Color Me Rad

Last Saturday we had the Color Me Rad 5K race in town. Kaefer and some of her friends had decided to participate - for the first time in ages they had a carefree weekend. Finals and AP testing were over and just three more weeks of school ahead of them before graduation. Time to finally have fun!! 

(All photos in this post were taken by the Geek because I had to work that morning.)

Before the race they looked boringly normal.

Then the race began - yes, there was some running involved, but it certainly wasn't the most important part.

During the race people on the sidelines threw color (powder) at the runners - you can see the color dust in the picture above. By the end of the race the girls were already pretty colorful.

Especially the hair color had changed.

Our girls weren't ready to leave yet. They were energized and just wanted to have fun. After months of studying they were ready to party!

Then they got hold of the color...

It was good that they were wearing sun glasses because you sure don't want the powder in your eyes.

Hand prints were made...

Suddenly "bluetooth" had a completely new meaning...

They were all colorful by the end. They behaved like little children and their big smiles showed how much fun they had. How can you not like teenagers?

On this day

She's 18 years old today. As of today my daughter is officially an adult.

Like almost every mother I know I wonder where the time has gone. It doesn't feel like 18 years that on this day she was lying in my arms for the very first time, with her eyes firmly shut, refusing to look at this bright and noisy new world. She opened them a bit later - at that time they were deep blue and still hadn't the two slightly different colors they have now. I remember that back then everybody told me time would pass quickly, but I had no idea that it would actually fly and suddenly my baby was all grown up.

Those 18 years were mainly good years and when I look at Kaefer today I feel blessed to be the mom to this amazing young woman she has become. Since last summer when she went to Germany all on her own for the first time she has matured very much. The entire process of checking out colleges, applying to and finally deciding for one was a further step that resulted in more maturity. She certainly has gained more independence over the past 12 months.

Still, she is a teenager with a lot of goofiness which I hope she will never completely loose. It's her sense of humor that will help her along her way through life. She is self confident without being arrogant and has a very healthy self image that is aware of her own faults. She is smart and hard working, creative, witty and kind. I've never heard her gossip or talk about someone behind their back.

She deserved a colorful bouquet from my garden. Here I am gathering flowers for her.

Yesterday was prom at her school - well, it wasn't actually at the school but in the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Before she met with her friends for the pre-prom we took a few pictures in the front garden.

The Geek had the honor to put the corsage on her wrist. Against all odds the red ribbon matched the color of her dress perfectly.

This is my favorite image from yesterday's photos.

(The three top photos were among the shots I took for her senior picture.)

Senior Parking

At Kaefer's high school the seniors may paint the parking spots in the first two rows of the parking lot that are reserved for them. It doesn't guarantee that they can park their car right here - but it's a great creative outlet for them before the beginning of the school year and it really makes the rather bleak parking lot way more beautiful.

Kaefer is a senior this year, and some of these spots were painted by her friends. I think the kids (they are still kids, aren't they?) were pretty creative!

I really like the octopus!

I took these pictures a couple days after orientation when the parking lot was rather empty. I knew that I wouldn't have any chance to find that many empty spaces during the school year.

You just have to like teenagers and their quirkiness when you see paintings like these!

Sunday Gratitude

This has been a good week - busy and full, but good. Let me tell you what fills my heart with gratitude.

The best certainly was that Kaefer got more sleep this week and had less homework than usually. This resulted in her being more relaxed and so much nicer and sweeter than she often is when she doesn't get enough sleep and is slammed with homework. It's the only thing about her high school that I truly don't like - that they give way too much homework. IMHO teenagers should also have the opportunity to have a social life and do teenage things like hanging out in the mall or going to the movies together. Kaefer almost never does that. Every now and then she goes shopping with a friend of hers or two, sometimes they make it to the movies together. I wish she had more opportunity for this. Since she is stressed with the amount of work for the school, she often is very short, gets into teenage attitude and we sometimes fight with each other. While I know that all of this is quite normal for a girl her age, I rather have her around when she is more relaxed. So this was a wonderful week when she laughed often and was her funny, chatty self.

I saw two of my good friends that I hadn't seen for quite a while.

K. and I just sat on her deck, enjoying fruit and veggies while talking and catching up on each other's news. Their new dog occupied some of our time as well - you know how much I love dogs and enjoy every opportunity I can spend with them.

Seeing Jo in the spring usually means we visit nurseries together while catching up. We are both passionate gardeners and quite crazy about birds. It's simply beautiful to share this love with someone. We also both enjoy knitting, so after the nursery we also visited a yarn store where we had a lovely chat with the lady who works there. I love this kind of connection.

At the end of the week I got an unexpected custom order from a Girl Scout leader for one of the girls in her troop who is moving away. It reminded me so much of my own years as a troop leader for a Brownie and then Junior group of Girl Scouts. I enjoyed working on this custom order very much and I am thankful to be able to do what I love.

While walking the neighborhood I came across a yard sale held by an man whom I often meet when he is walking his dog. We just sat at the side of the road, chatting for a while. This is what I will always love - connecting with the people in our neighborhood, sitting for a short while and chatting. It's a small thing, but so beautiful. It makes life a little bit brighter. Again, it's the connection.

While Kaefer goes to German School, I often hang out in the public library until she's done. Often I take a few dvd's home with movies that we want to watch. While I usually look for movies that one of us "knows" (= wants to see), every now and then a completely unknown movie (at least to me) grabs my attention and I take it home just out of curiosity. This happened last week when I chose "An Unfinished Life" with Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman, both actors I like a lot. Please don't roll your eyes that I didn't know this movie! I loved it!! This is the kind of film I like to watch, especially when it ends well like this one does. It is satisfying I guess.

A few weeks ago I told you about the Varied Thrush that suddenly appeared in my garden. Well, he has brought his extended family, and they hop around in my garden joyfully. It's a pleasure to watch them, they are such beautiful birds. However, it is almost impossible to capture them on camera. They seem to sense it and fly away - darn!

I hope you had a pleasant week as well with many opportunities to be grateful. Have a wonderful week!