A Year to Remember, and it's only half over!

So far this year...

January and February - Emer was sailing through 6th, loving everything about and excelling in most subjects. She was working her tail off in the pool as well!

March - this messed up virus called COVID19 swept in and canceled our Spring Break plans to Fort Myers. After spring break Emer started online learning through school. I thought this was going to last a few weeks so I set up a Friday evening Zoom meeting w/ friends called Decades and Drinks to cover the 50's, 60's, and 70's.

April - by this time Emer had a nice little schedule she was following at school and doing well in all subjects. She missed band but continued to practice at home, which made me very happy. She was also asked to join the 8th grade band next year!! (One of only 3 kids to be asked). Decades and Drinks had been expanded to include all decades between the 1920's and the 1990's. Surely by June things would be better...

May and June - 6th grade ended, summer began, Emer attended 2 "driveby birthday party parades" and spent hours upon hours online chatting and playing games with friends. Things started opening up and we went swimming weekly.

This bring us to JULY - swim practices started back up! Schools are trying to figure out how to go back in Aug. and keep virus cases low. I'm still virtually training a few clients (which I love!) and the Monon continues to be a lot safer and smarter than the Y. And

EMER TURNED 12!!!!!!!!!

 Happy Birthday, Emer and America!

Since she was turning 12 years old, she needed a gift of "girl stuff". Funny enough, she said this was her favorite gift! (Despite the little bit of embarrassment from opening some "girl things" in front of her dad and Poppy, ha!) She also got 3 new masks to wear when school starts back up. Funny little birthday gift, huh?!

And there you have it - 2020 in a nut shell, so far. No travel, loads of time at home, a 12 year old, and love all the way around. I couldn't ask for a better, more kind, loving, and creative daughter. Yea she gives more sass and attitude than I'd like. But she's my 12 year old so it's only fair :)  <3 br="">

Where has the time gone?!?!?!

The fact that I haven't written a blog about my favorite person in over 7 months is shocking! I cannot believe I didn't do a Halloween post. Or a New Year's post. Or even a post about her birthday in July! So I'm going to catch up over the next couple of days and post short blogs, back date them, and reflect on those 3 events. (If I have finished those and you are reading these in order, you will be confused, but if you're reading this before I finish the back-dated posts, then it makes total sense!) Either way, thanks for checking in on the life of My Tiny!

Emer continues to be beautiful both outside (btw, I cut and straightened her hair!) and inside (she has her judgy moments but treats everyone w/ respect). I went to a Kadampa workshop and won this Buddha. I couldn't wait to give it to her b/c I knew she's like it. Well, she created a "home" for him and loves her new Buddha  <3 :="" nbsp="" p="">

Emer has been doing both club swimming and the middle school team! She is quite a busy bee in middle school and I just love how she has embraced all the fun. This past weekend she and I did an Indoor Tri at the Y. She was excited b/c she has been doing the treadmill in gym class and couldn't wait to run on it as part of this race, haha! It was as I predicted - she beat me in the swim, the bike was neck and neck for a while then I pulled out a win, and I beat her on the treadmill. She did so well though and we had fun!

And speaking of embracing middle school, Emer has been doing news crew and back in Nov. she decided to try out for the play! It was a play about a living museum for Black History Month and she did really well! She loved every part of it and says she's going to try out for more. This girl is busy :)

There will be more blogs this year,  I really hope. And as I said, if you haven't seen the back-dated posts from "July", "Oct", and "Dec", be sure to check back soon for those!

Emer Turns 11...officially a pre-teen!

This year we decided that with Emer heading into middle school in the fall, parties would probably be changing. We could no longer invite her whole class b/c that would mean inviting the entire 6th grade! So, to celebrate and embrace this change, we hosted the War to End All Wars...the whole class was invited...the swim team was invited...we set up bunkers...we set up water stations...we told kids to bring their best water guns...then we let them loose!

Who won the war, you might be asking? No one knows. Is there ever truly a winner in war anyway?

Here's the whole crazy gang: 

And the cake we got from DQ b/c I didn't have time to make one, sorry Emer!

Now let's backtrack - we went to the lake, as usual on the actual 4th of July and celebrated both America and Emer. This is now officially a family tradition and I'm not sure how many more years, if ever, before it changes. Emer just loves being at the lake on her birthday!

