asian festival

A couple of weeks ago we decided to try something new (to us) and visit the Asian Festival here in town.  They kept talking about it on the news, and Rachel loves that kind of stuff (anything having to do with a party, festival, fair, whatever...if it's a celebration, Rachel's in love!) so we tried it.  It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed walking around and looking at everything.

We've had a rather big decision come up this spring, and have decided to send Rachel to a different school next year.  I won't go into all of the specifics right now, but she's both really excited and very nervous about it.  But the reason I write about that here is that we found out that in third grade they study Japan.  So she was excited to go to the Asian festival and learn more about Japan before she's even at the school. 

Both girls enjoyed dressing up in Asian garb (Something involving dress up?  My girls are IN!)

They had a special kids area with different activities they enjoyed.

There were dancing and martial arts demonstrations, and this crazy game, which was a cross between volleyball, soccer, and martial arts. 

It was a fun day.

fun to be four

She's in a big girl bed!  I kept from crying as I took down the crib/toddler bed, but it didn't escape my thoughts that this was the end of a season, and not one I am quite ready to leave.  But she was so excited, it was hard to be sad for long!  One of these days she'll get a new (bigger) room, too, but it'll take awhile to get our act together and get it painted and ready, so in the meantime she's still in the nursery.

She got a gift card for her birthday from Granny and Papa, and had a great time spending it over the weekend.  Some of the things she chose were this super hero cape/mask and the Sofia shoes to match the Sofia dress she's wearing.  She wanted to wear it all at once, so she called herself Super Sofia!

One of these days we'll download pictures from her birthday, but in the meantime here's a not so good picture of when we first got to The Great Wolf Lodge to surprise them for Rebecca's birthday.

Waking up at the Great Wolf Lodge on her birthday, surrounded by balloons.

Her Hello Kitty cake.  

four!

How did this happen?  Yesterday you looked like this,

And today.....this???

Today you are four, Rebecca.  How can my baby girl be four already?  Such a big girl!

You are a joy, Rebecca Joy, and make us laugh every day with the hilarious things you say.  You love the movie Frozen, singing, giving and getting hugs, super heroes, being silly every chance you can get, riding your bike, swinging, dressing up, and doing whatever your sister is doing.  You are enjoying learning your lower case letters, now that you know the upper case letters, and sounding out a few words here and there.  You can write an R and are so proud of yourself every time you do.  We are working on other letters, too, but R is the one you're most excited about.

When asked what you want to be when you grow up you usually answer a rock star or a dentist or an astronaut.  You also tell me almost every day that you want to be a mom someday.

You dislike eggs, corn, sitting down for any length of time, and taking naps (even though you fall asleep in the car if you don't get one, so you still need them!).  

Rachel doesn't even remember a time when you weren't a part of our family, and though I do remember, I don't want to imagine what our family would be like without you!  You are our comic relief, and we just love and enjoy you so much!  

We are surprising you for your birthday with a trip to The Great Wolf Lodge, and then we're having your "Hello Kitty" party at Grandma and Grandpa's house (you've been talking about having a Hello Kitty party since the day after you turned three,  I think!).  We know you will have a great time!

We love you, sweet girl, and can't believe how fast you're growing up.

Happy 4th birthday!

the coronation

Yesterday Rebecca graduated from Tuesday School, the little preschool she went to this year.  Except she couldn't remember what it was called and kept saying it was her coronation!  My daughter, the queen!!

This is when she was filing in and saw us...

Up on the stage with the rest of the graduates

Getting her diploma

With her teachers

Afterwards with her sister

a happy Mother's Day

Mothers Day began on Saturday for me.  I was in a charity walk on Saturday morning, and when I came home my husband and girls had cleaned the house!  What a great surprise!  Then they surprised me, right when I was getting ready to start making dinner on Saturday, by telling me that they were taking me out to dinner!  Yay!  And since it was Saturday and not Sunday, we didn't have to wait (I've had bad experiences waiting on Mother's Day and not getting a meal because it took too long and we had to leave!)  after a great dinner we went to a park and walked on the trails and the girls played a little.  It was a nice evening.  

Mother's Day began with cards and breakfast in bed (with about an inch of jelly on my toast, which I had to scrape off!).  They were so excited to give it to me.  

Sunday afternoon my parents came so I could be with my mom on Mother's Day and my girls could wish her a happy Mother's Day, too.

After showing off for Grandma and Grandpa, the girls stayed home with Daddy while my parents and I went up to my brothers house so he could wish her a happy Mother's Day, too.  He and I took them out to dinner.  It was nice, without lots of kids vying for our attention.  

