Rachel's Winter Concert

Rachel had her winter concert tonight. She seemed so much more relaxed than last year. There was one song that was a "shoobie doowah" type song and she had so much fun with that one.

She looked so pretty in her black dress.

And Soccer Begins

Soccer season began with a kick off day. All the teams played at least one game. It was a beautiful day. Dan had two short games and Rachel had one regulation game.

Dan is playing in the 8 and under division. The field is bigger and so are the nets compared to last year. He did pretty well, although in typical Dan manner, he gets very easily distracted.

Rachel is playing in the 13 and under division. They play on the big field and the competition and level of play is much higher. She was so thrilled that her team, the only one with a woman coach, got the very cool tie-dyed jerseys.

Pretty much every week night and some Saturdays, we will be at the field, until tournament day on October 16th. Sometimes I must admit to growing weary of so many games, but I enjoy watching the kids play and they have a great time. So, let the games begin!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for Rachel, Hannah and Dan. They were all excited after meeting their new (and old) teachers on Tuesday night. They put on their "first day clothes", we loaded backpacks with new supplies, made lunches and we all waited for the bus.

All smiles and excitement for the new school year.

Rachel, lovely as always. She has such a sweet, tender personality.

Hannah, ready to embrace it all. She is so full of life and excitement.

And Dan, just look at his hair and wrinkled shirt (and no it was not wrinkled when I laid it out lastnight). That about sums up our wild and adventurous boy.



I snapped this last shot when the walked out to the road. I think it is so cute how they always line up youngest to oldest.

They came home happy and excited by all the new things. They seem to love their new teachers and were not too nervous about all the new things to learn and schedules to figure out.

I still have mixed feelings about them going to public school, but if they have to go, we are pretty happy with our local school. They work hard to give our children all the special help they need and they do it in a warm and friendly way.

Rachel's 11th Birthday

Rachel had her 11th birthday on the 8th. Our kids just love birthdays, even when it isn't their own, but especially when it is their turn. They talk about whose turn is going to next and then count the days, weeks or months until the special day. Ever since Christmas, Rachel has known that her birthday comes next and has been eagerly awaiting the day.

I surprised Rachel by bringing her lunch from McDonald's and staying and having lunch with her at school . We then went back to her class and shared cupcakes. It was such fun seeing her face when she say me and realized what was up. Her teacher is very sweet and everyone sang happy birthday and then she put up a large board and everyone take turns saying some nice about Rachel.

Mom and Dad came over later in the day to have dinner with us and celebrate. We had one of our favorites, Shepherd's Pie, and Rachel requested ice cream cake for dessert.

I had given Mom and Dad some suggestions for gifts, one being a sewing box. Mom was able to find a nice one and stocked it with some supplies and pieces of fabric. Rachel loves working with her hands and I am teaching her some simple sewing techniques. She was so thrilled with the gift.


Happy Birthday, Rachel. We love you! :-)

Winter Concert

Rachel is in the 4th grade chorus at school and they had their Winter Concert right before Christmas. It is sad to me that they have to call it a Winter Concert, but they did sneak in a few real Christmas songs, although it was just in music...no words.

Rachel was so excited and nervous. Noona and Papa came over as did Wayne and Liz. She was thrilled.

She did a great job and the music was surprisingly good for a 3rd-5th grade concert...really very good. You can tell that the teachers really care about the music and the students. It was a very nice evening.

Soccer Tournament

Rachel enjoys playing soccer very much and she is getting better and better at it each year. Saturday was her tournament day. It was a very nice day, sunny and not too cold. Mom and Dad came over and watch two of the games with us.

She played three games. Unfortunately, their team did not make into the finals, but she played well and enjoyed herself. She especially liked the colorful hair that everyone had. You have to love spray on hair paint.

You played hard this season, Rachel, way to go!

New Look

Rachel and Hannah both wanted to get their hair cut. I'm not sure who had the idea first but that was fine by me. I usually do the hair trimming, but they wanted much shorter cuts, so I brought them to the salon.

Here is the a picture before we headed to the salon. Poor Hannah wasn't having a great morning, so she looks much grumpier than usual. I tried to get her to smile a bit, but she was not too happy.

And the after picture. Don't they look so cute. I especially like this look on Hannah as her hair does a natural bob thing swooping under, but it is a great look for both of them. And doesn't Hannah look more like her usual cheery self? She had a much better afternoon.

Rachel's 10th Birthday

We celebrated Rachel's 10th birthday this last week. She has been so excited at the thought of her upcoming birthday. The Littles are especially aware of when their birthdays are, or at least which one is coming up next and they talk about it for weeks before it actually arrives.

This year, Rachel was able to give us concrete ideas for gifts. It was very hard in the past for her to come up with more than simple suggestions, like toys or books. She had some very specific ideas this year and it was fun shopping for her.

We actually had two celebrations, the 8th, which is her actual birthday and the next day when Mom and Dad came over and had dinner with us.

Earlier in the day on the 8th, we had picked Brian up at the airport. He was returning from simulator training. A trip to the airport is always a treat.

We had yellow cake with pink frosting and sprinkles. The children all pitched in to frost the cake.

Bessie and I both had commitments back at church that evening, so we had cake and ice cream in the afternoon and let Rachel open her gifts.

Rachel was so thrilled with her gifts. We got her a few things on her list and a some not. I love to surprise the children.

It is exciting for me to see the change in our Filipino children. They are becoming so much more open and willing share their feelings. I think they are finally feeling secure in their family and home. They have certain expectations now for how things work in our family and they can feel confident in knowing those expectations will be met. Birthdays are one of those things. They know they get to choose their dinner and dessert and that we honor the birthday child on their special day.

