The Sachs Family

Our Sweet Pirate, Hook In Junie B. Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

2012-02-13T20:25:00.014-06:00

Between Halloween and New Years, Alyssa was kept very busy in her first ever performance in a First Stage Children's Theater production. Rehearsals ran from the weekend before Halloween until the weekend of Thanksgiving, when they opened. The play was supposed to close on Christmas Eve, but there was enough interest in tickets that they extended until December 28th.

This was her third time auditioning, and each time she was called back for the possibility of being cast in one of a few roles, but she had never gotten the part until this year. She learned SO MUCH and had such a fantastic time, there is no way I could sum up the whole experience in just a few sentences or paragraphs. She came home from each rehearsal so excited about what they practiced and performed that day and she started speaking using all these very proper and technical theater terms. Before my eyes I saw her transform from a dramatic little girl who loves and is intrigued by anything theatrical to a real theater artist herself, and it was just amazing!

Here with her whole cast, the Bell Cast. First Stage double casts each show so the kids miss a minimal amount of school, and if someone becomes ill, they have an immediate actor to fill the role. Even with the double casting, I think both casts performed the show about 30 times. It was an intense schedule, but so much fun.

Alyssa as Hook, and her fellow pirates, Popeye and Sinbad. Alyssa's role was rather small and it was a perfect way to introduce her to being a part of a production this big without overwhelming her. I remember the day she realized that people would be paying to see the play, her eyes got huge and she said , "Yikes, we better not mess this up." She usually does not have any hesitation to be on stage, but for one reason or another the fact that this would be a paying audience seemed to add some pressure. Each and every performance of the show went off without a hitch, she never had anything to worry about.

During the running of the shows, one of the things that Alyssa was insistent upon was taking us for a backstage tour as a family. It ended up being what she gave Emma and Rebekah for a Christmas present. Here, Alyssa is hugging her favorite robe that she always wore backstage while she was eating. The kids weren't allowed to eat in costume unless they wore one over their clothes.

Showing her little sisters where she hung her Hook costume in between shows. I later saw the dress part of her Hook costume on clearance in Crazy 8, but didn't buy it, and now I'm kicking myself for that. I would love to have that dress, just as a keepsake, if nothing else, and now I can't find it.

First Stage is a very family friendly and family oriented theater company. I tried to help in the lobby during as many shows as I could, and Emma was even able to volunteer with me during one of the shows. She handed out programs to the guests as they entered the theater, and she felt really cool, like she was part of the show as well, finally being involved in this place she had visited so many times as a guest to see cool plays.

Rebekah getting comfortable in the Green Room during our backstage tour.

On this night we saw the show as a family and two of Emma's friends also came with their families. The number of shows in which Alyssa had friends, family or classmates in the audience was just astounding. Many times she knew to be expecting them out there that night, and other times it was a complete surprise to see them and it was so special for her!

One of Alyssa's favorite things about the performances was the "Talk Back" sessions that directly follow each show. After the curtain call, the audience has a chance to ask the cast any questions about the show, and before the play opened Alyssa told me she was nervous to offer an answer to the questions. But in her very first show, she did, and I think in almost every show after that she answered a question. She was the Stage Manager's go-to person when no one else wanted to answer {she loves to talk and explain things, let me tell you...}

Alyssa quickly made friends with her cast-mates! Being the second oldest of the group definitely earned her the position of little cast mother. It was interesting to discover that this mothering tendency of hers does not pertain to her sisters alone. She's very watchful, careful, over protective and I hesitate to say she's a worrier {but it is quite accurate} and always kept tabs on everyone backstage and felt very responsible for monitoring all unruly behavior.

Way too much silliness and fun was had by all! One of the things we have always loved about Alyssa's First Stage experiences is how much they focus on teaching the kids life skills, through stage skills. That is in fact one of the mottos that is printed on their t-shirts. Alyssa loved and appreciated very much how each of the kids was treated just like a professional actor who was a vital part of the production. She is so excited to audition for future shows!

Not a Fan

2012-02-12T15:50:00.002-06:00

What's a girl who is not a Packer fan to do on Green and Gold Packer Spirit Day at school?

Wear her cousin's school t-shirt, that just happens to be the right colors, of course!! Thank you, sweet Ki'inani for giving the girls such cute shirts!!

On one of the Fridays when the Packers were still in the playoffs, Emma and Rebekah had Packer Spirit Day at school.

Emma, who I never got a photo of wearing Ki'inani's shirt took the Spirit Day very seriously and somehow got the impression during the planning for the special day that she would be penalized for not owning and wearing a Packer shirt. Her teacher is as fair as fair can be, and would have never held it against her! It was just a funny discussion to have with her and find out that she knew exactly who the other non-Packer fans in her class are, and how they formed an allegiance. Funny 3rd graders...and our choice of green and gold shirts was a perfect fit! Rebekah didn't understand the whole conflict, she was just proud to wear something her cousin had given her!!

Butterflies and Bugs

2012-02-10T10:15:00.004-06:00

We visited the museum with some friends the day right before school resumed from Christmas break. It was a fun trip, and we always see other areas of the museum too, but it seems we take the most pictures by the butterflies :-)

Concentration!

Sometimes the museum is just such hard work!!

Telling me all about the huge hissing beetles she was looking at.

Alyssa enjoying the bargain of 5 cent admission to the movie theater and Rebekah by the Pfister hotel in the Streets of Old Milwaukee, and blue butterfly Emma.

I had to make comment here for Dave about the bears enjoying their honey tree...on one of our very first trips to this museum when the girls were very tiny, without even thinking about what I was saying, I said something to them about "Oh look how the bears love the honey tree!" Even though the girls were so little at the time that they probably wouldn't remember my misinformation, it has become a family joke and now every time we see this scene we have to discuss that honey does not come from a tree and does in fact, require bees.

Sweet friends. I laughed looking at this picture, we of course had our three girls and our friends have five girls, and together they are quite the handful. It was a busy day of running through the museum trying to keep up with all eight of them! These four look so happy here, and I wasn't able to get a picture of everyone together all day, so this one definitely begs the question: where are the other four?!

Winter Fun

2012-02-02T10:00:00.001-06:00

We had just enough snow to enjoy a little bit of winter last weekend. I don't love the cold weather, but the girls sure like a good snowfall every now and then, so we were happy to have the chance to head outdoors for some sledding.

Poor Emma kept picking the sunny side of the photos all weekend long...

Definitely one of the best parts of the day was seeing this team of sled dogs. They are really amazing and beautiful animals!!

Emma loved this dog named Bob!

I have always thought that being a sled dog would be really hard work for an animal, and I'm sure to some degree that is accurate. But, I could just see with these dogs how well cared for and loved they were, and when they began the demonstration the dogs were all calling out for a turn to run with the sled. They seemed to love the excitement of it all. And you'll probably think I'm crazy, but one of the dogs could bark "I love you." It sounded a bit Scooby-ish, but it was clear what he was barking.

The girls pretended to ice fish for a little while.

We thought it was neat how this fallen tree trunk was way taller than Rebekah. After stopping for a pic, the girls had a blast sledding down an icy hill. I was surprised because Rebekah really had to be talked into sledding last winter, and she didn't love it then, but she laughed all the way down the hill several times this day. Alyssa flew down the hill at top speed, just loving it, and she's usually my girl who can spend just a short amount time outside in the cold, then she's had enough and would prefer to move on to the hot cocoa part of the fun.

The little bit of snow that fell over the weekend has promptly melted as we had a few days this week that felt a lot more like Spring than the end of January. I'm not complaining, it's been very pleasant, I'm just worried that if winter doesn't actually hit us sometime soon, it will be lingering long into the months that we would love to see warm weather. I'm also worried that our flower bulbs won't have enough freezing cold rest this winter to bloom brightly later this spring.

How Rebekah feels about the melting snow.

My snow loving sweeties. Emma wanted me to add to this post that the girls watched the movie, Mr. Popper's Penguins over the weekend with their friends. All five girls laughed throughout the entire movie, and I've heard the book is even better. Emma is the only one of us who has read it, as her whole second grade class read it together last year. It would definitely be a fun winter read!

Toothy Trooper

2012-01-31T21:55:00.001-06:00

This post is for her grandparents, so they know she did just fine with her teeth extraction: It's finished ~ Hooray!! All 8 teeth that needed to make a rather quick departure from Alyssa's mouth are now gone. She went in for an appointment earlier in the month, expecting them to pull all 7 baby teeth that were left at that time, and they opted to do only one side {3 teeth} that day, which was both a relief and a huge disappointment. She and I both thought it was going to be a horrible, but quick one and done kind of situation, and as it worked out, she had to go back last night for the final four.

Dave took her to the second appointment, and apparently it went a lot smoother than the first. I'm not sure if he was just giving me a hard time, but he seems to think he is the parent that has a calming effect on the girls :-). The difficulties during the first appointment started when I had to take Rebekah into the hall before the major work even began. Rebekah kept asking me through sobs not to let the dentist pull Alyssa's teeth. Her panicked pleas weren't doing anything to calm the already nervous mood in the room, so to the hallway it was. Finally when the actual hard part began, I couldn't take the plier's terrible rubbing sound on Alyssa's teeth. I kept holding and patting her hand, covering my mouth with my other hand ~~maybe to keep from having an outburst of my own~~ and trying to assure her she was fine, at the same time that I had to keep checking on Rebekah's very scared state, so I doubt I was that convincing. At least it's done and Alyssa is now braces ready, once those grown up teeth start growing in...

This picture was taken over the weekend when she still had one side of molars. She keeps sticking her tongue through the space where her molars should be. I kind of enjoyed that I caught this in a photo because it's a pretty common expression for her lately. It wasn't easy, I have a greater understanding of why we use the expression "it was like pulling teeth..." to describe something that was difficult and no fun at all, but it wasn't as horrible as it could have been, and the best part of all is that it is DONE! She was a trooper, she did little more than whimper when she saw the needles come out to numb her mouth. She was comforted with a McDonald's fruit smoothie and a dinner of jello with lots of whipped cream, so she's doing just fine. And she was really impressed with the huge roots her teeth had! (they're gross and bloody looking, not blog photo appropriate, otherwise I would have posted a pic of them here)

What Winter in WI. Should Look Like ~

2012-01-28T09:30:00.002-06:00

Snowflake slipping and sliding...

Scarf smiling...

Snow clumped hair in our faces...

Piglet hat wearing, wet mitten and glove adjusting...just some of our favorite things about fun in the snow.

We have not had a lot of snow so far this Winter. There has only been one major snowfall that amounted to 4-5+ inches, much to the dismay of the new snow blower sitting in our garage. The temps have gone up and down so much from there that what we have ended up with is a bunch of patches of slushy ice chunks, instead of actual fluffy snow to play in. You'll notice one of our girls is missing from the pictures and that's because she outgrew her snowpants from last year, and on the day these photos were taken, we had not yet replaced them. Not too many years that you can get away with that until mid-January! She has since picked out a new pair ~ and not worn them outdoors ~ not even once! She has modeled them in the living room a couple of times :-).

We're hoping to change that today. We had a slight dusting of snow last night and we're hoping it's enough for a small little winterfest that is scheduled to go on as planned this afternoon. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

The Little Gymnast

2012-01-27T11:41:00.000-06:00

I was struggling to come up with a title for this post and then thought of a book, The Little Gymnast, that Emma recently pulled off the shelf, a book that I read back in the late 80's, when I was just beginning to love gymnastics myself...so a title was born :-)

A few routines from Emma's most recent gymnastics meet:
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Her floor routine at the end of this video is probably the strongest routine of the day for her. I missed taping her vault because I was taking pictures for her coach at the time, and this was only the cell phone camera, and for some reason it shut off right near the end of her beam routine. So, my video is sub-par. Emma's beam was uncharacteristically wobbly {not even the harder elements either, it was all silly poses that caught her off guard} and she later told me as we watched the video that she was having a hard time concentrating. I am always so proud of how hard she works everyday in practice, and this routine was a tangible opportunity for me to point out to her how that pays off. She recognized she was having an "off day" but was able to hang in there, and without diligent preparation the outcome would have likely been quite different...and she knows that.

Certainly not the most important, but possibly one of the funnest parts of the meet was that Emma won every event and the all around. She had never done that before in any meet and she was surprised as they kept calling her up there in first place. I think her expression in this photo as she looks off the podium toward her teammates says it all. I love how Alyssa got to give her some of her awards. It was also Emma's first all around above 36 in level 5.

Once with a friend, and once when her coach asked her how she felt about her performance, she was very hesitant to share about how well she had done, she responded on both occasions by just saying the meet was "good," like winning was no big deal. And in a way, I'm glad is wasn't too big of a deal to her. She can't win every meet she enters, so if she's doing gymnastics just for the opportunity to win medals that would be pretty sad. I'm glad she understands and enjoys the work that goes into the sport and that she is a gracious competitor. Most of all, I want her to know just how proud we are of her and how hard she works and know that we celebrate her, whether she comes in 1st, 5th or last.

Lots and Lots of Christmas

2012-01-09T20:00:00.002-06:00

What follows is lots and lots of pictures from the girls' Christmas activities. Such a fun and exciting time of year, full of great memories...

Winter Concert

Alyssa's middle school band had a concert just a few days before Christmas break. She was giddy about it the whole week before, telling us she had a big surprise for us at the concert. She has a terrible time trying to keep a secret and kept alluding to the big surprise and making hints about it all week. Apparently, her hints were not enough for me because I was caught completely off guard when the curtains opened for the show and it started with Alyssa and her good friend, Martina introducing the band and the numbers they were about to play. I didn't even have the camera out at the time and missed getting a photo entirely. But here she is, near the back in the santa hat, playing her horn.

Basteltag ~ Craft Day

I love helping with Basteltag at the girl's school! It's a fun afternoon of making Christmas crafts and using so much glue, frosting and other sticky stuff, I often leave with something gross in my hair and caked to my fingers. The kids are always so excited about it, and the treasures they get to bring home in their shoe box that day!

I offered to help with the pine cone craft, where the kids spread peanut butter on a pine cone and rolled it in bird seed to make a little birdie treat to hang in their yards. I have a severe tree-nut allergy, but have never had a reaction to peanut butter, in fact Reese's peanut butter cups are one of my favorites!! Within just a few minutes of starting the project, I could tell I was reacting to something. Sneezing and runny eyes seemed to be the worst of it, and I was able to minimize the impact of the reaction by walking away from our table to take pictures elsewhere in the room whenever I wasn't busy with one of the children. I later talked to my mom about it, telling her I was concerned that my allergies were becoming more sensitive and she told me it was likely the bird seed, not the peanut butter that was bothering me..bird seed often comes mixed with tree-nuts. I was thankful to know that because the reactions are no fun at all and sometimes downright scary. It was a great day though, all the kids in Rebekah's class are so sweet!

Rebekah's sweet, sweet, sweet ginger house. She was so proud of it, and couldn't wait to eat it!

On the night that we took Emma and Rebekah to see Alyssa in Junie B. we had a few extra minutes between the time we dropped Alyssa off pre-show and when the theater doors opened. I drove the girls to see some of the downtown Christmas lights. They loved the gingerbread baby, Rebekah must have laughed for a good 15 minutes about it's funny diaper.

After parking at the Marcus we walked through the skywalk, and Emma was really dragging behind us. I called out to her to keep up and she shouted back to me, "I'll be right there. I'm doing everything the hard way!" She wouldn't let her feet touch the ground the whole way down the skywalk. There was a tiny ledge she was half walking on, half holding herself up on the railing to stay off the floor. She was joyful the entire way down, like she was conquering something huge. I had to laugh with her, and at how happy this silly little challenge was making her. I thought to myself how much better off I'd be if I enjoyed a challenge in that way. I tend to like things to be easy, and while it's not always fun at the time, sometimes the struggle in something is what makes it good, what lets you know you're doing it right.

The bouquet we brought Alyssa that night. She loved the purple and silver glittery additions we made to the daisies.

The girls were invited by a lady at our church to sing and ring bells in a nursing home a couple of days before Christmas. A and E sang the song, "Happy Birthday, Jesus" then joined the rest of the kids to play bells.

Bell ringing requires the most serious attitude and upmost concentration :-)
I joke a little, but I was really proud of them. They were well outside their comfort zone and I hope they realize how much happiness all the children brought to the nursing home that day.

German Dance
Our reluctant angel...

In 2010, Rebekah loved her German Dance Christmas Party. This year, after lining up to dance, and being partnered with a boy instead of her usual partner, Claire ~ she refused to dance. Just one of those times that she flat out refused to be reasoned with, even after she was told she could dance with Claire. She finally agreed to sing Christmas Carols, and almost even smiled while she was doing it. The sweet temperament of a persnickety five year old.

Pictures with Santa. Emma told him she wanted a piglet ~ a real one ~ Santa was speechless.

Jingle Bus Fun

We took the girls on the Jingle Bus one night. It's hard to get photos on the actual bus tour of the city's Christmas lights, but we took these pictures of the girls with the balloon animals they got as we waited for the bus. Alyssa got a teddy bear riding in an airplane, and Emma got a puppy inside a heart. I was afraid that Rebekah was going to be disappointed with her tiny mouse after seeing the bigger ones the older girls received, but she loved her little mousie.

One afternoon, Emma's friend, Alyssa came over to play and practice all the choreography for the Kid's Choir Christmas musical. They danced and sang up a storm in the living room. The following day was the performance, and after all their practicing they were ready to go!

The Great Christmas Giveaway...

The children's Christmas musical at church is one of my most favorite nights of the whole year! The girls always have such a fun time, and they typically get their practice cd sometime in September, so we always have an early start singing Christmas music. It's wonderful.

