Raquel's 4th Birthday!

We all had a fun time celebrating Raquel's 4th Birthday. On Wed. 17th Natalya and I were able to take snacks to Raquel's preschool class and help celebrate her birthday. Since it was St. Patrick's Day we made green shamrock sugar cookies and brought green grapes to eat. It was fun watching her interact with her friends at school during music and snack time. Natalya loved acting like one of the big kids, participating in music and sitting and eating at snack time.

Raquel being a leprechaun (watching over her gold) during music at preschool

Natalya being a big kid at Preschool!

Raquel enjoying her cookie with her school friend Ben.

Then on Raquel's birthday she was able to choose where she wanted to eat for lunch, so we had McDonald's and Carol Lee Donuts at Dad's office. Raquel was more interested in her presents than her food, but Natalya made up for that eating all her lunch and donut and then snatching my donut off my plate and starting in on that while I was off getting drinks in the other room. Raquel truly is our toy hound like Sammy and Natalya our food hound like Ranger.

Opening presents with Dad!

Enjoying her Birthday Lunch!

On Friday it was such a beautiful day the girls were able to swim outside on the back deck and I was able to do laundry.

Rauqel swimming and showing off her new birthday toy, a Dora Mermaid.

(Sorry for the sideways picture it wouldn't turn.)

You may have thought we were white trash before but now I am giving you even more of an excuse to think so. Our electric bill was outrageous this past winter, mostly in part because the Electric company increased their rates by more than 60% in the past two years and so Mike and I came up with some ways that we could help lower our bill. First we put a timer on our hot water heater, so it only heats the water for a few hours a day. Which has worked out great and we have only run out of hot water once or twice in the past three months. Second, we put up a clothes line on our back deck (the white trash part), and are now drying our clothes for all to see. Finally we checked all our thermostats in each room and found many of them that would come on by themselves and so we were heating rooms during the summer while trying to air condition them also, hopefully after all the adjustments they are off and we can save a little more money on our electric bill.

Also on Friday Grandma and Papa came to visit for a few days to help celebrate Raquel birthday and as always brought cute clothes for the girls. We sure loved having them visit!

Our clothes line!

On Saturday we had a little birthday party for Raquel and invited a few of her friends over to play. This year Raquel wanted a butterfly party and so we decorated the house with flowers and butterflies and made a butterfly cake, pink and yellow Raquel's choice.

As we waited for all 6 of Rauqel's party guests to arrive we had the girls color and decorate wooden butterflies. We then went out on the back deck and played butterfly landing. I had made large leaves out of poster board and gave one to each girl. I played soft butterfly type music and the girls would then dance and float around like butterflies until the music stopped and then they would have to find a leaf to stand on. The girls danced a few rounds like butterflies and then we made cute clothespin pipe cleaner butterflies, it was a big help having all the parents to help out with this craft. We then went outside for a butterfly nature scavenger hunt. The girls had to find 10 items on a list and put them in their plastic bag, they were things like feather, rock, something that fell out of a tree, etc. All the teams found the items listed and spent some time outside in the warm weather. It was such a nice day that we wanted to be outside as much as possible so we ate lunch (pizza, fresh fruit and butterfly/flower jello jiggles) on the back deck. The girls then had fun playing in the pool water, carrying it any way they could from the pool to the fountain and getting each other wet. Then it was time for presents and cake with ice cream. Raquel had a great time at her party and hopefully all her friends did too.

The Butterfly Cake!

Enjoying lunch with her friends!

Opening presents!

Blowing out the candles!

On Tues. Raquel started gymnastics at VT, and she loved it! But then on Wed. we had to say goodbye to Grandma and Papa. We went out for breakfast and then they had to leave for the airport. We loved having them here and wished they could have stayed longer, hopefully we can visit with them again soon.

With spring comes nice weather and with nice weather planting! We picked up another 4 fruit trees and planted them and the girls helped plant some flowers and peas. Spring also means spring cleaning and most of our spring cleaning is done outside picking up junk left from the previous owners of our house. We have been busy digging up and trimming back bushes and moving rotten logs. Mike and our neighbor Wes also cut down a tree and hauled off the wood this past Sat. It was a lot of work but it makes our yard look a lot better and will give me another flower bed to plant.

Planting peas in our deck containers.

Playing in the dirt!

The tree before!

Mike working to cut down the tree.

The tree on the way down!

The end result, minus a tree.

Happy 4th Birthday Raquel

We sure love you!

Here are a few things that make you, you and why I love you!

1. You are always happy!

2. You love your little sister and help her and play with her.

3. Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter

Its cute how you love watching Harry Potter and you would watch everyday if allowed.

4. I love your sense of style and how you love to dress yourself!

5. You are so loving and caring, always giving me hugs and kisses!

6. You are a friend to everyone! When I ask you who you played with at school you say I always play with everyone. Everyone is my friend.

7. You love to paint, color, draw and do crafts, just like your mom!

8. Who could hate a kids that loves her vegetables!

9. You love being outside and explore everything.

10. You love to help me whether its cleaning, making dinner or working outside.

Early March 2010

We are finally seeing warm weather and enjoying being outside. The snow is almost all melted and we have been able to do a little yard work, wash the cars and take much needed walks outside. But even with the nice weather March has been full of sickness in our family. Poor Raquel developed croup last week and is now just getting over it. We had a few restless nights with coughing and throwing up, but thankfully Mike was here and had a few steroids on hand to help. It was amazing how much energy the sickness took from Raquel, she wasn't her happy bubbly self and so sad to see how much she hurt. Luckily Natalya hasn't gotten it yet, but she has had to deal with her own cold and runny nose. And between Mike and I we have had our share of headaches, runny noses and upset stomachs to last us the rest of the year. But I think we are all on the mend and having nice weather to play in will surely speed our recovery.

March is also Raquel's birthday month and so we had her 4 yr. old picture taken last week. I can't believe how big she is getting and what a cute and sweet girl she is becoming. She is continuing with swim lessons and loves the water. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows-up it is a swimmer and a princess.

Monday I was able to attend a parent/teacher conference and discuss how Raquel is doing in preschool. Her teacher said, "Raquel is our bubbly, effervescent class member! She is always smiling, always willing to try something new. She is delightfully independent. She tries, and is successful at all Preschool activities. She loves art, music and story time. Raquel is a good friend, and shows concern when others get hurt. She shares well and often joins group play. She enjoys both group and independent play." Raquel can spell and write her name and enjoys doing homework and learning new letters and numbers. She really has enjoyed preschool this year and we will enroll her again next year.