Field Day Fun 2011

The end-of-the-school year activities are in full swing at Rachel's school the next few days. Yesterday was field day! Rachel was so excited and had a great time. I stopped by the school for awhile to check things out.

When I arrived, her class was doing some sort of relay race. Rachel was the last one to go and I quick snapped some pictures. It looked fun and the kids were laughing lots.

They went outside for lots of water games. Which was a good thing, since it is already smokin' hot here. Supposed to be ninety degrees this week!  For this game they had to take off a shoe and try to pick up marbles with their toes from a kiddie pool.  One team picked up a hundred marbles  in two minutes.

Then it was time to go inside for a break, so I said good-bye and went to do a bunch of errands. Rachel came home and told me all the details. She was excited and exhausted all in one- dangerous combination for a kid! She was in bed and asleep by 7:30!

Happy Times Two

Today is my Mom's Happy Birthday and Mother's Day! 

Now that I have been a mom for a few years, I have a much greater appreciation for everything that my Mom did for our family over the years. She kept our house going, attend lots of school events, helped at church, worked full-time, and dealt with two girls that were a bit "high maintaince" at times! Now she is my friend and a very loving Nana to my two little girls.

Love you Mom!

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My GreatGrandma Pauline holding her daughter Ivy

             I am all of the experiences we've shared and each of the things I've done on my own.
                          I am the stories we've read in books and the ones written in my heart.

My Grandma Ivy with my Uncle Wayne and my Mom

I am the favorite recipes on index cards,

spotted and torn,

and the old photographs in my family album .

My Mom and me.

Mom, me and little sister Amy

I am the traditions passed down through the years

and the new ones

picked up along the way.

My Mom holding Rachel at the hospital

Grandma Ivy holding Rachel

I am my mother's daughter,

different from her and yet the same.

And I can't think of anyone else I would rather be.

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Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

About a week ago, I blogged about a little bird that keeps flying at our back windows. Well, he and a few of his bird friends are still at it! And now it is quite annoying, so yesterday I bought stickers for the windows that are supposed to scare the bird away-- but they didn't work.

 I googled the problem and several sites recommended stickers or painting the windows white until the bird leaves. I don't want to paint the windows, so I put up white pieces of paper.  Mr. Bird is pooping all over the deck and making my dog crazy.  I am desperate to get rid of him, so hoping the paper trick will work!

Today at school, Rachel had a class picnic.  All the kids get ice cream treats and are quite proud of themselves for finishing up another year of school.  I went for lunch and Rachel asked me to get a picture of her with her teacher- Ms. Rutecky. Only 17 days left of the school year!

And finally, our little garden is starting to produce some strawberries for us!  I picked quite a few yesterday and Rebecca gobbled them up.

Happy Friday!

Mother-Daughter Weekend

I have been wanting to take Rachel for a "Mom & Daughter" weekend for awhile now. There was finally time on the calendar, so this past Friday we headed to Atlanta for a little get-away.  I didn't tell Rachel about it until I picked her up at the bus stop, just in case something went wrong and we couldn't go. She was so excited!

                                                                                                                                                 
We spent our time swimming, ordering room service, going to the movies, getting our nails done, shopping, eating lots of candy and snacks, the aquarium, mini-golfing, eating ice cream and just being together.

First time getting her toe nails painted! We picked out a very light pink color.

We went swimming several times. The water was so warm and they had the cutest little ducks floating around.

The elevators had chandeliers in them-Rachel thought we needed to take a picture.

The hotel was in Buckhead- the fancy part of Atlanta- and there were two big malls with very expensive stores in them across the street from us. We went to check them out and did alot of window shopping. I finally got to go into an Anthropologie Store.  Thankfully, we found a Target nearby and felt much more at home there.

The Target was two stories and they had an escalator for you cart! Never seen one before-kind of made me nervous, but had it try it out.

Sunday morning we went to the Aquarium and I think we were in and out in record time. Rachel wasn't too interested in seeing anything but the gift shop. They have dolphins at the aquarium now, but you can only see them if you buy a special ticket and of course the tickets were sold out.

Outside are dolphins that have been painted and decorated with different themes.

We finished the day with some mini golf. It was interesting- Rachel needs a little more practice before we try this again.

Her new Jackie O sunglasses!

Great weekend with my girl! Loved it and had lots of fun. Hopefully made some memories she won't forget!

And of course- BIG thank you to Raphael for taking care of Rebecca this weekend!

Match Set

Sometimes I like to try and put the girls in matching/coordinating outifts. It can be kind of tricky since they are almost five years apart, but every once in awhile it works out.

Easter 2011

We were blessed with a beautiful sunny Easter Sunday!  The girls were up by 7 a.m. and Rachel was so excited to look for Easter eggs.  Rebecca made us laugh- she would find an egg and stop to eat the candy in it and then move onto the next egg. It took her forever to find a few eggs.

We went to church and then home for a few Easter pictures. Rebecca did not want her picture made,so we did  the best we could.

We went to our friends' house for Easter dinner. it was wonderful to have  perfect weather- the kids had an egg hunt and ran around.

Cake Pops and Easter Eggs

For Christmas this year I asked my parents for the cookbook-CakePops by Bakerella. I have been looking at her blog for months and really wanted to try making my own cakepops.  I finally gathered all the materials and gave it a try this week.  It is MUCH harder than it looks. It took me forever and I had lots of issues. It was fun, but really time consuming. I will try it again soon. Check out her blog at http://www.bakerella.com/

My Easter chicks

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While Rebecca was napping today, Rachel and I dyed some Easter eggs.

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It has been in the eighties and sunny skies most of the week. Rachel wanted to run through the sprinkler. I couldn't get the sprinkler she wanted to attach to the hose, so went with plan B and pulled out the turtle pool instead.