That Time Again

I think we've experienced the Almond Blossom Festival is every type of weather now.  We've been when it's hot and sunny and come home with a touch of sunburn.  We've been on gorgeous, just perfect spring days.  We've sat through it under an umbrella in the rain.  And today we bundled up and shivered through what has been the coldest we've been all year (temp this morning was 30 something).  No matter!  You know we always enjoy this festival regardless of the weather.

Once again, Dave ran in the Almond Blossom Race.  This year he did both the mile and the 8K.  The above picture shows Dave, far left in white, about to cross the 8K finish line with a final time of 42:53.  After the half-marathon, he decided to switch things up and focus more on speed rather than length in his runs.  His goal for the mile run was to place...

And he did!  He came in 6th overall and 2nd in his age group, earning a silver medal at the awards ceremony!  I'm impressed that he sprinted a mile in record time (6:17) and then ran the 8K just 20 minutes later.  The girls brought their hand bells and cheerfully rang each of the runners in on the home stretch.  This year it was fun to cheer on our good friend Arend, who was running his first race ever.  He killed it, coming in 4 whole minutes ahead of his goal!

We were feeling kinda frozen, but the hike along the parade route, some warm drinks, a spot in the sun and the company of friends warmed us up.  Nothing really new to report about this year's parade.  Ella's favorite was the princesses, Delia liked the horses. 

Coming soon...pictures of the girls in the blossoms!

Yesterday's Gift

It's known to all who caught my posts over Christmas, that when Anna and Heather were here, we had a fabulous time together.  You don't know that Anna had just gotten a new Flip camera and took several hours of footage of our fun times, though.  Yesterday I laughed and cried when I viewed, for the first time, the clip compilation Anna edited together for us.  Isn't she talented?  You're familiar with my crazy need to preserve our family's memories; I don't think I could have received a greater gift! 

  

I'm excited to share and show off the video, so watch and enjoy!  A few warnings: It does have sound (in case you're watching at work). When I plopped it on the blog, it lost a lot of its quality, especially if you open it in full screen.  It takes up a fair amount of space, so I may not leave it up here forever.  And it may make you covet my awesome family! :)   

Going Bananas

For today's day off, we had promised the girls a fun family day.  We decided to go to one of those bouncy house places.  We knew this would be a super treat for Ella, but we also knew it would be a source of fear for Delia, who has yet to warm up to these large and loud monsters.  Sure enough, as soon as we walked in, Ella took off and Delia clung to Dave, shaking and refusing to try anything.  Jumping, bouncing, climbing and acting like a monkey are Delia's passions, we've never understood this fear!  Dave gently coaxed Delia to just bounce on the side, holding his hands.

Then he convinced Delia to just peek inside one of the bouncy houses to watch Ella.  She protested, but after getting just her head inside, decided to go all the way.  Once inside, she knocked us over with surprise when she quickly declared, "I like it now!"  For the next 2 hours she ran to each bouncy house and, indeed, went bananas.  Nothing was too big and scary for her-- not the obstacle course, not the giant slide, not the ball pit, not even the king-of-the-mountain.  At home, she keeps asking me when we can go back and saying, "I loved it! I loved it! I loved it!"

The girls wore themselves out.  Dave and I had hoped to show at least Ella a good time on her day off.  We would have never dreamed Delia's life-long fear of bouncy houses would be cured just like that today! 

Thank you God for Friends

This weekend we had the great pleasure of hosting our very good friends the Gilmores on Saturday and Sunday.  As is always the case, we watch our kids exhaust themselves with imaginative play, share good food and discuss what lessons God is teaching us in the current season of life.  This time we actually snuck a game in too!  Though there is no shortage of pictures of Dorina and I, I'm realizing I focused my picture taking on just the girls for this visit.

Ella, Meilani, Delia and Giada line up in age 5, 4, 3 and 2.  When these girls get together, laughter is shrieked, dress up gowns are worn, forts are built, toys are flung about and new worlds are created.  It gives me such great joy to see how well they get along. 

Baby Giada is not such a baby anymore.  One of my favorite parts of our friends' visit was getting to know this sweet 2-year-old better.  She's talking clearly and tries tirelessly to keep up with the big girls.  Ella was kind to spend lots of time reading to her.

After church, we took Ericlee, Dorina and the girls to our favorite local spot.  We fed some animals, played around the pond and sent them home with a wheel of Gouda cheese.

How the girls still had energy after all the weekend's hard play and the shortage of rest during their bunk bed sleepover, I have no idea.  For an hour they ran, yep ran, around the wooden park, escaping alligators, finding secret messages and being princesses.

While Dorina and Ericlee wait for details to come together for their move to Haiti, they find lessons to learn from God in this season of waiting.  I was blessed to hear how this wait makes them no less enthusiastic nor more frustrated.  Instead, they seek how God wants to use this time to shape and mold them before they leave to begin their ministry.  Dorina shared the journey of gratitude she's been on and the list of 1000 gifts she's been writing.  On Sunday she wrote this: "Blessed by so many gifts: Creamy wild rice soup, organist playing our theme song in church, an amazing wheel of Gouda cheese straight from the makers, goodbye tears of a sweet 5-year-old, moon glowing orange and low welcoming us home." 

It's Like Project Runway Around Here

Anyone else play with Fashion Plates when they were little?  I remember love, love, loving this toy and creating entire catalogs of ensembles when I was a kid.  So, I was super excited when an online search led me to this modern, mini-version of it for Ella.  She received it for Valentine's Day and, sure enough, has become quickly enamoured, spending hours shuffling the plates around to design different outfits.  Sometimes she even lets her nostalgic mom take a turn!

