admin September 6th, 2008
Rachel picked Blue’s Clues for her party theme this year:
And here is the birthday girl outside waiting for her guests to arrive:
Time to blow out the candles!
Linlee, Rachel, and Riley enjoying their cake:
Yummmm… Good cake!
Presents!
Riley is helping Rachel open presents while Linlee had to take a very important call!
I stole this picture from Colleen’s blog… because it was just too cute not to have on Rachel’s blog! Cute little Baby Jake is getting some practice for a future of having to run from the girls!
Rachel and Riley decided to go out on the deck to play with dolls:
Notice Rachel’s serious face in this next photo. She was tired of me taking pictures and actually said, “Okay Mama. Can you go back inside now?” I couldn’t believe it! My child actually invited me to go away! It is actually okay, though. She is getting a bit more independent the older she gets, and that is a good thing.
We had 14 people in our house today for the party… and then 10 of us went to the local Chinese restaurant for dinner after the party. It was a nice ending to a fun day. Rachel was so tired after dinner that she fell sound asleep about 5 minutes after getting in her carseat to come home from dinner. I’m so thankful that we have such wonderful friends to join us in celebrating special days like Rachel’s birthday.
admin September 5th, 2008
Tonight we had our preschool orientation night at Rachel’s school. Rachel was SO excited to get to go to school. As soon as we got there she ran to the playground to check out the toys and introduce herself to some boys who were playing on the equipment. Then a little later as we were about to enter the building, she walked up to a little girl and said “Hi, I’m Rachel. Ooohhh… I LIKE your bandaids!” (The little girl had just had some immunizations that day and had several bandaids on her arms). I’m telling you, Rachel is not at all shy!
We visited Rachel’s classroom and met her teacher. I really liked her teacher. Rachel was a little too involved with checking out all the toys in the classroom to really pay much attention to her teacher tonight…but I think she will like her. I had been upset that they ended up putting her in a 3-year-old class instead of the 4-year-old class (because her birthday is two days after the cut-off for the 4-year-old class). But tonight we found out that there are several 3-year-old classes and Rachel is in the group of “older” 3-year-olds. Most of her classmates will be turning 4 in the next 2-3 months. It made me feel better to learn that the other children would be about the same age as Rachel.
So we came home tonight with a folder full of forms to fill out and even “homework” for Rachel. Don’t worry… it is fun homework! She has a picture of a train that she has to color. She is also supposed to draw a picture of herself on the train…and then dictate to me the answers to some questions about herself. Tonight after she went to bed, I began filling out the paperwork, signing permission slips, etc. It was rather exciting!
Here are a couple of pictures I took of Rachel as we were leaving to go to orientation:
And here she is after we came home tonight… in the first picture she had come in to talk to me about how I was “mean to her” tonight at school but that it was okay because she “really likes me so much!” And no… I was not mean to her! She just got really mad at me tonight when it was time to go because she didn’t want to stop playing with the paper and scissors. I ended up telling her quietly (where no one else could even hear me) that I was not afraid to put her in time out if she continued to cause a scene, but that I really didn’t want to do that in front of her new friends! And she did stop fussing and did not have to go to time out… and then we even took her out for ice cream on the way home. Oh well… I’m sure it won’t be the last time she deems me “mean!”
And finally, it was time to read a bedtime story to her “babies.”
admin September 2nd, 2008
Today our little girl is 4-years-old. And I’d just like to know where the “pause life” button is… because I’d really like to just stop time now and keep my daughter at this age for a while! She is growing up SO fast, it makes my head spin.
Her party is on Saturday, but we still wanted to make this a special day for her. First, after much deliberation, she chose what she wanted to wear today (A size 2T dress that really is too small for her but I don’t have the heart to get rid of it because she loves it so much!). She also had requested lunch at Dairy Queen… so Dairy Queen it was! After lunch we took her to a local park to play for a while. She loved the swing and even braved the slide. She has always been afraid of slides, but seems to be making progress in that area lately. We also went for a walk on one of the trails in the woods beside the park. Rachel said we were in the “spooky Snow White woods!” She really enjoyed running along the trail and even humored us a couple of times and would stop to let us take pictures.
When we got home from the park, she got to open her “big” birthday present… a Leapster. Her daddy had spent hours researching this little educational toy and all of the software that is available for it…and he was especially excited to see how she would like it. Well, she LOVED it…as you will see in the pictures below. We like that it is an educational game that will grow with her… there is software available for children ages 4 all the way up to around 10 years old. It is also small and portable, so we can bring it with us on long car trips.
