It's Great To Be Eight!

Happy Birthday, Erica Nicole!

We celebrated Erica's 8th Birthday on May 20th. Here she is with her choice of breakfast - pancakes, bacon and eggs!

We went out to buy her a new Webkinz doll, a gift from Grandma Louise.

Jumping for joy into the pool at swimming lessons!

Then, we all had pedicures and manicures in her honor.

Her American Girl Doll arrived from the doll hospital! She is all cleaned up and healthy now!

Dinner at Red Robin with Grandma and Grandpa!

The theme for her actual birthday party was "It's Great to be 8!" Can you tell that the cake is in the shape of an 8?

The party started with each girl receiving a jumprope. They had fun jumping both at the beginning and the end of the party!

Then it was time for indoor fun. We taught the kids to play "Crazy Eights!"

Then we played a memory game. Erica chose eight things to put on a tray. After looking at the tray for a minute, the girls tried to remember as many items as possible.

Twister (with 8 feet starting at a time!)

Chubby Bunny - the max was 4 marshmallows. I was hoping to see if someone could fit 8 of them into their mouths!

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Awards and Performances!

Our three oldest children received awards at Awana on Wednesday, May 6th.

Caroline finished her first Cubbies book!

Kyle completed his second Cubbies book and moves on to Sparks!
The little Cubbies sang a cute song. I love how no one is doing the same movement! I love preschoolers! Congratulations Kyle and Caroline!

Erica is now a TnTer! She completed three years of Sparks! Well done, Erica!

Trevor was having fun in the nursery while all this was taking place!

A few days later, Erica and Kyle performed in their Kid's Praise Choir's performance of "Get Down!"

Here's Kyle on the bottom row in the yellow shirt.

Along with singing, Erica was given a special ballet part to the show!

Grandma and Grandpa had only been here one day, and already we were wearing them out!

A Piercing Day! April 30th

Erica received an early birthday present! She had recently been talking about wanting her ears pierced for her birthday, but we knew if we waited until her actual day (May 20th), she wouldn't be able to remove them for six weeks. She would have to remove them for her big ballet performance in mid- June, so we decided to go ahead and get them done while we were already at the mall! Plus, I wasn't sure that she'd still be interested and willing to do it if we waited!

Here we are, choosing the earrings!

Checking out the ear piercer (with Trevor in the mirror!)...

She's still all smiles!

Other side!

I've been extremely proud of Erica, as she has taken responsibility to clean her ears and turn the earrings twice daily!

Beautiful girl!

Curious George at the Children's Museum!

We surprised the kids with a trip to the Children's Museum last weekend. We wanted to enjoy the Curious George exhibit before it leaves in May!

George's bike!

Here we are eating in the Mexican restaurant. The kids love to pretend here!
3 - 2 - 1 Blast Off!

Here's Caroline - turning the conveyor belt.

Trevor loves to go shopping!

We hung out at the International Fountain and played for a little bit. Trevor was fascinated by all the water! Daddy was drenched by the water at one point!

From there, we walked over to Dick's Drive In for some burgers for dinner. We prefer In 'n Out anyday to Dick's, but I think some locals might disagree.

Take Your Child to Work Day - April 23rd

Thursday, April 23rd was "Take Your Child to Work Day." This was the first year that Erica went to work with Daddy for a good part of the day!

In order to teach the children about the work of World Vision, children were chosen to come up front to represent characters in a story that taught that we all can be used to change the world. (Erica is in the pink dress in the middle.)

Next, she helped to assemble hundreds of backpacks filled with school supplies and personal care items for orphans in Zambia.
Each backpack contained a handwritten, personal note from the child who filled it.