A Berry Good Afternoon

It is strawberry season here in Georgia, so the other day we drove out to Washington Farms for some strawberry picking.

 

Rebecca wasn't too interested in picking berries. She mostly supervised and played with the field flags.

                     There were soooo many strawberries and the air even smelled like strawberry jam.

We managed to pick two buckets of strawberries. They were selling homemade strawberry ice cream, so we shared a cup. It was SO good and I don't usually like strawberry ice cream. We were hot and tired and ready to go home. We snapped a picture of ourselves to remember the afternoon.

Last Day of Third Grade!

Another school year is done! Rachel had a great year and a wonderful teacher-Ms. Long. Rachel absolutely LOVED her teacher and she learned so much this year. Third grade was challenging at times for Rachel, but she did well and accomplished a lot.

Rachel and Samantha

Rebecca and I went to have lunch with Rachel on Monday. The school had its annual Dazzle Picnic and all the kids get an ice cream sundae to celebrate the end of school.

 

We went to a nearby cupcake store for a treat to celebrate the last day of third grade. Rachel went for chocolate and Rebecca had bubble gum flavor. I thought her cupcake was so pretty.

Raphael came home early and we went out for dinner to a pizza place. I didn't take a picture of Rachel before school to remember the day, but we did have our picture taken at dinner.

                                  We are happy to have a break from school and hooray for summer!!!

Photos from my Phone Friday

We have had a good week- busy with lots of "end of the school year" events happening around here.

                   Field day was this week and I stopped by for awhile to see Rachel and her friends.

Wednesday evening we went to church for an AWANA ceremony. Rachel finished her book and received an award and then we celebrated with some frozen yogurt at Menchies.

The other night at dinner, Rebecca had to go to the bathroom. I wasn't paying too much attention to her- she went and came back to finish eating. I was cleaning up the kitchen when I realized she was naked from the waist down! The girl is something else!

  Mr. Squirrel has been coming to eating his breakfast, lunch and dinner at the bird feeder this week.

We went to a new park and Rebecca was determined to hold on and cross the rope bridge. She just needs to be an inch or two taller. And now that warm weather is here, the girls had fun after school playing with the hose.

                                                                                       Happy Friday!

Mother's Day Weekend 2013

                                                            We had a busy and lovely weekend.

We started Saturday morning with a birthday party at a bounce house place. Lots of fun and the girls burned a lot of energy. After the party we went home to change clothes and go to Rebecca's last soccer practice of the spring.

                                                                    Checking out her medal.

All the girls and their coaches. It was fun to watch Rebecca and we are thinking to sign her up for the fall session.

Sunday morning I went for a long run and when I got home the girls were excited to give me my Mother's Day gifts. They gave me a huge card, a beautiful picture frame and chocolate!

                                                    A picture of me and the girls before church.
After church we went to an outdoor mall for lunch at Red Robin. The restaurant ran out of desserts?! So we walked around and found a frozen yogurt place and did a little shoe shopping for Rachel.

 

It was wonderful Mother's Day- so thankful for my girls.

And thankful for my Mom!

 

Preschool Picnic

Yesterday was Rebecca's last day of preschool. They had a day of fun with snocones and playing games. The parents came for a picnic lunch and then it was time to go home.

Rebecca and her teachers Mrs. Christy and Mrs. Lesa

Rebecca had the nicest teachers this year. We loved them and they loved Rebecca.

Here is Rebecca meeting her teacher in the fall.

 

All the kids went home with a bucket filled with summer toys and treats. Rebecca loved playing with her pinwheel and ate her candy right away-she loves candy!

Her teachers made a pillow case with her handprints on it.

Super cute and Rebecca went straight to her room to find a pillow for it.

She didn't want her picture made, so this was the best shot.

And then she wanted to make silly faces, so we did.

 

We had to take Lola to the vet after school. Lola had stopped eating and I knew something must be wrong. Sure enough, today they cleaned her teeth and she had two cavities/abscesses, so they pulled them out. Bless her little heart.