We have seen Rachel blossoming, coming out of her shell, becoming less nervous and timid. She can more openly share her struggles and victories. She is developing (or perhaps we are just seeing it) a very distinct personality that is all her own.

Happy Birthday, Rachel! We love you!

Art Project

Rachel and Gabe have been working on a Literature Pocket book this year. They are enjoying learning about the illustrators of some great children's books.

One of the recent projects was a technique called scratchboard. The kids colored bright stripes with crayon onto cardstock, painted over it with black paint and then scratched off designs.

The result was fun to make and quite interesting.

Coloring the stripes with crayon

They both loved the painting part

Scratching off their designs
Finished pictures

Rachel's Ninth Birthday

Friday was Rachel's birthday. She had been counting the days and was so excited.

Mom and Dad came over to help us celebrate. Rachel got some very nice clothes from them, some jewelry, hair bands and an art poster to color. We gave her some PetShop sets, more hair stuff, a game and a dinner set (Disney Princess).

Now, please don't look too closely at her brownie sundae (her dessert choice) as I am sure you will notice that big "8" that I put on. Rachel is nine this year. I had a very bad brain moment and put an "8" candle on intead of using nine candles. It wasn't until later that Gabe said, "Too bad you didn't have a #9." Well duh...! The worst part was that Brian was serving and he realized it was the wrong number, but thought I was just letting it go because we didn't have a #9. Oh, well, Rachel didn't notice at all and just loved the whole affair.

Gabe and Rachel try out the new game

Rachel Finishes Phonics Book

Rachel has been working very hard on her school work. Last week she finished her first phonics book and was so thrilled. Way to go, Rachel!

Christmas Lapbook

Gabe and Rachel have been working very hard on a Symbols of Christmas lapbook. They finally finished assembly the mini-books this past week.

I think they came out great.

Showing Dad the finished product

Rachel is Reading!

We have been diligently working on phonics with Rachel. I have to admit to becoming a bit discouraged and we seemed to go over and over the material with apparently little progress.

This week, we brought home a Dick and Jane book from the library. We have quite a few of these older type readers in the house and Rachel has shown little interest.

One evening, She and Gabe sat in the kitchen and she began sounding our words. I can not begin to tell you how excited we all were. It was a major breakthrough. I think now that she understands what she can do, she'll work even harder.

Gabe helping Rachel

After a few very frustrating weeks, this step forward was a real boost and such a blessing to me.

Soccer Tournament Day

Saturday was the little girls end of the season soccer tournament day. This is the first time Brian has been able to attend. It made it so much easier and more relaxed to have him with us.

It was a beautiful fall day...cool, clear and sunny.

Hannah had one game and Rachel and two. There was a gap inbetween Rachel's two games, so we made a quick run to the library to get our weeks worth of books.

It was a very good day and the girls did great. They both made so much improvement over last years play. Rachel is showing a real talent for playing goalie.

Rachel's coach treated the team to ice cream at a local dairy bar, so we all headed over there for treats! Yum!

My "men"

Hannah is always all smiles
A great day of sports

Soccer Saturday

Both the little girls had soccer games today. Rachel's was at 9am and Hannah's at 11:30. The day started out very hot and muggy and it was tough for the kids, but they did great!

Rachel's team lost 4-0. They played well, but couldn't get it together. I guess they had the first game jitters. Hopefully they will do better next time. Rachel played well and is learning a lot.

Good sportsmanship!

Rachel was drenched from sweating so much...it was hot! In between the two games, we made a post office run and went to the little grocery store close by. I didn't buy too many refrigerator things as I didn't think we had time to go home before Hannah's game started. I was able to get through the store quickly and we buzzed home with the groceries. I left the youngers in the van and Bessie and I hauled the groceries in, left most of it in bags and put the perishables in the frig and headed back out. The kids had a snack on the way back to the field.

Hannah's team won 5-0. She plays in the micro level (6 and under), which technically doesn't keep score, but you can bet most of the kids know who scored more goals! The kids played great and Hannah is starting to figure out a little bit about what is going on.

Doesn't she look like she is right on edge waiting for that ball? Happy and hot...she had fun

We were all figuring that a dip in the pool would be the ticket today, but by the time we left the ball field, it has started to rain. I wouldn't have minded letting them swim in the rain, but we had some wild, wonderful thunderstorms to go with it! The rain didn't last too long, but the thunder kept rumbling around. We never did make it to the pool.

I let the kids have their lunch in the living room as they watched a couple videos they had gotten from the library and later in the afternoon they managed a few minutes outside in between the rain showers.

Bessie made taco salad for dinner...yum! After dinner, I rotated everyone through the shower.

I'm working on shifting our hours back to our school season schedule, so everyone went to bed a bit earlier than over the summer.

Trip to the Dentist

Yesterday we took all three new kids to the dentist. I was very unsure how it would go. I figured Rachel would do okay, but wasn't convinced at all that Hannah or Dan would go for it. They have a major "white coat" phobia with all the doctor visits they have had.

We were so pleasantly surprised. All three kids did terrific! Hannah particularly won the day for patiently sitting in the chair for 45 minutes while the hygienist removed some major plaque. She was such a trooper, never complaining once.

We were also very surprised that they actually have quite good teeth. Hannah will need some extra work because of her cleft lip, but that was it! I was so thrilled with the whole experience.

Gabe was a huge help with Dan when it was his turn; sitting in the chair with him and cheering him on. Bessie was back and forth from the waiting room and Brian sat in the waiting room with the rest of the gang.

Dan adjusting his sunglasses

Rachel takes her turn
Hannah relaxing

Sonja, the hygienist did such a great job and was so good with the kids. Everything worked out so well. I am so glad they had a good experience for their first visit.