Birdhouses and Earth Day

On the day after Earth Day we went to Lowe's where the girls built some cute little birdhouses. Both Home Depot and Lowe's occasionally offer family projects on Saturdays, and the girls enjoy them.
I'm not sure what Kamele is telling Dave here, but it looks intense as she waves the hammer in front of his face. In the past, she has always liked the idea of having a completed project, but she wasn't really into the whole process of building it. This time she enjoyed it a lot and did a surprising amount of the work herself.























Alyssa, being the perfectionist that she is had to have everything just so...several times I saw her pulling a nail out and straightening what she called a "major mistake." Yet she wouldn't take her puffy coat off, which in theory should have made things a little easier.


There's something sweet about a little girl in an apron, hard at work.


Our most intense builder of the morning. She was loving the project until she hammered down her little pointer finger. It turned into a tiny blood blister that now looks like a polka dot of permanent marker on her finger.


She wore her protective goggles for a little while before she decided she could see better without them. Then they sat upside down on her head, flipping up her hair like a macaroni penguin. She wears sunglasses upside down too, it must feel right to her. Just like having shoes on the wrong feet.


The finished houses that the girls have since painted in every color of the rainbow.


When we turned in our tools, the girls were given a baby tree as part of a Lowe's Earth Day tree give away. On Easter afternoon we found a pot to plant our little tree in, and we also planted some strawberries. I don't usually have much luck growing anything, but we are going to do our best to take care of these!


A funny memory from Earth Day this year: we had been reading a few books about taking care of the Earth and how we can all do small things that over time will have a great impact on the Earth's health, and so I wanted to ask the girls about things they thought they could possibly do more of, or maybe do better than what we've been doing.

Alyssa immediately chimed in about my overuse of water when I am washing dishes, brushing my teeth, and taking excessively long showers. All areas I need to admit guilt in. She has since stood next to me several times supervising my teeth brushing habits. Mostly because she was not being at all sassy about it, just letting me know from the perspective of expert , it struck me as funny that as I asked her to examine what she could do differently, she decided to instead critique my conservation efforts. Later that same day I asked Dave if he would run to Pick N Sav and grab some milk. We live right around the corner from the store, and borrowing a line from Fancy Nancy, Alyssa called out to him, "Less than a mile? Then bike in style!" I was laughing trying to picture Dave riding a bike while balancing a gallon of milk in one hand and a grocery bag in the other. Or better yet, I know the girls would be happy to get him a basket (most likely one with flowers on it) that he could attach to the front of his bike. Now that would be biking in style!

Easter Eggs

 On Good Friday, we dyed Easter eggs. The girls decided they wanted to hand paint some with paintbrushes and this turned out to be more difficult than they thought. It was fun though!


 I love cartons full of colored eggs.


Easter morning after church, the egg hunt began. And so did the crazy and haphazard running about in the back yard.
 Shouts of joy over finding plastic eggs filled with unknown treasures inside {mostly peeps, jelly beans, and quarters} were heard from everyone.


 Both Alyssa and Emma seemed to be able to run faster with one arm thrust up in the air. Notice how Emma changed into gym shoes in preparation for the hunt. I'm pretty sure this violates every rule in proper Easter dress wearing etiquette. Easter egg hunting is very serious business though, and demands the most supportive footwear.


 We are about to embark on a test of sisterly love: are we sharing these things, or are we in competition? Mostly they shared (I do have a picture of Alyssa passing by an egg as she looks at it, leaving it for one of the little girls, it just turned out so blurry that it's hard to see what's going on), although Rebekah did try to sneak away all the eggs that had peeps in them. She learned the soft rustle noise the sugar made when she shook the egg and quickly tucked those in the bottom of her basket.


 No time to stop running now...


 These soggy leaves and overgrown, thorny raspberry plants that are as tall as I am will not stop me from getting the prized egg! No they will not. Not even if I snag my new tights and have to complain to my mom next Sunday that I have no good tights to wear to church!


 A sweet concerned face who seems to be missing something.


 Alyssa running in the background, again raising high one wild arm with a mind of it's own.


 Even if it costs her the precious pink egg on the ground just to her left, she's willing stop long enough to smile.


 Who knew running frenzied around the yard would eventually wear them out and slow their pace to a calming walk?


For their Grandmas, more Easter morning photos...
 


 The most eager to be photographed this morning...even if she did get a little silly about it.


 Sweet Ka'iulani laughter.


 Wow, I'm sure tired from all these pictures...can we be done now?

Happy Easter

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
~ Job 19:25
 Alyssa was looking at a children's book of prayers and wanted to draw a picture of the cross.

This Easter I am so grateful that there is no person, no situation, no sin, loss, illness or pain that is out of the reach of what happened that day on the cross. The sacrifice Christ made is more than enough for all of us and I rejoice in that truth.