Kingdom Kid's Choir is for children in 1st to 6th grades, so it is hard to believe, but this was Alyssa's last children's Christmas musical. Kid's choir is where Alyssa discovered her love for singing, and I am so very thankful for the years she has spent here.

Emma singing her solo.

Rebekah was Mary in the preschool program. She was so excited, and the tiniest bit shy about her role.

A pretty happy bell ringer, right? Not so much...this picture was taken during their rehearsal about 15 minutes before the service began. During the actual song when the children were ringing the bells, she started to cry and reach out towards where I had awkwardly plopped myself down in the pastor's pew because I saw the meltdown approaching. I thought if she could just see me, she'd somehow make it through the song. I was wrong, and at the prompting of the people around me, I had to join her on the stage so she could sit in my lap as we finished ringing the bells for that song. Poor Rebekah though, after rehearsing for the bells (I think she thought the rehearsal was the performance as the sanctuary had already begun to fill up by the time they did the run through) and being in the manger scene, she had enough of the spotlight, and just wanted off the stage.

On Christmas Eve, our gecko had quite an adventurous day. We were headed down to my parent's house right after Junie B. and Christmas Eve service, so we had the gecko in tow with us for much of the day. I was volunteering for Alyssa's performance of Junie B. that day so he had to come inside with us and be stored in the coat room, because he would have never survived for a couple of hours out in the car. He's too temperature sensitive for that. I'm sure we were in violation of numerous Marcus Center policies bringing him in...they're not even supposed to allow children under age three (although the very nice and accommodating company manager always makes exceptions to this rule) into the theater, I can't imagine how they feel about having crested geckos in there. We tucked Banana's carrying case up on a shelf by the rice krispies and no one seemed to notice.

Later for Christmas Eve service, we again had no other option except to bring him into the church. Banana sat next to Emma the whole time and when a lady asked her what she had in the case and Emma responded, "My pet Gecko," the lady burst into laughter. The woman said, "Well, I've heard of bringing to friends to church before, but this I've never seen!"

The day after Christmas we had lunch with some friends who live near Boston, but were in town for Christmas. It was nice to see all the children pick up conservation and playing with friends they only get see once every couple of years as if they hang out all the time.

They were playing outside the restaurant when we finished eating, and as the adults were busy talking, Alyssa led them in an oath that made this promise: "I won't run around like a wild maniac when I get home." The Kowal children are among the most polite and most well behaved children I know, so I'm sure she was addressing that to herself as much as anyone else in the group :-) The oath should have been something more along the lines of: "I promise to meet you in Texas at Schlitterbahn one of these summers coming up, where we will have so much water park fun we won't know what to do with ourselves!" We're looking forward to it, Kowals!

We spent a good part of the weekend undecorating from Christmas. Never my favorite thing to do. Alyssa put these two Eeyore's front and center on the tree this year. I kept turning them around to see Eeyore's face, and she kept turning them back so their bottoms were the focal point of the tree. That silly sense of humor.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-07T19:20:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year!!!!

We had a quiet end to 2011. The First Stage Children's Theater play of Junie B. Jones that Alyssa was in closed on Dec. 29th, so we enjoyed a couple of relaxing days here at home before school started back up. With almost no snow {I'm not complaining, although I know the girls would love to have some}, it didn't feel a lot like Christmas break, but as Junie B. took up just about every minute of free time Alyssa had, it was very nice to soak up a few days of a whole lot of nothing :-)

On New Year's Eve, we had the girls' precious friend, Halle spend the day with us, and they kept busy baking cookies and making shrinky dinks. Here they are watching in amazement as the shrinky dinks wrinkle, crinkle and bake in the oven. It was perfect year-end fun!

On Dec. 30th, we watched Iowa in their bowl game, and while they made a valiant run near the end of the game, things just didn't go their way. Oh well, it's still good to be a Hawkeye!!

The sweetest Hawk fans ~ poor little Kamele didn't make it too far into the 2nd quarter before she was out like a light ~ the problem with a 9pm game time.

During the game, Alyssa was busy reading on the couch next to the excited football fans, and I clicked a surprised looking photo of her. It was so cute, but she asked me not to post it, so I'm honoring that request by instead posting this self portrait she took on Dave's phone the other day. And unfortunately, she has not lost any more teeth since that molar on the night of her last dental appointment. With only 2 days to go, it's not looking too good for her ambition to lose all those teeth on her own.

The girls made these cute thankful lists near Thanksgiving, and they have been hanging in the kitchen ever since (except Alyssa's whose keeps falling down, and I keep trying to tape it back up, we're very fancy like that, scotch tape is on the walls just about everywhere at our house), I smile every time I see them. So simple and sweet. With one year just ended and a new year beginning, we have so much to be thankful for!! I'm grateful.

We always start the new year at what seems like lightening speed because Dave's birthday and our wedding anniversary are always two of the very first days the girls are back in school after break. It was sad watching their school bus drive off on Tuesday morning, but a very busy week has already brought us a weekend to enjoy. Welcome 2012 ~ We look forward to new year full of new excitement.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-30T15:00:00.005-06:00

I'm several days late with my Merry Christmas wishes, but I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Christmas! Ours was nice, the time went too fast, but it was very nice...

I took very few pictures as has become pretty common for Christmas morning, there's just too much going on.

Born in a manger,
The gift of God's love,
The priceless treasure from heaven above.
Our God is with us,
Emmanuel is near us ~
A humble manger stall holds the Lord of all.
{part of a song the girls sang in Kid's Choir this Christmas}

"...we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."
Matthew 2:2

Merry, Merry Christmas!

1 Down, Only 7 More to Go

2011-12-22T21:00:00.001-06:00

It's going to be a Christmas break of losing lots of teeth for Alyssa! It has to be...unless she wants the dentist to pull out 8 teeth on January 9th.

We had an orthodontic consultation last night, and she has a few different issues going on, the first of which being that her baby teeth are not falling out. She lost her four front teeth on top and bottom at a relatively late age, and not many other teeth have come out since. I could tell her grown up teeth just haven't had any room to come in at all, let alone grow in straight, and now some of them are trying to grow in without the deciduous teeth being gone. Some of her molars seem a little loose when I help her floss, but not nearly to the point of falling out on their own. When the orthodontist explained they all need to go {immediately!} she thought he meant right then and there and she whimpered a weak "oh no" as her eyes filled up. He chuckled a little and told her he wouldn't pull all her teeth just a few days before Christmas because that wouldn't be a nice gift. So she has almost two weeks to figure out how to get them out on her own...Merry Christmas!!

Right after getting the news last night, she worked on the wiggliest molar and finally got it out after about a half hour. One down, only seven more to go! All she wants for Christmas is to lose some teeth...without the help of the dentist!

Level 5 State Gymnastics Meet

2011-12-21T21:40:00.001-06:00

Emma had a good level 5 season this Fall. The first weekend in December was her state meet. All throughout the season her all around scores steadily improved, which is exactly the goal, so she was happy with that and we are very proud of her!

Here are just a few photos from state, I plan to put up the video of her routines, but I'm pretty realistic that I won't get around to that until well after Christmas, so here's a small peek ~

She did a great routine and got a 9.325 on floor, which is a pretty big score in level 5 compulsory. Who would have guessed that it would be 6th place? She's in a really competitive age group, it looked good enough for 1st place to me :-)

She loves, loves, LOVES the sport and is quite the consistent little competitor. It's fun, although a little nerve wracking to watch, I just love that she loves it!

A Weekend on the Town

2011-12-19T22:15:00.010-06:00

Because I am always weeks behind posting what I'd like, these pics are not from this weekend that just passed, but rather a weekend about a month ago. It was a super fun and busy weekend that kicked off the Christmas season for us.

We started Friday night with a favorite school event, Laternennacht, or Lantern Night. As always it was a bit chilly, but so much fun! The lanterns always look so pretty as the kids parade through the park...

Alyssa was at her first school dance this night. It was just one of those dances where the kids go in a big group of friends, and there were no actual couples that attend together ~ just for the record :-).

She was so sweet about it actually. She came home that night and told me she was going to make a list of songs that she wanted me to listen to, so she could have approval to make them part of her music library. Apparently, she knew only 3 or 4 of the songs they played all night, and she only knew the chipmunks version of them. She has a music teacher at church who taught the kids that if they ever get lost singing one of the songs while they are on stage for kid's worship team, they should just mouth the words "watermelon juice" so it looks like they are singing something, until they find their place in the song. Poor thing was a dancing machine, mouthing watermelon juice all night! But she did it in style, you have my word on that!

The next morning, the two younger girls and I were invited by some friends to the women's Christmas Tea at church while Alyssa was busy with First Stage rehearsals. It was so nice with a beautiful Christmas message, and a much needed break. We were about two weeks into a pretty rigorous rehearsal schedule for Junie B. (which now that they are performing the show several times a week, has been one of the funnest experiences for Alyssa!!) and the girls needed to do something fun! We surprised Alyssa after the tea by picking her up and bringing her to see the play, "Don't Tell Me I Can't Fly!" She had been wanting to see it, but I didn't think we would have time. After it came highly recommended by a friend, I thought we would take Alyssa for an early birthday present, since she wanted so badly to see it. It was great!

When we got downtown, we had about an hour and a half before the show started and we walked around looking at all the Christmas decorations. It was a beautiful day, not too cold, and perfect for taking a walk. Sometimes I think I don't give Milwaukee enough credit for being a pretty neat city ~ it's nice, especially when all decked out for Christmas!

Can you believe this is sidewalk chalk art? The girls were impressed and tried copying the poses in the artwork.

We walked through Red Arrow Park, and at the time, it wasn't cold enough for the ice skating rink to be there yet, but just last weekend I walked past and it was full of ice skaters.

Why the glum face? She doesn't like wearing nylons, that's why, and we were well past her two hour limit by this point. She complained her toes were in pain.

Any pain she was feeling probably had nothing at all to do with the crazy running and jumping the girls were doing on the benches outside the Marcus Center.

Silliness, silliness followed by a series of pictures in which I can only make a guess as to what the girls are doing. There was a lot of singing, dancing and theatrics going on as they made the sidewalk their own personal stage.

If it weren't for Emma's perfect plie form, I'd be afraid to ask what they are doing here, lifting heavy watermelons maybe?

The afternoon was a perfect refreshment from a busy schedule of running from activity to activity! I love their energy, even if I can't always keep up. They are my sweet, crazy, little bunch!

The following day my parents came up to celebrate Alyssa's birthday. She chose to go to El Fuego ~ the girl likes her mexican food :-) It was fun and yummy. I missed getting photos of the girls with my parents and the birthday girl with Dave and myself. We had a gymnastics meet thrown into the mix of the weekend as well, so it was busy, but great. It definitely jump started our Christmas excitement!

Movember : Year 2

2011-12-17T13:15:00.001-06:00

Around this time last year, I posted a few photos of Dave and some of the guys he works with who all participated in a "no shave November" to bring greater awareness to men's health issues.

It's becoming a fun Mercer tradition. I think between four Mercer offices they earned $7,000 to donate to the Movember Foundation which supports prostate cancer research. Dave had a few conversations with people who recognized his growing facial hair and assumed he was preparing to keep his face warmer on a hunting trip, so beyond any dollar amount they were able to donate, just the opportunity to explain what they were doing was hopefully in some small way beneficial and brought awareness to the cause.

Instead of just growing a mustache this year, Dave let his "full beard" grow out as well. He's never had that much facial hair as long as we've been married, probably ever, as he prefers to be clean shaven. I thought it looked pretty good! It was surprising, and even the girls (except Emma) liked it too :-)

Admiring Dad's facial hair, just minutes before it disappeared for good...or at least until next November...

Baby Christmas

2011-12-14T08:45:00.000-06:00

I love seeing Christmas through the girls' eyes. With each of them there is something special about the Christmas season that really speaks to their hearts and just overflows out of them.

For Rebekah, every tiny detail of Christmas captivates her. It's the excitement of taking out our Christmas decorations and saying how pretty each one is as we unwrap it, bringing out the Christmas books and listening with eager anticipation like she has never heard the story before. Every new thing she sees is met with oooohs and aaaahs and sweet comments like, "This is the best Christmas ever!" She gets so excited over every little thing that Dave has started calling her Baby Christmas. I love her wonder and awe at the miracle of the season!

Sunday, while her sisters were otherwise occupied she and I baked cookies. She must have said twenty or thirty times how much fun she was having, as if she had never helped me in the kitchen before. The sweet and yummy outcome was lots and lots of sugar cookies. She was so proud of how they turned out!

She doesn't look excited to share her cookies at all, does she? In addition to this snowman, Rebekah made Emma quite happy with a special pink pig cookie too!

She came downstairs one morning in this get up. I thought she looked like a little sugar plum with all these tutus layered up her body. And then she started singing this song below, I'm not familiar with it but I think it is something they have been singing in Sunday School, and she of course got shy as soon as the camera was turned on her...

On a rainy, dreary morning like today, she just melts my heart.

12 is a Very Glam Number

2011-11-15T11:51:00.009-06:00

Happy Birthday, Sweet Alyssa!

12!

Wowie! Wow! WOW! {Alyssa ~ do you know who said this?}

I know I say this each time one of you celebrate a birthday, but really, where has the time gone?

You are at this very fun age of definitely not being a little kid, but also not being quite grown up either. You have some new found freedom this year with starting middle school and experiencing so much more independence than previous years, and I think you are handling it beautifully!

To our sweet birthday girl ~

and dreamer...

a creative, careful and gentle spirit...

a wonderful firstborn daughter, and big sister...

our resident drama queen extraordinaire...

and super star ~

Keep dreaming your big dreams! We love you so much and are very proud of you!!

Have a beautiful 12th Birthday!! I hope 12 is glamorous enough for all the cheetah print you have in store for it!

A Photo Explosion...

2011-11-14T11:45:00.001-06:00

I was trying to figure out how to add a few words of text to a collage of four pictures I was putting together when I click, click, clicked and this happened...

I have no idea how it happened and it looks like just about every photo in my November folder. Now, I know you can't see any of them all that well, but to me, because I know what's going on, it was a rather fun, although overwhelming summary of our month thus far. The photos that I was playing around with were from this past weekend, and I'll try to post them later in the week. Right now, I'm trying to get everything ready for a special birthday we are celebrating tomorrow :-)

Es Schneite!

2011-11-10T11:55:00.006-06:00

Yesterday afternoon in Rebekah's classroom, the kids suddenly ran to the window, their tiny voices calling out, "Es schneite, es schneite!" as they marveled at the first snowfall of the year. Rebekah marched out to the hallway where I was helping kids paint a turkey handprint, and as if I needed a translator, she said, "Es scheite! Mommy, it's snowing." Now usually the translation is very helpful, but it was pretty clear what the kids were so excited about in this case. It only lasted a few minutes, but check out what is going on right outside my window as I type this...

Hopefully like yesterday this will be just a short little flurry. I'm not sure that I'm ready for all the cold quite yet! Missing hats and soggy boots, mittens and scarves all over the place ~ yuck.

Some very welcomed visitors in our yard:

During Fall and Winter we often have a family, or a few families of deer that make their way through our neighborhood. We were happy to see them return a couple of weekends ago.

Rebekah promptly scared them off into the bushes on the side of our yard trying to alert Dave of their presence. But we're so glad they're back and hope they stick around for the Winter. It's a very peaceful thing to sit and enjoy a morning cup of coffee while watching the deer in the yard!

Our Growing Gecko

2011-11-07T09:00:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, Dave and his sister were talking on the phone about our gecko, Banana Lemon Mulch Big Bad Bob, so I thought I would try to get some better pictures of him. We keep referring to the gecko as a "he" but we won't actually know for a few more months whether it is a girl or a boy. Dave is excited that it seems to be growing, which suggests he is adjusting to his new habitat nicely.

Isn't he cute?! The girls love that they chose the name Banana for him and he likes eating banana baby food off a toothpick!! It's kinda funny and cute to see the little guy lick his entire eyeball with one swoop of his tongue, and he likes my hair ~ he's taken a flying leap into it twice.

We have been trying really hard not to frighten Banana as we pick him up, because when crested geckos feel threatened, they are known to snap off their tails as a defense mechanism, and if this happens it won't grow back. We are trying to avoid that, so the girls are learning valuable lessons in the care of a delicate pet. Banana has been cooperating with letting the girls hold him more and more, but he does get a little jumpy after a few minutes. He seems to be shedding his skin some too, which is a good indication that Dave is right, and he is growing.

Anyway, this is unrelated, but I was so proud of Emma the other day. After school, she and Rebekah were playing tag with four boys in Emma's grade, and Rebekah was IT. She was in ambitious pursuit of two of the boys when they ran under the tot lot bridge and split up, going opposite directions. Rebekah froze under the bridge as if she didn't know which boy to run after. Just as she looked like she was done with the game, Emma ran to the stairs of the bridge, stuck her foot through the railing and called out, "Here, Rebekah, I'll get 'em!"

Rebekah tagged Emma and the game was on again.

I've thought about the brief scene several times since I was watching them play that day last week. I can't get over the feeling of hoping that things will always be that way between them. When one needs help, the other will jump in and eagerly offer it. Now I'm not trying to read too much into a simple exchange, in all honesty, it wasn't really that sacrificial on Emma's part. The boys didn't stand a chance against her. She knows it, and they know it too, which is why they invite her to play with them :-) But it sure blessed my heart to see her run to Rebekah's defense!

Apple Orchard

2011-11-01T12:20:00.019-05:00

I love going on school field trips with the girls! It's sometimes exhausting, as this day at the apple orchard was, but always worth it!

Maybe it's just the excitement of being out of the classroom, but I always see a wilder, crazier bunch of kids when we leave school. It's fun!