 BTW, I did decorate this cookie cake! We spent time fishing, swimming, hanging out on the boat, driving around in the golf cart, and playing. It was a very nice holiday away from home!

Happy 4th of July, Everyone!!!

A Heart of Gold

Have you ever met one of those people who just loves others? Who just feels what others feel? And they are only 10?! That's my daughter. Yes, I'm bragging a bit, but it's more b/c of how much she amazes me.
Let me back up a bit - Emer is not perfect. She's a 10 year old girl w/ friends who are sometimes besties and sometimes on the outs. She's experiencing the joy of having 1 best friend and 2 really good friends who don't always get along. Her circle changes daily, as it does for all 5th grade girls. One thing I hope to hang onto is her love of venting to me. (Parents of older kids, don't laugh! I'm realistic and know I have only a short time frame left, but I can dream that she'll always love talking to me about her friends!) I learn so much just by listening to her.

So here's what I've learned lately:
Emer holds compassion in her heart. She will randomly tell me about kids at school or on the bus. Maybe I know these kids, maybe I don't. But it really doesn't matter when she is talking. She is open to talking about everyone w/ me.
Recently some friends from swimming ganged up on another girl and were not so nice. Let me explain, lest you think poorly of my sweet little daughter. I am raising her to accept all religions and practice Buddhism, if she chooses. Her dad is a bit anti-Christian-establishment. OK not really a bit...he really is against organized religion of any kind but it makes sense b/c all you have to do is look at the world and see how messed up it becomes when religion is the central focus. I digress.
One of her friends is a Christian and had a rock that was apparently painted w/ the words "Jesus Love You". One of my daughter's friends thought it would be funny to smash the rock and Emer agreed. A group of them took turns throwing the rock into the ground until it broke into 2 pieces. Emer then found out it belonged to one of her besties from swimming and she felt bad. She didn't say anything to this friend, who apparently just thought she had lost the rock. But she (Emer) told me about it, which means she was still thinking about it hours after practice.
After discussing how her friend probably feels and talking about how she would feel if someone smashed one of her Buddha drawings, she came up w/ the idea to paint a new rock and give to her friend. I was proud that she came to this conclusion after a relatively short conversation but saddened at how easy it was for her to destroy the friend's rock in the first place.
I have to remember:
* Emer has compassion for most people.
* Emer is still 10.
* Emer likes all her friends and struggles, just like everyone, to make the right choice while still fitting in w/ her friends.
* Emer will come around to the most kind solution in the end.
* I love Emer no matter what.

You may read this differently than me, but I feel this demonstrates her heart of gold perfectly. No one is perfect. But for a 10 year old to feel bad about something she did and then come up w/ a solution...well that's saying something, right?!

I 💚 my 10 year old child...

Party Time!!

Before we delve into the Halloween extravaganza that was October, and the Holiday fun in December, let's take a peek back at Emer's 10th birthday. Yes, I said 10th. This Tiny of mine has been around for 10 years! I can't believe it's been so long. Lately I find myself thinking back to when she was much smaller - a toddler who I brought along everywhere...a preschooler - one of only a handful of girls in her classroom w/ a very kind teacher...a kindergartener who cried nearly every day...a second grader who never shed a tear at a brand new school...a fifth grader excited for middle school but loving her teacher and all that they do. So to celebrate this 10th year of life, of course we had a party! Here are a few pix from that fun day:  The theme was balloons - 

Hot Air Balloon cookies

Water Balloons

Balloon Races

"Balloon" Ice cream

It was a "ballooning" success!!

Happy 10th Birthday, Emerson Rachel Cripe <3 a="" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnOwcBiA5Ndogw4M9sjiowg4Av94Wo1sQOducUEwnI2NIF08CEtTMjUcWXyeUdeLjF1utmZIEahWvT1Big0I59e3kgzj_GOp8HbeXbCUYMBCesdPQuVh_CI3ktIpXSevQXD5TVEfWW3xM/s1600/IMG_20180630_134120_906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">

Every year, since she was old enough to walk really, Emer and I have been enjoying Halloween fun. This year was no different. We had our annual Halloween party for everyone in her class and swim team. We figured this was probably the last big party we'll have a for a while as she can't invite the entire grade next year! So, of course, we went ALL OUT! 

We had a '60's Murder Mystery Halloween Party!!!

