Sunday, August 31, 2008

Rachel's Big Day

Rachel's party was scheduled to begin at 2:00 and everyone who was invited came!! The party was a 'water party' complete with a slip n slide, plastic pools with water toys, and a squirt bottle for everybody. It was a great day for a water party and a lot of much fun was had with the squirt bottles.
Everyone had their own squirt bottle to play with,
it was also the take home party favor.
After splashing about in the pools and the slip n slide, and riding our abundance of outdoor toys, everyone gathered under the shade and it was present time!

A beautifully handmade Lion pillowcase,
which also came with a matching shirt!
She asked for a purse, and she got one!
Complete with goodies inside.
Having lots of fun with a ribbon wand.
And for the grand finale...a big girl bike!!! We found this in a thrift store last month when we were camping at the beach. With some training wheels and new frills coming off the handle bars, it was like new!After presents, it was cake time! There were miniature cupcakes for all the kids and this cake for Rachel and the adults. On our way home from church, we stopped at the grocery store and Rachel picked out the flavors of ice cream. She chose Cookie Dough, and Peanut Butter Cup! Not long after the cake and ice cream and more playing was had, friends started leaving, but the party really didn't end there. After the majority of party guests had left, and it was just family left and one special friend, the party continued when we ordered pizza and pasta and fired up the Wii and Playstation for Singstar! Rachel had so much fun having all the extra time to play with her cousins and friend Bethany. They played dress up and restaurant and eventually had their turn signing some High School Musical tunes. Rachel had such a great time at her party and then her 'extended party' that lasted just before 10:00! It was a great day filled with lots of fun and special blessings! And now comes more fun...playing with all her new loot!

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!

Today's the day! The day Rachel has been tearing off rings on her birthday countdown for weeks.

She is soo excited!! She is bouncing off the walls for her party this afternoon, especially as she sees the house transform into party atmosphere.

Check back for lots and lots of birthday party pictures!!!!

Friday, August 29, 2008

She's a Sunny Sunflower!

With less than two weeks until the new preschool year starts (Wahooo!!!), we heard from Rachel's new teacher today!

Rachel is officially in the Sunny Sunflower class and is very excited!

Next Thursday evening is a parent orientation, followed by classroom visitation for Rachel on Friday morning, and then school starts on Tuesday, September 9th!

Cousin Haylee is also going two days a week this year and she's a Busy Bee. And the really fun new thing this year at preschool....is that Auntie is the snack lady, aka nutritional aide. We're so glad that Auntie and Haylee were switched to two day (they were going to be three day), this way we get to see them a few times a week!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Disneyland on a Saturday!

The type of Disneyland annual passes we have, Saturdays are blocked out from the month of March through the entire summer until the Saturday after Labor Day. But about a month ago, Amy noticed that today was not blocked out for some reason, so the date was saved and put on the calendar it went. It was suppose to be a day of the entire families shared Disney Magic, but Keith's dad is sick and recovering from chemo, and he went to spend the weekend with him, therefore, Steven was granted the wish of staying home. LOL.

Amy had never been to Disneyland at opening before. We'd tried to make it there for opening once before, but missed it for some reason. So, on this bright and sunny Saturday morning, we left my house about 6:45 in anticipation of getting there for the 8:00 opening. We made it, however, unlike 'usual' they didn't open the gates until 8:00. Usually Main Street is at least open and they drop the rope to get into the rest of the park, etc, etc. They didn't do that today. So Amy didn't get the true effect of a Disneyland opening. :)But because we were there so early, we had a plan as to what attractions to hit first. Attractions that normally have long wait times as the day goes on. Amy and the kids had never been on the Finding Nemo submarines, so we went there first. Rachel loves Nemo! Despite being the first line we went to, the line was still forty five minutes to an hour long. But once off, everyone was glad to have experienced the ride.After Nemo, we headed across the way to California Adventure to be at the gates of it's 10:00 opening to get in line for the new attraction, Toy Story Mania. Amy also has not been on this ride yet either, so we hoped in line, only to be told after waiting for about 20 minutes, the ride would not be opening just yet. We waited anyways, and it's a good thing cause it did eventually open and we were able to experience that ride before the line became over an hours wait. Rachel loves this ride, everyone else did too! Following Toy Story Mania, the kids did the Carrousel, and then we found shaded tables and ate our picnic lunch. While Amy, Rachel, and I sat and finished our lunches, Hannah, Eli, and Bethany went and did a few nearby rides. The wait times were minimal and that was nice.