Today at the apple orchard, we learned about apples, Johnny Appleseed, honey bees, pumpkins, and we were able to pick several different kinds of apples to bring home. Yum!

Peeking at me through the tree as she picks out the best apples! She was so excited.

So proud of her beautiful apples, we baked cinnamon apples for dessert that night and Rebekah was so happy with her contribution to the meal.

A happy group of victorious apple pickers.

Choosing her tiny pumpkin from the garden. The smile Rebekah is showing here she inherited from my mom's side of the family. Pencil thin lips that all but disappear when we smile big is completely a Currie trait.

These chilly little faces don't look like they are up to trouble, do they? Well about five minutes later I discovered they had the idea up their sleeves about how they might lose their chaperone for the day.

It all started with me taking this photo above, thinking they looked so cute with the corn towering high over head...

Which led to this ~ all four girls giggling and running away from me in the corn maze. I loved this picture because Rebekah is airborne as she happily leaps and runs after Sophie. And if you've never chased four little kids frantically through a corn maze ~ you should give it a try. It's a good time, and an even better workout (especially if you happen to be carrying loads of apples and a very heavy camera around your neck).

A cute little daisy at the end of a long, but fruitful day.

Pumpkins for Our Pumpkins

2011-10-31T15:30:00.004-05:00

Our adventures in pumpkin farm visiting for this Fall...

We took a hay ride to the highest point of the farm.

The girls loved it. I'm always amazed at the simple things that amuse them so much. They're not usually loud girls, but they were definitely the goofiest kids on the wagon that day as they laughed and told stories the whole time. Any hay ride that makes them that happy...

...Even one that a cow tries to join...

...I'd happily take again if it means I get to sit across from these sweeties to see them enjoy it!

It turns out the girls may make excellent little farmers someday if they enjoy stacking hay bales as much as they loved jumping off them, and sliding down them...

...And falling face first into them. Just looking at this picture makes me feel like I need to sneeze. What it doesn't show is how after each climb to the top of the hay, she had to start the five minute long process of taking her boots off, shaking the hay out of them, while at the same time getting hay stuck to the bottom of her socks, putting the boots on the wrong feet, then starting the process all over again.

This precious newborn calf was only a few days old.

Alyssa enjoyed studying this map and finding out about all the prime cheese locations in our state.

And this picture is because Kahiwa always likes to tell Granddaddy what a good climber she is ~ well she's been at it again!

We picked out lots of pumpkins in all shapes and sizes, and got some "rainbow corn" as Rebekah calls it. Alyssa agonized over picking out the perfect gourd, which I'll have to see if I can get a picture of later, it's unique!

It was a perfect pumpkin day!

How all good days on the farm ought to end.

Happy Halloween.

A Clean Car, Some Artwork, A Crested Gecko and A Cool Author

2011-10-14T12:51:00.050-05:00

Earlier this week I drove Dave's car all day while my van was being washed and detailed courtesy of a groupon Dave had bought me a while back.

Emma and Rebekah were so excited when I picked them up from school in Dave's car! As I put their backpacks in the trunk they peeked out through the backseat armrest with such happy little faces. I had the camera handy because earlier in the day I didn't want to forget to take the picture below, of Rebekah's beautiful crayon work on the walls of the van. I knew they'd be long gone after the cleaning. I remember when Emma told me that Rebekah was drawing on the car and how her tone went very quickly from tattling to great pride as she told me, "Look, Mom! Rebekah made an upside down bicycle!!" I'm sure that's exactly what Rebekah was going for :-)

This picture is embarrassing not only because it shows the crayon marks that have probably been left on the wall of the van for over a year (I kept meaning to jump back there with a magic eraser sponge to clean it up, but somehow the task managed to remain at about #700 on my to-do list), but also the upholstery and cup holders in the back were both filthy. This cleaning was long overdue, and it came as no surprise when at about 2pm I had a message from the guy at the car place saying, don't worry, everything is alright with your van, it's just taking us longer than expected to clean it. Can we move the pick up time from 4 until 5? It was eventually finished and ready to go at about 5:30, and the girls thought we had gotten a new car. Rebekah looked down at the protective foot mats and said, "Hey, we had these in the old car too!" So now we have a mini van that doesn't look like three little girls have chosen to take up residency in there...we'll see how long it lasts.

Speaking of Rebekah's artwork, she has been really into drawing her cousin Triton lately. Here he is cheering on the Brewers, a team established in 1970 as she read on my t-shirt. I missed getting a photo of her drawing of Triton on the board in our classroom at church, but it was equally cute.

And here's one of our little family. It started out as just me in the middle, but then she added everyone else in. Dave is in the top right corner, and as Rebekah said mid-marker stroke, "Daddy is so hard to draw because of his hair!"

I'm sure not loving the huge Jay Leno chin she gave me, but it's a lot better than the picture she drew of me almost a year ago (here, Mommy, this is you she had said handing it to me):

Yikes, the scariest Mommy ever. I hope I don't really look like that.

In other news, we got the girls a real live pet. He's a crested gecko, and super cute as far as little lizards go. He's tiny right now, but will eventually grow to be about the size of my hand. Before we even picked him out, Rebekah wanted to name it Banana. I was surprised that Alyssa and Emma immediately agreed on her name suggestion, they just wanted to add some middle names for Banana. So without further ado, meet
Banana Lemon Mulch Big Bad Bob Sachs:

It will be a couple more weeks before we can handle him a lot. I guess geckos have a difficult time adjusting to a new environment and everything we have been told and read about advises us to give him plenty of time to settle in before we overwhelm him with three little sets of hands that are eager to hold him. He's an awesome jumper and climber too which ought to make things interesting, but hopefully soon, I'll have a little bit better of a picture to share.

Last night, the girls enjoyed meeting James Howe, the author of many books including the Houndsley and Catina books, the Bunnicula series, and The Misfits. We started reading some of his books last year when Emma loved a book by him that her teacher read to the class. He wrote super nice messages in the books the girls asked him to sign and we are so excited to read the new books!

Fall in Full Swing

2011-10-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

We have been having the most beautiful Fall weather here lately! I've been soaking up each day outside with the girls because I know this is probably our last stretch of weather quite this nice for a very long time.

The girls had a day off school recently so we had a picnic in the park. It was a very last minute, throw some food in a basket kind of days, that's why Rebekah is wearing a 4th of July dress...not dressed to match the pretty Fall colors at all ~ but it is one of her favorite dresses and it is tiny, so this was likely her last time to wear it :-(

They were amazed how the tree seemed to "catch" some of the leaves they threw into it's branches. I looked up and wasn't seeing what they were seeing...

But it must have been pretty cool!

Happy Autumn!!

Fast Forward

2011-09-27T08:50:00.006-05:00

When we returned home from Hawaii I had the best intentions of getting caught up on all the posts that I drafted and then "left behind" on vacation. I got so busy with back to school stuff that I never got even close to catching up, and realistically I could probably blog for another entire month about the month we were there.

Last weekend I back dated a couple of posts about Rebekah, because I wanted them to reflect the actual date of her birthday, but I think now I'm just going to go ahead and fast forward. There is still lots of Hawaii stuff that I'd love to write about and share, so what will likely result will be a mix of some postings that are current and others will be about things we did back in August during vacation. Just to explain :-) ...

Vacationing for a month at a time is really the way to go...I wish we could manage to get away for that long every year, but that's just not possible (Alyssa and Dave had a very funny conversation about this truth). It makes getting back into the swing of a regular schedule challenging, but that's really the only downfall I could think of. I came home feeling refreshed, almost ready for the girls to start school (which I always dread) and I was really motivated to re-organize all of our closets and the girls' bedrooms. It's been a very slow process (frustratingly so), and still a work in progress, but I think I'm finally simplifying everything (one tiny corner of a closet at a time).

A picture for my parents of the girls in front of their favorite breakfast restaurant on Oahu. We didn't eat there, but it was neat to see their new location.

Skipping ahead to September 1st...the girls' first day of school in 6th grade, 3rd grade and K5. And so far the school year is going well for each of them!

And this is September 7th, their first day in a new MPact class for Wednesday night church. I am so excited because Rebekah is in my class this year. I started teaching the kindergartners when she was just a few weeks old and it seemed crazy far into the future when she would be one of my students...doesn't seem possible that time is already here. The first Wednesday of class, completely unsolicited on my part, she came up and sat in my lap while I was reading the story, and the second Wednesday, also without my prompting she began a very dramatic re-enactment of the story while I was reading it. So the good news is that we're both very excited to be spending Wednesday nights together, the bad news is that the teacher's kid is totally the naughty kid in class :-)

Rebekah's {Finally!!} 5th Birthday

2011-08-16T22:15:00.051-05:00

Today is {finally} Rebekah's actual 5th birthday, and we headed to the waterpark for an awesome day!! The girls were so excited because they had seen on tv when Bert the Conqueror came to this park, and they couldn't wait to conquer the Shaka themselves!

Again, this is one more post where I had ton of photos I would have loved to include. I had a hard time deciding what to leave out...

Rebekah is getting pretty confident in the water. She can almost swim on her own, but not quite. She keeps reaching out for my hand. If only she realized how much easier it is to swim when you have use of both little flippers.

The girls had a blast all.day.long!

And on every.single.slide!

As Rebekah and I stood at the top of this slide watching Emma go down, I thought Rebekah was going to change her mind about going herself...

But she didn't, and while she preferred the slides that weren't quite so fast, she did this one at least a five or six times.

Ka'iulani splashing on the same slide.

Dave took the two bigger girls on many of the rides that Kamele was still too little to try. They had tons of fun, even the biggest kid of all enjoyed himself :-)

I love Rebekah's offer to catch Alyssa on this slide (from approximately 20 feet away from the bottom of the slide).

One of Alyssa's favorite slides.

And one of Emma's favorites. I didn't get to watch too many of their slides as they were actually happening so when I saw all the photos it made me happy to see them so happy and excited as they splashed in the water.

Me and Emma on the infamous Shaka. It was fun in a scare you silly kind of way, and yes, I felt like we were as high as that airplane you see next to us in the photo. I had told both of the girls I would go with them, since I was afraid that the two of them together would not be enough weight in the raft (plus I think Emma needed an adult with her anyway) and all I could think when I got up to the top with Alyssa was great, no matter how badly this goes, I have to do it at least one more time! It wasn't too bad, but twice was definitely enough for me.

Thank you so much to Granddaddy for bringing the girls here on Rebekah's birthday. They didn't think we were going to have a chance to visit the waterpark and it was the perfect and funnest way to spend the baby's birthday!!

When we got back from the waterpark, Aunty Ku'ulei had decorated the house so beautifully and the kids sang and ate cake together. Thank you very much, Ku'u!

And a little birthday note for Rebekah to read one day:

Dear Rebekah,
You finally made it ~ and can now officially say you are 5 years old! Hard for me to believe, but long awaited on your part, so I celebrate with you, even if it makes me sad to say that my baby is 5.

When I told you today that you are 5, you immediately asked when you will be 6, then later in the day asked if you could be 12. Hold on! You'll get there before you know it, and long before I'm ready. You make me want to grab the hands of the clock and make time stand still more than anyone in the world. Maybe because you're the baby everything seems so final with you.

There are so many things I love about you, but I'll try to list just a few:

I love your sweet-natured spirit. So carefree, always skipping along, singing a quiet song to yourself.

I love the crazy mismatched outfits you put together...you're either very fashion forward or you inherited someone's {who shall remain nameless :-)} propensity to put multiple patterns together and call it perfect.

I love how you watch your sisters when you are learning something new. And the little pout that usually comes when you try to convince them to just do it for you.

I love your jokes and I love how you tell stories. You have a very silly sense of humor, you are always saying the funniest things and you laugh really hard at yourself.

I love your tiny voice and your frequent use of the word "ginormous."

I love how you think you are so big, and have everything figured out, yet you still like to be babied. You're not too big to ask to be held until you fall asleep and you almost always make one of your sisters buckle your belt the car.

I love how when you don't know I'm watching you play at recess, you skip and run around happily in dizzy little circles until you can't walk straight anymore. And you chase kids who are much bigger than you...you're ambitious!

I love your big brown eyes that clearly show every emotion you're feeling.

I love {at least most of the time} how nothing is ever quite the same with you. Something that is super easy one day can be a huge ordeal the next ~ you definitely have a mind of your own, and it keeps me on my toes!

Thank you for being so sweet, gentle, kind and funny. We love you more than words can say!!

Happy 5th Birthday!! Finally ~ 5 is here at last, but I insist that we aren't celebrating your 12th birthday any time soon!

A Birthday Tea Party Fit For A Princess, or make that 5 Princesses!!

2011-08-14T22:55:00.076-05:00

I always feel like time passes way too quickly in terms of how quickly the girls are growing up. I still feel like we have a baby when I think of Rebekah, and I know that's how I'll always feel about her. That being said, she has waited a really really long time {at least in "kid time"} to turn five years old!

As soon as Rebekah started school last year, her friends started celebrating their 5th birthdays, and since she had just turned 4 two weeks before the school year began, she had a long wait ahead of her before she was going to celebrate another birthday. Before this year, Chuck E. Cheese was the biggest birthday request we have ever gotten out of her, and now suddenly having a birthday meant a lot more than that. She didn't ask for any specific gifts, she seemingly just wanted us to acknowledge that it was finally her birthday and she wanted to be able to say that she is 5. By the time her birthday actually started getting close I had answered the am I 5 yet? question approximately 1,143 times and I knew her birthday would be really special, but before arriving in Hawaii, I didn't know how we were going to celebrate. Thankfully, someone other than me had that covered :-)

Today, two days before her actual birthday and the day after returning to Oahu from the Big Island, Dave's mom planned the most perfect and cutest Princess Tea Party for all 5 of the girls (and for handsome little Kekane too, had he wanted to be a part of it...he saw all the princess attire and accessories and high tailed it out of there! He is so precious and just completely a rough and tumble little boy, even though they had knight stuff to wear he knew he did not want to be near all the princess glitter.) Anyway, here are a gazillion pictures from the sweetest 5th Birthday party ever, and all the little girls who LOVED it so much....

When we arrived at the party, the first thing the girls had to do was pick an outfit from the dress up clothes. Our niece Ka'anela, wasted no time at all! I think we had been there a total of 3 minutes when she found this very fairy pink princess dress. She was dressed and ready long before the other girls. She looked so cute and her no nonsense approach to the task at hand was inspiring to the rest of the girls who looked at dress after dress after dress on the rack.

After choosing a dress, the girls had manicures and make-up. They were so excited, and it was fun to watch them presented with a palate of colors and see what they would choose!

Our beautiful niece, Ki'inani in the mirror as her nails were being painted.

Eye shadow for my sweet Emma.

Kahiwalani's hair had never looked so good. Anyone who has ever so much as brushed it, knows what crazy hair the poor child has. I've tried to replicate this look to no avail.

Ka'iulani loving her manicure.

The entire place was designed to look like a doll house. Every single decoration in each room seemed well planned out. It was nearly impossible to click a photo in which the girls weren't perfectly framed in tiny details of the dollhouse decor.

A small detail that I wanted to be sure to document before I forgot all about it was Kamele's choice of nail polish color. The other girls picked the typical shades of pink and purple, and she would usually be right on board with the standard princess colors, but today she went with a tangerine color. She was so proud of it, and it actually complemented the gold in her dress very well!

Such a grown up little princess getting her hair done...and the nail polish can be seen here too.

Completely oblivious to all the giddy princess excitement of his sisters and cousins, Kekane played video games with Uncle A-O {our nephew's sweet pronunciation of his name, Ka'eo}.

Dressed head to toe as perfect princesses, the girls were ready for a Fashion Show Extraordinaire...I loved how each of the girls picked a dress completely fitting to their personality, and their facial expressions in the photos below, as the fashion show is being explained to them are just so funny...

A fashion show? Well, we think we might like the idea of a fashion show...

Ki'inani: I am getting so excited about this fashion show!
Emma: I am completely confused.
Rebekah: I have no idea what you just said. So I'll just stand here looking cute for as long as I can get away with that.

Alyssa: Okay, if you say so.
Ki'inani: Wait, now I'm confused.
Emma: I think I like this fashion show idea.
Rebekah: I don't know why I'm suddenly upset, but I'm on the verge of my pout face.

Ka'anela: I hope this will be more fun than running around the house yelling, "C'mon Kamele." (I must hear her sweet voice say that about 50 times everyday)
Alyssa: What? This old thing? It's just something I found in the back of my closet.
Ki'inani and Emma: These are our most polite smiles!

The girls in unison: We are all feeling a little sheepish and shy right now. Who goes first?

Everyone beginning to have a change of heart.

Everyone together again: Yep, we definitely can't wait to get this fashion show on the road!!

Kamele: Who me? You called me? Okay, I'll go! Let me just muster up enough sass to put my hands on my hips.

Kamele: I am rockin' this runway {and the whole birthday girl thing}!

Okay, that's enough of my speculation on their sweet inner dialogue. I just heard a sigh of relief from all 4 people who actually read it :-)

After the fashion show, the girls were brought to their Tea Party. It was the most princess-like occassion in every way. The girls were served delicious finger foods on the prettiest china. They absolutely loved everything!!

Mable, Mable, elbows on the table.

Happy princess laughter.

Serious princess conversation over tea. These two girls together...let me tell you ~ they sure are something! Two peas in a pod.

The happiest birthday princess.

Kamele was given this bell, and whenever any of the girls ran out of something, she had to ring the bell and the party hosts would bring in a cart full of goodies. The girls thought the service was amazing!

The party hosts listening to her request..."Your wish is our command, Sweet Princess." Fortunately, the bell only works there in the dollhouse tea room.

