Front Row Seat

Last Friday my mood matched the weather, dreary and dark. I was at work at the girls school and though I typically like my job I was just not feelin it at all. I drug my sorry self to my lunch duty and in walks a ray of sunshine, my Riley girl. She was beaming with her gorgeous smile and thrilled to see me. She lit up my whole world! After I helped lots of rowdy 5 & 6 year olds and then continued my work in the workroom, as I got tired my mood again started turning back towards the negative. But before I knew it, my beautiful Keagan bounded thru the door with a smile and one of her great hugs for me. She came to give me that and a little 5th grade drama tid bit after her recess. And she too lit up my whole world! 

Working at the girls school and all that it has entailed has been a fantastic blessings as a mother. I don’t make a million dollars but we share the same schedule and our lives are even more woven together because I am blessed enough to work there. I get to know so much more of the ins and outs of their lives at Mahaffey by knowing their teachers, friends and classmates. I don’t have to miss any special events and sometimes get glimpses of their random and routine. Man have I cherished my quick hugs, my across the school waves and our rides to and from school each day. I have had a front row seat to Keagan and Riley’s lives for so long. I have definitely cheered the loudest out of everyone watching and will continue to do so for their entire lives. But soon my seat will not be as close. 

Last Thursday, I took Keagan and Riley to the official tour of their future intermediate school. And the other night the 3 of us went to parent night to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Doerre is a fantastic school and funny enough the same one that I went to 30 years ago. The tours were wonderful and totally confirmed to me that we made the right choice of schools because my girls are going to love it there and do great things there. But.......I won’t be there. And that is a little hard for me to swallow. Instead, there are teachers and administrators we don’t know, so many kids we don’t know because Mahaffey doesn’t feed into Doerre, big 8th graders that are so much older then my babies there and all the perils that come with middle school life are there! So I am fully aware that I am being dramatic but man is this hard! 

My babies are growing up and moving on as they are supposed to. And as they do so they get a little further away from me. Yes this is life. Yes this is normal. But yes this is hard for me and I’m not embarrassed to admit that I am struggling. To make matters even worse, both girls have had their first zits in the last week! Keagan asked for me to shape her eyebrows for the first time and we did. She also had her very own Friday night plans that didn’t include Riley and I and she said it was not a play date, it was just hanging out! This is all a little too much for my momma heart! 

I absolutely know we will be just fine, I’m sure much better then fine. We will tackle this head on and together with the help of the Lord. We will rock this like we typically do. But for now, it’s still just hard. But no matter what you better believe that whatever school Keagan and Riley go to or how far away my seat is from my babies, they will forever hear me cheering for them loud and proud! Front row or not, this momma will be there! 

It was another blessing that I even got to go to the Doerre tour on Thursday at all! It was only because Thursday is one of my days off and that a bus full of Mahaffey kids wasn’t going to Doerre like kids did from other schools. It is just my girls and our friends Abby and Memphis who are also twins and also staff kids at Mahaffey that are going there. So the 5 of us joined a ton of other kids for a two hour introduction to 6th grade. I couldn’t believe how many kids we saw that we knew from church and DPAC and how many hugs my girlies got! That was very comforting and so was meeting the 3 developmental teachers who were excited to meet Riley. They already knew about Miss Riley from reading her paperwork. When one asked if her seizures were controlled it did my momma heart a whole lot of good! So I know Doerre is where they need to go but I sure wish they could just stay with me! 

The fantastic news is now that I’m working for DPAC I still have a front row seat to one of the things both Keags and Rys love in this world! We are of course in the middle of working on Shrek Jr which is SO much fun and we are all thrilled about the new studio that’s coming along! We got the chance today to help paint and install flooring there! 

We were all also excited to celebrate Chinese New Year! My babies ARE part Chinese! We went to this quirky little park in Houston called Lucky Land with Calli and Mrs Heather and had a blast. It was like a mini Chinese village with replicas of things like the terra-cotta warriors and the Great Wall of China where we got to walk around, play, feed the koi fish and watch the karate demo, dragon dance and lion dance! We also got great snacks and laughed so hard Keagan’s stomach hurt! Since we were going to that area we went to feed the police horses first. That is always super fun and we were there by ourselves with the 40 plus amazing horses for over an hour! We fed them 15 pounds of carrots and apples plus plenty of peppermints! Mrs Heather was definitely the brave one but Keagan did really great feeding too! Riley even fed two and touched two others! That was such a fun Saturday! 

Of course the girls have had play dates! Roller blading with Lauren at Mahaffey, making a car wash in the driveway with Avery, and pop star video’s with Claire! 

Last weekend Riley stayed home with Nana while Keagan and I went on a fun mommy/daughter date to the Klein High musical that our friend Elise was in with Sister Williams and Rachel! 

The girls are absolutely loving Young Women’s! For activities they have done a big game night that I was in charge of for all the youth, made goal boards and learned about make up- Riley’s favorite! And I am still loving my calling serving with the older girls! I love soaking up there goodness! 

