Doesn’t she look happy? She followed that up with a note she brought into our room while I was trying to sleep. I read it with my flashlight app on my phone:

She was so proud of her efforts with her cursive handwriting. And all I could think about was her n’s that clearly look like m’s so she repeatedly referred to “tea (with homey)” instead of honey. I laughed and tried to go to sleep. She came back a few minutes later to let me know that she was expecting a response (and I was just thinking about blogging that note). So I wrote one:

She didn’t even notice that I called her homey. And she wrote back one last time for the night:

I’m pretty sure that last word is promise. So I guess she’ll be having some tea tonight. If she remembers. One of the most amusing things about this whole exchange is that she’s never even liked tea in the past.

Happy Friday!

He can play on their bed. The nice clean bed because their daddy was so nice he cleaned their disaster of a room. He can watch his own shows on TV. Well, that’s not really different because he already did that. He can have his mommy all to himself.

Lee and I are having lots of fun after Brinky goes to bed, looking at silly things on the internet, doing tons of quizzes on Sporcle, and looking at bad movie choices on Netflix and not watching any of them. And sleeping in until 6:00 since we don’t have the middle school schedule to deal with. Maybe that doesn’t sound exciting to you, but it’s just right for us.

We do of course miss the girls (mostly) and talk to them every day. Jenny’s sent me a couple text updates including a video of the clothes she got when they went shopping today and a picture of her sister (I requested) because it’s been 6 months since Reagan got her ears pierced so she was officially allowed to wear what she calls hang-down earrings today.

They’re very excited to be having fun in Hilton Head. Apparently the big excitement is watching The Voice every night because they’ve never done that here in our no reality TV household.

And in case we forget where they are, Jenny left a note on the door to remind us (or Lee really since it’s addressed to him):

She really just modified the note she left up for days that said she was outside, but I still think it’s funny.

While the girls are having fun, I still haven’t felt ready to send Brinky off to Hilton Head yet. Maybe this summer. For a brief visit. He’s just not ready to be away from his mommy.

How old were your kids when you let them spend the night away from you for the first time?

Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:

Last night I decided I was going to sneak a picture of her without her noticing. I pulled out my phone, all casual like, figuring she wouldn’t even notice. This is what happened.

A very attractive Reagan photobomb. And I actually think I would have caught Jenny that time. But she was on to me.

Reagan blocked her again in what appears to be a very uncomfortable position, to me.

There’s a Jenny blur behind Reagan.

My last attempt of last night. Jenny pulled out a blanket to block the camera – and ended up covering Reagan’s head up with it.

This afternoon I was sitting at the kitchen table with Jenny after school and decided to try sneaking another picture. She was diligently working on her homework.

Victory. Sort of. She didn’t notice me taking the picture because my phone was practically under the table. But it wasn’t a good picture either. I decided to get greedy and try again when she got up to put her jacket on.

And she actively tried to block the camera. Oh well. It was a good effort. Sort of. I’ll catch her on film again one day.

Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:

Side note: how awesome is it that a lot of songs are cheaper on Amazon MP3 and still import into iTunes and on to iPods? Jenny was very happy that they were able to buy three more songs because they saved money by buying from Amazon. Though she initially acted like that was the stupidest idea ever. She did actually thank me for the idea later and admitted it was a good one, which rarely happens with always-right Jenny.

Anyway, they worked hard on their list of music, working and reworking  it and checking the math to be sure they had enough money for all the songs they wanted. Jenny had it all written out in her journal.

So we got to work ordering the songs. Even though on some songs we made comments like “Really? You actually like that?” we bought everything they had picked out. Up until the last year, we’ve generally only bought music for them that we like too, so it’s been a definite shift recently towards them having their own (sometimes bad) taste in music and spending a lot of time listening to music. Jenny always has her headphones in while she’s reading. And she was excited about getting up at 5:30 for school this morning so she’d have more time to listen to her new music!

Look at the two of them together working on this. They were actually being nice to each other. I love how the music brought them together. Even though there were a few songs they disagreed on and bought with their combined money anyway (Avril Lavigne’s Sk8r Boi for Reagan and stuff I’ve never heard of from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack for Jenny). Brinkley was so excited about it that he decided to get out of bed way after he should have been asleep, but much to his disappointment they weren’t even playing his favorite song, Party Rock Anthem.

(Unrelated, if you’re wondering what’s happening on the walls behind them, they were on the computer in my husband’s office and he has his notes for the book he’s working on pinned to the wall.)

I won’t go through her life from birth to now with some of my favorite pictures since I already did that last year (but feel free to go look at that post if you want – she sure had a lot of cute moments). But I will tell you about what this sweet girl wanted for her 9th birthday.

We’ve enjoyed (suffered through) a lot of fun and fancy birthday parties in the past. The Children’s Museum. Our local bounce house. Chuck E Cheese. Great Wolf Lodge (fun!). Funigan’s. But this year Reagan said she just wanted to spend the day with her family. She invited her best friend for a Saturday night sleepover so she’d be here the morning of her birthday, but she didn’t really have much she wanted to do. And she didn’t want a lot of gifts. She’s sweet like that.

So our day went like this. Her brother slept in so the sleepover wouldn’t have to end at 5:00 in the morning when he normally wakes everyone up. That was nice, wasn’t it? Reagan and her friend woke up and requested Reagan’s birthday breakfast – yogurt and fresh fruit.

