Christmas 2013

 Always helping her boy, Graf, out!

 "Moore" fun at Christmas 2013!!

Madelyn and Lor--cute grown up girlies!

New Year's Eve fun, Great Falls Park, and Basketball

Creating FUN!!

 One morning at the breakfast table while Cory was away, Lorin started singing Lady Gaga's Bad Romance...you know the "ooh la ro ma ma...ra ma ooh la la" part.  She was at the top of her longs and created a very sharp beat slapping the table to go along with the song.  Within half a verse Izzy, Ryan, and Graf had joined her and I was sitting there hoping to start scriptures, eat breakfast, and get on with the day.  Then a saying came to my mind, if you can't beat them...you might as well join them!

Well, that is not too atypical of Lorin.  Generally she is the fun / excitement / laughter generator.  The inhibition is astounding.  Because of this, kids are generally excited to be around for the residual fun.

Hey, why don't you guys stand right here...

...so that when I body toboggan through this sludge...

...you will get drenched! (Chantelle finally convinced of this great plan.)

 The pictures really don't do it justice as she perfected the move as time went on and by the end, the bystanders were splattered with muddy rain water from head to toe!

Brook and Megan Baird with Lorin (mid) and Izzy

Official title:  Michigan Football Fan Zombie  (Artist:  Dad)

Here is where Lorin has convinced everyone to be Ninja's in training...Lorin vs. the World!  She would regularly tell them they needed to fight harder and "really go at it!"

Poor Declan gets lots of love from Lorin often in the form of teasing!  Don't worry, Mama Bear comes to his rescue before it gets too out of hand.

Every once in a while she calms down.  For 2012 it was for a choir performance, and

Santa's lap.
 

Though my nature is to try and help her grow up, you know, be responsible and all that boring stuff, I really hope she stays young so that we can all keep having fun!  Love this girl!

11 years old

Let the countdown begin....until she's 12.  Yes, according to Lorin, when you turn 12 you are all of a sudden allowed to do whatever you want and she can't wait for the day!  Some of the things on the list are sitting in the front seat of a car, babysitting, and hmmm, I was sure I could think of more since her list seems to go on and on when she get's on a roll...

Brownies are the "cake" of choice every year!

See all these unsuspecting gifts?  It wasn't because the list wasn't as long as her arm however :)

 

But surprises are so much more fun!!  How about Brian Reagan tickets with Mom and Dad??  Woohooo!

 

 

   Or...a neeeew bike!!!

 The other thing she got was the long anticipated for I-pod...we helped her with the last few bucks, but she had been saving for a long time and payed for it herself!  We were proud of her self control--money usually burns a hole :)

Lorin is a one-of-a-kind.  We have been so blessed to watch her grow into such a beautiful girl inside and out.  Don't get me wrong, the beauty is accompanied by more spunk than imaginable.  But this year she has had to prove that she can weather the storms of a pre-teen moving to a new school that was 3 times as demanding as her last and having to make friends in a 5th grade world--the year everyone seems to get mean and weird.

I recently wrote in my journal about the times my prayers have been answered on Lorin's behalf this year.  From talking to her Advanced Math (See Sierpinsky Pyramid above) teacher to reduce the amount of homework from 4 hours to 40 minutes a night, to giving Aunt Wendy a random call--the perfect person to give me some perspective on some of the things Lorin was facing, to finding an amazing friend just down the road--Valerie (pictured above).  She reads her scriptures faithfully every morning, prays night and day, works so hard at being a peacemaker, gets good grades in school, is one of her siblings' favorite babysitters, practices her violin every morning and basketball after school, helps without complaining, is adored by her teachers, and the list goes on.  We love this girl!

She's a Baller!!

(sigh) Basketball--my first love!!  I can't tell you how completely happy I was to find Lorin and basketball to be a match made in heaven.  This girl and all her energy has found a place where it's perfectly fine to run in circles around everyone, to bug someone til they give up, and to be the center of attention as much as possible.  Offense or defense, she knows where that ball is and has an oppressive hunger to have it in her hands.  When she's not in season, she's practicing in the driveway.  I have to admit I get a little into her games--especially the side-line coaching aspect and maybe, sometimes, the side-line reffing aspect :(.  I can't wait for next season!!...I mean she can't :)

Her best game this season (only her second season) she scored 15 points.  Had I been her Grandma Kofoed, I would be able to give you the stats on how many steels, rebounds, and assists she had as well.  I'll get better ;)

The routine was to take her out for the 2nd quarter as the play-time must be fair to all the players.  The coach happened to mention that the 2nd quarter was usually a tough one for our team's momentum.  Now the bragging, I also got from Grandma Kofoed :)

Here is Lorin all dolled up for her first school dance and posing with her handsome daddy.