In recent months, Steven and I have both noticed that it appeared that Rachel was stretching and really growing. Just by chance, I decided to see if she was tall enough for Jumping Jellyfish, and she was!!!!! This is a huge milestone in our house! That means she is now tall enough for Soarin Over California, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Rail Road, and Splash Mountain!! Wahooo! And being the little bruiser and rowdy girl that she is, she's excited she's tall enough to ride rides she's not been big enough for until now. She loved Jumpin Jellyfish and called Daddy afterwards to tell him she was finally 'big enough'.

Giving a 'thumbs up' for meeting the height requirment.
After hitting a few more things in California Adventure, we decided to head back over to Disneyland. With Rachel's birthday only a week away, I wasn't sure if I'd make it back this week to get her a birthday button, so we stopped off at City Hall to get her a birthday button! She is so excited about this birthday and was even more excited when she got a special call from Goofy, wishing her a Happy Birthday!We did some browsing through the shops of Main Street and then hit the mid afternoon show of the new Indiana Jones show in Adventureland. It was a first for all of us and it was good. The girls enjoyed seeing Indiana, as they've been playing the Indiana Jones Legos on the Wii in recent months.

From there, we made our way to our cars and then headed to the nearby Disney Outlet Store and scored on a few things and then made a stop for dinner before heading home. We had a fun day and did a lot of stuff, including new things for us and for Amy and the kids. And of course, my little Rachel is already asking when we'll go to Disneyland again....

Monday, August 18, 2008

A Conversation with Rachel About "Boo Boos"

This morning, as I was visiting the blogs of some of our 'cleft friends', Rachel was sitting upon my lap. One blog I visited had pictures of the baby, and how she was progressing, etc. This baby has not yet had her lip repaired, and it's a bilateral cleft lip, which is far more pronounced than a unilateral cleft. After looking at a couple of the pictures on this baby's blog, Rachel asked what was wrong with the baby's 'nose'. I told her that when this baby was born, she had a "boo boo" on her lip, and that it hasn't been fixed yet.

I told Rachel that she too had been born with a boo boo on her lip, but she had a doctor that fixed it when she was still a baby. I then took her to her blog and showed her the picture over there on the left hand side bar. Told her "see, this was you when you were a baby". And then I took her to iPhoto on my computer and opened up the "Rachel folder" and showed her the pictures following the days she was born, and her first lip repair, and how it had to be fixed again, etc, etc. Of course using very simple terms and words she would understand.

Her response to all the pictures, "I a cute baby!".

Yes Rachel, you were a very cute baby, wide smile and all, you were a very cute baby.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Birthday Countdown!

Rachel is SO excited for her birthday this year. She 'gets' it this year. Everyday she mentions her birthday or her party or she wants this for her birthday or that for her birthday. She is one very excited little girl. So this afternoon, while Hannah was doing her homework, Rachel and I constructed a paper chain birthday countdown!! She picked the colors and looped the strips of paper and once finished, we hung it on her door! Tomorrow will be the first day she can tear a ring off!

Friday, August 08, 2008

Meet Cupcake

Rachel and I went to Color Me Mine this afternoon to pick up the pieces we painted last week.

Here is Rachel's kitty that she painted with help from Gramma, she creatively named her kitty, "Cupcake".

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Beside Still Waters: Up and Running

Still no word from Google on retrieving my Mom's accidentally deleted blog from earlier this week.

Therefore she has gone ahead and started fresh.

You can visit her new blog, Beside Still Waters. Be sure to bookmark it, it has a new URL! The updated link can also be found in the sidebar of all three of my blogs, under Family Blogs.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Beside Still Waters -My Mom's Blog

For those of you having trouble accessing my Mom's blog, Beside Still Waters, we are having technical difficulites that might have resulted in her blog being deleted.

We are waiting for blogger/google to contact her in hopes of attaining ber old blog back. If she can't get her old blog back, she'll start a new one.

Blogger Friends, don't worry, nothing bad happened. It was just a case of 'user error'.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

A Rachel Funny

So the other day we were in the car on the way home from somewhere and Rachel from the backseat says..

R - "I want my ears pierced in my nose."

Me - "Huh? What did you say??"

R- "I want my ears pierced in my nose."

Me - "You want an earring in your nose???"

R - "Yeah."


Great. See how her mind works! I have a feeling this topic might come back later down the road".