Home Sky Feather

Backing up a bit here to June, I wanted to share photos from Rebekah's end of the year first grade field trip to Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary. I never knew there was a place like this so close to where we live. The animals were amazing, it was a really neat day.

The guide gave the kids a short introduction to some of the things we were going to see, then sent them outside for a little playtime.

It was fun to see the imaginative play that went on when the kids were dropped into the forest with just a few basic toys and told to "go play."

Then it was time to see all the animal habitats at the sanctuary.

This baby deer was the most precious thing! It could not have been more than a couple days old, it's legs were all wobbly as it walked around.

Beautiful horses.

This poor guy was rescued by the sanctuary. He was found by some people when he was just a kitten and they decided to make him a pet. They de-clawed him which essentially assured his inability to survive out in his natural habitat. As he got bigger the people realized that he could not be easily domesticated despite their efforts, and they turned him loose. Fortunately he was found and brought to Shalom before any harm could come to him, he will however, never live outside the sanctuary.

Buffalo in their pasture.

This is their oldest and the leader of the buffalo herd. I think our guide called him Bob. Each of the animals had a very large enclosure for their habitat. It is very much like being in the wilderness there, as close to their natural home as possible. You'll notice in many of the photos the animals are approaching the fence and this is because they know when they hear the tour wagon coming through that they are going to be fed.

What does the baby fox say? I learned on this field trip that foxes are known for their loyalty.

Yep, that's Rebekah willingly holding a skunk tail to the back of her head.

At the end of the day, our guide passed around a basket, explaining that each of the kids was going to be given an Indian name at the conclusion of their adventure at Shalom. He asked the kids to feel around in the basket where they would find bags of rocks that each had a name and meaning included within. He said one of the rocks would feel right in their hand and that is the one the kids should take as their new name.

Rebekah chose the name "Home Sky Feather" which is a pigeon. Now I have to admit, I have never thought of birds in a very affectionate way, and my initial response was along the lines of, Pigeon? That's kinda yucky. But then I read the meaning of the name and I warmed up to it...and right away I thought of my mother in law, knowing she would love the meaning behind the name. The meaning on the card said: Pigeon- It knows how to find it's way back home, no matter how far it has gone. They help us to remember and find the love of home that we have moved away from or lost. They are the only bird that can drink by sucking water up into their beaks. This indicates their ability to draw on the love of home no matter how distant. - "Home Sky Feather"

Scenes from a Lively Weekend

Two weekends ago we had a really busy weekend planned, when it suddenly got a lot busier as Emma invited four of her friends and teammates to sleepover the night before Rebekah's birthday party. I almost thought I was losing my mind when I agreed to it, but the girls had important things planned that I didn't want to stand in the way of. Emma's sleepover turned out to be a great time of team bonding. They made and decorated super girl capes out of an old bed sheet that Alyssa had already cut apart for a classroom project, and they woke up bright and early to run a 5K race hosted by our church that would benefit Speed The Light. Speed the Light is an awesome youth driven organization that helps support the needs of missionaries worldwide. One of their goals for this race was to raise funds towards the purchase of a vehicle for a missionary in Laos. So like I said, all very important, very fun stuff!

This was taken before the race as they filled out their registration forms. I enjoy watching these girls work together. On a daily basis I see them working hard together, encouraging one another, helping each other out and definitely making each other better.

A funny note about the race, and when I say funny, I am realistic that you may have needed to be there to find this as funny as I did...Just before the half way point of the race a group of 4 men who I knew to be running together just ahead of me came running back in my direction. Apparently we had missed a turn a block or so back. One of the guys, who has played Jesus multiple times in our church's musicals was running back to make the course correction enthusiastically shouting, "God allows U-Turns!!" The next morning during Sunday service our pastor {who did not see or hear this happen} said something very similar as he gave the message and Alyssa and I looked over to the man who said this the previous day and saw him smiling ear to ear with a hand raised heavenward in victory. It was great.

Alyssa and her singing teacher, Miss Alissa after the race. Alyssa planned to walk the race, but her competitive drive kicked in a bit when she saw others running. She did great, finishing at a way faster pace than I think even she expected. Emma was the first female finisher of the race, one of her teammates was the third and I was spurred on to a fourth place finish by the thought that Emma may have gotten lost back at our U-Turn. I saw Emma's teammate after that point and knew Anastasia was still on track, but all I knew was Emma was ahead of me and I never saw her during the second half of the race. She was following a teenage boy who had a map, resourceful girl :-)

After the race we headed to the gym for a three hour practice. The girls couldn't believe they had already run three miles before it was time for their practice to begin.

