Winter Pictures

Today was a beautiful sunny warm day in Elk Grove, California. I figured I had better post some snow pictures, even if they are from last year, to remind us it is still winter. It is supposed to rain in a couple days so we are soaking in the sun while we can. These pictures are from January 2008. For those who do not know, it doesn't snow in Elk Grove. We drive to the Tahoe area to sled and play in the snow.

I almost forgot! Today at Hebrew School Rachael tested on the AVOT and passed. She can read it in Hebrew. Fourth grade Hebrew class concentrates on the Friday night prayers. Great job Rachael!

Happy Valentines' Day - Oh wait...

Katie thought it was Valentines' Day. She chewed a hole in the baggie holding the old computer ink cartridges (we recycle them) and picked out the pink one to chew on. Thankfully she stayed on the tile and laminate floors which the ink came right off. Katie still has a tint of pink on her paws and my hands are a tad pink after giving her a bath. She is going to lose her house privileges soon! I caught her "pink pawed"... She also unzips the kids' backpacks for their baggies of carrots and goldfish for snack.

Pinewood Derby!

Ethan got 6th place out of the 18 cars racing in the Wolf Group. They race your car three times, once in each of the three lanes. Your three race times are then averaged. In his three races his car "Blue Thunder" won one and came in second twice. It was fun watching the cars go down the track! There is a picture of one of my favorite cars, the Hot Dog... This was our first Pinewood Derby and Ethan did great!

Party!

Tonight Ethan made a wise retreat and high-tailed it to his friend Josh's house. Rachael had several of her friends over to spend the night and celebrate her birthday. Rachael doesn't like cake and had cookies with ice-cream instead. The cupcake in the middle is just to hold the candles... We had a fun night!

Happy Birthday Rachael!

Today is Rachael's Birthday. She was born on 1/21/99 at 12:16 am. She was 21 inches long and weighed 9 lbs 7 ounces at birth. Now ten years later she is almost 55 inches tall! Happy Birthday sweetheart! We love you!

Good Morning!

To bad it isn't "Crazy Hair Day" at school. Ethan would have it down without doing anything. :) Of course Rachael and Katie always look beautiful in the morning.

Happy Birthday Holly!

Blue Thunder 2009

Ta Da! Announcing "Blue Thunder" Ethan's Pinewood Derby car for 2009. The competition is on January 31st. We will post how it does soon after.

What a weekend!

It has been one busy weekend! Friday Ethan's Cub Scout Den came over to our house for their meeting. We had seven boys here doing scouting stuff. Rachael escaped the boys and went to see a movie with her friend (her mom and little brother as well).

Saturday morning we woke up to a chilly 60 degree house. Our heater was not working. Thankfully the guy was able to come out and had it fixed by 11:15 am. In the morning Allen took Ethan to finish getting their car ready for the Pinewood Derby. I will post a picture soon. Saturday night Rachael went to one of her best friends' slumber party. In exchange we picked up her little brother who is one of Ethan's best friends who spent the night with us.

Unfortunately the 60 degree house was too much for Ethan's Beta fish Buttercup. He was dead before we woke up in the morning. Today we did a short ceremony for him and he is now swimming in a larger bowl.

Happy Birthday Rich!

Sorry we missed your birthday party.

What the dogs do while we are not at home...

I should have bought bread while I was at the grocery store. I came home and the dogs decided to help themselves. They opened the drawer we keep the bread in and ate a whole loaf of bread that I took out of the freezer this morning and the ends of another loaf! They are now in "time-out" in the backyard! No wonder they did not come greet me when I came in the door. They knew they were in trouble.

Katie says "Hi"

Hello!

Rachael's Webkinz

Rachael has gone Webkinz crazy. Here she was posing her Webkinz for a picture she used on her Birthday Invitation. She spent 20 minutes taking different pictures of them.

(that is a panda, sea otter, duck, snowman and dog)

December 29, 2008 ~ Build A Bear

I forgot to post this. Rachael really wanted to spend some of her gift money at Build A Bear. Ethan was there for Rachael until he saw the Black Bear. He picked, stuffed, put a heart inside and bought Blackie with some of his gift money. Here he is using the "dryer bath" on his bear and own hair...

(Rachael bought a cute white bear, put the heart inside, but skipped the air bath.)

Happy New Year!

It is a little early. Not even 7 pm on

December 31, 2008. Yet here I am saying...

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and

successful year.

The last night.

The last candle has burned down. The last of the gifts have been opened. There is still chocolate gelt and wrapping paper scattered about. Chanukah may be almost over but the reason we celebrate it lives on. I told the kids Chanukah is important because if the Maccabees did not win years ago, our lives now would be different. I explained that our actions now shape the future. Ethan thought more about recycling and our environment which was not where I was going with the conversation with them, but it was good so I went with it. Rachael then related it to being kind to others and standing up for what you believe in. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Another tooth came out!

