Four is Fantastic!

                                              Today we celebrated Rebecca's fourth birthday!

           The birthday girl patiently waiting for her Daddy to come downstairs so she can open her gifts.

      Rebecca received many wonderful gifts- thank you Abuela, Abuelo, Nana and Papa for all the   presents!

                 Rebecca wanted donuts for her birthday breakfast, so I took the girls to Dunkin Donuts.

 After donuts we came home and the girls played for a long time with all of the new toys and we took time to dye a few Easter eggs.

Rebecca had soccer practice this afternoon and then we went to Subway for a quick dinner. We skyped with my parents for awhile and then did the birthday cake.

                                          I made this collage on my phone to post on Facebook today.
                                       Rebecca told me at bedtime that she had the best birthday ever!
                                                                               We love you Rebecca!! 

Photos from my Phone Friday

We haven't been up to anything too exciting the past week. A few pictures I managed to take of what has been going on around here.

Today at preschool, they celebrated Rebecca's birthday. I baked cookies for her to share with the class and her teachers made this cute hat for her. She was very proud of her hat and wore it for most of the afternoon.  Her teachers made the cutest little Easter treat for the kids-- Cheetos in a sandwich bag and tied with a green ribbon to look like a carrot.

Michael and Rachel

On Saturday we met up with friends to go bowling. It was a fun night out and somehow I managed to win the first game!

Me and the birthday girl.

Rebecca and I started these three leaf clovers from seed and it has been interesting to see them grow and change the past couple of weeks.

I went for pedicures and dinner out with some of my friends. We always go to the same pedicure place and they have a small shrine set up right next to the counter. I am not sure what religion they are,but the shrine has always been there. I think it is interesting to see what food or drink they have offered to the buddha man. Usually it is some type of fruit, but the other night it was a cup of coffee?

Rebecca has been playing and building with her TinkerToys a lot lately. She and I made this butterfly the other day and she was quite proud of her creation.

We are looking forward to the weekend!

Fine Arts Night

Last night we went to Rachel's school for Fine Arts Night. All the third graders sang  a few songs and Rachel had a chance to play some sort of instrument for one of the songs.

After the singing it is time to go see the "fine art". The kids all draw a picture in art class and it gets matted and framed. The school sells the pictures to help raise money for projects around the school.

                                                          Rachel's picture--she called it Swedish Fish.

St. Patrick's Day and Sunday Singing

I know St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, but I wanted to share a few pictures of the girls from the weekend.

Rachel made a leprechaun trap again this year. I didn't do much for St. Patrick's Day for the girls. I did make some little green pom-pom guys and gave the girls a dollar and some candy.

                                                   At school Rachel made this plate in her after school club.

                                                               Our favorite little leprechaun!

The girls have been in childrens' choir at church and Sunday night was the final preformance. First, we went to see Rebecca sing. It is always entertaining to watch three year olds sing :)

                                                          Rebecca and her teacher Ms. Rachel.
After Rebecca sang they had a quick class party and then we went to the big church to see the older kids sing. The show was about the prodigal son and had a circus theme, so most of the kids were in in clown type of clothes.

Quite possibly the worst picture ever. The lights were low and we were sitting back a ways. Somewhere up there is Rachel. She has had a great time in choir this year and I hope she joins again next fall.

Rebecca's Fourth Birthday Party

Yesterday we had Rebecca's birthday party. We had the party at home this year and it was her playgroup friends. Since the party was a few days before St. Patrick's Day, I decided to go with a St. Pattys Day/rainbow theme for the decorations and cake.

                                          I made a rainbow out of streamers to decorate the dining room.

                                         I kept the party simple-- an arts & crafts project, cake and ice cream.

Rebecca and Isabella

                                          I made a rainbow cake and a few snacks in rainbow colors.

                                                                     Our sweet Rebecca!

Photos from my Phone Friday

This week has flown by! And I am happy about that. The past few weeks have felt really loooong and I am happy to see that March has arrived and hopefully warm and sunshiny days- I am over winter :)

Anyways, we had an uneventful week, just busy with church, school and appointments. I have been using my phone's camera quite a bit lately and snapped a few pictures of what we have been up to.

My friend Michelle made this for my birthday. I thought it was the nicest gift.

 

It has been rainy and cold here a lot lately, so we have been stuck inside. I told the girls to build a fort( or a "fork" as Rebecca would call it ) and they played in there for a long time.

     Rachel likes to play Wii and is pretty good. And sometimes she lets Rebecca play a game or two.

                 Rebecca was home from school with a stomach bug and was having a crazy hair day!

Our new neighbors moved in last week! After six and half years, our street is complete with houses and people living in them. Raphael met them and said they seem very nice.

    The blurriest picture ever. After kids choir last Sunday we went out for frozen yogurt with friends.

Rachel had a few half days of school because of parent-teacher conferences, so we spent one afternoon at Chuck E Cheese.

I remember back in high school buying grape and orange flavored bubble gum at the KwikWay. I loved that gum and the other day at Kroger I spotted this grape gum and tried it out. I am a bit obessed with it right now and went back to buy two more packages. Wish they made orange too!

Rebecca's class celebrated Dr.Seuss week and made these cute hats. She was more excited about her popcorn snack than the hat. The girl is serious about her food!

It was pajama night at AWANA and Rachel came up with this lovely outfit. Rebecca was looking cute too, but didn't want her picture made.

                   Signs of spring are popping up around town. The daffodils in our yard look so pretty.

Chick-fil-A 10K

Back in January a friend of mine put a post on FaceBook asking if any of us would like to join her in running a race at a nearby Chick-fil-A restaurant and I said "yes"! The past year I have been trying to eat better and exercise and I have been running on our treadmill. So I thought it would be fun to run with my friends.

Our race was yesterday morning and I was excited and nervous. I have never run in a race before and wasn't sure about all the official rules and exactly what to do, but my friends and I figured it out.

It was a chilly 34 degrees and windy too. I was hoping for better conditions, but can't control the weather. I wore several layers and a hat to keep warm.

 Mary, Michelle, me, Jamie and Shannon before the race. Guess I missed the memo about wearing all black :)
Shannon and I ran the 10K and the other ladies did a 5K and it a first race for all of us except Shannon, she has done lots of races.

I felt good during the race and tried my best not to start out too fast. I was worried about not finishing or being the last to finish. I think about ninety percent of the people there ran the 5K. We all started together, so there were lots of people around and to run with, but on second lap for the 10K it was pretty lonely. I was by myself for a few minutes and I panicked because I couldn't see anyone behind me and I thought for sure I was last. I spotted a lady in front of me and was determined to pass her, and she could be the last one-ha! I did manage to pass her towards the end and it turns out there were many people after me.

My friend Michelle took this picture of me after I finished. It was a good first race experience and we are trying to figure out what race to do next!