Happy Birthday Abbie!

Abbie celebrated her 6th birthday on Saturday (although somehow we didn't manage to get any photos). We had her party at the local pool and probably had about 20 kids that were able to celebrate with her. It was a mere 108 degrees, so I guess it was a good day for swimming. The parents mostly just sat in the shade and tried not to melt. It was a good party, though, and I was happy to have it someplace other than our house - less mess to worry about.

Abbie's summer camps are starting to wind down. She had a morning soccer camp last week, and has a half-day tennis camp this week. Then she has a couple of weeks off before school starts on the 15th of August. I think it has been a good summer, but it has really flown by.

Fluffy has been staying with us for the past week or so, but he will go to another family this weekend, and I think the Kindergarten chapter will be officially done. We are very curious to see who Abbie's 1st grade teacher will be and who will be in her class this year.

As for Abbie, she may be 6 now, but she is working really hard to be 16 - always trying to grow up as fast as possible. She has taken to using our old iPhone as her own - telling me that she is texting and sending emails, keeping it in her purse, taking endless pictures with it, etc. She is also frequently "plugged in" to a Leap Pad, an iPhone, etc., playing games with her headphones on. She got a kids pedicure set as one of her birthday gifts so now she is really interested in doing nail polish for people. This morning she had me using the curling iron to put ringlets in her hair. Basically, the obsession with being "fancy" and "cool" has reached a new level (although as you can see below, she still has her goofy moments).

 (Notice said iPhone in Abbie's hand. In contrast, Emily is trying to hold hands with a crocodile).

To try to counterbalance some of this, I have started working harder to emphasize to her that as she gets older there is more that she can do around the house - clearing her place at the table, putting away her clean laundry, picking up after herself, etc. Sometimes she is good about it, but sometimes I get the, "ugh, chores?" attitude. And, in fact, there have been some signs that her work ethic is lacking. The other day, she asked me what sort of job I had in college. I explained that I had two jobs - one as a TA, and the other in a pharmacy. I went on to clarify, though, that the pharmacy job was mostly just on the weekends. At this point, she became totally baffled, and I couldn't understand why. She looked at me incredulously and said, "You worked on the weekends?!?" as if this was the craziest thing that could ever happen. I guess it is just a totally foreign concept to her. Imagine how sad she'll be when she finds out that money doesn't grow on trees. :)