Open house...

Last Thursday was open house at kid's school. My husband was out of town but I got to see all the fun things that kids have been working on...
I will let the pictures speak for themselves...

The gymnastics season is over...

I have been neglected posting on the blog since I have been busy with lots of things...
I have re-organized my clothes and did some Spring shopping. I have been reviewing a lot of style blogs which has helped me to organize and revamp my closet. I have many great pieces but have hard time putting outfits together. I have gotten more classic pieces and some accessories to pull my looks together. It is working out great. I will do some more posts later about the outfits that I come up with...

On a separate note, Sude's gymnastics season is over. We had two meets back o back weekends. The pictures below are from the first one where she did great. She finished 5th all around in her age group. The meet after that one was even better and she had three personal best scores in floor, bars, and vault. She got two second places, one forth, and 3rd all around.

She was happy as a clam. We were all very happy for her. Korman even said he almost cried when she got third place, he was so proud. He is such a good little brother...

Sude has moved up a level since the last meet and we are all trying to get used to the new schedule. She has two wonderful coaches and seems to be very happy with the things that they are working on in this level...

Valentines day parties...

On Valentines day, both kids had parties at their school. The got dressed in reds took their valentine treats and headed to school after a good breakfast. Since I knew they would be eating candy and sweets all day, I made a point of making eggs for breakfast...
My handsome boy... Not sure what the meaning of the look is...

My cute girl in her signature hair style (side bun) with a flower that came all the way from Hawaii from a good friend that we miss a lot...

Oh my, do I see some hugging going on... That must have been a total mistake...
I told Korman that was a very "cool" sister hug. He seemed to take pride in that...

They had snacks and made fun crafts...

Below you can see the whole idea about Valentines day in her face...

Big girl...

I know this is a touchy subject with lots of families. And very important subject, next to world hunger and climate change...

When do you let your daughter to get her ears pierced?

I had mine pierced when I was 5. So Sude was very very late in my opinion. You would think she would be all over the opportunity to get her ears pierced with a mom like me, but not so much.

She was afraid of it for so long she would not even let me mention it. But I don't know what happened during Christmas break but somehow all stars aligned (or maybe she is old enough and ready for it).

Pictures are with the iPhone...

I am just so proud, almost in tears... ;-)
Not really...

Doesn't she look pretty??

Being tough... Getting tough....

Dear Sude,

My wonderful and strong first born...

You are wonderful and special. When you grow up, if you read this blog one day, know that we are so proud of you. I know your life is tough sometimes. School, gymnastics, and piano, they all keep you busy but at the same time keep you so focused and disciplined. You do so much more than many other kids your age but do them with such great attitude.

But behind all of that toughness, you are still my baby who loved to hold my hand and touch my fingertips in the middle of the night. You are my baby who loved listening to books and music on my lap. You are my baby who looked into my eyes deep and thoughtful.

Now you are growing up and sometimes going through tough times. Specifically, you recently had some tough times at gymnastics. Please know that I want to hold you tight and wipe your tears and make all the pain go away when you have days like that. But all I can do is to hug you and tell you how much we love you and proud of you.

Hugs and kisses,

Mom...

Citizen of the month...

Sude is doing such a wonderful job at school. This month she was selected as one of the citizen's of the month. To celebrate, I headed to the Principal's breakfast at the library where they recognized all of the citizen of the months at her school.
Sude's two great friends were also picked, who are sisters and our neighbors...
There was lots of hugging and celebrating at the library that morning for sure...

She is such a great student and daughter. We are very very proud of her...

A gymnastics story...

Everything started with a little girl qualifying for North State gymnastics competition. This little girl had a mom that generally handled the gymnastics pressure well. The mom always tried to make positive comments and gave lots of encouragement.

After the little girl made it to North State, there was excitement for the mom, then worry followed it. If she did well, she was going to make it to State and if not, the season was going to end. But the State was in another town and the little girl was so excited about going there with other teammates.