Also listening to Kamele's requests of the hosts, and marveling at the response.

Time for cake!!

My wonderful sister in law, Ku'ulei and sweet Kekane enjoying his cupcake.

Emma playing with Kekane at the end of the party. I had to get some pics of him in here too, even if he didn't so much want to dress up with the girls :-)

A hug from Kamele thanking him for sharing in her princess celebration.

It was the sweetest birthday party ever ~ thank you so much to Grandmommy for everything that went into the perfect day!! It was without a doubt something she will always remember and exactly the celebration she could have only dreamed up for her long awaited birthday!

Honu

2011-08-13T04:10:00.029-05:00

Honu is the Hawaiian word for turtle, and we were in for a sweet surprise when we visited the beautiful black sand beaches of Punalu'u. Months before our visit here, we saw Punalu'u on the Travel Channel ranked in the top ten beaches in the world, and it did not disappoint!

The turtle was just calmly hanging out, sunbathing on the beach as we walked up. Rebekah wanted to name it Lindsay. We had also seen sea turtles when we went to Georgia a few summers ago, but this one seemed much more comfortable around people.

At first the girls seemed hesitant to get too close, but they quickly got braver. Because there were signs asking visitors not to disturb the turtles, I wouldn't let them touch it, but they were definitely close enough to.

"Lindsay" had lots of little friends swimming just off shore who kept poking their faces out of the water. I think they were monitoring the gathering crowd that came to see them. They preferred to wait for some of the people to leave before coming in for a rest in the warm sand.

What a sweet turtle face ~ At least she wasn't at all camera shy :-)

It was a little funny how after a while of standing there, watching the turtle, Rebekah ran right past her up and down the beach as if she was just running past a dog, hardly taking notice of the spectacular site.

The texture of the black sand was very soft, making for such a nice beach! We packed some sand in a ziploc to bring home, and at the airport headed back to Oahu, the TSA people had to check it out. The lady first asked me if she could go through the bag. A minute or two later and almost like she was scared of me, she asked if she could run a chemical test on it...Dave speculated that maybe they thought it was gun powder or something else harmful. They laughed at us when the test showed it was sand. I completely understand (and I'm very thankful) that they check everything thoroughly, but we can't possibly be the first to try and bring some of the pretty sand home.

Little did we know as we headed to the Kona side of the Big Island that we would have the chance to see lots more sea turtles, but for today we were wowed by Honu Lindsay.

Coconut Girl

2011-08-12T03:25:00.015-05:00

Occasionally, people will ask Dave about his ethnicity. When he tells them he is Hawaiian, there's usually a whole other list of questions that follows (at the top of the list is usually what in the world would bring you to live in WI when Hawaii is your home?) But there are other questions and sometimes misunderstandings that he has encountered as well. One of the more common things he gets is that some people equate being Hawaiian, with being Samoan. He doesn't mind explaining, but it is a totally different chain of islands, and a totally different culture. Which makes this next series of pics a little funny.

We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center one day last week. I hope to do an entire post about our visit there, it's a wonderful place for anyone who would like to learn more about the different cultures of the Polynesian islands to go! But this post is about Emma, our resident coconut girl.

The Polynesian Cultural Center is set up a little bit like Epcot, where you can visit different nations, see presentations and experience a bit of their culture. During this coconut tree climbing demonstration, I watched the man climbing the tree and my first thought was that I have seen Emma use these same Samoan climbing techniques ~ often{!} ~ the child cannot keep her feet on the ground!! I looked over at Emma to see her reaction and I could tell she wanted to climb the tree.

Shortly after the presentation we left Samoa to visit New Zealand, and she would have to wait all day long until we returned to Samoa, but she did finally get her chance to give it a try:

She was so eager to climb and she started out quickly, surprising the guy who put her harness on.

As she approached the middle of the tree he was shocked and wondered out loud if this little girl was really going to make it to the top.

It was about when she got to this spot here that she started to lose her grip a little, and run out of places to put her hands and feet.

Then she changed her technique slightly which gave her all the boost she needed. I knew once she got past the half way point that there was no way she would give up without a fight.

Kahiwa made it all the way to the top and was so excited! The guy helping her said she was the only one to make it all week. So while she's not Samoan, she can climb a coconut tree like a little Samoan boy. It is customary in Samoa that the men do all the work, which among other things includes cooking, cleaning, hunting and coconut retrieving. So being a girl, it's very unlikely that she would ever be sent up the coconut tree if she were actually Samoan.

And this little one is crazy about coconuts! Rebekah had no desire to climb the tree, but she picks up the coconuts wherever we go, and wants very much to drink the juice on the inside...we'll see.

The Beautiful Pana'ewa Zoo

2011-08-11T01:39:00.045-05:00

Near Hilo is the only zoo in the United States that is located in a rain forest.

It was absolutely beautiful. It was hard at times to remember that we were in a zoo, the animal's habitats all seemed a natural part of the environment there, and all the plants were so pretty.

This macaw was right near the zoo entrance and says "Aloha" to the guests as they come in.

Walking around the zoo was incredibly peaceful and relaxing. I wanted to soak it all up. It seemed quite possible that these were the most perfect flowers ever created and I didn't want to forget a single detail.

And I loved this sign! Not like anything we see at home. Falling rocks? Yes. Danger Ice? Yes. But fruit? Funny.

The zoo's featured animal is this white tiger, Namaste. He was owned by a magician in Las Vegas who visited the zoo and knew this would be a better home for him, so he allowed the zoo to adopt him.

This cockatoo's name is Eisenstein, and he's the same kind of bird as the naughty bird in the movie, Rio. We also saw a blue macaw like Blu, but my photo didn't come out great. Einstein was sweet and I think he wanted company... he would talk to us in a really low voice like he wanted us to lean in close to his cage to listen, and then as soon as we walked away, he squawked really loud, beckoning us back.

It's a small zoo, I think we were able to walk through the entire place in about 2 hours, but it was definitely one of our most favorite places on the Big Island. It felt like an adventure in a perfect little corner of the world.

What's Shakin'?

2011-08-10T01:31:00.017-05:00

I took this picture for my dad. When I saw this house looking out over the ocean, I thought of him. It's the kind of place I could imagine catching his attention as he drove by. I think I could even imagine him building a place like this and loving it! The different shades of blue made the house blend in with the horizon and the ocean, it was just perfect. And just a short walk across the street from it is an awesome little smoothy stand...

The best smoothies ever came from this little roadside house/restaurant.

The home was surrounded by trees filled with various fruits, and they were literally pulling the fruit from the trees and putting them right into the smoothies. All the signs were so cute and decorative.

Emma either concentrating very hard on her menu, or trying to dodge my photos.

Enjoying her Tahitian vanilla ice cream ~ yum!

Playing under the banana trees.

The perfect vacation pit stop as we drove to 'Akaka Falls!

Arriving in the Big Island

2011-08-09T02:07:00.036-05:00

We arrived in the Big Island today, and it is beautiful. This is my first time here, and the girls too, so we are excited! All the plants are really green and beautiful, and the flowers have such brilliant colors. Last night we got a small preview of what it is going to be like when we have to go home...we were leaving Dave's parent's house to come here until the end of the week, and Emma was crying because she wanted to stay with her cousins. It will be sad when we actually have to leave at the end of our trip.

On a happier note though, our hotel on the Big Island feels like we are staying in the middle of a tropical rain forest. The air smells of rain and there are the tallest, greenest trees surrounding the entire place, and the bird's chirps are so loud and vibrant, they sound unreal. We are pretty sure they might be computer generated sounds that the hotel pipes through speakers to add to the ambiance :-)

Today, we started to head up to the top of Mauna Kea, and found out the the girls would have to stay at the visitor center which is about a half hour drive below the summit. I could tell that Dave was really disappointed they couldn't go up, but the Rangers strongly recommended that we did not attempt to bring them to the top of the mountain, so we took their advice.

I ended up being very thankful that they stayed behind with Grandmommy, the road going up was rough, slippery and scary. Dave made fun of me the whole way back down to the visitor center, saying I had the altitude sickness. I was just really drowsy and couldn't keep my eyes open.

The summit was an amazing site though...I'm sorry the girls missed that part! It's the world's tallest mountain, 13 feet taller than Mount Everest, but most of it is under sea level.

After our safe return to Dave's mom and the girls we stopped to see the Boiling Pots. It was already late in the afternoon and the girls made me work really hard for these next few pics.

The Boiling Pots view.

We also stopped at Rainbow Falls ~ it was so pretty. More scenic pics are to come...everything we have seen so far is so nice.

Surfer Girl Dreams Come True

2011-08-07T02:11:00.063-05:00

One of Alyssa's biggest dreams is that she will someday be a great surfer. Back at home it's a dream that is a little hard to live out {before yesterday she had never surfed}, but here the dream is probably very common for a kid her age. She was so excited to hear that Uncle David would take her out surfing.

Here they are paddling out for the first time. Uncle David was a professional surfer and if he looks familiar, he has been on the show Hawaii 50 and in the movie Soul Surfer. She could not have had any better teacher!

Watching for the right wave.

Uncle David helped her stand up so she could catch her first wave.

I was surprised at how confident and relaxed she seemed out there.

While Alyssa was surfing, Aunty Kehau kept Rebekah busy playing in the waves ~ thank you, Kehau for taking such good care of her, the baby had so much fun!

Kaliko so sweetly looked after Emma, scooping her up when the bigger waves washed in. She loved it.

Getting a little stronger as she stands up on the board.

Her victory jump into the water on her first time back in to the shore.

Ka'iulani being washed over by a wave.

Emma went out too. I think she was a little more scared, feeling tiny out in the big ocean, I'm proud that she hung in there and went out more than once even though she was way out of her comfort zone.

I loved this picture. From watching on the shore, you would not have guessed that she was scared, but I know she was trying to reach her arms behind her to hold onto Uncle David.

Happy to have her feet back in the sand.

Out on her second run, this time you can see the arms reaching back like I mentioned earlier. She loved surfing and I know she'll be more aggressive the next chance she gets to go out.

She knows what to do :-)

Intently watching the water.

She didn't need any help to stand up this time! I was so happy for her. I know she didn't expect to become an expert on her first try, but it was so important to her that she could feel like she had tried and done well. It could not have gone much better, she accomplished what she set out to!

Now if that isn't one happy girl I don't know what it is!

Thank you so much to Uncle David for taking the girls out and being so watchful of them. I was a little nervous, but from the very first minute the girls were in the water, I could tell they were safe with him. It really was a dream come true for them, especially Ka'iulani!!

Hanauma Bay

2011-08-06T02:35:00.043-05:00

Earlier this week we went snorkeling in this bay. It is so pretty there, way more beautiful than a postcard picture...no photo does it justice.

It was really hard to take pictures of the girls while they were snorkeling, this picture was taken while standing above the water, but we did have one of those plastic encased, under water cameras. I'm curious to find out if any of those photos will come out because we were seeing the most beautiful fish. I don't think I have ever seen so many different kind of fish all in the same place. They were so brightly colored, and the water was so clear it made it perfect for looking at them.

Looking at a sea cucumber.

Here Kamele is holding a "canoe" she found on the beach. I'm trying to figure out what we are going to do with all the shells, rocks, palms etc that the girls keep collecting everywhere we go. They will be heartbroken to leave them behind, but I don't see how we can bring them home.

As we were leaving Hanauma Bay, I asked Rebekah how she liked it there, and wasn't it beautiful? She responded, "Yes, I can hardly believe my own eyes." That pretty much sums up the experience!

Pearl Harbor

2011-08-03T14:25:00.096-05:00

One day last week, we took all the kids to Pearl Harbor. It was a long day and we have lots of pictures. It was another sweet day of the girls playing with their cousins and having lots of fun!

We started the day out on the deck of the USS Bowfin submarine from which we had a great view of the Arizona Memorial and the Missouri battleship.

Ka'iulani was excited to go in the submarine. It's the second WWII sub she's been able to visit in the last two months.

After seeing the submarine, we went out to the Arizona Memorial.

It's a beautiful memorial. This was not the first time I had been there, but I was still shocked to look down into the water and see the huge ship submerged. Oil from the ship still floats in the water in certain areas.

While we ate lunch, Chariel, Emma, Charene and Rebekah staged a relay race in the courtyard.

After lunch we went over to the Missouri...

The kids were sure they move this huge chain and anchor.

Silly girls playing.

Our last stop of the day was at the Pacific Aviation Museum.

Aloha, Welcome to Paradise!

2011-08-01T20:12:00.010-05:00

Aloha, Welcome to Paradise... was Alyssa's greeting for my Dad as they talked on the phone the other day. And that is exactly what we are experiencing! We've been here almost a week and everything has been wonderful. There are things I would like to post about everyday, but I know I won't be able to get to everything ~ I'm just enjoying watching all the kids play together and all the time with Dave's family.

This was the view out our condo's window the other morning, when I was still jet lagged enough to be waking up before the sun. I thought the mountain looked like it was on fire.

I'll do my best to keep up with the blog, but my next several posts may be very heavy on the pictures and light on words.

Wave Runners

2011-07-31T18:31:00.029-05:00

By their excited faces here, you would not have guessed that the girls did not want to go to the beach today. They were too busy playing with their cousins, but once they got there, excitement took over, and they had a great time. These photos are Rebekah's first time in the Pacific Ocean, and despite all the running away she is doing in the pics, she did actually get in once I put the camera down and held her.

Testing the waters...

Getting a little braver {or running away :-)}...

The waves made a bigger impact than they anticipated, and I could tell just the sound of it was enough to deter Rebekah from getting any closer. She held on just a bit longer, waiting out a few more waves...

Now she's pretty sure that she's had enough!

The older girls loved the crashing waves! I had never seen them so excited as they ran away from something before...

Ka'iulani almost completely under the wave.

Here, let me help you up (maybe)...

They could have kept this up all day! And they just about did, at least for a few hours :-)

Fun, Fun, Fun, at Sea Life Park!

2011-07-27T23:35:00.075-05:00

Today we went to the Waikiki Aquarium and Sea Life Park. All the photos below are from Sea Life Park where we had an amazing time. During one of the shows, a sea lion painted a picture for our sweet niece, we fed sea turtles, and saw an incredible dolphin show.

To formally introduce our precious nieces and nephew, Alyssa is standing behind our nephew, Triton {aka Handsome}, his sister Charene is wearing blue in the middle, and Chariel is next to Emma. Dave's sister, Ku'ulei is on the far right, and all three babies belong to her and her husband, Addison.

The whole day was great, but I definitely thought a highlight was the dolphin show. Sea Life Park is home to the worlds only whalphin ~ the girls were awed. I'm curious if anyone can tell from the pics below, which one is the whalphin? It's mother is an atlantic bottle nose dolphin, and the father is a humpback whale.

It was a beautiful park and a wonderful experience!

The kids had such happy excited faces as they watched the shows.

Coaching the sea lion as it turns in circles.

Granddaddy with Alyssa, Charene and Chariel.

After we fed these huge sea turtles, as Granddaddy was holding Rebekah, she asked him if he could put her down in there so she could swim with them.

The cousins in front of Rabbit Island.

Adventure #1 on the trip was a huge hit ~ it was such a fun day for the little ones to play together!

Getting There is Half the Fun

2011-07-26T13:20:00.056-05:00

Our day started bright and early yesterday. This is our first photo of this vacation taken before 5am. I love seeing the girls all sleepy-eyed and excited.

While waiting at the airport, the girls kept busy playing ping pong. If there's a way to make the sport dangerous, our girls figured it out. A few early Monday morning business travelers got a good wake up call as they had to dodge a flying ping pong ball on the way to their gate.

We stopped at the play area right outside our gate for a last minute chance to burn off some energy. It was much needed. The girls were way too excited, and Alyssa was probably the only one who entirely understood the length of the flights we were about to board.

Once we were in flight, Emma worked on her travel journal and MadLibs {she loves, loves, LOVES those silly stories}, Alyssa started her assignment for church and you can see Rebekah who argued long and hard for that window seat zonked out in the back.

I'm not sure that this story is blog appropriate, but Alyssa insisted I share it...before we took off, I was helping the girls get settled in their seats. I had my back to the aisle and was leaning into their row. There was a male flight attendant (and I tried to leave this detail out, but the story literally lost some of it's pizazz, but let's just say the bath towels in his house are embroidered His and His) who tried to slide past me as he stowed a bag, and the button from his coat got caught on the back belt loop of my pants. We were stuck, both embarrassed, and he giggled out a nervous, "Oh, well this is something new." Alyssa was laughing so hard she couldn't stay in her chair. In the confusion of trying to get seperated, Alyssa thought he was trying to put a luggage tag on me. A few seconds later, we were no longer attached, but not due to any help from her ~ she definitely has my tendancy to fall into laughter in awkward situations rather than offer help.

And because I seem to have a knack for making embarrassing situations that much worse, he was collecting trash at the end of the flight, and I turned to Alyssa to ask her if she had anything, and when I called her sweetie, he thought I was talking to him. He thanked me and called me "Love." Alyssa was very amused.

We were welcomed in Honolulu so sweetly by Dave's family. Here is Dave's sister and our nieces and nephew. Poor Emma was between sneezes here, but the cousins were so excited to see each other.

We were so surprised that everyone came to meet us at the airport. Here are the girls with Dave's grandparents. It was so wonderful to see them!!

Little Kamele and Grandmommy.

Enjoying the fresh Hawaiian air as we drive to the condo. Rebekah kept looking around, asking us if we were sure this was Hawaii. She was concerned that she could not see sand anywhere. Dave said that she must have seen too much Aloha Scooby Doo, and that skewed her expectations.

