a bad case of the irish chicken pox...

When we arrived at the gym yesterday many of Emma's teammates had drawn freckles on their cheeks with a green sharpie in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. Emma decided that due to her strong Irish heritage, she needed some too.

With some help from her friend, Hallie, she went a little overboard and it ended up looking more like a rare form of green chicken pox.  I hope they clear up soon, she has a meet tomorrow, and her cheeks are still all splotchy green :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Germany Under Glass

The first weekend in March the Mitchell Domes hosted Germany Under Glass. There was a lot of German music, dancing, crafts and food and the Kindergruppe that Rebekah dances with was invited to perform.

Some of the girls before they got lined up to perform.

Rebekah enjoying the dance. This was such a change from the Christmas party when she refused to dance. She is seeming like such a grown up little girl lately.

Here is a video of their dance. It's a little bit of a hodge podge of a few dances put together, but I wanted to share a clip of a few different dances without making this video too long.

I like her tiny side eye smile to the camera every so often and how she and Claire look lost at the two minute mark when the music starts and they clearly have no idea which dance to do. At least they caught on pretty quickly.

Most of the children from Kinder Gruppe.

Face painting fun.

Decorating traditional German Lebkuchen Heart cookies.

Without glancing at the photo above which kinda gives it away, can you guess which of our girls each of these cookies belongs to?

The girls went on a scavenger hunt to find all the ladybugs hidden in the three domes. Looking through the pictures I took, I realized that I should have taken a picture of the outside of the domes for anyone who isn't local and can't picture what they might look like. There are 3 pretty big greenhouse-like domes, two of them always stay the same, the Tropical dome, and the Arid dome. The third dome is a "show dome" and the theme changes about 4 times a year...it's a very neat place to visit. Especially on a gloomy winter day {even though we didn't have too many of those this year} when pretty flowers like orchids and Queen Emma Lilies and funny things like baby toes, sausage trees and chocolate pudding trees brighten our day.

In the tropical dome.

The real Hawaiian Princess Ka'iulani loved banyan trees, her father planted many of them in her yard at I'olani Palace so she could play in their shade. So each time we visit the domes, I always take a photo of our Princess Ka'iulani by the only banyan tree I know of in our area.

My sweet and happy little German dancer. I seriously cannot get enough of that dress, I would let her wear it everyday if she asked to.

The current theme in the show dome is Fantasy Garden Train Show, although I think it changes either this weekend or next week. As always, it was so pretty.

The miniature floral trees that the tracks went through.

One of the crafts that the girls were able to try were the folded paper ornaments on this tree. It was hard!

Alyssa showing my mom her intricate paper folding.

Thank you G&G for coming to see Rebekah dance!! It was a lot of fun. I wanted to use a German word here that I see used a lot to describe our day: Gemütlichkeit, but I wasn't sure that I was using it correctly. I think it means happy or fun times, but I don't know for sure. I wish I would have ever gotten around to taking the German classes offered to the parents at our school :-)

A Pinata, a Pot of Gold, and a Patriot

Alyssa finished her lion pinata!

During the process of layering the paper strips over the balloons, it was hard to imagine that there was a lion just waiting to appear in all the mess. I think I have paper mache goo {aka camel snot} permanently dried to the upholstery of our kitchen table chairs. Good thing we already had plans to re-upholster them. But Alyssa is so proud of her lion, and tomorrow night during "Festival of Nations" at her school, it will be for sale. Her teacher told the kids she planned to sell them for $3-$5, Alyssa is sure hers is worth the $5 price tag! I was really proud that she completed the whole project with extremely little help from me or Dave.

For the German Immersion Foundation Auction and Dinner that is coming up later in the month, each classroom at the elementary school was given a cute little garden gnome that we had to re-design. Think miniature Cows on Parade.