Mom started thinking...
What was going to happen if she did not make it but most of her friends made it. These questions started to increase as the competition got closer. The closer the competition got, the bigger her worries became.

Four days before the meet, the mom started to wake up very early in the morning and just lay there... Thinking about possibilities...

What would happen if she does well at vault but what is she falls off the beam?
Am I insane?
What does she need to score to make it?
I need to go back to sleep?
I wonder what will be the rotation?
I might as well get up...
How do people do this when their kids move up to higher levels?
OK, I am up...

Her husband did not understand the worry. He was very supportive but kind of looked at her like "What is the big deal? This is life... She will win some and loose some"

In the mean while the little girl was just fine. No visible worries about the Meet, just excited. She did not much talk about the competition... Just kept going to the practices. While the mom was going through the emotional "turmoil", everything looked normal in her world...

Then the Meet day came...

Her brother told the little girl "I know you can do it, you worked so hard" adorably...

All the families sat on the bleachers with pounding hearts, especially moms. Worry was in the little girl's eyes also, but she was still confident, she was gonna make it...

And three girls who were trying to be in the top 10 lined up with everybody else...

It did not start well... They were so nervous, not sure how to handle the pressure...
But the families kept cheering, smiling with worry in their hearts.

At the end the placements were announced. Could it be true?

The girls finished 8th, 9th, and 10th... The little girl was in the middle...

The story ended with a sigh of relief and and some happy tears... Some were happy mommy tears...

They had the most deserved and happy smiles...

THE END
(Until the next big Meet)

Sude's Latest Gymnastics Meet...

What a weekend we had...

Sude had a gymnastics meet and it was the best meet she ever had. She got 3 medals on three individual events and finished 5th in all around in her age group. She ended up getting 4 medals in total. As a team, they won 1st place and the coaches let her keep the trophy until next practice. She was just over the moon...

This year she has been working really hard. She is also more focused than previous years. I know it also has to do a lot with her age. She is becoming a beautiful girl and a gymnast.

In our gymnastics journey there has been a lot of times where we doubted ourselves and discussed if we were expecting too much. After all, she spends so many hours in the gym. But at the same time she is becoming more and more confident and focused in everything she does. I think gymnastics training and piano has a lot to do with that.

We love you Sude.

Be very proud that your hard work has paid off...

Sude's 8th Birthday Party...

My first born has turned 8 last Sunday. I was so emotional this particular birthday, I kept thinking "She is 8 and in another 8 years, she will start driving" The last 8 years went by so fast , it is scary to think the next 8 years will go that fast also... (By the way, check out those abs...)

This year, we decided to have a party in our backyard with a Carnival theme. She has so many friends from gymnastics, school, and Turkish community. We ended up inviting 22 kids and only one said she could not make it. When that happened, I decided to hire some help. I asked two coaches from her gym to come and help with the games outside so that I can focus on food, etc.

Since I am "organized", I made a list of games that they can play and gave to the coaches... I got a roll of tickets and they were given to kids after every activity. Then, I put out bags of goodies marked as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 which represented the goodies that they could get for their tickets. They got to pick the toys/candy from them and pay with their tickets. They also kept their candy from the pinata and put all of their stuff in their loot bags...

It was so much fun... The best thing was how appreciative and thankful Sude was after the party.
Here is a copy of my activity printout with some pictures...

Make a loot bag
- Use stickers and markers
- Make sure each one of them puts their name on the bag

Game with bean bags
- Draw circles and give a number to each circle
- Draw a line where they need to throw the bean bags
- Give them tickets for the total numbers they hit

Tattoos
- Give a ticket to each kid who gets a tattoo

 Decorate driveway
- Make a large rectangle and have everyone decorate it for Sude

Piñata
- Have everyone ready with their loot bags and they can put the candy in their bags

Swim games
- Diving and getting most of the circles from the pool (maybe 4 at a time) – give as many tickets as the things they get from the pool

Food to serve to kids (in this order)
- Popcorn
- Hot dogs and juice (we had some helpers...)

- Ice cones

- Cake (see separate post)