The smell is different and wonderful here ~ full of flowers...that was the first thing Emma noticed as we got off the plane, and she kept taking deep breaths, savoring it all.

About 5 minutes after this picture was taken, our car was rear-ended as we sat at a red light waiting to make a right turn. It was just a tiny bump, but a startling welcome to the island :-)

We made it to the condo without further incident, had a wonderful dinner at Rainbow Drive In, and swam in the pool. We are SO thankful and excited to be here.

On Hawaii Eve

2011-07-24T19:35:00.010-05:00

Tomorrow, we are leaving to visit Dave's family. As I was packing I recalled this photo flip book that I got years ago on one of our first trips to Hawaii together. It has been at least a few years since I had it out to look through it.

When I saw this album sitting on the shelf in an ABC Store, Alyssa was a tiny baby at the time, but I knew I had to have it. Something about the three little girls on the cover spoke to me ~ and in a way, the two younger girls became a dream in my heart the day I saw this. A dream that eventually came true :-)

I showed it to Dave and asked if he remembered the day I asked him to buy it for me, and the circumstances around it. He laughed a little and said, "Yeah, we're not buying any books on this trip."

Leotard Fun

2011-07-23T20:45:00.015-05:00

Recently at the gym, the girls were all given coloring pages to design their own leotards and I loved what the girls came up with!

These are Alyssa's designs. I'm not sure how I feel about wearing a bright yellow leo, but it looks pretty on paper!!

These are Emma's. I thought it was cute how they closely resemble her team leo. She couldn't think too far outside the box of what she currently wears for meets :-)

And these are Rebekah's, which turned out quite unlike any leotard I have ever seen before.

Maybe my very favorite leo: Alyssa's Get Your Grip On design. I think the idea of having helpful reminders printed in huge letters across the front of leos is something that could really take off! She should think about creating a whole line...

Parade Day

2011-07-19T20:47:00.031-05:00

Over the weekend Emma's gymnastics team was in a parade and we invited her friend Halle to spend the day with us.

I wish I could say the weather was perfect for the occassion, but the parade started off with a few drizzles. Fortunately the sun came out once everything got going, and the girls were able to loose the blanket tent.

We were sitting right near a corner, and the girls were sure these motorcycles that kicked off the parade were headed right towards us.

They were very concerned for this guy and his poor legs.

These girls were in the parade advertising their new hair studio. The girls looked shocked at their crazy hair and I told them if they misbehaved that's where I would take them for their next haircut.

So excited to see Halle and her sisters as she came around the corner.

Demonstrating her best one-armed cartwheel.

The parade route ended right near the southshore. It was hot by now, and it was so nice to dip our feet in the water to cool off...

Marvel at more gems pulled out of the lake...{see, the rock fascination is contagious}

And climb the huge rocky shoreline.

It turned out to be a perfect summer day.

seeing double

2011-07-18T19:10:00.024-05:00

The family that lives right next door to us has 4 children that are very close in age to our girls. All the kids get along great, and we are fortunate to have such nice neighbors. Both the oldest and youngest girls in each of our families are quite the look-a-like sisters.

The big sisters ~ This is a picture of Alyssa and McKenzie back when the girls were 5. When I recently found this photo tucked away in a stack of old photos, I was struck by the incredible resemblance it bears to the two little sisters who can be found playing in our backyards most days:

The little sisters ~ Rebekah and Skylar, playing tea party yesterday. The girls love having constant playmates so close by!

Little Rock Collectors

2011-07-16T21:20:00.041-05:00

The lakeshore is beautiful in the summer and we have not gotten there as much as we would like to this year. One of my favorite things about the lake is how it looks so cold and frigid in the winter, yet come summer, it is so welcoming and pretty blue. These pics I took yesterday do not do it justice. They came out very grey, I'm not sure if I didn't have the settings right for the time of day it was or what, but I was a little disappointed.

As nice as the lake is, we will be somewhere even more beautiful in just over a week. The girls are getting very excited!

After having a picnic dinner at the lake last night, they spent a good part of our time there collecting rocks. I don't understand the fascination, but everywhere we go, they want to bring bags of rocks home with us.

When all else fails, lasso the rocks.

I'm not sure what the pout is all about here, she was smiling seconds earlier. I think she just wanted me to know how hard she was working as she brought me the day's treasures.

last day of summer school

2011-07-15T20:35:00.040-05:00

Yesterday was the girls' last day of Summer School. I had signed them up back in April, and then as our summer schedule seemed to be filling up too quickly, I almost cancelled, but it turned out to be a really good thing that we stuck with the plan. The girls each loved the two classes they took.

Alyssa took an awesome US History class, called From the Sugar Act to the Constitution. I love History, and it was very cool to see her so excited about this class! On their last day of class, the students performed a skit.

She played the role of horseman alerting the colonists of the British arrival in one scene, and Molly Pitcher in another.

I loved the props and signs they made!

Alyssa's History teacher was really nice, she made the class so fun for them! Alyssa's second class was a Public Speaking class, that she also loved. She worked on putting together both a prose and poetry piece, and got to create a funny infomercial with a group. It made her interested in joining a Forensics Team next year in Middle school, which we have come to find out that if we lived in just about any other part of the country, it would be called a Debate Club or team.

I thought Alyssa looked like Raggedy Ann in this costume. I don't have any summer school pics of the younger girls because their classes didn't have an open house on the last day like both of Alyssa's did. They came running up to me with the tie dyed shirts they made in Art and Rebekah's was still dripping wet with dye. Both Emma and Rebekah took an art class, Emma also had Problem Solving and Critical Thinking (a lot of Math games), and Rebekah had Getting Ready for Kindergarten. They were all great classes.

Sometimes I feel kind of mean for making them go to summer school, but we have always thought that summer is such an important time for the girls to take the German language stuff they learn all school year and apply it to English. This has been especially true for Rebekah this summer, throughout summer school and also just in our day to day activities. She has come home from summer school telling me about a story she heard that morning in English and tell me, "Guess what, I know this one in German too!" Learning a second language at such a young age has been an amazing opportunity for the girls, but from time to time, I get the feeling that small portions can get lost in translation. The classes that they take in the summer are much more laid back than regular school year work and especially as they have gotten older, the class options are a lot more fun. Best of all, I love seeing the girls making connections between the two languages as they experience school in a completely different setting.

MaD Camp

2011-07-11T21:50:00.053-05:00

Music and Drama camp at church is always one of the best weeks of summer! Especially for Alyssa, she dreams about it all school year long! I'm grateful to all the people in our church who work so hard putting this camp together, many of whom take vacation from their regular job in order to do so. The message the kids prepared this year was Strong Enough, and they had an awesome week.

During the Sunday night service, all the kids who participated in the camp share what they learned. Alyssa signed up for Human Video for the first time this year, but was asked if she minded skipping that to be part of the Worship Team. She was so excited to be asked that she was almost crying as she told me about it later that day. She LOVES to sing!

All 3 of the kids who led worship were doing this for the first time ever, and they did great. I was very proud of Alyssa. She has always loved to sing, but until I saw her response to being asked about worship team, and how hard she practiced the songs all week, I didn't know that leading worship was a desire she had in her heart. If I can, I will try to add video later.

Thanks to their great teachers, both Alyssa and Emma learned SO MUCH during their instrument sessions! Alyssa came home each afternoon excited to practice and very challenged by the songs she was playing on her french horn, and Emma's piano playing improved so much over the week. Emma was constantly telling me, "Ms. Lisa said I am learning stuff I never learned before, and now I know lots more notes."

Emma had a blast during Human Video. For lack of any better way to describe it, Human Video is the kids dramatically acting out the message of a song. There's a lot of dancing and sometimes humor involved, and all the kids seem to love it.

This was Emma's first year being old enough to do MaD Camp. I was asked by a few of her teachers throughout the week if Emma is always such a "giggle machine." She loved every minute.

The highlight of Emma's week was being a "dead fish" in the scene of the song where they were re-enacting Jonah being spit out of the whale. I heard about it all.week.long. I wasn't sure what to expect from Emma's portrayal of a dead fish, and it was funny. I had to tell her afterwards that she didn't stop smiling and moving around enough to actually be dead, but she was absolutely the cutest and happiest dead fish I had ever seen.

Our great backyard campout

2011-07-09T19:51:00.045-05:00

We camped out in our backyard last night, mostly because Rebekah wanted to.

The National Wildlife Federation hosts a Great American Backyard Campout every June, I think their goal is to encourage families to spend more time unplugged and outdoors, and every summer for the last couple of years we have been telling the girls we would do it. We try to take an actual camping trip each summer, but we have been out of town each time this NWF campout has come up, including this year. We won't have the chance this summer to go camping, so we figured we better jump at the opportunity of a Friday night where we had nothing else planned, to at least set up a tent in the backyard.

Rebekah did most of the help in getting the tent up, and she looked so cute laying down in the big, empty tent.

I read a statistic on the NWF website that said on average, kids get about 8 minutes of unstructured outdoor playtime each day. That's sad! I remember playing outside all day long when I was kid. And while it's not quite the same for our girls, I know they spend a lot more than 8 minutes a day outside.

After we ate dinner outside, Emma went over to a friend's house for a couple of hours to play games and roast marshmallows, while the rest of us did the same at home.

Alyssa and Rebekah kicked a ball around and played baseball for a while, it was fun to watch them play together.

When Emma got home the other girls were so excited to show her this toad. Emma was the only one who would touch it to attempt the capture, but I made them leave it where it was.

And because the evening wouldn't be complete without a story: I woke up about 3:30 am to hear Dave leaving the tent. I asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to the bathroom. I had a suspicion that he was not coming back to the tent because his pillow was tucked under his arm. Emma had crawled up onto the cot he was sleeping on, and she is the biggest bed hog ever {on a normal sized bed!} so I can't imagine he was getting any sleep with her next to him.

I had dozed off after he left, but remember waking up and noticing that he hadn't made it back. Just as I was drifting off to sleep again, I saw a light that seemed to span the length of the tent a couple of times, then go away. I was scared, but it was really brief, and I convinced myself I had imagined it in my half awake state. I had trouble falling back to sleep, and over the course of what I guess to be the next half hour it happened again, then one more time. I was beyond scared at this point, again being in and out of sleep making it feel even scarier than the situation warranted. I climbed up on Emma's cot and stood up, trying to see out of a skylight in the tent. I could not see anything or anyone and thought maybe the light was Dave. I considered calling out to him, but then the thought entered my mind that there's no better way to make the message clear to a would-be attacker that we were in there and vulnerable than to shout a man's name out into the darkness. I wasn't sure what to do, but knew I could not leave the girls in the tent, not even for a moment just to walk to the house. Our yard is not huge, but big-ish, and we were a good distance away from the house. I stayed next to Emma on the cot clutching a leather case that held a hunting knife. Finally as it started getting light, and I was sure not only that the danger had passed, but also that I was losing my sanity, I allowed myself to fall asleep.

Back in the house a couple hours later, Dave informed me that he had a sleepless night of checking on us after he couldn't tolerate the cot with Emma anymore. He didn't want to disturb us, so kept a safe distance away from the tent as he shined a light in to make sure we were all good. So, I was in the tent fearful for our lives, not sleeping, with Emma's body flung haphazardly across my legs and Dave was in the house, also not sleeping, carefully keeping watch over the tent...a great backyard campout for sure! Alyssa told me how soundly she slept in the tent, adding that she loved sleeping outside :-)

Before last night, I never understood why Dave has brought the hunting knife into our tent on every camping trip we've ever gone on {in my mind, children + sharp object = danger}. Unless we are camping, it's one of those items that I forget we even own, I have never used it for anything before. But if you're a crazy campsite stalker, I'll learn real fast if you attempt to get into our tent!

a happy girl and a funny note

2011-07-08T19:10:00.089-05:00

Yesterday while Alyssa and Emma were busy with Music and Drama Camp at church, Rebekah was very happy to have a play date with some of her friends from school. It had been a few weeks since we had seen everyone, but all the kids seemed to pick up right where they left off at the end of the school year.

We've been re-arranging the girls' bedroom and furniture and I keep finding the funnest things. Alyssa loves to write little notes and leave them places throughout the house. She had apparently written this one to Rebekah before the start of last school year then tucked it away in her desk. It's the passage of big sister knowledge in pure Alyssa fashion. Brief and instructive, but sweet too.

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-05T17:34:00.013-05:00

We drove to Southern Illinois for a wedding over 4th of July weekend. It was a long drive on mostly back roads, so it was very peaceful and we saw lots of wildlife along the way. We saw turtles and armadillos, and at one point a mother deer and her two babies stood in the middle of road just staring at us in confusion as to why we were on their road. It was sweet and reminded me of how our girls will watch from the sidewalk as an unfamiliar car drives down our cul de sac, immediately recognizing something that doesn't belong there.

As we were driving in parts of Missouri and Southern Illinois we saw a lot of flooding. We were approaching a bridge as I took this photo, and this line of trees opens up into vast farmland where right now the fields are completely underwater and the water is reaching well up into the tree branches. It was sad to see this knowing the impact it will have on the farmer's crops, and made me feel even worse for other places in the country where this same flooding has submerged people's homes rather than trees and fields in the flood waters.

We were on a mission to go see the "Liberty Bell of the West" which is a very old bell, older than the actual Liberty Bell, when all of a sudden the road ahead of us was under water. From a short stretch back Dave said he thought he saw water ahead, but most of the time that's just the sun creating a glare.

As we got closer though, we could easily see that we weren't going to be getting to the bell that day. The bird perched in the water fishing seemed pretty happy though. We love driving through places we've never been and seeing whatever happens to be there. In nearby Collinsville, we could have stopped at the world's largest ketchup bottle, but it didn't quite make the cut on our list of historically significant sites...to think it was within our reach and we passed it up.

We took a bit of an indirect route through St. Louis so we could have dinner at a restaurant Dave saw on the Travel Channel, Charlie Gitto's "On the Hill." It was amazing Italian food, birthplace of the toasted ravioli and in a very cool neighborhood. Sometimes the database that Dave keeps of interesting places/restaurants comes in handy!

As we were driving, I could see this bridge from a long distance back and I was hoping we were going to go over it. Sure enough we did, and we found the funnest thing on the other side...

Directly on the other side of the river, we had landed ourselves in Chester, Illinois. The home of Popeye!

It was such a cute little town and a pleasant surprise. There were cartoon scene murals painted on many of the buildings, and statues of the characters all around town.

A lot of the signs for the stores were just like this one, and all the store fronts were reminiscent of small town America. Everything was so cute, the people were so friendly and helpful. The town hosts a Popeye Picnic every September and we would give serious thought to bringing the girls there one year!

After a quick visit in Chester, we drove through the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail where we picked up a few bottles as gifts and a couple to donate to our Foundation's auction next year.

And of course, the whole reason we were in Southern Illinois was for Barry and Amy's wedding.

I loved the grasshopper greeting the guests from the rose petal as they signed the guestbook. It was a hot, hot day, but a beautiful wedding! Congratulations, Amy and Barry!

The next morning we went hiking in the nearby Shawnee National Forest. Dave had read ahead of time how nice the paved hiking trail was. As we got there, the trail we took was fine for walking on, and we saw some beautiful rocks and lookout points over the valley, but it was clearly not paved. We were actually thinking how nice it was ~ we didn't encounter a single other person on our whole hike. As we drove out of the park, we saw a different entrance, this time to a labeled hiking trail that was the paved one Dave had read about. Leave it to us to find the path less taken...

This was taken at Cave in Rock. We were on the Illinois side, but the shoot of land that you can see on the other side of the water in the back of the photo is Kentucky. They were running a car ferry back and forth and we thought it would have been fun to try it out, but we didn't have time. We wanted to be sure to get back to Sandwich in time for the fireworks...

With these little ladies. We have one little girl who loves the fireworks, and two others who could really do without the exploding, loud noises. I'll let you guess from the pics (even though they're blurry) who is who.

Loud fireworks and all, it was a perfect night.

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful weekend. Happy 4th of July!

Slow down, little girl, you are exceeding the speed limit!

2011-07-03T20:02:00.028-05:00

Dave and I spent part of the 4th of July weekend in far Southern Illinois for a friend's wedding while the girls stayed with my parents. This morning, there was a Freedom Run that the girls ran in, and when we got home this evening they were so excited to tell us about it.

Rebekah ran in the Tot Trot which was essentially running from one side of the park, to a table of prizes on the opposite side. She came in 1st and was so happy with the water bottle and pinwheel prizes that she picked out. I had to laugh a little when she told me she won because she doesn't quite have the competitive drive that the older girls have. She is very content to be the baby and let her sisters work out all the competitive stuff. The lesson learned today: when a table of prizes is dangled in front of her, that's all the incentive she needs to run!

Emma ran her first race ever in the One Mile Fun Run. They blew the starting whistle and she, along with one of her friends shot off like a bullet. My parents were yelling out to her to slow down and pace herself. After seeing the race start, my mom tried to get over to the finish line as quickly as she could and she heard some people talking about a tiny kid who was following directly behind the police car that was monitoring the route, keeping it safe for all the runners. The tiny kid was Emma, and she won the race. Later my dad asked her if she led the whole way and she told him there was a boy who ran ahead of her briefly, but she explained, "I passed him then he ran right behind me for a little then he was waaaay behind me." My dad teased her the rest of the weekend that the police were going to issue her a speeding ticket. He was joking with all 3 girls that they were the fastest runners in Sandwich :-)

Alyssa ran in the 5K race. It was the second 5K she has ever run, and I probably said this very same thing about the first race she ever ran, but it was just something I wanted her to know she could finish. Maybe I'm just speaking from a point of my own weakness, but I think perseverance can be a tricky thing to teach a kid, and in a fun and safe environment like this, I knew it would be a great opportunity to show her she was strong enough to do something she may have had doubts about. She ended up finishing 2nd place in the 14 and under age group.

