Art Show

We went to an art show for the kids' school, and all the affiliated schools, at the high school.

Kaden made a doll of some sort -- I tried googling "Hibachi dolls" because I thought that is what they were called, but nothing shows up.  However, Kaden did a fine job on his and he made sure we noticed that it had braided hair, as you can see. 

"Hey, do you want to know how this all began?" Kaden asked.
Keane and I anxiously waited to hear how the tradition of these dolls began...
"It all started with an empty roll of toilet paper." 

Kylie recreated Monet's "Water Lilies" painting, yet she couldn't determine which one was hers.  She remembered that she put all of her flowers in the right order (purple, pink, then white).  She said that she did not do a terrible job on hers and made small cuts on her lily pads.  She also knew that hers had a green glob of paint because Scott accidently got it on the top of her paper -- but every glob of green paint we pointed out, she stated was not hers.

Kaden told us this morning on the way to school that he will be sixteen in seven years.  And Kylie figured out that she will be sixteen in nine years.  We'll try not to think about how quickly those seven and nine years are going to go by. 

After December, Kylie will no longer legally need to be in a booster seat.  We'll focus on one small step of growing up at a time!

When we showed up to the art show, a little girl Kylie's aged asked her if her mom was there.  Kylie answered, "No, but my stepmom is here.  This is my stepmom."  I smiled at the little unknown-named girl, and she went on her way, probably still wondering where Kylie's mom was.

It meant a lot to me -- that Kylie quickly introduced me as her stepmom and seemed to welcome it to her friend.  I haven't been introduced that way very often, if at all.  The kids consider me their stepmom in the home, but in public, I'm usually "Kristi."  To know that I'm fully accepted as a family member in Kylie's heart, I'm so very thankful and blessed.  She's right, I am her stepmom.  If she would have introduced me as her dad's girlfriend, I would have felt under-ranked.  I don't have to introduce her as Keane's daughter, but instead, as my stepdaughter, as mine, official or not.