And then came Rebekah's long awaited for birthday party...

It was a little wild and crazy at moments, and we almost forgot to play "Pin the Trunk on the Elephant," but I am pretty sure she loved every minute of running around and playing with her friends.

Rebekah was very particular about the details of the party. None of her plans were anything super fancy or over the top difficult to pull off, but I loved how she knew exactly what she wanted from the piñata to making homemade ice cream and the games she wanted to play. We are always out of town on her actual birthday in August, so getting friends together for a party is often challenging. I hope {and I think it was} everything she wanted.

The kids loved the silly string, which I probably could have guessed beforehand that they would. Just a note to double our silly string purchase next time.

The paint that was meant for painting pumpkins was used to make a trail of handprints on the driveway. Two weeks and some rain later, they are as bright and colorful as ever. They did in fact get around to painting the pumpkins too, but I think these handprints will likely last longer.

Rebekah with many of her sweet friends.

By the time everyone went home, it had been well over 36 hours of non-stop activities and friends. It was fun, an exhausting kind of fun, but wonderful fun nonetheless.

A Pretty Awesome Life

Some photos from a recent trip to a family museum in Rockford, Illinois:

The museum was running a special travelling exhibit about pirates. The girls made their hats along with treasure maps, pirate flags and other fun things.


Train Conductor, Alyssa.

Veterinarian Duckie.

Multi-sport athlete, Emma.


Panning for "gold."

Alyssa and Rebekah were fascinated with the TV News channel they had set up there, they loved doing their version of the news. I think I see some future weather girls.

When they finally turned the studio over to Emma, I was expecting her to have a turn at some news stories. Instead, they put in this crazy background slide for her. Being her usual go-with-the-flow self, Emma giggled and pretended to bathe.

The longer we stayed there, the more absurd the news coverage became. Poor Alyssa here is trying to run a legitimate newscast and Rebekah just wants to smile and wave and throw kisses to the camera.



They had a really neat outdoor play area too.


Last week, I was proofreading a paper Emma had to write telling all about herself and I loved the first paragraph. It warmed my heart:

Hi, my name is Emma Sachs. I am 10 years old. I was born April 12, 2003. I live in -----, Wisconsin. If you don’t know where that is, it is south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I live with my mom, dad and two sisters, in a very nice and peaceful neighborhood. I also have a gecko. My life is pretty awesome.

Such a sweetie. We think she's pretty awesome too :-).

And speaking of awesome, Rebekah is having a belated birthday party here at home on Saturday. Anyone who knows my husband knows that Saturdays in fall are College Football Saturdays. ALL.Day.Long. In planning for this party, we assumed Iowa would be playing an 11am game, possibly, but less likely, an evening game. Well it turns out, now that we have scheduled a party for 2-5pm, they play at 2:30 pm. Just in time for 12-15 little girls to be jumping with reckless abandon in the purple princess castle bouncy house we'll have. Dave was already on the fence as to how much princess bouncy house fun was just too much, and when he saw the schedule for the game he said, "I'll just have to leave my car on the street. And if I have to leave, I have to leave." Awesome. Be thinking about him during the game.

Where does the time go? An attempt at an update...

Hi, it has been such a while since I've posted that the format of flickr {where I upload my photos so I can get them posted here} has changed slightly. I kinda had to click here, click there to re-familiarize myself with what I was doing, and it was just a funny reminder of how quickly things change. I regret that I have gotten so far behind in writing anything here, but I can't say I regret having a mostly computer free summer. I am reluctant to give up on the 365 photos, but it seems that whenever I try to back track and share photos from weeks ago, is when I fall even further behind. So while I will likely share photos from over the summer at some point, I am not sure yet how detailed and thorough I will be with actually trying to "catch up" on summer.

We are two weeks into the school year, so some first day of school photos seem in order...

The girls were so proud of their new backpacks, thank you G&G! Ka'iulani found the perfect peacock feather pattern, and the baby had been talking about a Hello Kitty backpack for a couple of days when Grandma surprised her with one. The girls decorated them with pins from our summer vacation to Disney, so I would say they are complete!

I cannot believe she is in her final year of middle school! Alyssa recently found out she is cast again in A Christmas Carol at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. We are so proud of her and gearing up for that busy season!

She spent the summer outgrowing every pair of shoes she owns, even skipping over entire sizes and she is just barely shorter than me now. We're talking like less than half an inch...I'm hanging on to my height advantage as long as I can, but I am afraid my days as the tallest lady in the house are numbered.