So don’t mind me over here just trying to hold it together in the corner. I just might struggle thru this from now until pretty much October when we are all semi settled into Intermediate school life. Don’t worry I will pretty much be a basket case at the end of May. Yep, this is going to get worse before it gets better! It’s not going to be pretty for this momma and Keagan and Riley will have a front row seat to this hot mess! Aren’t they lucky? 

A Fresh Start

Part of me left Christmas Break kicking and screaming. And part of me willing got back to our typical routine and real life. There is just something so hopeful and refreshing about the new year! Who doesn’t love a fresh start?! So far 2020 has been pretty great! 

Instead of New Years resolutions, all three Kikuchi girls are excited to start the new children and youth goal setting program at church! The girls got these cute goal reminder boards for Christmas so we are reminded daily! We each made 4 goals based off the scripture in Luke 2:52 “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” Based on that scripture we each have an intellectual, physical, spiritual and social goal that will hopefully make us better and bring us closer to Christ! Keagans goals: do well on STAAR, drink more water, say personal prayers every night, include everyone in YW’s. Riley’s goals: take the STAAR, use lefty (left hand), go to church without whining, and go to YWs. My goals: remember to always wear my seat belt, water instead of coke, read the Book of Mormon every day, listen more and talk less. And our family goals are to serve more and do the Come Follow Me program every week! 

Speaking of Come Follow Me, that was probably my biggest accomplishment and blessing from 2019! So I need to document it! As a family we made a goal last year, just like we did this year to do the new Come Follow Me program and study a portion of the New Testament as a family every week! For years before that I had struggled on and off with having Family Home Evening lessons together but the new Come Follow Me program, as a gospel learning at home program seemed to organize it all and give it to me on a silver platter! I would study the manual given and the scriptures themselves but I also chose to go to the experts of other mommys who create lesson plans and fun activities for each weeks lessons. We were able to meet our goal by doing SOMETHING every week, not everything but something. We typically took an hour or two ever Sunday afternoon and what a blessing that was to our family! We all learned SO much from the New Testament and about Jesus Christ! Plus that was just precious time together! We are all super excited about studying the Book of Mormon this year and hopefully we can reach the same goal! 

And other exciting things are happening at church! Keagan and Riley have officially moved up into the Young Women’s program now that it’s the year they will turn 12! They were both introduced to the rest of the Young Women and really welcomed at their first activity this past Thursday night! It was new beginnings and was literally a fireside where we made s’mores afterwards. Both girls were so thrilled and they are excited to do this with their friends Claire, Kaylee and Sofie! Today they attended their first Young Womens class as they had Sunday School last week and they both said it was awesome! Keagan was asked to be the 1st counselor to the president in her class and she is absolutely thrilled! She had planning meetings today and grew up even more right in front of my eyes! Since I am already a Young Women’s leader serving with the older girls I am thrilled to be able to share this with my two very favorite girls in the world! I know they are both going to love the YWs program and learn so much! 

And they are wanting to spend more and more time with their friends from church. To be fair, most of them are also in DPAC so they see each other quite a bit and then play dates just naturally happen. We have had some wild and crazy play dates at our house already in 2020 that mostly consist of their version of capture the flag, making music videos, playing games, playing family, lots of giggling, and lots of snacks! 

Speaking of DPAC, we are all fully invested in our new production of Shrek Jr! And I say OUR because Riley is doing the same show as Keagan this time and I have taken on a second job as being the Stage Manager! It’s definitely a family affair this time around and we are all loving it! Keagan was casted as several smaller roles in this show being a story teller, a knight, a three blind mice and a DuLock dancer. Riley is the fairy godmother again as a fairy tale creature! We are all super excited about the show and about DPACs new studio that we are getting to help build, clean, paint, etc. We look at it as helping make our second home! 

And probably my 3 favorite things that have come out of 2020 so far is a fantastic story about Keagan and these two pictures of Riley! One picture is Riley with her long time and trusted friend Noah, just look at those sweet faces! And the other is of her craziness last night for over 30 minutes as she pointed a working blow dryer on her face as she giggled and kicked her feet! 

The Keagan story is so great and happened last Sunday during our Come Follow Me time. Since the girls are now young women I reminded Keagan that she may now be asked to help teach a lesson or speak in sacrament meeting. So I thought she could start practicing by teaching portions of Come Follow Me. When it got to her portion she put a smile on her face and said “Good morning sisters!” (it was the afternoon) “For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Keagan Kikuchi.” I busted up laughing and she said “what?! That’s what everyone says!” And she was right! That girl really is listening and SO freaking cute!! 

So 2020 is off to a good start! I have no doubt we have lots of adventures, highs and lows, learning, laughter and craziness to come! Can’t wait to see what this year and this decade has got in store for the Kikuchi Girls!