Flashback Friday

March 2006
Enough hair for pigtails... well, almost...

Just Too Cute

The girls got to try on their costumes for the recital today:

Is this not the cutest costume on the planet? They are so adorable.

We will not be able to go to the recital in June because it's on a Sunday, so I took a short video of what the have learned already. The song is "Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree" from Sesame Street.




If you want to see the original version of the Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree it's available on YouTube:

FHE

Hot fudge sundaes for Family Home Evening... mmmmm....
we should do this every week.

Flashback Friday

Rachael at 8 months (and 18 pounds) in a forward facing carseat. She was too young and didn't weigh enough but it was totally worth it because she stopped screaming in the car.

Flash forward three years and about four months... today we are on our very first big girl booster seat. Hooray!

Birthday Part III

Today at preschool Rachael got a Happy Birthday sticker and all the kids sang happy birthday. The party week continues...

Birthday Part II

We love to have birthdays take up an entire week. Perhaps the entire month...

Out to dinner at Qdoba - Rachael's favorite - for "chicken and cheese." (She gets a soft taco with chicken and shredded cheese.) Usually I take her to lunch, just the two of us, but we went to lunch on Monday so we went out for dinner today.

The party: she wanted a Star Wars party and could not be talked out of it. We pulled out all the stuff from Ryan's birthday last year (we had a Star Wars party for Daddy last year), and she ordered a Darth Vader cake. What??? Really.

After mulling over all the options for a "Darth Vader" cake, we finally settled on frosting a regular cake. Originally I had planned to frost white and draw Vader in black, but when we found Cherry frosting at the store we switched to pink. (Who wouldn't want a pink Vader cake, right?). It's not the best rendering of Vader ever but it is her second birthday cake this week so I figured it would have to do.

The best part of the night? She had two swipes of frosting with her finger, one sip of blue milk, declared the party a success, and was finished with the whole thing.

At least there are pictures.

Pink Princess Cake

When Rachael saw this doll cake set at a cooking store, she had to have it for her birthday. She called it her "Barbie Princess Cake" and she was adamant that it look exactly like the pink doll. I figured I could make the cake, but I don't work in fondant (which is what the dress is made of) so she would have to cope with my frosting skills.

The cake pan actually holds almost two complete cake mixes. (See below, it's not quite two.)

This is what happened when I cooked two complete mixes in the pan. Next time, not quite so much. I sliced the top off and it worked just fine.

Here it is inverted on a plate. Rachael took one look at it and said, "It looks like a potato head." You know, I think she's right.

I covered it in pink frosting, dumped on some sparkling sugar, then made ruffles. After that I decorated the doll pick, then placed her on top of the cake. Voila! Cake fit for a princess.

Happy Birthday Rachael

Our girl is four years old today! We started with her favorite breakfast, bacon and eggs.
Then opened a present...
... went to lunch (Costa Vida - yum!)...
... and made a cake. What a cake! This cake deserves an entire post itself; something maybe I will get to in a day or two.
And our very own pink princess was thrilled to pieces.
Happy Birthday Rachael!

Happy Valentine's Day

Flashback Friday

We have been enjoying some time visiting with Rachael's cousin, Nicholas, along with Nana and Grandpa this week. Nicholas is my sister Julie's son. We went to visit them a couple of weeks after Nicholas was first born. Rachael is about 18 months older than Nicholas and thought he was a cute baby.

Here's a picture from a couple of days ago. When they are not howling at each other for various infractions, they are getting along really well.

Stair Jumping

The latest craze with the kids here at Nana's house is jumping off the stairs. There is no railing, wall, or anything else that prevents kids from jumping off the stairs into the basement. Nana figured the kids would stumble across that idea eventually and has thoughtfully placed a chair under the stairs. Rachael and Nicholas have spent hours jumping off the stairs onto the chair. (All of it supervised, of course).

Here they are, pondering their moves for the day.
Nicholas is 2 years old and has no fear. Right off the steps he goes. Sometimes with a blanket for effect. He always lands face-down on the chair.

Rachael was a little skittish to start with; she has always been a cautious gal. You can see her arm still hanging onto the step in this picture.

After a few cautious jumps, she was totally into it. She tries to land on her feet, which is funny. I have some great shots of her hair flying behind her, too.
Of course I know one of these kids is probably going to get hurt doing this, but so far no major injuries. The pictures are impressive but I think they are really only jumping about 2 feet or so. Here's hoping no one breaks a leg...

Dear Mom and Dad

I am moving in with Nana and Grandpa permanantly. I asked for marshmallows for breakfast and not only did Nana know what I was talking about but she had some in the storage room in the basement.

I have joined a band with my cousin Nicholas. He's a star on the electric guitar and I cover the xylophone and the drums. We're thinking of going on the road but we need to figure out how to bring our Baby Show DVDs with us.

love,

Rachael

Flashback Friday

Four years ago this week we took an exciting trip from Denver to Topeka, through a snowstorm no less. Rachael's birthmother had been admitted to the hospital and we were hoping to make it in time for Rachael's arrival. We finally got to the hospital parking lot when the social worker called us to tell us the hospital sent her home, sher labor wasn't progressing enough to keep her.

Finding ourselves in Topeka with not much to do, we took a trip out to Kansas City. We intended to visit the church's Visitor's Center in Independence, Missouri, but we were once again disappointed - the center was closed for remodeling. Fortunately for us, the Harry S Truman Library is also in Independence, so we spent some time there. It was really interesting; Truman had lots of amazing things happen as president. This is the globe (or perhaps a replica, I can't remember) that was in the Oval Office when Truman was president.

Back to Ballet

After missing class for the last three weeks (week 1: sick, week 2: hives, week 3: ice storm) Rachael finally got to go back to ballet class today. She was so excited! I was so proud of her, too; she was a really good listener and even remembered all the moves to the ballet version of Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

I think she's getting too tall for those leggings, too...

Rachael's crew

This is my posse.

And this is how we roll.