Our vet's office is right next to Sonic, so of course we had to go and have an ice cream treat. Rebecca decided to go with a strawberry milkshake.

 

Hard to believe that her school year is over already. Rachel has eight days left and then summer vacation!!

There Was....

There was a little girl,

who had a little curl,

right in the middle of her forehead.

Days of our Lives

Several of the blogs I read will do a "day in the life" post now and again, and I have always wanted to give it a try. So I decided yesterday was good day--our days tend to flow one into the other and I hope this helps me remember what we were doing when the girls were four and eight.

4:45a.m- my alarm goes off and usually I get up and change into my exercise clothes. I go to our basement and work out. I tend to do either an exercise DVD- Jillian Michaels or Bob Harper or I will run on the treadmill. I chose to do a new Jillian DVD and it was hard!

I exercise from 5 a.m. until 6 and then upstairs to get a shower and dressed before Rachel wakes up for school.

6:30a.m.-Rachel gets up for school and I start making breakfast for her and myself. I help fix her hair and make sure she has all her homework for school ready to go in her backpack.

7:20a.m- we leave for the bus stop.

7:30a.m to 8:45 a.m.- Rebecca and I are back home and I start fixing her breakfast and cleaning up the kitchen. I try to watch a little bit of the Today Show so I know what is happening in the world and
I will play with Rebecca if she asks me to.

At Rebecca's preschool they are working on how  to use scissors and the girl is obsessed with cutting paper. She spent at least thirty minutes cutting paper and coloring. I get her changed and ready for the day and we leave the house by 8:50 for preschool.

9 a.m.- waiting in the carpool line for preschool drop off to start. We sit and chat and look at the birds outside and that sort of thing. Generally after I drop her at preschool I will run errands or go to the park to run.

10a.m. to 11a.m.--I had a doctors appointment. And then I stopped by the book store and headed home.

12noon to 12:45p.m.-- I ate lunch and did my quiet time.

1:00p.m.- back in the car to pick Rebecca up from preschool.

1p.m to 3p.m.--after preschool Rebecca and I usually come home and talk about her day. She likes to show me her work from school and have a snack, We will play, read books, I try to get some cleaning or laundry done. Yesterday we met some friends at the park for a play date!

3:15 p.m. -we are the bus stop to pick up Rachel and I took the girls for haircuts.

4p.m. to 5p.m.- haircut time with Ms. Gwen

Gwen has some toys for the kids and Rebecca dressed up a little.

5p.m.- if we are home, this is homework time and I am working on fixing dinner.

Since the girls had an appointment and Raphael was coming home late, we went to the mall and had a dinner out at Chilies' per Rachel's request!

And of course we had to ride the merry-go-round at the mall!

6p.m.- we were back home and I packed lunches for the girls to take to school the next day and then upstairs for a quick bath.

After bath is ice cream for dessert!

7p.m.- Bedtime for Rebecca.

 I read her stories, we sing, she brushes her teeth and then we say her prayers.

While I am with Rebecca, Rachel usually plays on the Wii or reads a book.

7:30 to 8:00p.m.- Rachel and I spend time together doing a game or talking or whatever she likes. Sometimes she just wants to go to her room and play with her toys before bed.

 

8p.m.- I go to Rachel's room and start to get her towards the bed. She picks out her clothes for the next day and brushes her teeth. We review her Bible verses for AWANA and then read together.

Right now we are reading the Tale of Desperaux the mouse.

8:30p.m.- my hope is by this time Rachel is in her bed and at least trying to fall asleep. She has been staying up later than I like. I will go check on her and finding her reading a book.

I will check on Rebecca and this is what I see most of the time.

8:30p.m. to 10p.m.- if Raphael is home, we sit and talk or watch a show together. Sometimes we are both in the office working on the computers. I use this time to check emails,blog, do little things around the house and try to stay awake until ten.

10p.m.- My bedtime. I like to stay up later, but my early mornings need me to get to bed at a reasonable time.

 

And that is our day!