Ethan lost another baby tooth this week! The upper left next to his front tooth. Now he has matching gaps on either side of his two front teeth.

5th and 6th nights of Chanukah

Aunt Julie, Sabba and Bubbe visited us for a few days. Here they are lighting the Chanukah candles with Ethan and Rachael. On the sixth night of Chanukah I hide clues for the kids to work together and figure out where their gift was. The last clue was hinting if turned on their gift would be warm... (They looked in the fireplace, oven, dishwasher then finally where their gifts were, inside the clothes dryer). They now want all of their gifts hidden with clues.

December 25th

Bubbe, Sabba, and Aunt Julie are visiting us for a few days. Here are pictures of Sabba, Ethan, Miles and Katie enjoying the sunshine.

December 23rd, Rachael's Star Award

Rachael received a "Star Award" at school today. The theme for the month was something about a positive attitude. That's our girl :) The awards were presented at an assembly during school by a "guest presenter". It was also "pajama day" so she did not forget to get dressed that morning...

2nd Night of Chanukah ~ December 22nd

Here is a picture of the kids lighting the menorah on the second night of Chanukah. They are so serious and carefully with the candles. The third night of Chanukah we tested out a new video camera which we had technical difficulties with (it was a deal to good to be true). We had friends over and a fun evening, but no pictures... Oy!

The first night of Chanukah

Sunday evening was the first night of Chanukah. Jewish people celebrate winning a war against Antiochus to regain their religious freedom. The story says that when Maccabees reclaimed the Temple there was only enough oil to burn for one night. A great miracle happened in Israel and the oil lasted for 8 nights. We light our menorahs to remember this miracle. Each night we add a candle, hence why there is only one (one main candle and the shamas, the candle we use to light the others) on the first night. Our friend Neola came over tonight to help celebrate the first night with us.

Rachael

Here is Rachael in her American Girl pajamas that match Allie's pj's. She also received the Webkinz Sea Otter she named Wonanee (girl with big eyes from Island of the Blue Dolphins).

Ethan and his Chanukah Gifts

Ethan received the Bakugan game and the Webkinz Bat for the first night of Chanukah. I don't think I have seen him this excited in a long time. He was jumping up and down with a huge smile on his face.

Sunday December 21, 2008

Ethan sanded and then painted his

pinewood derby car during the day.

Chanukah Party

Chanukah starts tomorrow night, but tonight was our first party to celebrate the holiday. The kids played dreidel, ate latkes, found gelt (chocolate coins) and decorated cookies. The first cookie is Ethan's. The second cookie is Rachael's.

The third picture is Ethan's reaction to Rachael 's cookie! Thank You to the Richardson Family for having us over! We had a great time!

Getting ready for the Pinewood Derby

From a block of wood they designed and cut out the shape of Ethan's Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts this afternoon. This is Ethan's first car and it is neat seeing the process. Stay tuned as I document the next step... sanding and painting.

Gingerbread House decorated by Rachael

Today in Rachael's class they decorated Gingerbread Houses. Rachael "snowed in" her house hence the big glob blocking the door. After I uploaded the picture I realized it is an oxymoron to have a gingerbread house on a Hanukkah tablecloth.

Happy Holidays!

December 7, 2008 Piano Recital

Rachael and Ethan had their piano recital on Sunday.

12-5-08 A busy Friday night

Friday night Allen took Ethan to his Cub Scout meeting. They worked with tools and made some mystery gift for the moms. At the same time I was with 100 Girl Scouts at a Toys for Tots event. Boys with wood tools or screaming girls... I think Allen got the better deal :) (The Girls Scout event was fun and they did collect a lot of toys for children who would not otherwise be receiving anything this season).

12/2/2008 Ethan and his toys

I realized it had been awhile since I last posted and have some catching up to do. The other night Ethan thought it was fun to stick the suction cup part of a toy to his forehead. It took 4 days for the one inch "hickey" looking circle to go away. I tried to take a picture here, but it he got really mad at me. I pinky promised not to take another picture of him. I did not say anything about posting it to the blog... below is his sister laughing at him in the car that morning I was trying to take the picture.

Fun Outdoors while the sun was shining.

While I worked in the garage Sunday the kids got out the skateboards and had some fun in the sun.

Rachael was sad because she accidentally scratched her favorite doll. Ethan was telling her it would be "okay".

Rachael being a good "mom" to her doll Alexis. She licked her finger and cleaned off her face :)