And this one is in her last year of elementary school...seriously, someone teach me how to slow down time. After spending most of last school year dreaming about her 5th grade year in which she was certain she would have {and love} the same 5th grade teacher Alyssa had, Emma ended up with a teacher that is brand new to our school this year. I don't think she has ever been so excited about a teacher before! Her new teacher is diabetic and she came home the first day of school a brand new expert on diabetes, telling me everything from her new teacher's health history to healthy glucose ranges to how he tests his blood sugar, his current blood sugar levels that day in class, what to do if something ever happened etc. I think it is going to be a great year for her, and I am thankful she ended up in the class she did.

This little one is off to a good start in second grade. She must be having a growth spurt too because she is finally looking at least a tiny bit bigger than the new K4 and K5 students who are just starting school. Rebekah has the same teacher Alyssa had when she was a fourth grader, and this is our first time having the same teacher for more than one of our girls. He was a wonderful teacher for Alyssa and we know Rebekah will learn a lot this year!

She turned 7 on August 16th, and her favorite thing to tell A and E now is, "I'm not six anymore, I am seven now, and I know stuff!"

A photo from the second day of school.

Waiting for their morning bus, which two weeks into the year is still at least 20 minutes late every morning.

Dave had to get a new car in June, and the old blue one stood parked in our driveway for most of the summer because he was having a hard time wanting to get rid of it. It was the first car he had ever bought, and we have driven all over various parts of the country with it, so even though it wasn't worth anything anymore, it still held sentimental value. It's gone now, but at one point Emma suggested we dig a hole in the yard and put the car half in the ground, half sticking out so we could enjoy it as a yard ornament forever. Thankfully, the idea didn't sound wonderful to Dave, or else I would have a picture of that to share.

Instead I have documentation of the first time I have ever worked a lawn mower ~ EVER! I wanted Dave to have time to attend an event for the girls' school this evening, and I figured I knew how to vacuum, so how much different could this be? It wasn't really as terrible a job as I have made it out to be all these years, but I am grateful that Dave does it every week instead of me :-).

And here are the girls last Friday morning, our first chilly morning of the school year. It was like fall suddenly came in and flipped the switch to cool. But it gave the girls an opportunity to wear their cute, new sweaters from Grandmommy and Granddaddy, thank you so much! They are from littlemissmatched, a store that Emma fell in love with at Downtown Disney {her first day of school outfit from the photos above is from there too. it's reversible which ranks high in her outfit selection criteria}.

I hope everyone is enjoying a good start to a new school year. And with this update I assure everyone who has asked me, that no, despite my last posts in July (that were about things that happened in May), I have not abandoned this little blog.

Miscellaneous May Photos

As I went through photos from May, there were several that either didn't fit in with any previous post, or got lost in the shuffle. What follows is patchwork summary of some May events ~

Photo 155 of 365, taken May 8th:

Emma's piano recital, 2013. I miss her piano recital every year because it is always scheduled for a Wednesday night {when I teach at church}, despite asking her teacher to do it on another day. But she did great, I was able to see the video, and I hear her play at home all the time. One of her favorite songs to practice this year was "Money Can't Buy Everything."

Emma and Ava after the recital.


These are a few pics from our yummy Mother's Day brunch at Café Centraal. It was our first time eating there and we loved it! The girls were especially pleased with the homemade donuts, and Alyssa was impressed with the huge variety of teas they have.


Rebekah looks forward to playing on the tot lot outside Alyssa's singing lesson when the weather is nice. It's different than the playground at school and she is getting really confident with the monkey bars.

Photo 156 of 365, taken May 19th:

Dave and I won {or I should say I won, because he couldn't believe I even bid on it} tickets to a Murder Mystery Dinner Event at our school's auction in April. So we went and it was super cheesy, but lots of fun too. Here we are pictured as the class of 1957 Prom King and Queen, suspects in our murder mystery.

Photo 157 of 365, taken May 27th:

Our first parade of the summer season was kind of a bust, it felt more like Halloween than Memorial Day with the occasional cold drizzles and wind.

There were lots of umbrella covered and blanket wrapped gymnasts, but all the kids made the best of it and seemed to have a lot of fun despite being chilly. Emma was only kind of giving me a heart attack as she did aerial cartwheels on a wet slippery road.

Photo 158 of 365, taken May 29th:

At the local district level of the Hershey Track Meet, Emma won the long jump, advancing to the next sectional meet. She took second in the 50m as well. In an effort not to miss church that night, Emma chose to run the 50 as opposed to a longer distance race occurring later in the evening. She enjoyed it!