Here are a few pictures from our day:
admin August 31st, 2008
Rachel LOVES Madeline books and videos. She memorizes the books and even memorizes the lines and songs from the videos. Here is a short video of her singing her favorite song from one of her Madeline videos… She makes me smile!
admin August 28th, 2008
About a year and a half ago Rachel was playing happily in her bedroom when all of a sudden Greg and I heard her exclaim “OH NO!” She then started crying loudly. We raced down the hall to find this:
She had gotten in the doll bed and was STUCK. She could not figure out how to get out and she was quite unhappy about it! Well, she still loves to play with the doll bed…and has never tried to get in it since…until now. She is much bigger now and barely fits… but she still managed to squeeze herself and several of her ‘babies” into that doll bed. You can see in the picture below how now she has to bend her knees up to fit. She then rocked and even managed to accidently cause it to flip on its side, unceremoniously dumping her and the babies onto the floor. When it happened I held my breath momentarily, not knowing what her reaction would be, but she cracked up laughing! Rachel really has such a cute sense of humor and enjoys laughing at herself, even. She’s a happy little girl!
admin August 28th, 2008
And this is Rachel’s reaction to that idea:
Oh, I’m kidding! That was not really her reaction. That was just a picture of her being a bit impatient with me snapping pictures when she was trying to take off for a “princess safari.”
She actually has no idea that we are getting rid of our cable television. And to be honest, I actually feel nervous about giving up cable! How funny is that? I’ve just never NOT had cable before. But Greg and I have been looking at our budget… and we just want to spend our money on the things that really matter to us. Like Gymboree clothing for Rachel! And honestly, we just don’t watch that much television. Certainly not enough to justify $140/month! Now granted, some of that cost is internet access, which we are definitely keeping! But cable television? Yeah, we only watch maybe an hour or so after Rachel goes to bed at night. Of course, there was that writer’s strike…but maybe that just helped us get out of the habit of television. But I do enjoy watching HGTV. I think HGTV will be the thing I miss the most. House Hunters… now that is just a really good show! But is it worth almost $100? Yes! NO… it is not. Yes, I’m conflicted.
Rachel, on the other hand, watches a lot of Noggin (a channel that touts itself as being “preschool” on television). But hey, she is starting real-life preschool in a couple of weeks. Plus we also have a lot of DVDs that she enjoys, so she won’t feel deprived of her television “fix” each day.
So that’s the plan… the cable guy is coming to pry my beloved DVR box out of my arms tomorrow. And we got a subscription to Netflix. I was actually surprised to see how many television series you can actually get from Netflix! And as Greg said… it is just an “experiment.” If we hate not having cable, we can always order basic cable which really is pretty cheap.
Okay…so… why am I nervous???
admin August 26th, 2008
Wow! I was having Rachel do a little “fashion show” of her new clothes for fall/school and snapped this picture. It is not the best picture of Rachel, but when I looked at it I actually felt a bit stunned by how much she has grown in the last several months. She is still small for her age falling at the 25th percentile for both height and weight, but she has had quite the growth spurt this year. My baby continues to grow up and I continue to feel surprised by it! And I’ll bet that is how it is going to be for many years to come.
Rachel will be turning FOUR next week… and starting preschool the following week. And she looks ready for school in this picture, doesn’t she? I just hope she won’t be disappointed to get to school and find that Linlee is not there. Especially since just this morning she told me that she couldn’t wait to go to school with her best friend Lin Lin.
admin August 25th, 2008
This rare, quiet moment brought to us by a beloved sticker book!
And when she realized I had the camera out, she immediately yelled “CHEESE” and gave me this cheesy face…
admin August 22nd, 2008
Rachel has always loved hats. She will put a bucket on her head and tell me she is going out “on safari.” She wears a crown at some point most days… proclaiming herself to be a princess. She wears a blanket over her head and tells us she is “Miss Marian” from Robin Hood. Well, yesterday we were all down in the family room. Rachel was lying on the sofa in a rare moment of being still. Greg and I were deep in conversation about something. Suddenly Rachel started clearing her throat in a very exaggerated way. We looked over to discover that she had taken off her panties and was now wearing them on her head! And she was very proud of her new look and had been “clearing her throat” in an attempt to get us to look at her. As soon as we looked, she cracked up laughing! Silly girl!