Alyssa loves to sing a song called Healing is in Your Hands. I could type out lines of the lyrics here, but if you're not familiar with the song, you are much better off listening to Christy Nockels sing it!! It's a very powerful song. Click here to listen. I sometimes wonder if Alyssa understands the magnitude of the words she is singing, and the way she sings it out it sure sounds like she does, but the song is just an amazing message of God's incredible love.


 Emma's drawing of the empty tomb.
He is risen!


 Rebekah's Easter drawing :-)


A few photos from after church this morning...






I'll post more photos soon, Mom :-). Thank you for the cute dresses, everyone looked so nice!


Happy Easter!

Happy 8th Birthday, Emma!

Today, my most precious, middlest girl is eight. Eight is just far too big!





















I look at her now and I still think of how I went in for a scheduled doctor visit on her due date, naively thinking the doctor would suggest scheduling an induction by the end of that week (since I was due and all!). I was huge and uncomfortable and he told he me there would be no induction that week, and that I could easily go another two weeks without any concern. No, actually I cannot go another two weeks, I remember thinking frantically. She was born five days later, without the help of an induction, and while those were the longest five days ever, she was sooooo worth the wait. I remember waiting for her as if it were yesterday.


Yes, there is no way this tiny little button is eight! Eight is just too big for her!


Emma is the most easy going child and so frequently makes me feel like I've got this whole "mom thing" figured out. She's quick to obey. She's very hardworking. She's an acts of service girl, so she LOVES to help me around the house. She's an awesome little sister and maybe an even better big sister. She seems to like everyone, and she is a thoughtful friend.

It may very well be because she's in the middle, and she has Alyssa who usually gets to do things before her, and Rebekah following her every move right behind her, but Emma seems so unchanging to me. So steady, so consistent, so reliably sweet Emma. It wasn't until I scrolled through some baby pictures of her over the weekend that I realized how "eight" she really is. Because when I think of Emma, I still picture... Bringing her home from the hospital and how proud Alyssa was to be her big sister...


And how teeny tiny she was, even next to a Bitty Baby...


And I still remember how when she was a baby, she smiled with her entire face, and when she laughed, it seemed way too loud to have come out of her tiny body. She still laughs and smiles that way, it's just that she's grown into it, at least a little bit.


But here she is an eight year old (did I mention yet that 8 is just way too big for her?) and she's grown into this amazing little girl.

Eight years of silly laughs.

Eight years of following me around the house, (cleaning, cooking, doing whatever I am doing) not because she loves a good chore, but just because she loves to be under my feet.

Eight years of a sweet stubborn tendency to need to figure things out on her own.

Eight years of being the pickiest eater ever.

Eight years of working hard and playing hard.

Eight years of wearing holes in almost all her jeans and shoes.

Eight years of seeing her happy and amused with the sweetest, most simple things. Just about anything can make this girl smile.

Eight years of having our precious Emma to love...

Thank you, Emma for being such a sweet and wonderful little girl!! We are so proud of you, and so very thankful that you belong to us!! Happy 8th Birthday, Kahiwalani!! We love you so much!!

Funny Food

On April Fools Day we made a just for fun meal of "trick food." I got all these recipes from Family Fun, and threw them together last minute, so ours didn't look quite as pretty as the examples. It wasn't until I looked back at last year's post (you might want to click on this link, maybe you'll be a little more impressed with that than with my feeble attempt in this current post) that I realized how much more thought and time I put into that meal...I'll have to do better next year.
We had grilled cheese sandwiches made from pound cake slices with frosting as the melted cheese, jolly rancher gummy green beans, and french fries made from pillsbury biscuit slices rolled in sugar. I had a hard time making the cheese spill out the edges of the bread and not look like the actual frosting that it was, and our green beans didn't look as realistic and yummy as the ones on the website, but the girls still liked everything and thought it was funny.
The first thing Emma said when she saw the fake juice (jello) in the cups was, "I'm not falling for this again!" I pulled the same prank last year, and it's now a favorite. Rebekah's face in this photo just about says it all...what are you trying to feed me now?!
The girls talked about the prank food I made them last April 1st this whole past year, and that's the only reason I did another trick meal this year. I'm going to have to put a little more thought into it if I do this again next year and try to make food that is funny, but that they will actually eat too! All this stuff was so sweet that after a few bites, it was nauseating. Good thing we had pizza waiting in the wings!

Your Vote Counts!!! {and could help us greatly}

This year, WaterStone Bank in Wauwatosa is celebrating 90 years of service to its communities. In celebration of it's 90th anniversary, they are hosting a give away in which local charities have the opportunity to compete for a substantial prize. The local charity that receives the most votes from the community will be awarded $30,000. This would be a huge help to our school's budget.

I would love for you to take a few moments and vote for the German Immersion Foundation. We got a little bit of a late start, and we've got some ground to gain, but already our votes are increasing and I know our school can reach the top of the list!

