Happy 30th Birthday Mike

Mike's 30th Birthday may not have been exactly what we had in mind. Rachel asked where his friends were and said he needed more presents.  But he did have an awesome cake if I do say so myself

 But I wasn't the only one 

 I have a guess what he might have wished for.

Cake

These pictures are older we just got them from Papa Keith. Back in November we cheated Thanksgiving and went to Claim Jumper with Wendy and Keith.  Mike doesn't eat pie and the girls wanted cake so that's what they got and more.

They were happy girls.  Their eyes lit up when they saw it and dove right in. The girls ate most of what you see gone we each had a bite because we were watching them inhale the chocolate cake. 

Home at Last!

After four long days, we finally got to bring Rachel home. I don't think anyone was more happy than she was. This is her super happy, super tired, finally home from the hospital smile at about 12:30 last night.

YAY!

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This morning I woke up tired in another city. I hadn't gotten much sleep. I never sleep that well in hotels anyway, but last night was different.

Last night, apparently, was the night before today, which means it was no good.

I'm out of town for whole week of corporate training. The training is like training always is - you know, training - plus I'm distracted. Shelly took Rachel to the doctor this morning. "Nothing to worry about it's just a comfort checkup, nothing's wrong," I tell myself, trying to focus on the training.

Rachel has been a little tired lately-she must be growing.
She had a few nosebleeds last week that were a little tougher than usual to stop-the weather's been dry and windy.
She threw up last weekend-it was just once, must have been something she ate.
She's been looking pale-but she's perfectly happy, just like normal.

"I'm sure it's just be some illness or another and some antibiotics will fix it. No problem. No need to worry. It'll be a quick, easy visit."

But it isn't. The doctor says her hemoglobin is low. She'll need to see a specialist to run a few more tests.

"No problem. No need to worry. This is to rule out the worst case."

But it doesn't. The specialist is almost sure - Leukemia. And my heart breaks.

I change my flight; I'm coming home, today. All I can think about is my poor little sick girl, and the unknowns that lay ahead. I sit for two hours in the airport waiting for my flight pressed by the questions that linger and the weight of the news. Behind me a family sits down, their two small girls happily playing among the terminal seats without a care in the world, and I'm more than a little jealous. That was me, yesterday.

The flight finally arrives back in Las Vegas and my sister picks me up. There's an tangible, heavy silence in the air so somehow we force a conversation about who-knows-what. Finally, after navigating the maze of dreary hospital hallways we arrive at room 4017.

I see Shelly-who's handled today like a champ-I never cease to be amazed by her. I give Rachel a long hug expecting her to understand the gravity of the situation, expecting her to cry like I want to, expecting her be in pain.

But she's not - not any of those things.

She's perfectly fine sitting among her tubes and wires. She's watching a movie about a girl that turns into a bear and I'm in the way, blocking her view. She got a new mermaid castle and a new doll! She's happy to see her dad, happy that I'm back home.

Me too.

Tonight I'm sleeping in a hospital; I never sleep well in hospitals, but tonight will be different. Tonight, is the night before tomorrow, and tomorrow will be okay. We'll be okay.

Mother Goose

After a preschool lesson based on Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes I was feeling nostalgic for the Mother Goose movie I grew up watching.  I called my mom to see if by some miracle after all these years and 3/4 moves she might still have it.  She said she'd look and then the next day she said the dvd was on it's way.  I can't tell you how excited I am to have this!  I can still hear the way they say the rhymes and I think it's because of this particular movie I still have many of them memorized.

A told my girls that Grandma Donna was sending us a new movie and at least once a day until it arrived they asked to check the mail.  The day arrived that it was in the mailbox and with excitement we sat down to watch it.  It was exactly as I remembered.  As the movie is from 1987 I didn't remember seeing the cord that lifts Jack over the candlestick and other things that make you remember your childhood like the puppets.

I found other websites that have more clips but I didn't know how to put it on here. Like this one that includes one of my favorites "Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket" and you can meet the gander.  As I was looking for one to put on here both of my girls stopped to watch.  I'm happy that my girls can learn to love the classic nursery rhymes too. Their favorite is Little Miss Muffet. 

My 2 Girls

A couple Sundays ago the difference in personalities between my two girls was so apparent.  Ashley was practicing kicking a ball around the house while Rachel was coloring.  Mike took the girls outside and we set up a "goal" for her to try and kick it in. Rachel wanted to go out too.  In my mind she was going to go play.  Nope!

Ashley and Daddy played

Rachel drew and kept score

Eventually Rachel did go kick the ball a couple times and played goalie. Only because she loves her dad and wanted to play with him not because she was excited to play soccer.



Ashley is our active one who runs all day.  She'll stop to color but for a few minutes at a time.  Rachel already wants to be an artist and loves to paint, draw, color, and do crafts.  As different as their interest are they are friends and somehow manage to play for hours together without needing mom or dad.

Farm Theme

We had a fun morning learning about farms. We talked about the work that needs to be done and the equipment they needed to use.

We helped the farmer sort the animals. Farm animals we put in the barn for safety and the others were left out.

We die a roll-a-die graph to see how many animals the farmer had

We helped the farmer put the sheep back in their pens using tweezers.

Ashley still has trouble using tweezers, but she always tries.

She opted for her fingers.

But a farm doesn't only have animals so we sorted opened eggs (just because the girls love them) to see what was in it.

And sorted plants vs animals

We then talked about how somethings the farm produces stays at the farm and others go to a market. We did 2 worksheets to help a farmer get ready for the market by coloring a certain number of each fruit or vegetable and the other one had them put the same fruits and vegetables put into a basket by beginning letter sound. When we were finished Ashley excitedly said, "I did it, I helped the farmer!"

We used a puzzle to learn what animals on a farm produce.

Now that we learned about being farmers it was their turn to try being a farmer by going through an obstacle course.

1st we had to feed the pigs by moving a ball to another bucket.

Then they got on their horse (which actually belonged to Mike as a kid)

and rounded up the sheep (the balls)

Next it was time to lasso a cow (the bottle)

and lastly go in the hen house and collect eggs.

Our final activity for the morning was making homemade butter.

They got tired of shaking so I put on music so they could dance and shake

Here's our butter.

Here's the girls saying, "mmm" as they enjoy their butter on blueberry muffins. Ashley even has it on her chin.

They must have enjoyed learning about the farm because after they finished eating Rachel wanted to continue playing but Ashley wanted to be a princess. So Rachel decided that the princess was going to learn to be a farmer. Rachel told Princess Ashley Rebecca that she had to change her shoes and put on boots, gave her gloves to milk a cow, showed her how to collect eggs, etc. At nap time Rachel traded out Ashley's crown for a cowgirl hat and officially named her a Farmer Princess Ashley Rebecca and told her she had fun teaching her about the farm. Ashley said, "I did too. Can you please take off my boots and gloves?" She sat down and Rachel pulled the pretend boots and gloves off of her.