End of the School Year - Rachel

Rachel had a great year this year as a fifth grader. She kept herself very busy with Choir and Orchestra. Rachel is a beautiful, talented, artistic girl. We are so proud of all her accomplishments!

This is a beautiful picture I snapped of Rachel one day.

Here she is at her end-of-the year concert playing her violin. She did a great job with her songs!

Her choir performance was so great! They did a collection of The Beatles songs, and it was so fun to see them all really getting into their songs. She is very expressive when she sings!

More of her singing with the choir.

Here she is at Blackbeard's going down the water slide. All of the choir, orchestra, band and percussion went there and we spent the day playing! It was so fun!

Rachel received a very special award at the Award's Assembly. We did not know she was getting this, and therefore we were not there. This award was for "Outstanding Fifth Grade Girl" in choir. She was the only girl given this plaque, and it is so beautiful! She was so excited! (If you can't tell by her face!) She loves to sing and really has a beautiful voice.

Here is Rachel's last-day-of-school picture taken by "the sign." I remember finding a picture recently of the last day of school her kindergarten year and she only came up about halfway to the bottom of the sign. She has grown so much! We are so proud of you, Rachel! YOU ROCK!

End of the School Year - Daniel

Daniel had a great 3rd grade year. He worked really hard all year and really excelled in his school work. He ended the year with a 4.0 which he (and us) was so proud of!

Here he is with his Principal's Honor Roll (4.0) Award certificate.

Daniel and his teacher, Mr. Piccolo. He was a great teacher who really pushed Daniel to perform his very best in all areas!

Here is his last day of school pic....taken the same place as the first day of school. It is our tradition to take pictures at "the sign" so I can see how much they have grown during the year.

Daniel is excited for summer, but sad to have the year end. He loves school and loves his friends. Great job Daniel! We are so proud of you!

Easter Egg Hunt

Here is some pictures of our annual Easter Egg Hunt. It is just Rachel and Daniel, but we had fun!

Happy Easter to all!

New Kitchen Floor!

Finally! This is the year we got a new kitchen floor! I have been wanting to do this for a long time. I very much disliked my floor. To me, it never looked good. It was a linoleum flooring in individual tiles. Here is the old floor.

Not very pretty...

This is a close-up. See all the black around the seams? That is the glue that always would seep out and make the floor always look dirty. The only way to get it up was to scrub it with comet. It was awful!

Here is our new floor in progress. Laminate flooring....Harvest oak....LOVE IT!

Here is the finished product!

Another view of our beautiful floor! Isn't is gorgeous! I love it! Everytime I walk into our kitchen I smile now instead of groan.

Now on to the painting.....

Time to Brag about Rachel!

This post is all about Rachel. She had a birthday recently...11 years old. WOW! I still can't believe she is 11 years old! Where has all this time gone? She is such a beautiful young lady who is growing up so fast! She has developed many talents, and continues to find many talents. She is a talented violinist, a budding pianist, a very good volleyball player, a drama queen, a great student, a loyal and fun friend and an all around good person. Here are a mixture of pictures from her birthday and some of the other activities she has been involved in recently.

Our family birthday tradition is to fill our children's room with balloons after they fall asleep the night before their birthday, so they wake up to an instant party in their room! Here is Rachel with her balloons on her birthday!

Some of her presents....a cute t-shirt with the "peace" sign....her favorite!

A movie from her brother Daniel.

Drum roll please............FINALLY!!!! Rachel finally got her American Girl doll. She has been waiting and saving (half) for a long time! She was so excited to finally get her!

Look at that happy face! (Both of them! :) Don't they look alike? Happy Birthday my sweet Rachel!

Rachel had a fun "girlie" birthday party with eight of her friends. This is a picture of all of them crammed into our bathroom putting on the "mask" on their face. It was pretty funny to see them all in there. That's what the shine is on their faces. When it dried, they peeled it off.

While their faces were drying, they painted each others' fingernails. Rachel picked out a bunch of colors to choose from. They took this very seriously!

Here she is about to open one of her presents. Her friends were very generous, and there was such a variety of gifts!

Rachel and Alison.....her gift was a kit to make a memory stone. Very cool!

Rachel and Emma....Her gift was a kit to scrapbook a storybook. Very creative!

Rachel and Hannah....Club Penguin membership cards and a stuffed puffle! Fun!

Rachel and Madi....A movie gift card and some candy to eat at the movies! Yea!

Rachel and Abby....$$$$$!!! What 11 year old girl doesn't LOVE to spend money?!!!

Birthday cake time! Chocolate cake of course!!!

Here is the Oral Interpretation group from our school about to perform at the festival. The whole group memorizes a story together and perform it in unison with actions and expression. They did a great job!

Here is Rachel right after they performed.....the nervousness is replaced by relief!!

Here are some fun volleyball pictures. Rachel recently completed a six week training put on by the local high school. The girls were trained by the high school coach and the team. It was an excellent program of very intensive training.

They learned different serves, spikes and bumps, along with really working as a team and moving around the court.

Here is one of her spikes! She did a great job!

We are really proud of Rachel and all of her accomplishments! Way to go girl! We love you!

Braggin' on Daniel

I haven't blogged for awhile, and I thought I should update since the kids have had so much going on in their lives! Daniel has just completed a six week basketball program through the local high school. He is a great player and loved learning more. Here are some great shots of him.

Daniel is also progressing in Cub Scouts. He is doing great! Here are some pictures of some of his scouting activities.

Here is the first time he did the flag ceremony. He carried the flag in for the pack meeting and posted it.

This is just a cute picture of my very handsome cub scout! :)

Here is another pack meeting where the boys were each given their indian name. Daniel's name is "Bright Arrow."

Here are the cubs sitting around the "fire" listening to Cub Master Moon. The Moon's do such a great job!!!

Bright Arrow!

OK....here is our first Pinewood Derby!!! January 30, 2010. This was very exciting! Daniel and Brian worked real hard on his car and he was very proud of it!

His car was #21 and was decorated with snakes and lightnening bolts.

Here is his first race. Daniel's car is on the right side of this picture. Cub Master Moon was the official race starter.

This picture is kind of blurry, but see the car on the right in the lead?..... That is Daniel's car!!!! He won every race in the Wolf Den except one! He had a great car that was very fast!

Here he is after all the races....very proud!

This is his certificate for participating in the Pinewood Derby. This was a great event and fun for all who were there!

Daniel got the Math Facts mastery award at the last awards ceremony at school. This is given to students in third grade who got 100% on a three minute timed test with 100 times tables problems. Great job!!!

Here is Daniel with his Principal's Honor Roll Award!!!!! He got a 4.0 this quarter!!! Congratulations Daniel!!! We are so proud of you!