Thursday, April 28, 2011

Sophia is SEVEN

Her day finally arrived and it couldn't have been a more beautiful one.  The weather was perfect.....(too bad my allergies were not...uggghh worst sore throat ever)  Sophia had a busy day packed with lots of fun!  Here is her special day in pictures....

1.  At the breakfast table...with her birthday balloon...but not too thrilled to take a picture :)

2.  Sophia chose donuts for her special birthday treat!  Joseph ( who doesn't normally eat donuts) got to join the fun...and he even ate some....guess it was all of that BIG kid pressure:)

3.  One of the teachers offered to snap a picture of us....so sweet since we rarely have pictures together!  Sophia was so glad Daddy got to come.  She shared her "All about Me" poster with the class and I got to read a chapter from one of her favorite Magic Tree House books!

4.  Back home after school....practicing spelling words and math flash cards while wearing the light-up Birthday crown, of course!

5.  Love how Joseph is looking at her crown!  Getting ready for soccer practice...

6.  Even Sam was happy to celebrate with Sophia today!!!  I just can't get enough of that SMILE!

7.  Hungry for dinner after soccer.... Sophia chose Culvers.  Pretty funny because she had never actually eaten there...but she has seen others eat it at school.

8.  Best part of dinner... the custard!! Mmmmm she chose chocolate with chocolate sauce:)

 9.  Back home to open one present (the small ones will come at her family birthday party on Saturday).

10.  Pretty excited...Recognize the box?

11.  Can hardly wait to open it....

12.  Kanani!!!

Whew!  What a day, and another busy weekend in store!  I need to get busy with the rest of the party preparations...  Oh...and Sophia...someday when you are older and you go back and read these....I am so sorry that I forgot to bring the sandals for you when I picked you up from soccer practice!!! You were so upset that you HAD to wear your soccer shoes to dinner instead of your fancy sandals!!!
Happy Happy Birthday to the BEST little girl EVER!!!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Alleluia!


"Your eyes will see the King in His beauty,"  Isaiah 33:17

Sophia was so thrilled that Easter had finally arrived today for more than one reason.  Of course a visit from the EB was pretty exciting...but so was the fact that she could eat ice cream again AND that she could again sing Alleluia in Church:)

Here is a glimpse of our Easter festivities....a special one of course for sweet Sam, being his first:)

Look at what grew from those Magic beans....


Finding the first Easter eggs


Pretty even right out of bed:)



After Church...loving the sunshine!


Sophia was sooo willing to pose for me today....she looked sooo cute in her Easter dress!!!  Thanks Yiayia!!


Just because life around here isn't always peachy keeny....had to include this picture...Poor J....didn't want to take pictures today.... He was kinda cranky this morning... I'm blaming it on the switch to a new allergy medicine...I think we will be back to good ole claritin tomorrow:)


Awww...best attempt at all three of them smiling:)


Sam smiles sooo much...just not in THIS picture!!:)


YAYYYY...She did it...went 40 whole days without ice cream....so of course we had it after lunch and Easter dinner as a treat!  I'm so proud of this girl!  Such will power!


Almost ready to give me a "real" smile by lunch time:)


The cake and cookies I brought to Omi's for Easter dinner!  Good thing I took the picture of the cake BEFORE it started to sag...guess a few of my chocolate layers were too heavy for the white layers!



Unfortunately... I brought my camera with a freshly charged battery to Omi's for Easter dinner...but left my memory card at home..uggghhh!!  But...the kids had a fabulous time on a second Easter egg hunt and of course had tons of fun just playing with Omi, Papa, and Auntie E!
Happy Easter!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

A special visit

When our doorbell rang early this morning....this is what we found...



Where did that sneaky bunny go??


Here are my little bunnies reading their note from Mr. E.B. and Joseph, of course, is ooohing over the jb's


Look at those sweet little feet:)


Sophia is so very excited for the Easter Bunny....and she told me tonight when going to bed...."YAY...Jesus will be RISEN tomorrow!"  I love how important her faith already is to her!


J ready to plant those beans!!


Look what we found while digging for just the perfect spot?  (Oh...and of course we have to have the helmet on too....It is J's new favorite thing.....thanks to Mr. K.....our neighbor who obviously was looking out for J's best interests after seeing him fly down our driveway on his trike with no helmet on...are we bad parents or what?????)  Thank you thank you Mr. K!!!!!


Here are the beans in their spot!


