Where did my babies go?

My babies just graduated from preschool yesterday.  They graduated last year too.  But this time they really are done.  No more Ms. Bowen and Busy Bee Joy School.  Can this be real?  Can they really be so big I can scarcely hold them on both on my lap anymore?

When they turned four, I wrote this article (you'll like the photos) about how crazy that felt.  But now that they're 5 and a half and headed for kindergarten, it's all the more unreal.

I've been working all morning on various details for our Power of Moms Retreat (we've got just a couple spots left if you want to come!)  plus I had a planning phone call with April and I've spent some time with the cable modem guy trying to get our Internet up and running again (the last couple days have made me realize how much of my life seems to revolve around the Internet!).

But now I'm going to go on a bike ride with my babies who really are going to be gone in the blink of an eye.

LATER ON:
OK - now it's nighttime.  Just for total reality sake, I thought I should share a little about what happened after I saved what I have above and headed out on the bike ride the twins had begged for when I was writing the post.

I happily announced that I was ready for the bike ride now and Silas gleefully strapped his helmet on while Oliver put on his grumpiest face and said he wanted to play on the rocks across the street instead.  What do you do when you have two kids who want to do mutually exclusive things and neither one wants to budge?  It was a beautiful day - perfect 70 degrees - perfect for a little bike ride and I thought we should stick with the bike ride plan.  Oliver got on his bike but was NOT going to be happy about it.  I told him I'd race him (usually works). Not interested.  I told him he could be the leader for the first part of the bike ride (usually totally works).  Not interested.  I finally told him that there's be treats for happy bikers after the bike ride and that did the trick.

We had a great bike ride and I let them trade off being the leaders.  We stopped to smell my favorite flowers (Have you smelled sweet broom?  It's amazing).  They sang as the biked and everything was just perfect.  Until Silas somehow ran into a prickly rope that was roping off an empty lot and got a little welt on his arm which made for some pretty good weeping and wailing.  Then we headed home.

So I had a great time with my little guys and focused on them most of the rest of the day. (They had a doctor appointment to see about what they call their "tip toe problem" - they have short achilles tendons and can only walk on their toes - they may be headed for special "boots" or surgery.  Then we made it through several errands together with minimal whining and only one incident - Silas popped out of a clothing rack where he was hiding and just about gave a lady a heart attack.)

Even when I'm in a great mood and we're doing fairly fun things, hanging out with my fabulous kids is never all bliss.  And that's OK.  I'll take this motherhood thing with all it's bumpy patches.  The hard stuff only makes the beautiful stuff shine all the more in comparison.