I was really intimidated by helping with the project because I am not at all crafty, but I thought both Rebekah and Emma's class gnomes came out nicely. This is Rebekah's kindergarten class', "Luck of the Irish" gnome. My friend gave me the idea to make the gnome into a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and Rebekah's teacher did a great job making our gnome gold! I had the kids use Q-Tips to paint the rainbow, and we glued it to a foam board with a map of Ireland on it. There is a wrinkle in the rainbow that happened as our paint dried. We are going to try to fix that before the gnome is auctioned off.

The 3rd graders have been learning about the United States, so I wanted to incorporate that into their gnome. The kids did such a great job painting up the individual pieces I cut out for them. Basically all I did was glue everything together and touch up little areas where the paint didn't cover what we intended for it to. We are excited and hopeful that these gnome projects made by all the children will contribute to a fun and successful fundraising event for our schools! The kids certainly worked hard on them!!

Rebekah's Recent Artwork

Rebekah has never loved doing things that require a lot of small motor concentration. She likes to draw and color, especially with markers, but even the things she really enjoys can fatigue her pretty easily, and she gets frustrated if she makes a mistake. Cutting and writing have reduced her to tears at times.

In January, Rebekah's teacher sent home a note saying how much her handwriting was improving. Then in February, Rebekah was so enthusiastic about the Black History unit they worked on. She brought home several pieces of artwork that are much more detailed than her previous work, and I can tell she is working hard to make her letters the appropriate size.

She loved telling us about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges. She refers to them mostly by their first names only which is so cute.

It's just a small thing, but I am so thankful for her recent progress. She now asks me to sit down and write things with her! For the first time this year, writing out her valentines was actually FUN for her. She'll call to me when I am in the kitchen and ask me to spell something for her and then she'll proudly march into the kitchen with her notebook to show it to me...and she never used to enjoy doing this kind of thing at all!

Rebekah's sweet smelling hands sprinkled with jello sugar.

She is such a little muffin...when Alyssa asked her the other day if she wanted to go upstairs to play with her, Rebekah replied, No, I'm just going to stay by Mommy. She's my best friend. Now I can just hope she will feel that way forever :-)! I love her sweet little heart.

A Go-Go Gadget Shoe, A Zipline, and Other President's Day Weekend Highlights

As usual, I'm at least a weekend behind in sharing photos, but we had a fun President's Day weekend. It was a four day weekend for the girls, and such a nice break. We read some of our favorite books about Presidents, I recommend any of them:
Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers, George Washington's Teeth, ...If You Grew Up With George Washington, Abraham Lincoln Will You Ever Give Up?, Lincoln and His Boys.

I need to look for some new president books, geared more towards Alyssa's reading level, she has probably read each of these except Lincoln and His Boys, hundreds of times, but they are so good and great for reading out loud as a family!!

We also made Cracker Bread from a recipe Emma brought home from school in an issue of Time for Kids. It is a recipe from George and Martha Washington's kitchen. The biscuits were a lot of fun to make!

And they turned out really, really yummy, fluffy and buttery. Before I even had a chance to suggest that we make this a President's Day breakfast tradition the girls said, "We have to do this next year too!"

Every February there is a fun lego day at Mount Mary College. What is really cool about it is that it was started several years ago by a foundation that wanted to show the need for women workers and their influence in the construction industry. They host a small contest each year that is open to both boys and girls in 1st through 6th grades. The children have about 40 minutes to build whatever they want out of 100 legos, and they also have additional building supplies like string and foil available for their use. The only requirement is that you cannot build a person or an animal, it has to be an invention, building or machine of some sort.

Alyssa designed a Go-Go Gadget shoe. And it won 2nd Place!! The shoe had built in air conditioners, air fresheners and inflatable sides for added comfort. Our girls have never approached this as an actual contest, probably because we don't own any legos and building stuff like this is so outside their natural skill set. Alyssa was so excited to be given one of the prizes, and the woman who nominated her design was excited to come up and tell us how intrigued she was with the explanation Alyssa provided about her shoe and how the other judges thought this was an invention that she needed to "make happen."

