Hopscotch Designs

Madigan is up there on the stage and she won’t smile!  She drives me crazy!!!!!

Here I sit at her 5thGrade Promotion (that’s graduation gone casual) and the child is up on stage receiving awards and accolades and she won’t smile.  As I watch her I suddenly realize I’m making giant smiley faces at her in an effort to get her to mimic me.  You know, like when you’re spoon feeding a baby and you find yourself opening your mouth wide to get the baby to open their mouth…. c’mon, we’ve all done it!  Finally, at the very end she looks over at me and gives me one smirky little smile just before the tall kid in front of her stands up and blocks my photo!

Then it’s time for the slide show - a look back at the last six years from kindergarten through today.  Okay, you probably know by now, I’m not the weepy mom but this made me come close.  Just to see how much these kids have grown is charming.  I’m sitting there looking at a giant slide photo of my Madigan’s first school picture and she just looks like such a baby! 

It has me walking down memory lane in my head.  Flashing back through mental photos of the kids over the years.  As always, when I think about my kids, I can’t leave out my last baby…. Hopscotch!  So, as soon as I got home I started digging out the old photos from our first photo shoot.  We took all four of our kids and every other cute kid we could get a hold of and headed to the corral at Jenn’s. 

Madigan was 6, Megan 5, Gracie 4, Cameron 3 and Hopscotch 2! 

WOW!!!! How they’ve all changed!  The kids have lost their baby faces and Hopscotch has become so much more refined and funky!  I can’t wait to look back again in 5 years and see what’s the same and what has changed.

Hope you enjoyed the walk down memory lane with Hopscotch, the kids and me!

Mayberry… La Mesa… sometimes I think it’s all the same thing.  Even surrounded by the massive sprawl that is San Diego County, our little town of La Mesa always feels like a small town.  I can’t walk down the street, get a coffee at Cosmos or even hit the local Vons without running into people that I know… from the girls’ school, from estate sales, from high school?  I love it!  The one thing that screams small town like nothing else is the annual tradition of The Flay Day Parade! 

Last weekend we walked down the hill into town for The Flag Day Parade, an annual tradition that never disappoints.  Marching bands, politicians, clowns (eek!), Girl Scouts, the local trash company, horses, pug puppies, solo aging batonists…. too many things to mention… I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

go Kaimilani!

an annual tradition

GO CHARGERS!!!!!!!

nothing cuter than pug rescue

love that car

(don’t tell anyone else but…. clowns scare me!)

martial arts?

and to sweep up after it all… the trash truck!

If you’re in town next year make sure to join us for a walk and an hour of non-stop fun!