Once we dragged her slightly surly big sister downstairs, Reagan opened her presents. She truly didn’t ask for much, so we were able to give her what she wanted:

An alarm clock, an owl lunchbox, and new owl earrings. Jenny’s a little annoyed Reagan’s going to have an alarm clock that she probably won’t hear that will just annoy Jenny, but Reagan’s excited!

Doesn’t she look happy?

After healthy breakfast and presents, we worked on birthday cake for an unhealthy second breakfast.

There’s not much tastier than Funfetti cake with buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Especially because it’s easy. Brinkley loved it too. Maybe a little too much.

After presents and cake, we spent the rest of the day relaxing and having fun and eating the meals of Reagan’s choice – McDonald’s for lunch and Mexican for dinner. We spent a lot of time playing Just Dance 4, even more fun after Aunt Charlotte arrived. We played a new board game. And Reagan played the keyboard her grandparents sent to entertain us for a bit in the evening.

Look how happy she was when she opened the keyboard on Friday:

She really got a kick out of playing the keyboard on the sound effects mode. And I was excited about the hilarious expressions I captured while she was playing, making us laugh so hard. I wish I’d recorded it, but we’ll save that for another day.

I’m so excited to hear the music (or something resembling music) she creates with her keyboard.

Aren’t they cute? They’re similar, but a little different. And I loved being able to customize them for my girls so easily. I also ordered sketch journals for each of the girls with unlined pages. I had so many fun ideas with all the choices available on Minted!

Jenny’s is a Mother/Daughter journal since she’s all grown up (in her opinion).

And Reagan’s is Mommy/Daughter.

On both I chose to put the date started in the lower right-hand corner in case we manage to save these for the future (it would be a miracle).

I wrote an initial note to each of them before I wrapped the journals and gave them to the girls for Christmas explaining that we could write anything we like to each other in these journals – even things that might be hard to talk about out loud.

Or, you know, they can write about the Percy Jackson books, which they’re also willing to discuss out loud.

I’m hoping this is another new habit we stick with! So far, we haven’t lost them, and we have written back and forth twice. Pretty good for a week into the new year!

If you’d like to look at other journals available from Minted, check them out here. Disclosure: this is an affiliate link, but these are products I ordered myself and am using and love!

Aren’t they cute? Jenny’s first middle school picture, looking more grown up. Reagan’s third grade picture. She still has a little trouble figuring out how to smile naturally, but it’s very her and very cute.

And my favorite part of replacing pictures is looking at the old pictures that are still in the frame – such fun memories!

Do you leave old pictures in frames or do you take them out when you replace them?

I found that this book does a great job of expressing things the way I wish I could – some of the lessons are about things you may not even think of. Obviously I don’t think a book can replace actually talking to her, but I like that I agree with everything expressed in the book and that it can inspire conversations that we might not have had otherwise.

A couple of my favorite pages:

This one first in perfectly with the Rachel’s Challenge event we went to recently and our family discussions about how to stop bullying.

I love this. And I still read whenever I can. Jenny does too – here’s how I caught her this weekend.

Something else I love about this book is its format and size and the fact that it’s supposed to be a “living book.” The Papersalt website says that means it is for “teenage girls to reference, write in, and refer back to often.” When I pulled the book out to write this review, I found that Jenny had done just that on a few pages, and it reinforced the value of the book for me.

Though I’m not sure how I should feel about her underlining of “You may not like your parents all of the time.”

We also received Being a Girl for Reagan, and she’s enjoying it, but I wanted to focus on how perfect Being a Teenage Girl is for Jenny right now in this review!

One other Papersalt item I’m excited about trying is the book of Kid Coupons. The girls are not doing a great job with their chores lately (read: terrible), and we’ve been trying to think of new ways to motivate them. So I’m thinking about giving these coupons as incentives. Especially this one because it would be fun for me, too!

Take a minute to head over to the Papersalt website and check out all of their products. You may find a perfect gift – because can you believe Christmas is only two months away??

*Disclosure: I was provided with these books for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Here’s a recent picture Jenny posted:

Isn’t she pretty? And posed properly and handling the camera just right?

And here’s one Reagan took yesterday when she was bored while we were waiting at the doctor’s office. It’s pretty good. Certainly above my skill level, but not quite at the expert level of Jenny.

I was taking pictures of Brinky’s cuteness with my phone yesterday morning, and he grabbed and it pulled it toward himself, producing this gem.

So he still needs to practice a bit, right? Preferably not with my phone.

All three of them did a better job than I do though. One day I’m going to have to get a phone with a forward facing camera!

Linking up with Greta (who had a happy birthday yesterday, I hope) and Julie again this week:

I love having the ability to look at both girls’ grades online so I can see how they’re doing in their classes as often as I’d like. But sometimes I get so annoyed with Jenny when I look at her grades and see a lower grade because I know it’s usually because of something careless.

This is what I see when I look at her grades right now:

Honestly? I know these are pretty awesome grades, especially for the beginning of her first year at middle school, which is a huge change. So I feel bad that I zero right in on that B in the middle of the page. And when I click on the details I see an assignment where she got a 76 staring out at me. Why did she get a 76? Because the instructions required answers in complete sentences, and she didn’t answer in complete sentences. Careless, right? It bothers me so much more than if she gets a lower grade because she actually didn’t understand a particular concept. But I wish I did a better job of focusing on the overall – her grades are great. Or maybe it’s good for her that we always push her to do her best. Parenting’s hard sometimes, you know?