To explain the bottom photo ~ the girls are into taking silly pictures lately...whenever I ask them to pose for a pic, they will usually oblige (at least somewhat), then afterwards ask if they can take a silly one. I was so happy to hear the girl's excitement as they told us about the races, and know what a fun time they had while we were gone.

Meet Rex

2011-07-02T08:33:00.025-05:00

Meet our newest fake pet, Rex:

He was purchased at the Missionette Mall at church for $6 in missionette money. His now proud owners, Alyssa, Emma and Rebekah were actually window shopping for an inflatable hamster at the time of his adoption. The hamster cost $8 and when all their money was counted up, and the total was only $6, he proved to be the most perfect hot pink inflatable dinosaur pet there ever was. They promptly gave him the very manly name of Rex, I think to compensate for his ultra feminine and almost blinding shade of pink skin. Just like the girls, he loves to swim at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The pool is also where Rex happily takes all his baths. Don't let the bad rap blow up dinosaurs have gotten in the past confuse you, Rex has proven to be a very hygienic pet.

He doesn't even mind being shot in the neck by the kids and their water toys.

This picture has nothing to do with Rex. I just liked it.

Possibly Rex's favorite thing to do in the pool is to back float at the bottom of the slide, just waiting for one of the girls to slide down, dunking him under. Float over to the right a little bit, Buddy, you'll never get splashed hanging out next to the ladder all day.

See, the slide is a very fun place. Everyone enjoys it.

This is probably the most miserable picture I have of Emma. She couldn't get her goggles to fit the way she wanted them to. I'm not sure what Rex had to do with this either, but there must have been something.

Rex is definitely our favorite fake pet yet, at least so far this summer...I'm not sure how we ever managed without him.

The Sweetest Strawberries

2011-06-30T08:40:00.022-05:00

Here are some photos from the day we went strawberry picking...

The sweet rewards of a summer's worth of strawberries in our baskets. The girls seemed very content as we took the wagon ride back to the farmhouse, maybe it was just pure exhaustion, but it sure was fun! And we've been enjoying lots of delicious strawberry shortcake!

Picture Troubles and Picking Our Weight in Strawberries

2011-06-29T16:14:00.011-05:00

**Updated: You can scroll down to see some posts that were earlier missing photos, so I delayed in posting them. I'm still trying to figure out the sizing of the pictures, that's why some are so small, and others are large...** 2nd Update: And nearly two hours later ~ I think I have it all figured out now :-)

Just a quick note...I keep getting an error message every time I upload photos. That's why the post below is missing Rebekah's pics from last week (although I'm almost sure they were there when I first posted it, hmm...) Dave is going to see if he can fix it for me tonight, and if anyone can, it's him :-) I drafted a few posts in the last few days that I was hoping to put up before we leave for 4th of July weekend, but I'm not sure if that will happen in the next 24 hours or not.

Anyway, a strawberry story since I don't have any pictures: We went strawberry picking yesterday. It's something I have wanted to do for a couple of summers now, but the season is so short that we keep missing it. I guess we were trying to make up for lost seasons ~ we now have strawberries coming out our ears. My first miscalculation was letting each of the girls grab their own flats for loading the strawberries as we picked them. They were such cute little crate/basket things, and they all wanted to carry one, so I figured what's the harm in that?

My second miscalculation came as I saw the girls happily filling up their flats out in the fields. The flats were filling up much quicker than I thought they would. By comparing in my mind the size of the containers of strawberries I buy at the store, I estimated that each flat could hold maybe 5 lbs of berries at the max. Emma was the first to throw her's up on the scale at the checkout ~ 8.2 pounds ~ that's a lot of strawberries, and the other girls didn't have much less. $26 worth of strawberries later, I better get pretty inventive with how we are going eat all these things {I froze a bunch for later throughout the season, but at 11:15 last night as I was washing and trimming all those leaf parts off the top, I was sure I never intended to have that many!} At least the price per pound was very reasonable.

There was a sweet lady who was picking berries with her own kids just a couple rows over from us. She complimented the girls, calling them charming and saying they were fun to listen to as they carried on conversations like no one else could hear them. I thanked her, not sure if I should add that more than likely, their conversation would not have been at all filtered even if they had known anyone was listening. That's just how they are. Silly conversations, fake English accents and all. It's always fun and reassuring when other people find the girls' antics as amusing as I do.

Workin' at the Car Wash

2011-06-27T19:00:00.073-05:00

After so much rain lately, yesterday afternoon was just about as perfect as summer weather gets. The girls and Dave planned to wash the cars, and just as they were walking out the back door the neighbor girls came up asking if our girls wanted to play. Since there was no way our girls wanted to miss out on washing the cars {it's a favorite summer chore} they invited their friends, Katie and Allie to come over and help.

While they were playing (I mean washing the cars), I kept thinking of the Car Wash Song. I had the melody in my head, but couldn't remember very many of the words, so I had to google it...

Come summer

the work gets kinda hard.

This ain't no place to be

if ya planned on being a star.

Let me tell you it's always cool

and the boss don't mind sometimes if ya act a fool.

At the car wash...
Talkin' about the car wash yeah!

At one point, I heard the girls' friend Allie tell Dave, "Thank you for inviting us over to wash your cars, this is fun!" I laughed and thought to myself, come on over to play anytime! We've got lots more work to do!

A few good slip and slide races seemed in order when the work was done. I thought both Alyssa and Katie looked to be having a very intense slide on this turn.

The girls had fun and there was only one minor injury...Katie got a very small bloody nose when her sister kicked her in the face. I've often thought slip and slides were one of the most dangerous toys ever invented.

I love Summer! I love the smell of sunscreen and BBQs, and the sounds of little girls kind of giggling, kind of screaming as they slip and slide in the backyard.

CYT ~ OZ

2011-06-26T21:05:00.044-05:00

I think I figured out, or I should really say Dave found a solution to the issues I was having with posting pictures last week. It will take me a few days to put up all my post dated entries, and I'm still playing around with the size of the photos, but I hope to get everything done in the next few days. I restored the pictures in a post of Rebekah's below.

Last Friday we went to see the end of the week showcase for the CYT camp that Alyssa and Emma did by my parents' house. The theme this year was The Wizard of Oz, and was loosely based on some highlights from the Broadway play Wicked. I have not seen the play, so I can't say how similar they were, but some of the music was familiar, and the girls loved it...they are still singing all the songs!!

Alyssa's response to being offered a lifetime supply of hotdogs. She can turn just about anything into a skit, and the CYT camps she has done the last two summers have been the perfect outlet for her dramatic energy. She has enjoyed them so much!!

Just a little bit of sass. She's a different child in front of an audience.

At one point, Emma was on the far side of the stage and I couldn't see her immediately, but I could hear her voice. It's a bit of a story, but she doesn't pronounce the letter "R" well, she'll start speech in the fall to help correct this. I've known for a long time that she should have outgrown the mispronunciation, but because she doesn't make the same error when speaking German, they just recently referred her to the speech teacher. I'm always so proud when she speaks confidently in front of an audience. She's so happy all the time, and it doesn't seem to shake her in the least that she might sound a little different, and that, along with her relative ease at success with her schoolwork, is possibly why she wasn't referred earlier. I'll almost be sad to hear those silly R's go.

There was such fun and cute choreography to the show ~ nonstop action. The girls loved it.

It was great to see everything they learned all week and to watch how much fun they were having! I'm still amazed that in about 4 and half days they can put an entire show together. Thank you again so much to my parents for having the girls all week, bringing them to camp and allowing them to have such a great experience!

a wonderful week with rebekah

2011-06-23T22:48:00.021-05:00

Our two older girls have spent this whole week at G&G's house. They are so excited to be doing a Christian Youth Theater camp down in IL. and I've been spending lots of one on one time with this little cupcake. She helped me make brownies the other night, and she kept sneaking bites of the raw batter.

The weather has tried to foil our plans in more than one way throughout the week. Tuesday was rainy, so I thought I would take Rebekah to the movies. As we drove to the theater, the storms really picked up, and she had fun watching the wild lightening show. When we arrived, there was a power outage which caused them to cancel the rest of the shows that afternoon. I took her to a paint your own pottery place, where she was happy to paint a flower shaped jewelry box.

The weather was hit or miss the next day too, but we did get to enjoy about an hour at a nearby wading pool before the rain started up again. Almost without warning the sky turned cloudy and it started pouring leaving us to quickly grab our belongings and sprint to the van. It was nice while it lasted!

I've had such a fun time with Rebekah this week. She always has a very funny sense of humor, but being on her own makes her all that much more entertaining. I'm enjoying her constant chattiness, that I think sometimes doesn't get the attention it deserves. I love when little kids use expressions they hear grown ups using in conversation. She keeps telling me "By the way..." and she's almost using the expression in correct context, but not quite. So funny! And I almost forgot how easy it is to have just one child, I'm actually on time to all the places we need to be :-)

Thank you so much to my parents who have been taking care of Alyssa and Emma all week, bringing them to camp, and undoubtedly showering them with love and fun! I know the girls are having a blast!

In Summary...

2011-06-21T19:25:00.113-05:00

Over a week has passed and I'm not any closer to blogging about all the end of the school year activities, so I'm biting the bullet and putting as much in one post as I possibly can. I know all the Grandparents will enjoy the photos, but seriously, this is going to be really long. I owe you a prize if you can make it to the end!!

Rebekah's soccer finished up during the last week of school. She can continue playing in the Fall if she wants. She seemed to love it a lot, we think she may be a defender ~ in their last game she stopped at least 5 goals and only let one past her. She became more aggressive with her playing as the practices went on.

Lots more of Rebekah's soccer photos, including ones of her wearing a way too big jersey (so cute!) are here.

Alyssa went on a field trip to see her pen pal's school and experience what it is like to go to school in a more rural area, and her pen pal's class also came to visit our school on a different day that same week. These photos above are the only ones Alyssa took all day while visiting the other school. And by the looks of them, the school's blacktop area must have been a very interesting place. She's so funny, this evidently is what she interpreted from my instructions to takes lots of pictures.

Fortunately, her teacher took pictures of everyone with their pen pals.

The following day when she went on her end of the year field trip to Chicago, she did a much better job getting pictures. Like this one of Dave, who chaperoned. I meant to ask him afterwards if the shirt, which says "I Speak German" across the front of it caused him any problems. It's a bit of false advertising, and he frequently has people walk up to him wanting to speak Spanish (another language he doesn't speak well) with him, but I'm sure he would have mentioned if anything interesting happened.

Ka'iulani loved her end of the year field trip, it was one of those things that all her classmates had been looking forward to for the whole school year. More of her photos from the day are here.

This might be my new favorite picture of Emma doing gymnastics. I thought it looked like she was flying, and I love how her shadow is right below her and she's looking at it. More cool action shots are here. Emma had a fun season, competing level 3, 4 and one level 5 meet this year.

Emma's class had a year end picnic on the same day as Alyssa's graduation picnic. Since I offered to take pictures at Alyssa's, I couldn't stay at Emma's picnic too long, but I did get to visit for a little bit and take a few photos of her with her friends.

Rebekah's class had a field trip to the farm. I love how she is looking at the cow in the top photo. Visiting there brought me back to last time I was at that farm which was Alyssa's kindergarten trip when I was about 7 months pregnant with Rebekah and had a tiny Emma tagging along with me. It was almost 90 degrees that day and it smelled miserable! No wonder I skipped out when Emma's class went ~ but this day was much cooler and easier on the nose. The kids enjoyed it so much. Farm photos are here.

Gathering Waters Festival is a fun lakefront activity at the beginning of each June. The last couple of years the weather has been a little questionable, and this year was no exception. It was a really grey and chilly day, but the girls loved it! Lots of fun arts and crafts, rock climbing and balance rope walking pictures are here.

Phew, that might be about it. Although believe it or not, now that I'm at the end I can recall at least one field trip that I missed! Like I said at the beginning, if you stuck with me this long, you deserve a prize. I don't know what that prize might be, but it ought to be something good :-)!!

5th Grade Completion

2011-06-20T22:37:00.006-05:00

Alyssa's days at German Immersion are finished...she had her 5th Grade Completion Ceremony last Tuesday night.
Here she is on her last day of Kindergarten in 2006.

And this is last Tuesday morning on her last day of 5th grade.

Looking so grown up before going into the ceremony. She was so proud of the princess nails my mom got for her. They look like a french manicure with little black music notes and diamonds near the tips.

Receiving her diploma from Dr. Brugger. I couldn't decide which picture I liked better, this one above or the one below, so I included both. I thought she looked very excited in this photo.

And I thought she looked very proud and satisfied here.

I began this post a few times and sort of scrapped what I had written. I didn't really know exactly what to write about Alyssa moving on from MGIS. She started here six years ago and we had no idea what to expect ~ how would the immersion program work?...would she actually pick up German easily? Now, after years here, I can only feel proud of her and grateful that she has had this opportunity.

This has always been a popular photo stop for us on the first and last days of the school year. While I do feel happy and excited for Alyssa, there is a twinge of sadness to see her leave this school. Part of it is just as simple as that she's getting older, the other part of it is that she is leaving this very sheltered and secure environment for a place we know far less about. And middle school is middle school ~ challenging at best, I'm sure. She has such a great attitude about it though, and I'm confident in her, so I am embracing the excitement of it all much more than that tiny tug at my heart that would rather keep her little, and closer to me.

Showing off her diplomas both this year and back in Kindergarten. More photos from completion are here.

The 5th Grade Class of 2011.

An Almost Birthday

2011-06-13T21:38:00.007-05:00

Almost all school year long, ever since she started seeing all her friends celebrate their 5th birthdays, Rebekah has asked me on an almost daily basis if she is 5 yet. Sometimes the question is a little less direct and she'll ask things like, "Am I big yet?" "Is today my birthday party?" "Will I grow bigger when I turn 5?" or "Is it my day to get a crown at school?"

Rebekah's birthday isn't until August, but her teacher explained last month that all the summer birthdays would be celebrated during the last week or so of school. The kids could bring in treats, but please not cupcakes {kinda a bummer huh?} and she chose ice cream sandwiches. Because those are so much healthier and less messy than cupcakes :-)

Now she sees me. She was the very last child to have a Birthday Tag and I knew celebrating in June was going to cause some confusion. I had to answer the "am I 5 yet?" question at least 3 times before she even left for school, and when she came home she had developed a new understanding that since they were celebrating her birthday and all, and she wasn't actually five yet, she had decided to be 5 and a half instead. My father in law suggested on Sunday that she might try to pull a fast one and try to be turning 6 when we are in Hawaii for her actual birthday, and he was spot on with that prediction.

In the end, all she was after was this construction paper crown cut from the school's dye cut machine.

Happy almost Birthday, Rebekah!! For the record, you are still 4!!

Congratulations, Sweet Alyssa!

2011-06-12T17:02:00.005-05:00

I sat down to recap our last week, and for Alyssa alone it was way too much to jam into one post, but I wanted to quickly post just a snip-it before I got too derailed with school finishing up this week.

Wednesday night was the Crowning Ceremony at church. It's the culmination of six years of membership to the Wednesday night MPact Girls Ministries clubs. It's a really special time to honor the girls and their growth in Christ. We are very, very proud of Alyssa!

Daddy-Daughter Sweetness.

I will be getting more photos of the ceremony sometime soon. I don't have many because it was hard to take photos as both Dave and I were part of the ceremony. Suffice it to say that I don't know that it's ever possible to be entirely prepared to see your little girl being walked down the isle of your church by her dad. Very sweet and heart warming, also having the potential to be tear invoking ~ I held it together though.

Back in April, the 5th graders were asked to submit drawings for the yearbook cover. I was in the school office right before afternoon pick up one day last week and I saw stacks of yearbooks in each teacher's mailbox. My heart just about jumped up into my throat as I saw the front cover ~ it was Alyssa's drawing!! Just as I knew she would be, she was over the moon excited that her drawing was picked. And since she has called all her most proud people {all her Grandparents!} to tell them about it, I figured I had better post a picture of her first ever published design.

Reclaiming Our Heritage ~ The Grand Finale

2011-06-06T08:15:00.055-05:00

Every June, this multi-era military encampment is the "family field trip" that really seems to indicate the start of summer for us. Reclaiming Our Heritage is a living history and veteran tribute hosted on the grounds of the local veteran's hospital.
It's right in the middle of a very busy, not far from downtown area, however right when you arrive it's easy to feel as though you've stepped back in time. There are actors recreating battle scenes, artillery demonstrations and lots of people dressed in clothing authentic to the time period of the war they represent. It really is like seeing snapshots of history come to life. One of my absolute favorite visits was two years ago. The theme was medically based that year and we were able to see a re-enactment of a surgery. It was really neat, the girls' reactions to it were complete shock and awe, and I posted about it here.

Proudly showing the beeswax candles they just made. The ROH event has several goals, one of which is to highlight the architectural and cultural treasures of the National Soldiers Home Historic District. The mansion looking building behind the girls is one of a few buildings there that is on the National Register of Historic places and this is the only time it is open to the public for tours.

During this cavalry demonstration, the announcer explained that they were training one of the horses. It was neat that even Rebekah picked up on the horse's hesitation and the sense that he did not really know what to do. I can't even imagine the amount of preparation it took for them to be ready for an actual battle.

The girls always look forward to seeing President Lincoln here and hearing his storytelling, and it's always been the same man. Last year he confided that his first name is actually Bob. This really struck Alyssa's funny bone and she walked around the rest of the afternoon giggling and saying "Bob...Bob Lincoln." This is a different Lincoln than we have seen in past years, but he was also very nice and knowledgeable. Some of the girls' favorite books are about Lincoln, we have visited his Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL., along with his childhood home in Indiana, and his adult home and tomb, both of which are in Springfield.

