My Girl

I’m taking an online parenting course that gives me daily topics to discuss with the girls. Two weeks ago the course prompted me to talk to them about what was hard for me at their age and then ask them to tell me what is hard for them now. Keagan’s answer did not surprise me but still stung a little. She feels I give more time and attention to Riley then I do to her. And guess what the kicker is? Some days she is right. 

In the spirit of honesty, it totally does not help that literally everyone from strangers to close family and friends have always had a much stronger reaction and pay more attention to Riley because of the nature of who she is. But at home, Riley needs me to dress her, bathe her, feed her, medicate her PLUS talk to her, teach her, play with her and cuddle with her. And Keagan needs different things from me that are obviously not even remotely less important they just happen to be less apparent. I tried listening and validating Keagans feelings and then telling her that I am very aware of this issue in our family and try incredibly hard to give her what she needs! I expressed my unconditional love for her and reminded her that I read every single night with her, lay beside her before bed every night to chat and scratch her back as she falls asleep. I do her homework with her every night, ask her bazillions of probing questions, tease her too much, joke with her way too much, and love and kiss on her daily like I haven’t seen her in years. Most importantly I tried to tell her that mommy is far from perfect but I am doing the very best I can to give both my girls everything that they need from me, at least I’m trying to. 

When she brought the topic up again this week, this time with lots of tears, (which also had to do with her being in trouble at the time and me not being very nice at all about that), it was an even longer discussion. I repeated all the same things and then told her I was thankful, very thankful that she didn’t need help with a lot of the things Riley needs help with. And more importantly that when I am not perfect at loving her, her Heavenly Father is and thankfully He can fill in the gaps of when mommy falls short. She seemed to like those answers and not the her being in trouble for something else part but the conversation went well. 

Keagan Hi’ilani Kikuchi is one incredible girl! She truly amazes and astounds me. Yes she can be sassy and stubborn but I feel the need to honor her here. After delicate and heart felt conversations like these she follows up with lots of words of love and thanks to both her sister and I. That day I stumbled upon one of her many sweet love notes that would fuel any tired momma and she even left me one on the board at school! Then this weekend she spent a good chunk of time cleaning and organizing the play room, under the stairs and even Nana’s bathroom as a gift of service. And oh how I cherish that she connects with her sister like no one else can. She is truly her sisters loudest and strongest cheerleader and her fiercest critic. She sees Riley thru pure eyes not jaded by labels or diagnosis. She just sees her “little” sister as someone to play with, boss around, occasionally fight with, defend, help and most importantly love. 

I have read and heard several times that people with dyslexia are abundantly blessed in other areas. Well that’s Keagan. People tell me all the time that she really is good at almost everything she tries. She physically can play sports, do gymnastics and the girls got serious dance moves. She is creative, super hilarious and has a voice of an angel. But way more importantly she is fiercely kind, faithful, believes in things being fair and inclusive, and is a good friend. She is super helpful, responsible, and man is she courageous! 

She is so courageous in fact that I wasn’t remotely surprised when a couple of weeks ago she told me with confidence that she was running for Student Council. At Mahaffey there are 5 students each year who are voted into the 5 StuCo positions by all of  3rd, 4th and 5th grade. That’s 5 students out of about 850 and Keagan had no hesitation in trying. She came up with a great idea and slogan herself centered around her favorite movie “The Greatest Showman.” Reagan helped her make her digital poster using the movie poster with the word “Historian” replacing the Showman part since that was the position she decided on. She gave a one minute speech that was taped and shown in all 3rd-5th grade classes telling a story of a girl who loved her school and wanted to become the greatest historian on earth! She couldn’t have been cuter! She also campaigned in the halls before school one morning with the other 3 cute candidates. Last Monday it was announced that she won and she couldn’t be more ecstatic! I’m proud of her courage, her hard work, determination and being a gracious winner and supportive of all her friends that didn’t win. 

Besides StuCo, both girls have had a ton of fun at school lately as always. They did a super exciting in line skating unit in PE that Keagan absolutely loved and Riley laughed at her card board skates. And they have been loving both choir and running club mornings! And Miss Riley may not be in Student Council but she rocks helping me run the school store on Monday and Wednesday mornings! 

4th grade earned a fun popcorn party and we got a new mascot at school, Stuart the Scottie. And while we are on the topic of costumes, both girls got new costumes at rehearsals! Riley’s princess ballet class is doing Elsa this session and Keagan’s new Jovie costume is adorable! 

Now for some of the best pictures ever! Riley’s incredible teachers Mrs Acosta, Mrs Allison and Mrs Tonna threw Riley and her best friend Jackie a birthday party in class and their smiles are as cute as these girls darling friendship! 