This morning my mom took me to buy flowers for my planters, for my Mother's Day present.  Can't wait to plant them!

So it was a happy day (or, couple of days, I guess, is more accurate!)

odds and ends

Rachel's friend Kaden, who moved away when they were two, recently sent her "Flat Kaden," after reading the book, Flat Stanley, in school.  Rachel took Flat Kaden on adventures for a couple of weeks, then wrote about all of their adventures, and sent it back to Kaden at school.  She LOVED it and wrote and wrote about everywhere she took him.  Hopefully Kaden liked hearing about his life here with Rachel!

It's been summery and warm this week.  Rebecca's been loving spending big chunks of our days outside.  And wants pigtails every day.  So cute!

I have had a cold forever, it seems.....again.  Not sleeping, coughing a lot, uncomfortable, and oh so tired.  I thought spring would finally bring better health, but not so, yet.  Ugh.

the help

It's a cookie baking kind of day.  But my help stopped helping as soon as there was a beater to lick....

brave

Not only has Rachel had her share of dental issues lately, but so has Rebecca.  A month or so ago Rebecca had a cleaning (the same day Rachel had her appliance put in her mouth....which fell out the same day...just part of the many dental woes I referred to recently) and we found out that Rebecca had two cavities.  Rachel's never had any, so I'd never had to deal with that before.  I was really nervous about my three year old having to get a shot in her mouth and go through that whole ordeal.  And I felt like a horrible parent for not keeping her teeth cleaner.   They were on opposite sides of the mouth, and they'll only numb one side at a time, which meant we'd have to go through it twice.  Ugh.

So I was dreading yesterday for a month.....the first of the fillings.  We told her about it the night before, and she wasn't acting scared at all, which both surprised and thrilled me.  She hopped in the chair and  acted like a pro the whole time.  I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck.  They used laughing gas, which worried me, but she did just fine with it.  They took X-rays and determined that the cavities were so small that they wouldn't have to numb her at all.  Hooray!  They did just a little bit of drilling and then filled and sealed them, and we were out in no time...and since they didn't have to numb anything, they were able to do them both yesterday so we don't have to go back again.  She didn't shed a single tear (unlike what her sister would have done, and her drama is all I've ever really known when it comes to my children and medical treatments, so that's what I've come to anticipate).   It was so much easier than I had anticipated, and I was so proud of Rebecca!  

We went out to lunch to celebrate.....a rare treat.  She chose Wendy's.  She said, "It's my special day!" over and over and had a great time.

happy Easter!

updates

The oven saga is finally over.  It works!  Yesterday the part came, but while trying to put it in, my husband discovered a different problem....a wire that was burned through in the back (which is probably why the heating element kept going out.  He took the wire off, and that meant I then had no stove, either.  We went all around town the other night trying to find a replacement wire, without any luck.  But we did get the name of a place that might have it, so I went there yesterday and got what we needed.  When he got home lastnight my husband put it all back together, and it worked!  So I survived a week and a day without my oven, and we didn't have to go out and buy a new one, even though that would have been nice.  And we didn't even have to resort to eating take out.  I used the grill and my crock pot and did just fine.  

I can't remember if I wrote abut Rachel's dental woes, but there have been some.  They resulted in two trips this week to two different orthodontists, for two different opinions, to figure out what to do about a molar that's growing in at an angle.  The consensus was that the baby tooth it's getting stuck on needs to be extracted in order to make room for the permanent molar.  She has some other crowding issues, but nothing too terrible, it sounded like, and it all sounds much less traumatic and expensive than originally feared.  I'm not looking forward to dealing with the extraction, as shes so dramatic and fearful when it comes to anything like that, but we were told we can wait until summer, so I'm happy to put it off for a little while.

Rebecca is enjoying talking about letters, their sounds, and finally is even writing some letters.  She learned now to write an "R" last week while Grandma was here, and she's writing them everywhere.  She talks a lot lately about words that rhyme and is getting a little better each day and coming up with words that really do rhyme (a lot of times she will say things that start with the same letter rhyme, so we're working on it, explaining that they don't start with the same letter, but need to end with the same sounds to make them rhyme...she is slowly catching on).  

They're both loving the warmer weather and play outside every chance they get.  It makes it hard to make Rachel do her homework in the afternoons when she gets home from school and it's so beautiful outside!  I'll be glad when summer is here and there's no homework to worry about and they can play outside to their heart's content!

birthday fun

Rachel's eighth birthday was a success.  She came home from school that day higher than a kite, so excited and wound up and ready to open presents!

She'd been wanting a riding outfit for her doll, Saige, for a long time

 Modeling her new purse....