Didn't get many pictures of Miss S.....she was mad that I made her put a jacket on...it was a bit chilly and geez...aren't we trying to get over strep??


Ok...so we shall wait for the Mystery.
"In the same way the Lord God will make grow what is right." Isaiah 61:11

Friday, April 22, 2011

Eggstra Special...

It was a special day at our house yesterday.....time to finally color Easter eggs!  Sophia's last day of school before Easter Break was Wednesday...so we were excited to do some decorating on her day off.  

Yiayia came to help.....an extra set of hands is always a good idea anytime you have a 3-year old working with food coloring:)  She brought some fun colors and we got just a tiny bit creative with some new techniques:)  I thought it would be fun to put the kids initials on the eggs....of course it was a little more difficult than I anticipated...but they turned out cute:)  Sophia also wanted to try the rubber band trick (see green egg below) and the toothbrush trick...hmmmm....I think we'll just stick to the basics next year:) Oh and can you see all the cracks on the blue egg?... I think someone may not have been stirring very delicately!



Of course J had more fun inside the Easter bag that Yiayia gave him!  He's too funny!


Here is Miss S ready to decorate...


So serious....J needed a few reminders to move the egg around GENTLY!


Love how intent he is...


Such a pretty color from the Princess


Moving on to red...


Here are Yiayia and Sophia trying out the toothbrush trick...but not too successfully.


Mr. SW was napping (or trying to nap) while we decorated.  But we did get a few pics of him later with his FIRST Easter bunny from Yiayia.  Look at that smile....ooohh I just want to squeeze him ALL of the time.  He is getting to be such a BIG boy.....and he is just incredibly sweet!!!!  Yep...he is wearing 6 monthers now...(he'll be 3 months on May 1st:)



Our day ended on a sour note, however.  Sophia hadn't felt 100% all day.... and I assumed it was allergies...but when she finally got up the nerve to admit she had a sore throat....I immediately worried it was strep (it was in her classroom last week) and we went straight for the doctor (exactly why she never tells me when she is sick b/c she HATES doctors and HATES the medicine even more). Funny though...she told me she hoped it was strep b/c if it wasn't she knew I would make her take allergy medicine which apparently she hates even more!!!!!

But of course when we came home it took a fierce battle to get her to down that strep antibiotic.  Whew! This girl is STRONG-WILLED.  But on a good note...she is starting to feel better today.  J was not feeling well today, but his strep test came back negative...keeping fingers crossed that we are all healthy in time for MR E.B's visit tomorrow:)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Miss April

April is her month!!!  I love waiting for these purple flowers to bloom in our yard every  year.....they remind me of her.  They don't last long...but they are beautiful!!! I remember them blooming right before she was born almost SEVEN years ago!  Her big day is still two weeks away...but she is already counting the days.  


She has grown up so much this year.....She has been the best big sister to Joseph and her new baby brother.  They both adore her...Who wouldn't?  She is still very headstrong and determined...but she also has lots of heart....she is a sensitive little one, and her heart is sensitive for others too.


She is such a good student.....so conscientious...and gives it her all.  My heart broke today when she came home from school and told me she didn't pass her math facts test...and come to find out...we were practicing the WRONG problems...totally mommy's fault this time.    I felt so guilty.....  I really try to stay on top of it all...and give equal attention to all three...but oh my... I have to admit... it is a hard job being a mommy!!!

I know God gave her to me to make me a better person!!! This little girl gave up her MOST favorite thing for Lent (Ice Cream).....and I admit.... I wasn't even able to do it.  She has wanted it soooo many times....but has never given  in to the temptation.  I told her she can have ice cream for breakfast on Easter morning... I can't believe her determination:)  Pretty perfect that the theme for her party this year will be an ice cream one!! She deserves it!!


And can't forget this little guy... he just goes with the flow.  Such a SWEET heart!   Sometimes we have big plans to have a memory game contest or go outside and make some "shoots" (what he calls baskets) and then Sam cries or gets fussy and I have to give my attention to him.  Little J never whines or complains about it.  He is so happy go lucky...not sure how I got so lucky to have him!!!


He wanted me to take a picture of the "pattern" he made at lunch the other day....after we had made a pink and green bunny banner pattern for our mantle.   Here is his pattern...pear, cheese puff, pear, cheese puff....Good work Joe!


One more feeding for the night (hopefully) and this tired mommy is turning in for the night until tomorrow:)