And we will end this forever long post with the Red Ribbon dress up days from last week which were so much fun! I don’t dress up but dressing up is totally Riley’s thing and it makes her incredibly happy! So I fully support both girls going all out as Keags loves it too. I’m pretty sure their looks got progressively better as the week went on and I almost caused a riot before choir started on Tuesday morning as I was sharing our face paint with anyone who wanted me to draw a paw print or a heart on their cheek. Monday was dress your best and of course Riley’s best is a princess gown. Tuesday was red, white and blue day. Wednesday was western wear and man I love Riley’s little hat! And since they were Texan on Wednesday it was convenient for us that Thursday was Hawaiian day! The two parts of my sweet girls! And finally Friday was the best of them all with rockstar day!

 Lots of pics and lots of fun!  That sounds about right for us Kikuchi Girls! 

Double Digits

Well I grounded the girls last week and gave them very specific commands not to get any older! And yet they blatantly disobeyed me and turned the big ONE ZERO! 

My babies are TEN y’all! Double digits! How did this happen?! But i guess if it was bound to happen at least we had a blast celebrating it! 

Keagan and Riley finally got the birthday party that they have been wanting for years! It was a Pop Star Diva party at Sweet and Sassy and they wore birthday shirts I made myself! It was on Saturday the 13th which was a day before their actual birthday. It was absolutely so much fun but several friends ended up not being able to come including 3 at the very last minute. Riley had been SO excited that her best friend Jackie was coming and was a little disappointed she didn’t make it but she still had such an incredible time! So we were thankful to party hard with some of our closest friends and family and have Sa, Addie and her friend Valerie there to help with logistics and cheer the girls on. 

To get started, the two birthday girls led Avery, Audrey, Lauren and Campbell into the costume closet and they all picked a pop star costume from a variety of options. No one should be surprised that Mrs Riley went straight for the Cinderella costume! Then the girls sat in the movie star chairs to get all glammed up! The girls were all pampered with fun hairstyles with neon hair extensions, make up, finger nail polish glitter hairspray and glitter stamps on their cheeks! They all relished in the glam and looked absolutely fabulous! Then they got to strut their stuff on stage with their head set mics to the songs Keagan and Riley picked. The party hosts taught everyone a dance to “Party in the USA” and then the girls danced and karaoked on stage to Cause I’m Happy, Thunder, This is Me, and The Greatest Showman. They rounded out their time on stage with a loud and crazy limbo where Keagan cracked me up by running and sliding under the pole! Then it was into the cake place to eat a really cute chocolate cupcakes cake and gifts, even though the invitations clearly stated no gifts. And finally after some more dancing and sillyness, all the girls got pop rocks, T-shirt’s and the chance to make their very own lip gloss! What a fun packed 2 hours of over the top girly fun with friends and cousins who love you! Not that’s how you celebrate turning ten! 

We spent the rest of the night at the Ginn’s having dinner and chatting much too late. And then the girls were thrilled to go to bed in order to wake up and magically be so much older! I wasn’t thrilled they were disobeying me that way, but once they were asleep I put up their traditional birthday decorations that I’ve used every single year of the lives and wrapped their presents as I got sentimental over my sweet baby girls! 

The big 10 year olds actual birthday morning, Sunday morning, was full of lots of fun, giggles, singing and dancing. Their uncle Brandon and cousin Tyson helped buy them the karaoke machine they have been dying for! And it comes with a built in disco ball so it’s an instant party! Grandma Dabbie bought them a second mic for it so they could sing together plus gigantic squishys that they freaked out over! Their dad helped pay for their party and let them pick a gift there. And they got several other gifts from Fosters, Ginns, Nana and mom of course. As per tradition, one birthday gift was their Halloween costumes! 

At church the girls were sung to and celebrated in primary and then Bishop Hoff let them pick birthday candy before we went to family dinner at the Fosters. Keagan had requested a very specific menu of cream cheese chicken, asparagus and chocolate lava cake from the crock pot with ice cream! We even put candles in the crock pot and sang! 

We closed out their birthday with more karaoke of course! At one point both girls were singing “This is Me” together as loud as they possibly could and I couldn’t hold my tears back any longer. Keagan sang every word with her gorgeous voice and Mrs Riley was belting it too and sounded just as beautiful! I was overcome with gratitude and emotion over what a wonderful gift they have been every single day for 10 years now and I was so amazed at just how far they have come in 10 years! 10 is old and man have they grown in every way possible! But thankfully, they will always be my baby girls! 

Happy 10th birthday Keagan and Riley!