Being silly with her sister....

 

The best reaction came when she opened her new purse, which contained money.  She was SO thrilled.  She had just told me the day before, "Mom, the only time I ever get money is if I lose a tooth or if I have a lemonade stand, and I can't do either one right now."  I told her she'd better lose more teeth....knowing the next day she'd be opening that present.

Then it was time for dinner at Red Robin, where she didn't want to be sung to, but they did it anyway!  She tried to slide down in her seat and hide, but I wouldn't let her!  I don't have any pictures from dinner, though.

Then we came home for cake and ice cream.  She wanted a Ron Roy cake (her favorite author) so these are pictures of his books on the cake.  

The morning of her birthday I turned the oven on to make her cinnamon rolls for breakfast, which she had asked for.  The oven wouldn't heat up. I was able to make them in the toaster oven, but I had a birthday cake to bake that day!  I emailed some friends and Emily came to the rescue and let me come over and use her oven to bake it.  (Now we're in the process of waiting for a part to arrive to see if we can fix it, but if we can't, then we'll be buying a new stove.....we went stove shopping and picked the one out that we'll buy, if necessary.  I'd love to have the new stove, but to say its not in the budget right now is a huge understatement, so I'm hoping we can fix it and put off a new stove for a couple of years.  In the meantime, dinner includes anything I can grill or make on the stove!  Thankfully the weather is nice at the moment, so I enjoy the grilling, anyway!)

And then was a rousing game of Clue.  She didn't quite get it, but as the game went on she understood a little bit better.  She enjoyed it, even if she did start losing interest about 3/4 of the way through.  (Here she is, so excited about opening the game!)

One of her presents from Grandma and Grandpa was a trip to American Girl for dinner with Grandma.  They went the next day for that.

And she got to go shopping for whatever she wanted (with a budget, plus her own money, if she chose to spend it--which she didn't.)  She bought a little dog for Saige and a stuffed animal unicorn that walks and its horn glows....completely unnecessary and impractical, but Grandma wanted her to pick out whatever she wanted, and that's what she chose!

Saturday was supposed to be her party with her cousins, but they have so much going on right now with soccer and track that they weren't able to make it, so instead of a party this year, we told her she could take her best friend to see the movie, Rio 2, which just came out and she's been dying to see, and then out for ice cream.  She had a great time with her friend, but the movie wasn't that great, so I wish we had just had her over to play instead or went somewhere else fun, but oh well.  Hindsight is 20/20....  She still had a fun day.

eight!

Dear Rachel,

Today you are eight!  You're growing up so fast and I'm afraid if I blink, I'm going to miss what's left of your little-girlhood.  Some days you're eight going on five....playing dress up, still enjoying princesses and Disney Jr (you told me the other day though, that you've outgrown Disney princesses, but you really love Sofia the First, so I'm not so sure about that yet!).....other days you're eight going on sixteen, full of emotions and uncertainty about your future.  I can hardly keep up with your ever changing moods, interests, and ideas, but I'm enjoying journeying along with you.

In the last year you've learned to love to read, and I couldn't be more thrilled, as it's one of my favorite past times.  You've also started loving to write, writing stories, newspaper articles, and whatever you can think of to write down.  You also just love to learn.  You check out non fiction books a lot at the library, usually something having to do with social studies.  Maps, Presidents, History, you love it all.  You love watching Wild Kratts all of a sudden, and learning about different animals, too.  You surprise Daddy and me all the time with the facts you've learned.

You love mysteries and just played your first game of Clue at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago.  You've been asking for that game almost every day since.  I know that once you unwrap it today, there will be lots of rounds of, "Professor Plum in the Hall with the wrench...." in our future!  :)

You absolutely love school, something your dad and I are very excited to see.  It's so much easier seeing you get on the bus every day, knowing you're so happy about seeing your friends, your teachers, and learning new things.  We are so proud of you.  You made us extra proud when you came home yesterday beaming with pride at being chosen for "Cougar of the Month" for your class.

You love your little sister, and even though you boss her around and argue with her, you both hate it when we make you play separately because you aren't getting along.  You'd both much rather have each other to play with!  You play well together (when you're not arguing, that is) and she looks up to you so much.

Here are some of your thoughts as you turn eight:

Favorite food: graham crackers

Favorite color: rainbow (you can't decide)

Favorite show: Sofia the First

Favorite book: Ron Roy's books (again, you can't decide which one)

Favorite part of school: art and writing

Favorite thing to do at recess: monkey bars

Favorite thing to do at home: read to Rebecca (this is a new interest, but you've been doing it almost every day lately!)

