the light fixtures in a bathroom... we figure that at least it's never boring with the Focas! Gabby cut her first tooth on Tuesday, Ainsley rode a tandom bike, Emma got over her fear of the noise of the ocean, Chris got to fly his kite, Catherine got to taste firefly and lemonade for the first time.... all in all a great vacation!

Too long- Ains' birthday and a few randoms

It's been way too long since we updated, so we wanted to post a few pics:
First, did you know that it actually DID snow this winter in Knoxville? Enough to build and snowfort?


Here are some photos from Ainsley's ice cream sundae birthday party. As you can see, she took orders (vanilla or neopolitan) daddy scooped, and then each child got to make their own sundae. Thanks to all the children for being so patient!

And here are our three girls... they are getting so big so fast!

Visit to Philly

Our next trip took us to Philly, we sure had fun!

We got to spend lots of time with our cousins, Katie and Melanie. Here Ainsley and Emma and Katie are "horsing" around with Chris



We did a lot of coloring this weekend... Little pop-pop and Emma are here coloring






We loved hanging out with little grammy as well... she's a great reader of bed-time stories...






We also visited Aunt Mary... and played at her park!

We had a great time and are looking forward to the next visit!