Emer was Blissity Lovewell who was hosting a party for her friend, Nutmeg Van Zant who had just returned home from being stranded on  a deserted island!

Here's the whole gang!

A little action shot as the kids mingle and learn more about each suspect:  In the end no one figured out who killed Billigan (portrayed by George) but they had some really god theories and loads of fun was had by all!

On Halloween Emer invited some friends over to go trick or treating w/ Sam and Alex. Here are all of her friends: Tootsie Roll, Greta the elf, Jordyn, dead Hope, and Minecraft George!

Just a side not from Emer's parties, I held an Ugly Sweater Beautiful Drinks party at Christmas time. Friends from all my groups attended and we shared some delicious drinks, played pool and ping pong and gossiped all while wearing our best Christmas/holiday sweaters! Emer helped set up and prepare by decorating sweaters for all the Colts players pictures in the lower lever :)

And now I will finish this blog entry (months after beginning it!) while sitting at home waiting for our flight to NYC. We are trying to kick off 2019 in style in our fav city but the flight has been delayed by 3 hours and 20 minutes. Ug! Emer and I could have slept in (b/c you know we made it to midnight last night!) but we were up and ready to go by 7:30 when the text came through. That's OK, we will just roll with the punches. Nothing else we can do, really, and I'd rather be relaxing at home finishing a blog than sitting at a crowded airport w/ nothing better to do.

Happy New Year!

Cheers!

Much Love!

Summer Holidays - Out West!

I must officially be at the stage where parenthood is so normal that I don't think about blogging anymore. So sorry to everyone (one or two of you??) who enjoyed reading about the growing up and happenings of Emerson Rachel Cripe. I'll try to do better from now on!
So let's back up a couple of months to June - our big family trip out west!!

Emer's 4th grade National Park Pass drove all of our vacation last year. You heard about going out east to Baltimore, south to Tennessee, and then we traveled all the way west to California. This was the BIG trip b/c it was #1 much farther away and #2 much more expensive. We joked about how we saved about $60/person on national park entries but spent over $1000 to do it! Still, everyone needs a big out west trip at least once in their childhood and we're pretty fortunate for this to be the 2nd big trip and 4th or 5th time Emer has been out there. Our goals were to see Giant trees - Sequoia National Park, and another stellar piece of land - Yosemite National Park. We were flying into and out of San Fransisco so we also wanted to spend a few days there. And Steve wanted us to see Carmel and Big Sur.  Yes, that's a lot to pack into one week! But we managed to do it and enjoy ourselves at the same time.
***Once again, I'd like to thank the Federal Government for your every kid in a park program. We would not have been inspired to do this without the National Park Pass. Please promote this more heavily so more kids can see the country the way we did!

Highlights of our trip included:
Driving into Yosemite we were greeted by this - Stunning. Massive. Impressive. And yet just the tip of what we were going to see...

 There's a place called Sentinel Dome in Yosemite. Emer and I climbed to the top where we were treated to a full 180 degree view of the park! Breathtaking.

 Sequoia National Park is filled with the Giant Sequoia trees shown below. We learned that they fall uphill b/c the winds that spread fire tend to hit the uphill side of the trees thereby weakening that side. These trees are the most amazing, majestic, and strong things I've ever seen! This was my favorite part of the trip!

 Emer and I also climbed to the top of Moro Rock which provided more spectacular views of the entire park. We could even see the winding road we had to drive up to get into the mountains!

Following the National Parks we headed out to Monteray Bay where we visited Big Sur for a spectacular lunch, 

drove the 17 Mile Drive, and enjoyed beach time!

 
We finished up back in San Francisco where we stayed in a lovely AirBNB less than a mile from the beach. We were able to fit a LOT into our few shorts days there!

Walking along the piers we found a cool arcade where they had everything from antique (still working!) pieces to modern day arcade games. Here's a couple of fortune tellers we tried out! There is also an exhibit w/ a submarine and parts of other giant war ships. What a HUGE propeller!!

We had to see the famous sea lions. There weren't many b/c it isn't the season for them...

Interestingly enough, Emer's favorite part of San Francisco was Alcatraz!!

And there you have it! Our Big Family Out West vacation - 2018! It was so much fun and I hope Emer remembers everything we did for a very long time. Our country truly has some spectacular sites to see :)