Favorite place to go: Great Wolf Lodge

What you want to be when you grow up: writer

Happy, happy birthday, dear Rachel.  Eight years ago today was one of the top three best days of my life and I'll never forget the moment you made me a mother. I am so, so happy to be your mom and love watching you grow into your own person.  I love you so much!

Love,

Mom/Mommy  (.....some days I'm still Mommy to you, but more and more often I'm "Mom.")

bangs and bunny teeth

Rachel will be eight in two weeks.  All of a sudden she's caring a lot more about what she looks like.  She's never really cared a whole lot about what she wears (except preferring soft pants over jeans her whole life, and loving dresses), or what her hair looks like (except disliking wearing hair accessories...comfort over fashion), and so forth.  But in the last two weeks or so I've heard her complaining any number of times about how her bangs look bad with her cowlick (which is why we're growing them out), that her dress I chose for church made her look fat (this coming from a little girl who is skinny as a rail and in the 7th percentile for weight??), and that her two front teeth look like bunny teeth.  :(

I guess it's all part of growing up and becoming more self aware, but it makes me sad that she's already having such negative thoughts about herself when she looks in the mirror.  How do I help her to navigate this huge area of self image??  It feels so overwhelming.  I want her to feel good about herself, but not too good about herself.  I want her to be happy with what she sees, but not be overly concerned about it.  I want her to be more concerned about what kind of person she is on the inside, not what she looks like, but how in the world do I do that when everything else in our culture pushes her to care exceedingly about what she looks like? Ahhhhhhh!

The other night I looked up different ways to style hair while growing out bangs.  This is the style she likes the best so far.

There's one style I like better, but I'll have to take a picture of it another day.  But oh, how I love this sweet, beautiful girl who is growing and changing and so much.  I think she looks so much older this way.

I feel like this is a whole new world we're entering with her.  One I'm not ready for!

How do I stop time???

snow whites on a snowy spring break

The girls were playing dress up, both ended up in Snow White dresses, then decided to watch Snow White.

And yes, it's spring break and we just had a half hour of white out conditions.  Will winter NEVER end??

books and buttons and bangs, oh my!

Rachel loves books.  I'm SO happy!  I've always loved to read, and for a long time it didn't look like Rachel was going to share this love.  She always liked being read to, but she was reluctant to read on her own.  This year, something changed, and now she loves to read.  Her reading ability really took off, so I'm sure that has something  to do with it, too.  She knows she's good at it, so she enjoys it.

Just like everything else in her seven plus years, though, she becomes fixated on one type of book.  She's always gone through phases with her various obsessions (Thomas the Train, Care Bears, Disney Princesses, Lalaloopsy, and on and on), and it's no different with books.  First it was Magic Treehouse.  Now it's mysteries, specifically Ron Roy mysteries.  Last week I went to the library and got several different types of mystery series books to try and get her to branch out.  She's found another series she likes, called "Greetings from Somewhere," but so far there are only two books available in this series, she's read them both, and they're very easy for her.  Once she read both of those, she went back to Ron Roy's books.  The next Greetings from Somewhere book isn't coming out until May.  So I'm hoping she'll finish Ron Roy's books soon and move on to something else (she doesn't have all that many Ron Roy books left to read).  She was excited about the new series I brought home, but we'll see if any of them catch her interest.  I'm just happy that she's loving to read.

Rebecca chooses the same books over and over.  She mostly chooses books about characters she  recognizes from TV or movies, so I have to choose other ones and force them on her to get her interested in something else.  Then she'll want them read to her over and over for days on end.  For awhile it was Apple Farmer Annie.  She's had that book out from the library multiple times.  Sometimes it will be one of the classics--The Three Little Pigs, or The Three Bears, or Hansel and Gretel, or  something like that.  Rachel used to love Curious George.  Rebecca doesn't seem interested in him at all.  Right now she has the Essential Guide to the movie, Frozen, and the Essential Guide from the movie The Incredibles, and she wants a page or two read from one of those all the time.  

Buttons....Rebecca has this thing against buttons.  I don't know how or why or when it started, exactly, but a few months ago she started complaining about her PJs with buttons.  Every time we'd put a pair on her that buttoned, she'd get all bent out of shape.  Finally, rather than arguing about it every time, I just quietly n packed all of the button PJs away (she was outgrowing them, anyway) and when I got out  the next size, I didn't take out the buttoned PJs.  But then, she branched out from complaining about PJs, to talking about Daddy's work shirts.  Daddy wears a blue button down collar shirt to work every day, and every day she'd complain, "Why do you always have to wear buttons?"  When I wear a buttoned shirt, she makes it  known that she doesn't like it (most of my PJs have buttons, too, so unless I have my robe on over them in the morning, she doesn't want to sit on my lap.  If I'm wearing my robe, then it's okay).  She has a pair of pants with button details at the ankle, and every time I put them on her, she complains.  I don't know why she dislikes them so much--she doesn't have a reason when you ask her.  Just a random quirk of my funny girl.  Kind of like how Rachel's always hated jeans and asks for "soft pants" every time I tell her to wear jeans (she will wear jeans, now though, as opposed to a couple of years ago, when she would put up a huge fuss about them.)

