Saturday, July 16, 2011

Mendenhall Glacier

The picture doesn't do it justice. It's half a mile across and is the most amazing blue color!

Having a Magical Trip!

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

It's the Last Day of School!

So we stop for an annual slurpee. Hooray! Soon we'll be headed to kindergarten, third grade, fourth grade and middle school. But first, a long relaxing summer!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

The End of an Era

In the fall of 2003, Josh and Diana started at the local high school lab preschool, Bear Hugs. They were three years old. Teacher Annette, has loved, encouraged, taught, read to, wiped tears, given band aids, and laughed with at least one Eitzenney (sometimes two and sometimes three!) child each year since then. Today marked the last day for me to pick up a kid from Bear Hugs EVER! There was a huge group hug, individual hugs for everyone, and lots of tears from our beloved Teacher Annette. Then all the kids went into the classroom for a last look around. Has the furniture all shrunk? Surely the chairs, tables, and reading loft were much bigger eight years ago. There were lots of, "Remember when...?" and a final stop to gaze at the class photos from every year back to 2003. My how they've grown!

Thanks, Teacher Annette for giving them all such a great start! We will miss you!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Spring Flowers

Laura and I took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. She took every one of these photos and made the slide show herself. Enjoy!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

Love Note

Abby (my favorite five year old on the planet!!) greeted me with this card at 7:15 am. She made it for me yesterday with her most treasured goodies from the Playgroup egg hunt. She told me it says, "I love the Denneys". See those beautifully formed letters? And the gorgeous swirls? And the carefully taped on erasers and silly bands? Isn't she brilliant? What can I say. The Denneys love her too. Tons.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Mary Strikes Again

While scrolling through the pictures on my phone, I found this. I was pretty sure who had made it, but I asked the girls anyway. It was Mary. In a burst of creativity, she searched online for lion pictures, found this one and liked it. So she added the speech bubble and saved it for me. Ah, the innocence...

Sunday, January 9, 2011

What the World Needs

I came home from a hair appointment yesterday to a very frustrated daddy. He reported that Mary had spilled some glitter in Diana's bed. He had stripped it and started the wash. I told him I'd take over, and he headed for the casino. The girls and I hung out and went to the newest Narnia movie, which we all enjoyed. Mary wanted to watch a show at 8:00, and the vaccuum was out upstairs so I assumed there was still some clean up to do. I told her we needed to get Diana's bed remade and finish vaccuuming all the glitter before tv. So we started about 7:45. Big Mistake.

If you don't know Mary well, you won't know that she does things BIG. She loves big. She feels happy big. She feels anxious and let down big. She has big dreams and big ideas by the gallon. And she sprinkles glitter big. We made the bed, vaccuumed the floor, and I as looked around, I realized there was glitter on the desk. On the bookshelf. On the windowsill. On the dresser. In Laura's bed. On Laura's desk. On Laura's dresser. On Laura's shelves.

Completely exasperated about 45 minutes into vaccuuming, I asked, "Mary, what did you do? Sprinkle glitter everywhere?"

She replied, "The world needs more glitter, Mom."

After closely following the news from Arizona yesterday, I couldn't agree more.

She worked like a trooper to clean it up, missing her 8:00 show, and never complaining. How could I be mad at that?

And, just to illustrate my big point. Here's what Mary made for us for breakfast this morning. Instead of blueberry pancakes, she made one BIG one!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Love That Girl

Mary finished Love That Dog, a novel by Sharon Creech, a few minutes ago. She came running in to tell me about how the boy in the story's yellow lab gets hit by a car. His dad carries the dog onto the grass, and the boy is there when "the dog closes his eyes for the last time." Mary was sad. Who wouldn't be with an ending like that?




Writing homework tonight was "free write", Mary's personal favorite. So: "I know, Mom! I'll write a poem about Ginger!" This is what she wrote:


 
I still miss Ginger every day, but I haven't cried about her in a long time. Tonight I did. Just a little.