BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Rena had a great day on her birthday. Here she is with her hat that her teacher made her during class.....

Here she is getting her new bike -- Jeff told her to go outside and grab the newspaper off the driveway and when she got out there she found her new bike. Unfortunately she stubbed her toe on the way out and was a little distracted when she finally made it to the driveway, but when she realized that the bike was hers and she recovered pretty quickly.....

Dinner time -- Rena picked the menu of hamburgers, fries and jello .....

Time for presents and WOW did she get a lot of nice things -- this one is from Grandma Gail and Grandpa Jim -- a doll that looks like her......

Everyone knows what Rena likes -- more baby doll stuff from The McCullough's -- another baby doll, bag and stroller......

AND from Grandpa Steve and Grandma Bonnie a new outfit.....

Now we are preparing for one more celebration on Saturday -- movie night with 10 first grade girls.....YIKES!!

IT'S RENA'S BIRTHDAY

Today, February 23rd, Rena turns 7 years old!!!!

Here were our morning celebrations -- Cameron and Maleah would not let Rena come downstairs until her surprise breakfast was ready. Cameron made the pancakes and Maleah set the table, then they made her come downstairs blindfolded (they guided her so that she didn't fall down the stairs or run into walls!).

SURPRISE -- pancakes with strawberries, whip cream and sprinkles.....

Stay tuned for more festivities tonight (and this weekend!).....

ANOTHER BEACH DAY

Since the kids were off of school on Monday we headed to the beach. We went North to Oceanside where they have a nice pier to walk out on and have a fun bigtoy for the kids.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY

I celebrated my 29th (ok, plus 10) birthday on Saturday. I got to spend the day with my dad and Bonnie, Rena and Maleah. Cameron and Jeff had a camping trip that they went on with the YMCA Adventure Club over the weekend so they missed the actual day. I had a good time celebrating, though. We started the day with doughnuts and coffee and then went out to eat at Red Robin followed by a movie. Bonnie took the girls to a kids movie and dad and I went to an "R" rated movie -- haven't been to one of those in a theatre in awhile -- it's usually all "G" in my life! :)

Here we are at Red Robin with our sundae deserts......Rena got one too to celebrate her upcoming b-day.....

After the movie we headed home for cake and ice-cream......and some leftover movie theatre popcorn! :)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

We had a fun Valentine's Day around here. The day started off with some goodies.....pillow-pet pee-wee's for everyone, Captain Underpants for Cameron, a new flower headband for Maleah and a new hat for Rena. Of course, there was some candy and gum thrown in there also!!

Maleah actually didn't have a pee-wee pillow pet first thing in the morning -- (long story, but here goes)..... I went to Target to get them on Sunday night and, of course, (because I waited until Sunday), they only had 2 left. I went to two Targets and Jeff went to one and there were no more pee-wee's to be bought in the city of Carlsbad. Soooooo, on Monday morning when they were opening their goody bags I told Maleah that I would take her to the mall later in the day so that she could pick out the pillow pet that she wanted. Luckily, the stand at the mall was open and they did have pee-wee's to choose from. She ended up with this cute little lady bug and was very happy at the end of the day. (I also loaded her bag in the morning with a few extra goodies to make up for her not having the pillow-pet to open!) Here are Maleah and Rena with their pillow pet pee-wee's at the mall.....

A VISIT FROM GRANDMA LYNNE

We had a fun time this past weekend visiting with Grandma Lynne. She flew in on Friday afternoon and stayed with us until Monday afternoon. We didn't do anything too exciting, but we did make it to the beach for a fun afternoon.....

"TAG" is the game we always end up playing while at the beach.....

Here I was "IT" and they all thought they were so funny because they knew I wouldn't come out into the water to get them. And, they were right -- it was a nice day, but that water was still cold!!!! I figured they had to come in eventually.....

The kids are still getting use out of their snow shovels.....

Here's Rena relaxing in the sun with her root beer. This is my kind of fun at the beach.....

Monday afternoon arrived quickly and we all headed to the airport. The girls were big helpers with the suitcases.....

VALENTINE CELEBRATIONS

Today I got to go into both Maleah's and Rena's classrooms for Valentine Celebrations.

Maleah's class did "stations" and I got to work the station where they made these big heart necklaces. It's really fun for me to go into Maleah's classroom and see her with her own friends. Up until this point she has always just been friends with whoever Cameron & Rena had over. Now she's making her own friends and she is doing really good in school!

Passing out her Valentine's into her friend's bags.....

The whole class (looking right into the sun!).....

Rena's class had a Valentine's Day brunch at lunch time. Maleah and I both went to it when Maleah got out of school. They had waffles with syrup, whip cream and sprinkles, bacon, sausage, muffins, gogurts, fruit and orange juice. It was really fun and the kids had a great time.....

I didn't get to go into Cameron's class because they didn't really have a party. They decorated boxes and passed out Valentine's, but there was no need for parent volunteers. He had a fun day, though! Now a long weekend......what will we do until Tuesday???

VISITING THE POLICE STATION

Rena's Daisy group made a visit to the police station on Monday afternoon to deliver Valentine's Day Cards that they made for the police officers. Rena had a good time and earned 2 daisy petals and a special police station patch.

I think Cameron actually may have enjoyed the visit more than any of the girls. He, of course, thought that the motorcycle was the coolest.....

Maleah had fun too, but was not half as impressed as Cameron was.....

COOKIES FOR SALE

Sunday morning at 9:00 am marked the official start of Girl Scout Cookie season! Right after church Rena loaded up the wagon and we headed out around the neighborhood. She did pretty good for the short time that we were out -- 29 boxes sold.....not including the 3 that we bought.....

This is Rena's Daisy group at their first meeting last week.....

WE HAVE A DAISY

Rena has joined the Girls Scouts and is now a Daisy! We got her vest on Friday so that she would be all ready for her first meeting on Monday afternoon. She has already learned The Girl Scout Promise to earn the center of her Daisy and can't wait to start earning the Daisy Petals for her vest. The first project is making and delivering Valentines Day Cards to the Carlsbad Police Station -- she'll earn a petal for "respect authority" and for being "considerate and caring".

So, the vest, of course, came blank and we had to buy and iron the patches on. Even though they are easy iron-on patches I was a little concerned about getting them on correctly.....and without ruining the vest. After Rena asked about 100 times, I finally pulled out the iron. I started with the flag and worked my way down to the troop number. I thought I did pretty darn good until I showed it to Rena and she said, "OH, it looks good mommy. No one will notice that the flag isn't on straight".

And then.....Jeff walks into the kitchen and about has a heart attack while saying....."What is that? The iron? You're ironing?" I guess he hasn't seen it lately -- I seem to be better at running to the dry cleaners than getting out my own iron! :) This is a rare sight in our house.....