Little Emma and her zipline creation inspired by the one in G&G's backyard. Emma decided on our drive to Mount Mary that morning what she was going to build, and she was very secretive about it...she wouldn't tell us anything about her plans. She knew exactly what she wanted to build and was one of the first kids done. I thought her zipline was super cool!

A super silly little girl playing with Dad's sunglasses as she waited for her sisters. They serve the kids what are seriously the most delicious rice krispy treats while the judging is going on. We couldn't wait to get our hands on those!

We now own some legos because Emma won a hula hoop contest and came home with a set of zoo legos. I just saw a commercial on tv for some girly looking sets and think that at least one or two of the girls may get some in their Easter basket this year.

We also went hiking in a park near our house. It was a beautiful and chilly, but not too cold winter day.

We took this hike that brings you over seven small bridges on the way out to Lake Michigan. At the first bridge Emma had the idea to re-enact the story, The 3 Billy Goats Gruff as we went over the bridge. It funny and cute ~ on the first bridge. We had to do this on every single bridge, some of which we crossed more than the necessary once there and back, making for over 14 re-enactments of the story. She made Dave be the troll under the bridge, and Alyssa had to be the middle sized goat so that Emma herself could be the biggest, fiercest Billy Goat Gruff, and I ended up filling in for Rebekah as the baby goat once she got bored with the repeated story line.

The glittery, icy stream leading out to the lake. We crossed this on some dangerously slippery rocks.

All 3 Billy Goats Gruff did make it successfully to the lake with no falls or even wet feet.

Other than the bare tree branches, I thought this photo looked more like summery blues than the wintry gray we often see around here at this time of year. It was a very nice long weekend.

Alyssa also started a pinata project this weekend. As far as we can tell, this is going to take several layers of mess to complete, and lots of a homemade goo that Alyssa refers to as "camel snot." She's trying to turn this into a lion. I'll have to post a pic of the final project.

Our Sweet Pirate, Hook In Junie B. Jingle Bells, Batman Smells

Between Halloween and New Years, Alyssa was kept very busy in her first ever performance in a First Stage Children's Theater production. Rehearsals ran from the weekend before Halloween until the weekend of Thanksgiving, when they opened. The play was supposed to close on Christmas Eve, but there was enough interest in tickets that they extended until December 28th.

This was her third time auditioning, and each time she was called back for the possibility of being cast in one of a few roles, but she had never gotten the part until this year. She learned SO MUCH and had such a fantastic time, there is no way I could sum up the whole experience in just a few sentences or paragraphs. She came home from each rehearsal so excited about what they practiced and performed that day and she started speaking using all these very proper and technical theater terms. Before my eyes I saw her transform from a dramatic little girl who loves and is intrigued by anything theatrical to a real theater artist herself, and it was just amazing!

Here with her whole cast, the Bell Cast. First Stage double casts each show so the kids miss a minimal amount of school, and if someone becomes ill, they have an immediate actor to fill the role. Even with the double casting, I think both casts performed the show about 30 times. It was an intense schedule, but so much fun.

Alyssa as Hook, and her fellow pirates, Popeye and Sinbad. Alyssa's role was rather small and it was a perfect way to introduce her to being a part of a production this big without overwhelming her. I remember the day she realized that people would be paying to see the play, her eyes got huge and she said , "Yikes, we better not mess this up." She usually does not have any hesitation to be on stage, but for one reason or another the fact that this would be a paying audience seemed to add some pressure. Each and every performance of the show went off without a hitch, she never had anything to worry about.

During the running of the shows, one of the things that Alyssa was insistent upon was taking us for a backstage tour as a family. It ended up being what she gave Emma and Rebekah for a Christmas present. Here, Alyssa is hugging her favorite robe that she always wore backstage while she was eating. The kids weren't allowed to eat in costume unless they wore one over their clothes.

Showing her little sisters where she hung her Hook costume in between shows. I later saw the dress part of her Hook costume on clearance in Crazy 8, but didn't buy it, and now I'm kicking myself for that. I would love to have that dress, just as a keepsake, if nothing else, and now I can't find it.

