All About Rachel

Every year at Fay Galloway ES the music and art teachers work very hard to put on a Multicultural Fair. It involves teaching a muscial/dance number to each grade 1-5, and then the art teacher has each grade study a different country and do a coordinating art project. Rachel is in 2nd grade and they studied the customs and culture of Russia. She made the traditional Russian nesting dolls, and the fancy glitter eggs. These pictures of her are at the fair doing their Russian dance number! It is so cute to see, and I am especially proud of Rachel because she tends to be shy and doesn't like to perform, sing, dance, speak in front of people. She is starting to be courageous and come out of her shell a little. She has a piano recital in a few weeks, so that will be another test of her courage!
Also, over the weekend Rachel had her first daddy/daughter campout! They went to Mt.Charleston and it was a little cold and windy, but they had a great camping experience including (but not limited to): making smores, building fires, air mattress going flat in the night, dead squirrels, hiking, and soda for breakfast!

The Bulls

Erick is half way through his first season of t-ball. He likes it, but there are no rules, no outs, no batting order, and sadly no dug-outs. We kind of feel like it's not real baseball, but he's having fun! The kids just play out in the grass, and every person hits one time, then they go to the outfield. After a ball is hit, sometimes they throw it to first, and sometimes they throw it home. Sometimes the runners run to first base, sometimes they run to third base. It was funny and cute at first, but now I am ready for him to learn something about the rules of the game... mabye next season? I know its important to just have fun, but I am one of those competitive moms that cares more about just having fun, I admit it. But he sure looks cute in his uniform!

Little Bunny Foo Foo...

The weekend right after Easter, we had a BBQ with some friends in our backyard and noticed something small scampering across the grass. Someone said they thought it was a mouse (I of course freaked about that comment, EW!) But later we saw that it was a little cotton tailed bunny. The next morning at breakfast we saw 2 eating grass. The next day or two we saw a third one join the party. So now I guess we have 3 pet bunnies living in our backyard. The kids appropriately named one Foo Foo, one Cookie, and the third one is nameless. Any suggestions?

Race for the Cure!

Anyone who knows me knows that I H-A-T-E running! But in September I came to a point in my life that I needed to make some goals to work towards, one of them being to run a 5K! So December quickly came and Brian and I were going to do the Santa Run, but he got hurt and I didn't feel ready. Then another run come up in February in Henderson for the Library but I chickened out and we didn't sign up. Finally I signed up to do the Race for the Cure and although I had been training since September I finally felt ready! So this week as I was running my side stiches came back! I get them when I am stressed or nervous because I don't breathe deeply enough. Every run this week ended badly. So of course I was nervous for "the RUN" on Saturday. Once we showed up I started to feel excited. I felt prepared, I had taken some advil and said a prayer to get through this. Thinking if I just do this, I won't ever have to do one again! I will have completed my goal. My sweet husband who had been running the 5k in less than 30 minutes, stuck with me the whole time. Although we don't know what our time was because we missed the start, we fininshed the whole thing together without walking. He encouraged me the whole way, told me when the drink stations were coming, and when we got to the mile markers. Although I still had my side stitch, the advil had worked it's magic and the pain was dull enough to push through. Right when we finished I said, let's do this again!!!! I loved this particular run for a few reasons: (1)it's a great cause, and close to my heart with my grandma having been through it, (2)it was neat to be amongst 18,000 people doing the same thing
(3)all the volunteers treated the participants like celebrities, and (4)it was neat to see downtown Las Vegas all closed down and quiet. We'll be there next year, and we're bringing more of you with us!