Teenager here we come....

...but not without an exuberant mix of crazy fun...as usual!

We are really trying to make Lorin slow down--she seems to be trying to win the Gold in how fast she can become a teenager. We love to try and keep her young though. Her favorite things right now are playing with Graf, getting Izzy and Ryan to play the Hallway Game, riding the 4-wheeler, and math math math (jk).


When we went to NYC Lorin decided Time Square was her favorite place to be. Here she is anticipating a wild street performer to flip over her.Dad--always been her hero.
Mom--forcing the girls to do apple sauce with me--they ended up loving it! Lorin stuck with me for the full 4 hours!

74 bags of leaves and Lorin took pride in sticking with Cor and I the whole 9 yards (is that just something my mom says or does everyone know that phrase? :)

APRIL FOOLS! and on to 4th grade

Though I am writing this in August, Lorin's April Fools Day was noteworthy enough to go back in time and tell a good story:

Thanks to my auntees growing up, April Fools day isn't complete without a memorable trick. And thanks to last year's AF (which included Lorin in the tub, and me telling her a kid just stole her bike out of our garage...encouraging her to get dressed in whatever she could find and run after him) I knew Lorin was a good sport and seemed to get a kick out of it all.

So...this year I came up with a plan, emailed her teacher the night before and ran it by Cory to make sure I wasn't going too far. The next morning I told Lorin "Your teacher emailed me and said that it's Sherlock Holmes Day at school today--all the kids are suppose to come to school with a mustache." "Really?...cool!" was the response. The pictures above show plenty. What they don't show is Cory taking the pics while he's laughing it up and me, in my pregnant glory, giggling the whole time I'm using my eyeliner pencil to draw it on. There was "Why are you guys laughing" from Lorin and amused looks from Izzy and Ryan.

This is how it went in my mind the night before: she will barely get there on time, head straight to class, her teacher (forewarned remember) will tell her April Fools! from Mom and she will wash it off. Done.

On the contrary, according to Lorin and the other eye-witnesses I was able to interview, here's how it went: I forgot I had to be to Izzy's cancer appointment that early and so dropped her off 15 min before the bell--just enough time to be questioned by her classmates in which she replied "It's Sherlock Holmes day, didn't you know?" They, of course, thought they must have missed the memo. Meanwhile she and a friend get asked by the office to appear on the Morning News that will be broadcast in every room via TV to wish Mrs. Gullickson, her teacher, a happy birthday. On my way to Plano, I am sweatin' it, wondering if I had gone too far this year. I even tried to call Mrs. G to make sure she was laughing and not crying, but to no avail. Her appearance at class created the exact response I had anticipated with the teacher saying April Fools! and Lorin going "Moooooooooom!" Before she could wash it off (and it was very washable) she got scooted out the door to P.E. She sat on the floor criss-cross-apple-sauce to listen to instructions with her class and the other class that joined them. She put her elbow on her knee and then her hand up to her mouth--licking and discreetly wiping...deflecting questions with "What are you talking about? I wasn't on Morning News!" On her way back to class a 5th grader asked her "Hey aren't you the girl that had a mustache?" to which she responded, "Oh no, that wasn't me, it was my twin sister...her name is...Sara...she's in Mrs. Heiner's class." He totally bought it and questioned no more!

I finally finished with Izzy's doctor, and raced back to Wellington Elementary in time to have lunch with Lorin. As soon as she saw me she ran and gave me a big hug. Whew! I was relieved! We chatted in the hall for a while about how it all went down. She mentioned it was the most embarrassing thing ever and I apologized. To my surprise she told me she was glad I did fun things like that. When we went into the lunchroom to sit by all of her good friends, they were laughing it up and saying "that mustache was awesome!" and "I wish my Mom did stuff like that." OK, I'M NOT MAKING THIS UP! They really did say that! Before Lorin ran off to recess she told me I was the best mom ever. REALLY, I'M NOT KIDDING!

Needless to say, she is quite the amazing girl. I really could not / would not have done that to just anyone. It will go down in the April Fools history book though, huh?!

This is her and her daddy-daughter Invention Convention project.
This is the morning of the first day of 4th grade (1st for Izzy). Another quick story...2 days into 4th grade Mrs. Alday asked for people to pick their opposite gender partner for science lab. Boys choice. None of them would choose (cooties much?!), so she opened it up to the girls. Lorin was the only one who raised her hand and said, "I want Jeff" very unaffected and matter-of-factly. Her teacher replied, "Wow, you are very mature, Lorin." She was pretty proud of that later. I asked her why she chose Jeff and she said it was because he's the smartest boy in the class.

As much as I feel bad about how tough we have been on our first born, she has turned out to be one awesome girl!