Another goal of the event is to honor and pay tribute to the veterans. Every year we have met veterans at ROH. They share stories, explain about the kind of weapons and other supplies they would have carried, and they let the girls sit in their vehicles. One year a man even shared his chocolate bar with the girls explaining the "brotherhood" to them, and how anything that one of them had was shared by the whole group. So cool!

The theme this year was "The Grand Finale" and I'm sad to say that this tenth annual event will be their last, at least for now. When we moved here about seven years ago, this was one of the first activities we ever experienced in Milwaukee, and we've kept going back year after year. I know attending has made the events that the girls read about in books so much more real to them, and I'm thankful that they've had the opportunity to see these living history demonstrations. It makes me feel very patriotic to visit events like this. It's impossible to walk around there and not acknowledge with a sense of great appreciation and pride the freedoms we have here in this country and the brave men and women who fought for that freedom.

It's unfortunate that there is not the resources for the ROH to continue. More photos from our day at the last Reclaiming Our Heritage Military Encampment are here.

Emma's Day

2011-06-02T21:05:00.030-05:00

I only recently began labeling my posts, mostly just because as far as blogging goes, I've simply learned as I've gone along, and one day at the beginning of this year it occurred to me that if I'm ever looking for something written a while back having the posts labeled might be helpful in finding them. Duh, right!? I'm nothing if not quick to catch on :-). Recently I was noticing that Alyssa and Rebekah have at least twice as many posts with their name in the label as Emma does. How is that possible? Emma is not at all the middle child who gets "squeezed out in the middle" (as Kevin Leman would refer to it) ~ trust me!

So while it wasn't necessarily set up this way on purpose, Emma had a very busy day today where my schedule seemed to revolve around being where she was, so I decided to blog about it. And I won't complain about chasing her from activity to activity because the day will come too quickly when I won't get invited to all these things, so for now I just enjoy that she wants me to be there!

Her class is taking three Thursdays in a row to visit the YMCA for swimming lessons/water safety. She begged me to come and swim with her class. I don't love to swim and I pretty much have to be over-heated bordering on the point of heat exhaustion for jumping in a pool to feel good. To top it off, when we arrived at the Y, it became apparent that I was one of only two parent chaperones that planned to swim. Several joined us for the field trip, but I guess everyone felt the same way about getting in the water as I did. Nothing like an audience to watch you do something you weren't looking forward to that much to begin with, but it was surprisingly fun! Especially the part where we got to throw life guard rescue floaties out to our partner in the pool, yell "Grab On!" and pull them to safety. And Emma was so happy, the chilly swim was more than worth it!

After swimming I had just enough time to grab a quick lunch then run to school for a RIF book distribution for Emma's class. With the Reading Is Fundamental program, the kids get to bring home a book donated by the PTA three times a year to encourage them to continue reading in their free time. RIF is one of my favorite school activities to help out with because I get to read to the kids and talk to them about why I enjoy reading and why it's important for them to keep up with reading for leisure. Best of all, I get to help them choose a book they want to take home, and most of them get very excited about it. It's fun.

We left school just a little early in order to make it to Emma and Rebekah's dentist appointments on time. Emma takes after her Daddy and was proud to have a perfect check up. Rebekah's appointment was a little traumatic. There's nothing wrong with her teeth, but after the experience she had with getting stitches in her mouth in February, it was no fun at all getting her to allow them to even just look in her mouth. A lot of crying went on.

I didn't take any pictures of Emma's swimtastic, super reader day, but here are some photos from her "no passport needed" field trip to China back in April that I should have posted long ago...
Emma's class studied a unit on China and she became a fountain of information on the country. She would often point to something I had in my hand and say, "Did you know that is made in China?" {lots of stuff is, honey} At the dinner table she would tell us, "Did you know in China it is very polite to slurp your noodles?"{cue huge slurping noises from all three girls}.

She was so excited to come home from school one day and tell me that her next field trip was to China. The kind of excited where she was practically packing bags and wondering if her panda bear pillow pet was Chinese enough to make the journey. When I suggested that this was possibly a "make believe" trip to China to supplement their classroom work she assured me that they were taking a very real trip to the very real China. She kept up this convincing argument for a good two weeks and even remained undeterred when I started asking all the hard questions like: Can I see the permission slip? How much will your plane ticket cost? When does Frau Srok expect you to turn in payment for this ticket? Should we be getting you a passport?

When her teacher broke the news to the kids that they were not actually going to China, there were a lot of sad kids. Emma was not the only child who had misunderstood. So in the very least her teacher learned that she has been teaching a very literal group of students this year who take her very seriously. In all seriousness, Frau Srok did a great job decorating the room for their visit to China and she planned activities that the kids loved! It was almost as good as the real China!

Ms. Josephine was there teaching the children how to use chopsticks.

There was an archeological dig where the kids found pieces of Chinese pottery, coins, and medallions. There was also Chinese character writing, a craft, and games like Chinese yoyo, but I was too busy gluing my fingers together with the dragon craft to take many photos.

The teacher had also set up a marketplace where the kids could use the classroom dollars they earned to buy Chinese {and American} trinkets. There was a hushed whisper moving throughout the class as Emma began to spend her money. I guess she had never spent any of her dollars all school year and she had over 150. Poor Frau Srok, Emma waited until all the other kids made their purchases before buying out the rest of her store.

My precious Em, I hope you enjoyed your day in China and at the Y pool! In the future I'll be better about documenting your special days!

Summer Reading With a Purpose

2011-06-01T21:38:00.024-05:00

With Memorial Day unofficially kicking off Summer last weekend and only 10 more school days left and counting, we have been thinking a lot about summer activities and how we want to spend summer vacation.

Earlier this week while reading the girls' Clubhouse Magazine we read about their summer reading challenge, Read to Raise the Roof and the girls immediately knew they wanted to take part.
The challenge is sponsored by Focus on the Family and the money raised by the children getting pledges for each page they read during the challenge will be used to build a ministry outreach center in Rwanda. Among many other things, the outreach center will provide impoverished and orphaned children with food and shelter, Biblical teaching, school uniforms for young orphans (the uniforms are required for school attendance and many families simply cannot afford them, and thus their children are not being educated) and vocational training for older orphans so they can begin to support themselves. It was startling to hear that many of the children in this area of Rwanda eat only once a day and most of their day consists of gathering wood and clean water for their current kitchen that looks much more like a fire pit than an actual place where food can be prepared and served. This ministry would help to change that.

More information and a short video about this summer reading program is here. I can't imagine any better motivation to keep logging pages over the summer than knowing we are helping children in need.

WaterStone Bank Contest and Kinderfest

2011-05-31T08:30:00.007-05:00

Last Friday was a really special day at school. During April I had posted about WaterStone Bank hosting a 90th Anniversary giveaway to local non-profits. Well, we didn't win the first place prize of $30,000, but HOORAY, we ended up 5th place in the overall voting and were awarded $15,000! That is huge for us and our Foundation!

Since early May, we knew we were one of the recipients, but I didn't want to blog about it until it was official. The press release is here. On Friday WaterStone Bank arrived at school, gigantic check in hand, just in time to see one of the funnest end of the school year events, Kinderfest. The check presentation was done in the gym with all the kids present, and there was wild cheering and tons of excitement. It was great!
The bank representatives were very impressed to be completely immersed in a German speaking environment and see how the kids responded with such natural ease. They even got to hear the kids sing some favorite German songs.

The German Immersion Foundation will use the money to help fund and expand the Amity Intern Program at our school. Every year we have between 4 and 5 German college students come to our school to complete their teaching internship. I cannot say enough about how valuable the interns are in our classrooms. Beyond the native German language skills they add, they lend an entirely unique and authentic German culture experience to each classroom they help out in. We are so thankful for the Amity Interns and for the funds to be able to continue this excellent program!

As a side note, now when you click on the German Immersion Foundation logo in my sidebar, it no longer brings you to the voting page, but instead directs you to the Foundation's website. Just in case you are ever curious about what GIF is up to.

After the awards and singing in the gym, the kids all headed outside for Kinderfest, a school carnival day. Here, Alyssa is jumping rope with Frau Petri, one of the awesome interns spoken of above. Its so cool how the intern program not only brings great benefits to our school, but also that it benefits the German students who come here as well. They seem to love the experience of teaching in the US. There is a current 2nd grade teacher who was hired full time as a result of her internship, she had the opportunity to go back to Germany to teach, but felt strongly enough about the program that she chose to stay here. Recently one of the interns was amazed at the banana muffins I brought into Rebekah's class {I'll be honest, they were from a box :-)} and it's just small things like that where a huge cultural difference is seen, and I appreciate so much that we can introduce them to things, and our students learn so much from them.

Emma and her sweet classmate, Dara waiting to play some Kinderfest games.

This picture of Rebekah with her hand in a popcorn bag just about sums up her entire Kinderfest afternoon. She ate treats, and more treats, then more treats. All week long we had talked about how this was her very first Kinderfest, and she was so excited.

I was supposed to be working one of the games when I saw her sitting in the grass on the edge of the playground. She was all alone, just snacking and staring at the older kids playing tug of war out in the field. I was worried that she lost her friends and was sad, so I walked over to see her. When I asked her what she was doing she told me very contently, "I'm watching them tug the war." Then she added in an almost nostalgic way and like she was very much trying to ingrain the thoughts in her memory, "I can't believe this is my first day of daycare." See, we have this conversation at least twice a week when we walk past the after school daycare in their school's gymnasium about how much Rebekah loves daycare. I always have to remind her that she has never once been to daycare. So somewhere along the way she has gotten the impression that daycare is carnival games, tug of war, tricycle races, magnetic fishing pole games, dunk tanks, and snacks. And she was very proud to finally spend her first afternoon there!

In the picture above where A and R are smiling, this is what they are looking at ~ Ka'iulani's teacher in the dunk tank, and she did get wet. Thank you, Frau O'Connor for being such a good sport! There's not a whole lot that kids enjoy seeing more than their teacher sitting in a dunk tank.

It was a good day to be a MGIS Ladybug! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to vote for us in the contest!!

Summerfest Planting Day, Not Feeling At All Like Summer

2011-05-27T09:42:00.015-05:00

Yesterday I went with Alyssa and some of the 5th graders at her school to Summerfest Planting Day. Summerfest requested that the school limit our group size to 24 {which works out to be a little less than one half the 5th graders at her school}, and in her usual, no nonsense manner Alyssa informed me that she was one of her teacher's favorites and that's why she was able to go. At least she doesn't think lowly of herself or her standing with her teacher :-)
It was actually quite exciting for her to do this because often when we visit Summerfest grounds during the summer and see the areas that have been planted by local students, or when we go to some of the downtown parks that have trees decorated at Christmas time the girls will look at the signs that tell which school had decorated there and they always ask if their school ever gets to do this. Before now, none of the girls have been in a class that got to do any of the downtown decorating, so it was a fun opportunity.

This is Alyssa and her friend, Hannah. The weather was kind of terrible, it was somewhere in the high 30s and the wind coming off the lake was absolutely freezing! The kids would take turns planting for a little while, then they'd duck behind a cement wall for shelter from the wind to warm up for a few minutes. Not at all what we think of when we think of a trip down to Summerfest. The Summerfest organizers treated all the kids to hot cocoa and doughnuts, which the kids thought was awesome.

There was also plenty of playtime too. I can't believe how quickly her 5th grade year is wrapping up! We just got the invite to the 5th grade completion ceremony and it was a lot to wrap my mind around that in just a few weeks she will be done with elementary school and only a couple months later she'll be in middle school! I think it was Beth Moore who I heard say something about how in raising young children the days sometimes get so loooong, but the years fly by. It's so true!!!

Pen Pals

2011-05-23T18:50:00.014-05:00

For the last couple of months, Alyssa's class has had pen pals with students from a 5th grade class at a different school in our area. It has been fun for her and she has a lot in common with the girl they matched her up with, so that has made it extra special and exciting.

Today Alyssa wrote the last letter that she will send before she gets to meet her pen pal (she is soooooo excited about this!) in June when the other class takes a field trip to our school. She decided to make a collage of all the things they have in common.
Thank you, Heather for sharing the cute magnetic bookmarks on your blog! Alyssa made a few of the rainbow and paint ones for her pen pal and they were the perfect little gift to send along with her letter and collage :-)

The girls both love theater and singing. In fact, in one of the letters from her pen pal, the little girl mentioned being nervous about singing the National Anthem that night at a school basketball game. "Wow, she must be really good!" Alyssa told me.

I think letter writing is becoming a lost practice. I'm as guilty as anyone else of neglecting the pen and paper for the speed of the electronic version. It was nice to see the kids encouraged to write actual letters that have a personal touch to them! Alyssa was so excited to receive each letter and she never wasted any time at all writing a response. The notes they passed back and forth were precious. Beyond sharing about their interests and hobbies, their messages were something to the effect of: Do you want to be friends?... Yes! I want to be friends! Do you want to be my friend? When I was a kid, I remember wishing I had a pen pal from a far-away place, and this letter writing experience for Alyssa has been everything a kid could imagine in their childhood pen pal daydreams.

My Little German Strudel Cake

2011-05-21T18:25:00.006-05:00

Get ready for some cuteness :-)

Last week, Rebekah got to bring home her German Dance dirndl. The dresses are sewn by her teacher who does such an incredible job. People who can sew actual outfits that people would want to wear absolutely amaze me. They have delicate pearl buttons and every detail is attended to, Miss Irene even sewed her name to the inside of each piece, it's so perfect. When Rebekah brought hers home she was so happy! She marched into the living room and asked Dave, "You want me to try it on for you, Daddy?!"
This morning, as we got ready for her first dance performance, Rebekah was none too thrilled to have her hair braided, it's so baby fine that it was no easy job either.

Our sweet little German dancer.

Here she is with a group of Emma's friends, and if she looks a little distressed it's because they were wanting to take pictures with her which was keeping her from doing this:

Playing chase around the May Pole with Allie.

Before Christmas Rebekah's partner was a girl who was a little older than her and she gave Rebekah a lot of direction during the dances. Her most recent dance partner, Claire, is almost as young as she is, making them the most unpredictable {and funniest} couple on the dance floor.

Rebekah and Claire kept overtaking the spot in the circle that their neighbors should have occupied, and at one point I think they even switched positions with them in the circle.

But they could not have had any bigger smiles or any more fun compromising the technical details of the dances.

And I'd like to argue that they looked pretty cute too!!

Tonight we are praying hard for Dave's grandmother. On our drive home this afternoon we got a call from his sister saying that Grandmommy fell and broke her hip. She may even be in surgery right now. We are thinking of her so much and praying for the surgery and for her pain to be under control! XOXO

Emma's First Piano Recital

2011-05-19T13:58:00.013-05:00

Here is a short video and a few photos from Emma's piano recital last week. She only plays for about 30 or 40 seconds and the rest is the children singing.
I loved her abrupt tiny bow at the end, so Emma-like in every way.

Emma and Summer.

A startling amount of concentration from a usually giggly and relaxed girl.

Emma and Carlos enjoying the singing portion of the evening.

Thank you for the pretty yellow dress, Aunty Ku'u, Uncle Addison and cousins! Emma loves it!!

A Science Experiment

2011-05-17T14:22:00.025-05:00

Okay, so we can't decide if this is cool or a little gross. We were attempting to grow a salt crystal garden, and the jury is still out on the success of the experiment.

My friend Tanya passed along the instructions and some Mrs. Stewart's Liquid Bluing that we would need to do this little science experiment. Here's how it all started:
The first day we put some porous materials in the bottom of a dish. Because I can never follow instructions exactly to the "T" I chose both a sponge that we cut up and a couple pieces of charcoal. I think you were supposed to choose 1 base material...Next we covered the base with 2 tablespoons of salt, 2 tablespoons of water, and 2 tablespoons of the Mrs. Stewarts. I had never heard of this cleaning detergent before, but apparently when used in the laundry in makes your whites very white. I have a hard time imagining this as it stained my hands blue. The experiment then sits for a day.

On day two, which I don't have a picture of because it looks exactly the same as above, we added two more tablespoons of salt. Again, let it sit for a day.

On Day 3, we added two more tablespoons each of water, salt and Mrs. Stewart's, then added drops of food coloring. Up to this point, I hadn't told the girls exactly what we were doing, they knew something was supposed to be growing in the dish, and I wanted to them to guess along the way what was happening so I had not been specific that crystals were maybe going to form.

The instructions say that by day 4 there should be some growth, and if there isn't, add a few tablespoons of household ammonia. We had nothing growing, so I added the ammonia and set it on our patio table, instead of in the house. It stunk! The one thing the girls said throughout the process was that it didn't smell good ~ they were right.

Finally after sitting outside for a few hours, this was the result.

It's kind of cool, but I think it looks just as much like a fungus as it does crystals. The pictures look much prettier than it actually looks, the green areas have a very strange mold-ish appearance in person. Rebekah's first response was, "What is all that green?" Alyssa just wanted to know what happened to it.

Hmmmm...do I see a brain-like formation in there? It was neat and fun to do, and the instructions provide an explanation of how it grows by using words like nuclei, capillary action, and silver iodide cloud...I'm not sure that the girls took all of that away from the experiment, but we definitely score an "A" for effort :-)

How Far You've Come

2011-05-14T21:35:00.016-05:00

Yesterday, I mentioned finding some posters from Ka'iulani's Kindergarten year, and below are a few of the photos from the collages I found. I was taking pictures of pictures which is never a great idea, but I think they came out clear enough.
One of the things I love so much about our church is what a great job they do reaching out to the children of the church and providing awesome learning and ministry opportunities for the kids to be a part of. I never have to beg the girls to get ready for church, they are excited to go! It is a place they truly love to be!