First Stage is a very family friendly and family oriented theater company. I tried to help in the lobby during as many shows as I could, and Emma was even able to volunteer with me during one of the shows. She handed out programs to the guests as they entered the theater, and she felt really cool, like she was part of the show as well, finally being involved in this place she had visited so many times as a guest to see cool plays.

Rebekah getting comfortable in the Green Room during our backstage tour.

On this night we saw the show as a family and two of Emma's friends also came with their families. The number of shows in which Alyssa had friends, family or classmates in the audience was just astounding. Many times she knew to be expecting them out there that night, and other times it was a complete surprise to see them and it was so special for her!

One of Alyssa's favorite things about the performances was the "Talk Back" sessions that directly follow each show. After the curtain call, the audience has a chance to ask the cast any questions about the show, and before the play opened Alyssa told me she was nervous to offer an answer to the questions. But in her very first show, she did, and I think in almost every show after that she answered a question. She was the Stage Manager's go-to person when no one else wanted to answer {she loves to talk and explain things, let me tell you...}


Alyssa quickly made friends with her cast-mates! Being the second oldest of the group definitely earned her the position of little cast mother. It was interesting to discover that this mothering tendency of hers does not pertain to her sisters alone. She's very watchful, careful, over protective and I hesitate to say she's a worrier {but it is quite accurate} and always kept tabs on everyone backstage and felt very responsible for monitoring all unruly behavior.

Way too much silliness and fun was had by all! One of the things we have always loved about Alyssa's First Stage experiences is how much they focus on teaching the kids life skills, through stage skills. That is in fact one of the mottos that is printed on their t-shirts. Alyssa loved and appreciated very much how each of the kids was treated just like a professional actor who was a vital part of the production. She is so excited to audition for future shows!

Not a Fan

What's a girl who is not a Packer fan to do on Green and Gold Packer Spirit Day at school?

Wear her cousin's school t-shirt, that just happens to be the right colors, of course!! Thank you, sweet Ki'inani for giving the girls such cute shirts!!

On one of the Fridays when the Packers were still in the playoffs, Emma and Rebekah had Packer Spirit Day at school.

Emma, who I never got a photo of wearing Ki'inani's shirt took the Spirit Day very seriously and somehow got the impression during the planning for the special day that she would be penalized for not owning and wearing a Packer shirt. Her teacher is as fair as fair can be, and would have never held it against her! It was just a funny discussion to have with her and find out that she knew exactly who the other non-Packer fans in her class are, and how they formed an allegiance. Funny 3rd graders...and our choice of green and gold shirts was a perfect fit! Rebekah didn't understand the whole conflict, she was just proud to wear something her cousin had given her!!

Butterflies and Bugs

We visited the museum with some friends the day right before school resumed from Christmas break. It was a fun trip, and we always see other areas of the museum too, but it seems we take the most pictures by the butterflies :-)




Concentration!



Sometimes the museum is just such hard work!!

Telling me all about the huge hissing beetles she was looking at.

Alyssa enjoying the bargain of 5 cent admission to the movie theater and Rebekah by the Pfister hotel in the Streets of Old Milwaukee, and blue butterfly Emma.


I had to make comment here for Dave about the bears enjoying their honey tree...on one of our very first trips to this museum when the girls were very tiny, without even thinking about what I was saying, I said something to them about "Oh look how the bears love the honey tree!" Even though the girls were so little at the time that they probably wouldn't remember my misinformation, it has become a family joke and now every time we see this scene we have to discuss that honey does not come from a tree and does in fact, require bees.

Sweet friends. I laughed looking at this picture, we of course had our three girls and our friends have five girls, and together they are quite the handful. It was a busy day of running through the museum trying to keep up with all eight of them! These four look so happy here, and I wasn't able to get a picture of everyone together all day, so this one definitely begs the question: where are the other four?!