Cheer Camp

On Saturday, Ella spent several hours at Cheer Camp.  Anyone who knows her and her love for performing and doing girly stuff, will understand why she said Saturday was her "perfect day."  The girls played a bunch of interactive games, learned cheers from our school's Varsity Cheerleaders and tried to master the choreography to a half-time dance number.  I didn't see it, but another mom told me about Ella's hilarious turn in the big dance circle.  They had to tag each other to go in the center and strut their stuff.  When I asked her about it, she told me she demonstrated her "sprinkler" and "booty shaking" moves!

The girls learning some cheers.

Practicing the dance number.

The big finish to the dance number.  Ella is so small, we were afraid she'd be thrown around and used as a prop.  You'll actually find her just laying cute in the front with the other little ones.

At tonight's basketball game, all the girls from Cheer Camp put on their matching shirts and performed at half time.  Ella did Cheer Camp to be with her buddy Chloe.  These two were so cute hugging and dancing in the bleachers together.

The whole group.

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And here's a video of the routine.  It's mostly focused on Ella, who's just a beat or two behind everyone else. :)

This was a super fun night: all the little cheerleaders bursting with excitement, the bleachers packed with camera-holding parents, Delia getting down to the pep band and wins for our basketball teams.  It couldn't end any other way than with some $1 scoops!

Happy Valentine's!

Once again, our Valentine's Day has been jam-packed with special goodies and the spoils of loved ones. Indulgences have included lovey-dovey cards, blueberry/pomegranate smoothies, butternut squash ravioli, red velvet cake, a dozen pink tulips, a chat with birthday-nephew Theoren, a package from Grandpa and class Valentine parties. 

I set up Amy's 11 clue, through the house scavenger hunt for the girls again.  This year it was fun to hear Ella read the clues mostly herself and watch Delia race to where she thought the clue was leading.  This is such a great way to treat your kids on Valentine's Day and make them work for those treasures!  I highly recommend it!  If you want to try it and need the clues, look back at the four I posted last year, add the four I'll show this year and come back next year for the final three! (Or email/message me :)

"Washing and rinsing is what we do here.  You love the bubbles.  What surprise will be near?"

"Love you! Love you! Love you! That's all I can say.  It's now time to look in the spot where you lay."

"Flowers and chocolate remind us of today.  Go find the place where you like to play."

"Mom's in here a lot 'cause you get pretty dirty, washing and drying your clothes in a hurry."

Wishing you all a Happy Valentine's Day and an abundance of people in your life to love!

Sweet 16

If my relationship with my husband were a person, yesterday it would have gotten its driver's license!

I was thinking of writing a sappy post, reminiscing all the details of that first date on February 11, 1995, but it's nothing I haven't said before.  All relationships have to start somewhere: some at HiCamp, some on an airplane, some in a pew at church, some on the long trip down to a service project, some through a mutual friend.  Ours just happens to start in a high school government class. 

Yesterday we showed our girls the pictures of Mommy and Daddy going to the Homecoming Dance.  Delia tried on the little black dress I wore.  Ella pretended to be grossed out when we kissed.  We dressed up and celebrated with a nice dinner out, thanks to a generous gift card from Anna! 

I'm left marveling at a God who orchestrates every detail of our lives.  A God who sits the person you are meant to spend the rest of your life with in a desk right in front of you.  A good God who then smiles, watching two teenagers flirt and knowing the life that is to come.

"Go Play Outside."

Seven pictures.  Seven days of sunshine and 70's!

And one helpful link in case you'd like to escape your negative degrees, remedy your Vitamin D deficiency and come visit! :)

The Next Flower Girl

It's strange for me to realize that Ella was exactly Delia's age when she was the flower girl in Sarah's wedding two years ago.  Now this ultimate princess gown is getting more attention from Delia, who's been very into dressing up lately.  Ella won't let it go without a fight, though.  It's a size 2T and she can still squeeze herself into it!  I would have never imagined the miles we'd get out of this thing!

Weed Busters

This weekend we saw our thermostat hit 70, so we turned off the heat, opened a few windows and spent the entirety of yesterday working outside.  Is spring actually here already?  I thought we'd have to wait until at least Valentine's Day! :)

(Another thing I did this weekend was fix the site feed option on this blog.  A while ago I found a stranger following us, so I freaked out and tightened up our privacy settings.  Hopefully this will allow you to see our updates on your own blog or in your Google Reader again!) 

Heart Creatures

I was doing a routine search for some Valentine's Day themed coloring pages when I stumbled onto these pictures of animals made almost entirely out of hearts and a new craft idea was born.  First,  we cut out colored hearts in small, medium and large sizes.  Then, we used those coloring pages as templates to make our own heart creatures.  Ella had a school friend over yesterday afternoon and they had a great time putting these guys together.  Just thought I'd pass the idea along for anyone else looking for a cute and easy Valentine's Day project!



So What Did YOU Do this Afternoon? :)

Evidently there is a little "weather" affecting our loved ones back home.  In honor of the Facebook status I've read 200 times today ("Snow Day!!"), I thought I show you what our day looked like.  Ella was telling us about "the warthog who will pull his shadow out tomorrow to see if winter will stretch out or spring will start" and I just have to marvel at our different perspective on this.  While we ready ourselves for spring, almost everyone else we know presently braces themselves for the blizzard of the century!

After an hour of speedy bike riding around the church parking lot, Delia cracked me up when she announced, "Okay I just want to run now!" and took off  fueled with the endless energy supply she seems to possess.

Our forecast is sunny and 60's all week!