Happy B-day Rachel

For Rachel's birthday her and I started off with a craft. I had seen this done on one of those super crafty blogs and I loved it so we attempted it too and it turned out great. It is made out of those composition notebooks and made into a purse. She is so excited to take it to church. Here she is with her finished notebook purse. She got to choose the color of scrapbook paper and then we had a few accessories and I loved the purple with the yellow.

Decked out with her initial and everything.

A closer up picture. Not so sure we did the handles right but they work. We even have it shut with velcro. Rachel mostly did the glue gun and the positioning of where to put everything.

So this was super cute. Caleb found a shirt that Rachel doens't wear too often and he ironed on her name and then put Happy Birthday on it. He worked on this for quite awhile. Rachel loved it.


Rachel has been roller blading alot lately. WE have some but they are like 5 times too big for her. But she is really good and can get going pretty fast. So I decided to get her some that actually fit her. She was HAPPY. They will fit her for a long time since they can adjust from size 1-4.

Getting ready to blow out the candles.





WOW....not that looks like she might just blow the whole house down.

Caleb had the kids play Bingo. Rachel won this hoola hoop after getting a Bingo. She is very good at it too but Caleb totally rocked this. He could make the hoola hoop ride up his waist and back and then swing it on his hips. Don and I were laughing so hard. It was pretty funny to watch.

Rachel is very intent on watching the kids take turns trying to hit the balloons with a coin.

Here is Rachel taking her turn. They had to stand at the carpet and throw a coin to see if they could hit a balloon. Mayah won this one.

OK so here is Don's idea. OFCOURSE it was crazy and that is why the kids LOVED it. His idea was to pin that tail on Don. He colored this tail and cut it out. Then he blind folded each kid and had them pin this on his tush. Now if that isn't weird. LOL. I thought it was funny. His rule was that no one was allowed to reach their hand out and try to feel their way around. They just had to go up to where they thought it was and pin it up. Ethan pinned it on me. And only Rachel and I think Caleb were able to pin it on Don...but it landed more on his waist.

This idea came from Don and Zach. They had a small dish in the center of the table with red crepe paper around it. They had 4 quarters. Each person got a turn to attempt getting the quarters into the dish. For each quarter in the dish you got an M&M. I was surprised with how many of them were able to do it. I WASN'T. sniff sniff. You had to hold the quarter and bounce it outside the red line and make it jump into the bowl. It was hard. But fun.

I cannot believe Rachel is now 7. Time goes so fast. At dinner we went around the room and everyone had a chance to say one thing they loved about her. And then I told her birth story.

Some things about Rachel:

1. She is very caring. She doesn't like it when her sister is crying. She always tries to figure out a way to comfort her....unless ofcourse, she is the one to make her cry....but that is rare.


2. She is also thoughtful. We went to the store to pick her out some plates/table cloth/streamers. She picked out red and said it was because it was Mayah's favorite color. She is super sweet.

3. Rachel is creative. She enjoys coloring and drawing and can come up with some very cute pictures.

4. I love how Rachel loves to read. She can be found reading quite often. She always ends up getting up before everyone else and she will grab a stack of books and just sit and read them. I am pretty sure that is why this 1st grader reads at a 4th grade level. That's my girl. :)

5. Rachel loves anything girly. This is all so new to me. I don't ever remember being girly and I don't remember being full of drama. But that is OK. WE love girly things now. It is fun to see how she is growing up. She now will do her hair all by herself. She will pull it into a half pony tail. She enjoys picking out her own clothes. She is into everything princess....purple....pink....

6. Rachel is a great helper. I will sometimes find her wanting to dust or wash windows. Now what mom wouldn't love that. When she gets into a cleaning mood she will go around the house and organize. She was so happy last weekend when we both organized some of our food storage. That closet was kind of messy but we made it look awesome and she was so proud of herself. She kept talking about what a great job she did.

7. I love that Rachel loves to go to church. She said the first thing she wanted to write in her notebook purse was about church and the temple. She even wanted me to decorate her cake like a temple. But I don't have that much talent. I didn't see how I would be able to do that so we stuck with something easy. My prayer is that she will remain this way and continue to love to go to church and to the temple.

Rachel we love you and are happy to have you in our family. Happy B-day girl.