To Vote, click on the link here and follow the instructions (it takes less than 30 seconds). Voting will continue until April 30th, and there is no limit on the number of votes you can cast, so please feel free to vote more than once :-). I plan to put a logo up in my sidebar that you can click on to get to the voting homepage. Thank you so much!!!

They Call Her Becky

Before she was born, we had a hard time deciding on a name for Rebekah. We didn't know whether we were expecting a boy or a girl, and the boy name came to us very easily, but a girl name required a lot more thought. By the time she was born we had it pretty much narrowed down to a few options. Rebekah was a name we had also considered for Emma, so it was definitely near the top of my list.





















Even though the decision hadn't been finalized, when Rebekah was born she looked so much like a Rebekah to me ~ that's what I started calling her. When I first said it, I think Dave was taken a little by surprise, but secretly, I know it was one of his favorite names too. The name seemed to fit her from the moment she was put in my arms, and maybe it's just because that's what we've been calling her the last four and half years, but I couldn't imagine any of our other choices for her.

My only concern with choosing Rebekah was that I always wanted her to be Rebekah, not Becky. From time to time during this school year, I have heard both of her teachers referring to her as "Becky." It was almost one of those situations where I looked around wondering if they were talking to her or someone else.


Now, I knew it was unrealistic to expect that she would never be called Becky, but I guess I thought she might make it beyond her first year of school without being given an abbreviated version of her name. Lately, it's catching on more with her classmates too, and there is one boy in the class who calls her Re-Becky.


I'm hesitant to say it, but "Becky" is growing on me a little. It sounds very endearing and kind of cute, especially when spoken with a German accent. And she responds to it, so she's either accepted the name or really doesn't mind either way. After hearing Frau Huhta call her Becky the other day, I asked Rebekah if the teacher calls her that all the time. As if I was silly for asking the question, she told me yes. I leaned in closer to her and quietly asked her what her name is and with sparkly eyes and a big smile she said "Rebekah!" That's a good girl!

Behind the Scenes at the Zoo

*I've tried posting this a few times since last Friday. I think Picassa is having some tech problems with their "blog this" button. Anyway, until they get it resolved, I may or may not post very many pics because as I was reminded by making the necessary corrections so this post would have pictures in it, it can take forever for stuff to upload the old fashion way. If I didn't already have Picassa, I would get it for their "blog this" feature alone {provided that it works :-) }*

Back to the original post:

A few weekends ago we took the girls to the "Behind the Scenes" weekend at the Zoo. We set out to see all the special exhibits that we missed last March when we came to the same event.


What's really fun about the behind the scenes days is that you get to see lots of stuff that you couldn't on a normal day. Since it's still cold, many of the animals that aren't very active during our usual visits in the Summer, are out enjoying their habitats. And because it's not crowded at all, we could get a better and longer look at all the animals which led to fun discussions of which ones would make the best pets and why. The girls were trying to make a strong case for bringing home a prairie dog.


There were also special hands on exhibits that aren't always set out on usual days. The girls loved these taxidermed animals of Wisconsin.


While visiting the zoo's animal hospital, we saw a cheetah being operated on. Because of a medical condition he has, he had some lesions that he tore at with his teeth badly enough that he needed surgery to repair them.

It bothered Rebekah a lot to see the cheetah like this, and I could understand. Seeing the surgery was kind of frightening and even somewhat gross, but there was also something very compelling about seeing this and I couldn't stop watching the procedure.


We went to the aviary and were able to see the zoo keeper's food prep area which was really gross! Not that the zoo smells all that great to begin with, but many of the behind the scenes areas smelled terrible. After describing to us in great detail all the food options on the trays in front of us and explaining how important these dead bugs, rodents, fish, and lizards are to the bird's diet, the zoo volunteer asked us if anyone in our group was considering being a bird keeper when they grew up. No one raised their hand. Emma looked around hesitantly and seeing that no one had any interest in taking care of the birds she gingerly raised her hand up to about shoulder height and reluctantly agreed to the job. Poor thing, all concerned about the birds and their disgusting food.


We saw this cute giraffe looking like she was chewing gum...


So Rebekah went outside and did her best impression.


This baby Joey was just as curious about the girls as they were of him.























Another neat place was the train yard where they store and maintain the zoo train during the Winter months. The kids ran in and out of all the empty cars and saw the engines being worked on and prepared to start running again soon. It was way off at the back of the zoo and the girls thought they were uncovering all the hidden secrets of the zoo.


It was interesting to see everything that goes on behind the scenes to care for the animals, but one thing we've learned for sure, is that the work of a zoo keeper is not for the slightly squeamish! There were a few times, particularly when we were invited into the freezers where all the food for the animals is stored, that I thought to myself that I really could have gone on enjoying visits to the zoo without ever having seen that.