Five year old Alyssa. I think Rebekah looks just like Alyssa did in all these photos.

Hard at work in Daisies Class. All the kid's clubs at church are held on Wednesday nights which sometimes means being out pretty late on a school night, which in turn leads to some very sleepy Thursday mornings. Alyssa recently had to take a test over all the memory verses her Stars class has studied for the past three years. As I helped her study for the test, I was so encouraged to hear her demonstrate knowledge of all the units she has been studying in class. She was reciting all these amazing verses about salvation, making right choices, the armor of God, integrity, the Fruit of the Spirit, being created in His image, Esther, and the list goes on. The most challenging Thursday morning with the girls could never outweigh the security of knowing she has those words in heart to draw upon as she grows older.

Alyssa still carries this same pink Bible to church every Wednesday and Sunday. A long time ago, she lost the strap that makes it a purse. She saw this picture and it was a sudden memory that the Bible used to have a purse strap, and she remembered how she carried it everywhere across her shoulder like she's doing in this photo.

Although there are some of these girls that no longer attend our church, and there are new friends that have been added since this was taken, as I look at this picture, I'm so happy that Alyssa has this group of girls as her friends. In just a few weeks, they will "graduate" through the first level of the MPact Girls Clubs, and there will be a crowning ceremony for them and many other girls who will be recognized. It's awesome to think about both the group as a whole, and the individual walks of faith that are being developed in these children. I'm excited for them and finding these pictures was such a sweet surprise and a tangible reminder of how far they've come in the last few years.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

2011-05-13T13:21:00.016-05:00

...Or maybe more May showers?

We've had a few really warm and sunny days in a row here, which have been nice after a unusually cold and very rainy start to Spring. The weather can't decide what it wants to do, and it sounds like we are in for a chilly and rainy weekend, so I was soaking up all the beautiful peeks at the pretty flowers that have just recently bloomed in the yard. The tulips are my favorite.

Rebekah loves the flowers too, and initially she was going around picking every flower just as they were blooming. She couldn't imagine why we would want to leave something so pretty outside of the house. We finally got her to ask before picking anything and have since let her help cut only the ones that are "ready." Then, ever since the day during teacher appreciation week where all the children brought in a flower to be assembled into a bouquet for their teachers, she has wanted to bring a fresh cut flower to her Frau every morning. She inspects the flowerbeds each morning, looking for the special one she wants to give, and she sometimes gets on the bus crying over having to leave the flowers in the yard. It makes me so sad to see the bus drive away with her upset in the window! Yesterday was a happy morning when I let her cut a couple and bring them in to her teacher.

Unrelated to the flowers...

A few things I'll need to post pictures of later: Emma was excited to have her first piano recital this week! Rebekah got the cutest little German dress called a dirndl for her German Dance performances. It is the sweetest thing I have ever seen and she is so proud of it! Also, while cleaning up the classroom I teach in at church I found 3 old posters from when Alyssa and her classmates were Kindergarten Daisies. The posters were collages of old photos that their teacher had put together and it brought back such great memories when I pulled them out from being tucked in the back of the cabinet. I promise some pics of all of these later :-)

Have a nice weekend...

Sweet Gifts

2011-05-09T08:32:00.018-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!

These girls sometimes wear me out, but taking care of them and watching them grow has been without a doubt the greatest, most rewarding adventure! Being their mom is both harder and more wonderful than I could have ever imagined it would be, and they are the best gifts ever! They make beautiful homemade gifts as well...
Alyssa painted this most beautiful teapot for my collection.

Emma handmade a precious pink corsage for me to wear.

And Rebekah gave me this perfect plant with her little face in the flower. She wanted to be sure I knew that the "real flowers" in the cup were going to bloom soon.

We spent Mother's Day with my parents and it was my Dad's birthday too, so we had a lot to celebrate. Happy Birthday to my awesome Dad!! Happy Mother's Day to my sweet Mom!!

And of course Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms, Grandmothers, and Aunties that we couldn't share the day with, we miss you all {and we'll see you soon}! All our love to everyone...

RIF Reading Challenge= a pizza party for 3 very happy girls

2011-05-07T20:50:00.017-05:00

Every year there is a RIF Reading Challenge at school in which the kids earn points for each book they read, the amount of time they spend reading or being read to, and they can earn bonus points for reading books related to topics they are studying in class. A couple of weeks ago, I had three very excited little girls run off the bus telling me they were each winners at their grade level.

Alyssa told me the play by play of how all the awards were announced over the intercom at school and they started with the youngest kids first. When Rebekah was announced as the 2nd place winner for K4, Alyssa's whole class cheered. Then Emma was announced as the 2nd place winner for the second grade and again, Alyssa's class cheered. She sat there through the rest of the announcements just wishing to hear her name called for the 5th grade, and it was ~ 1st place :-) So by the time they arrived home on the bus that afternoon they were so giddy with excitement that I could hardly hear and understand what they were saying.
Last Thursday was the Pizza Party they received as a reward. They had cute little invites and entrance tickets that made the girls feel like real VIPs in the school cafeteria.

When I heard the party was Thursday, I was disappointed because I had an appointment that I knew was going to prevent me from being to school in time for lunch. As I rushed to get there, I was telling myself it's okay, you've seen them eat pizza before, if you don't make it, you don't make it...but truth be told, it felt like kind of a big deal. This is the one and only year that all three girls will be in the same school and I'm quickly running out of opportunities to visit all of them for special occasions under the same roof during the school day. Not only that, but with only two people being recognized at each grade level, it was a pretty slim chance that all three could earn a prize, and since they did, I wanted to be there to congratulate them in person.

I arrived just in time to see Rebekah throw her garbage away, but she was so happy and didn't seem to mind that I was late. Since they eat in shifts I was able to be there for the entire time A and E enjoyed their pizza. The girls were also introduced to cake pops, which they loved so I know what we'll be making for dessert sometime soon! A fun and yummy reward, and even better than a reward (maybe not to them, but surely for me) is that I have always loved the girls' appreciation for good books. The challenge wasn't some chore we needed to keep up with, or an extra assignment to complete at the end of the day, it was just fun.

Little Duckie, Soccer Girl

2011-05-03T20:45:00.008-05:00

Yesterday, Rebekah started soccer after school. She doesn't entirely enjoy organized sports, but she loves kicking a soccer ball around our yard, so we figured she should give it a try.
She was all smiles from ear to ear the entire hour of practice, which I now realize is hard to see in many of the pictures unless you click on them.

Even when she fell in the grass doing a crab walk, her smile stayed bright.

Her push ups were hilarious. Over and over again, she went right from this position here above,

to this position here:
There was absolutely no bend in her arms at all. Again and again she counted off her push ups {essentially butt ups} feeling like she was working very hard :-)

It was amazing how quickly the coach organized the chaos of the children running in all directions at once. As soon as he put his arms up like this (look at the top left of the photo), the kids knew to make a line in front of him. He only needed to explain it once too! I might start implementing this technique with the girls around the house.

She dribbles...

She shoots...

She scores!
GOAL!!!

It was her first attempt, and the coach was being pretty easy on them, but a goal is a goal! It's safe to say she loved every minute of her first soccer practice, and she'll be so excited to go back next week.

She's growing up so quickly lately ~ there would have been a time, maybe even as recently as a few months ago, when she would not have wanted anything to do with running up and down a field with kids who seem so much bigger than her. The coach was already lining the kids up when we arrived at practice, and he called out to her in a booming voice, "Well who do we have here?" I thought I might have to answer for her, as I sometimes do when she is approached by someone she doesn't know well. But I was so glad I paused before responding because she belted out an equally huge "Rebekah!"

And now she plays soccer, just like a big kid.

Birdhouses and Earth Day

2011-05-02T08:35:00.006-05:00

On the day after Earth Day we went to Lowe's where the girls built some cute little birdhouses. Both Home Depot and Lowe's occasionally offer family projects on Saturdays, and the girls enjoy them.
I'm not sure what Kamele is telling Dave here, but it looks intense as she waves the hammer in front of his face. In the past, she has always liked the idea of having a completed project, but she wasn't really into the whole process of building it. This time she enjoyed it a lot and did a surprising amount of the work herself.

Alyssa, being the perfectionist that she is had to have everything just so...several times I saw her pulling a nail out and straightening what she called a "major mistake." Yet she wouldn't take her puffy coat off, which in theory should have made things a little easier.

There's something sweet about a little girl in an apron, hard at work.

Our most intense builder of the morning. She was loving the project until she hammered down her little pointer finger. It turned into a tiny blood blister that now looks like a polka dot of permanent marker on her finger.

She wore her protective goggles for a little while before she decided she could see better without them. Then they sat upside down on her head, flipping up her hair like a macaroni penguin. She wears sunglasses upside down too, it must feel right to her. Just like having shoes on the wrong feet.

The finished houses that the girls have since painted in every color of the rainbow.

When we turned in our tools, the girls were given a baby tree as part of a Lowe's Earth Day tree give away. On Easter afternoon we found a pot to plant our little tree in, and we also planted some strawberries. I don't usually have much luck growing anything, but we are going to do our best to take care of these!

A funny memory from Earth Day this year: we had been reading a few books about taking care of the Earth and how we can all do small things that over time will have a great impact on the Earth's health, and so I wanted to ask the girls about things they thought they could possibly do more of, or maybe do better than what we've been doing.

Alyssa immediately chimed in about my overuse of water when I am washing dishes, brushing my teeth, and taking excessively long showers. All areas I need to admit guilt in. She has since stood next to me several times supervising my teeth brushing habits. Mostly because she was not being at all sassy about it, just letting me know from the perspective of expert , it struck me as funny that as I asked her to examine what she could do differently, she decided to instead critique my conservation efforts. Later that same day I asked Dave if he would run to Pick N Sav and grab some milk. We live right around the corner from the store, and borrowing a line from Fancy Nancy, Alyssa called out to him, "Less than a mile? Then bike in style!" I was laughing trying to picture Dave riding a bike while balancing a gallon of milk in one hand and a grocery bag in the other. Or better yet, I know the girls would be happy to get him a basket (most likely one with flowers on it) that he could attach to the front of his bike. Now that would be biking in style!

Easter Eggs

2011-04-26T09:49:00.053-05:00

On Good Friday, we dyed Easter eggs. The girls decided they wanted to hand paint some with paintbrushes and this turned out to be more difficult than they thought. It was fun though!

I love cartons full of colored eggs.

Easter morning after church, the egg hunt began. And so did the crazy and haphazard running about in the back yard.
Shouts of joy over finding plastic eggs filled with unknown treasures inside {mostly peeps, jelly beans, and quarters} were heard from everyone.

Both Alyssa and Emma seemed to be able to run faster with one arm thrust up in the air. Notice how Emma changed into gym shoes in preparation for the hunt. I'm pretty sure this violates every rule in proper Easter dress wearing etiquette. Easter egg hunting is very serious business though, and demands the most supportive footwear.

We are about to embark on a test of sisterly love: are we sharing these things, or are we in competition? Mostly they shared (I do have a picture of Alyssa passing by an egg as she looks at it, leaving it for one of the little girls, it just turned out so blurry that it's hard to see what's going on), although Rebekah did try to sneak away all the eggs that had peeps in them. She learned the soft rustle noise the sugar made when she shook the egg and quickly tucked those in the bottom of her basket.

No time to stop running now...

These soggy leaves and overgrown, thorny raspberry plants that are as tall as I am will not stop me from getting the prized egg! No they will not. Not even if I snag my new tights and have to complain to my mom next Sunday that I have no good tights to wear to church!

A sweet concerned face who seems to be missing something.

Alyssa running in the background, again raising high one wild arm with a mind of it's own.

Even if it costs her the precious pink egg on the ground just to her left, she's willing stop long enough to smile.

Who knew running frenzied around the yard would eventually wear them out and slow their pace to a calming walk?

For their Grandmas, more Easter morning photos...

The most eager to be photographed this morning...even if she did get a little silly about it.

Sweet Ka'iulani laughter.

Wow, I'm sure tired from all these pictures...can we be done now?

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T13:25:00.042-05:00

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
~ Job 19:25
Alyssa was looking at a children's book of prayers and wanted to draw a picture of the cross.

This Easter I am so grateful that there is no person, no situation, no sin, loss, illness or pain that is out of the reach of what happened that day on the cross. The sacrifice Christ made is more than enough for all of us and I rejoice in that truth.

Alyssa loves to sing a song called Healing is in Your Hands. I could type out lines of the lyrics here, but if you're not familiar with the song, you are much better off listening to Christy Nockels sing it!! It's a very powerful song. Click here to listen. I sometimes wonder if Alyssa understands the magnitude of the words she is singing, and the way she sings it out it sure sounds like she does, but the song is just an amazing message of God's incredible love.

Emma's drawing of the empty tomb.
He is risen!

Rebekah's Easter drawing :-)

A few photos from after church this morning...

I'll post more photos soon, Mom :-). Thank you for the cute dresses, everyone looked so nice!

Happy Easter!

Happy 8th Birthday, Emma!

2011-04-12T21:31:00.010-05:00

Today, my most precious, middlest girl is eight. Eight is just far too big!

I look at her now and I still think of how I went in for a scheduled doctor visit on her due date, naively thinking the doctor would suggest scheduling an induction by the end of that week (since I was due and all!). I was huge and uncomfortable and he told he me there would be no induction that week, and that I could easily go another two weeks without any concern. No, actually I cannot go another two weeks, I remember thinking frantically. She was born five days later, without the help of an induction, and while those were the longest five days ever, she was sooooo worth the wait. I remember waiting for her as if it were yesterday.

Yes, there is no way this tiny little button is eight! Eight is just too big for her!

Emma is the most easy going child and so frequently makes me feel like I've got this whole "mom thing" figured out. She's quick to obey. She's very hardworking. She's an acts of service girl, so she LOVES to help me around the house. She's an awesome little sister and maybe an even better big sister. She seems to like everyone, and she is a thoughtful friend.

It may very well be because she's in the middle, and she has Alyssa who usually gets to do things before her, and Rebekah following her every move right behind her, but Emma seems so unchanging to me. So steady, so consistent, so reliably sweet Emma. It wasn't until I scrolled through some baby pictures of her over the weekend that I realized how "eight" she really is. Because when I think of Emma, I still picture... Bringing her home from the hospital and how proud Alyssa was to be her big sister...

And how teeny tiny she was, even next to a Bitty Baby...

And I still remember how when she was a baby, she smiled with her entire face, and when she laughed, it seemed way too loud to have come out of her tiny body. She still laughs and smiles that way, it's just that she's grown into it, at least a little bit.

But here she is an eight year old (did I mention yet that 8 is just way too big for her?) and she's grown into this amazing little girl.

Eight years of silly laughs.

Eight years of following me around the house, (cleaning, cooking, doing whatever I am doing) not because she loves a good chore, but just because she loves to be under my feet.

Eight years of a sweet stubborn tendency to need to figure things out on her own.

Eight years of being the pickiest eater ever.

Eight years of working hard and playing hard.

Eight years of wearing holes in almost all her jeans and shoes.

Eight years of seeing her happy and amused with the sweetest, most simple things. Just about anything can make this girl smile.

Eight years of having our precious Emma to love...

Thank you, Emma for being such a sweet and wonderful little girl!! We are so proud of you, and so very thankful that you belong to us!! Happy 8th Birthday, Kahiwalani!! We love you so much!!

Funny Food

2011-04-08T08:24:00.015-05:00

On April Fools Day we made a just for fun meal of "trick food." I got all these recipes from Family Fun, and threw them together last minute, so ours didn't look quite as pretty as the examples. It wasn't until I looked back at last year's post (you might want to click on this link, maybe you'll be a little more impressed with that than with my feeble attempt in this current post) that I realized how much more thought and time I put into that meal...I'll have to do better next year.
We had grilled cheese sandwiches made from pound cake slices with frosting as the melted cheese, jolly rancher gummy green beans, and french fries made from pillsbury biscuit slices rolled in sugar. I had a hard time making the cheese spill out the edges of the bread and not look like the actual frosting that it was, and our green beans didn't look as realistic and yummy as the ones on the website, but the girls still liked everything and thought it was funny.
The first thing Emma said when she saw the fake juice (jello) in the cups was, "I'm not falling for this again!" I pulled the same prank last year, and it's now a favorite. Rebekah's face in this photo just about says it all...what are you trying to feed me now?!
The girls talked about the prank food I made them last April 1st this whole past year, and that's the only reason I did another trick meal this year. I'm going to have to put a little more thought into it if I do this again next year and try to make food that is funny, but that they will actually eat too! All this stuff was so sweet that after a few bites, it was nauseating. Good thing we had pizza waiting in the wings!

Your Vote Counts!!! {and could help us greatly}

2011-04-07T16:10:00.008-05:00

This year, WaterStone Bank in Wauwatosa is celebrating 90 years of service to its communities. In celebration of it's 90th anniversary, they are hosting a give away in which local charities have the opportunity to compete for a substantial prize. The local charity that receives the most votes from the community will be awarded $30,000. This would be a huge help to our school's budget.

I would love for you to take a few moments and vote for the German Immersion Foundation. We got a little bit of a late start, and we've got some ground to gain, but already our votes are increasing and I know our school can reach the top of the list!

To Vote, click on the link here and follow the instructions (it takes less than 30 seconds). Voting will continue until April 30th, and there is no limit on the number of votes you can cast, so please feel free to vote more than once :-). I plan to put a logo up in my sidebar that you can click on to get to the voting homepage. Thank you so much!!!