Rachel's decided (again) that she wants to let her bangs grow out.  She decided the same thing about a year ago, we started letting them grow, had to start pinning them back once they were in her eyes, and she then decided she wanted bangs again.  She hates wearing clips or headbands in her hair, so she decided she'd rather have bangs than wear something in her hair while they grew out.  Well, now she's sick of her cowlick, which is only getting more pronounced as she gets older, and wants to grow out the bangs again.  So we'll see how long she lasts.  I've told her it means she'll have to wear clips and headbands again, so we'll see.  It'll probably take all summer, at the very least.

kiss her, she's Irish!

I'm not Irish, but she is, sort of (actually, I  think my husband's ancestors were Scottish, but we have an Irish name....)

She chose green socks, too, because she wanted to  make sure she didn't get pinched.

Rebecca wanted to wear green, too, and wanted her picture taken, too.

So there are my Irish (Scottish?) cuties (ignore the un-brushed hair...l hadn't gotten to that part, yet!)!

update

I know it's been awhile....the biggest reason I haven't written is because we've all been sick--AGAIN.  This winter has just been the worst.

But in other news, today was very spring-like.  Rebecca said, "It's a beautiful day.  The sun is shining, and there's nothing in the sky but blue!  There is no snow drip dropping down."  So funny, that silly girl.

When she got home from school Rachel wanted to go outside and play.  Usually I make her do her homework right away, but since I knew by the time that got done, it would be dinner, and by the time dinner got done, it wouldn't be so bright and warm out, I went ahead and let her go out until dinner, telling her she'd have to get it done after dinner.  So the girls went out (and got filthy in all of the mud....but I guess I'd rather deal with mud than snow!). 

She tried her first try on the monkey bars since the infamous elbow break in October.  She got up there to start, and was too scared.  I watched from the window and could tell that she was afraid.  Eventually she got down and didn't attempt it.  A little while later I went out and asked if she had tried it.  She said she was too scared.  I told her to just try hanging and dropping to start.  That sounded okay to her.  Well, not only did she hang, she did three monkey bars.  She was so proud of herself.  And I was thrilled that she pushed through her fear and tried.  I'm sure she'll work back up to doing the whole thing in no time.  I'm just glad she was willing to try it, even though she was afraid.  She doesn't have a good track record at doing things that scare her.  Way to go, Rachel!

Yesterday she had to get impressions of her teeth taken at the dentist for a retainer.  That was another thing she was really scared about, and she did a great job and didn't put up a fuss.  This is another case where I was thrilled with her bravery--she really doesn't have a good track record when it comes to being brave during medical procedures.  So proud of her when she pushes through the hard stuff.

She has a molar that is growing in sideways, which is why she needs the retainer.  It will be cemented in her mouth for 1-3 months, they said.  We'll see how that goes, and how it affects her eating, speaking, etc. 

I'm on "spring break" from my teaching for a couple of weeks.  I'm really hoping we can all get well in the next two weeks and not have to deal with any more sickness for the rest of the year.  It's causing all kinds of problems with my getting to work (either I'm sick, one of the kids are sick, or my friend Emily's kids are sick (Emily watches my girls for me before school and watches Rebecca after preschool is done on the days I teach), practically every week lately!  It's been a huge stressor, trying to juggle child care and work and my own sicknesses.  I don't know how moms who work full time do it.  Ahhhhh!!!)

I recently wrote that I found my first grey hair.  Well, last night I got my hair cut, and the woman cutting my hair said, "Did you know you have all kinds of really curly hair back here in the back?"  I haven't had a curly hair on my head in my life--not even the few times I got a perm, desperately wanting curly hair--they never took well in my stick straight hair.  So I couldn't believe it.  She cut one of them to show me.  Not only was it super kinky-curly, it was also grey.  She cut another couple to show me.  They were all grey.  So apparently, I have a bounty of curly grey hair growing in the back of my head, underneath my top layer of hair, so they're not visible.  So strange.  And gosh, am I getting old.... 

Speaking of getting old, I only have one more week in my 30s.  Then I'll REALLY be old.

And that's the update in our world.