And the winner is....

KRISTA!!! I can't belive this...Krista just won an MP4 player! Her school had a drawing contest, sponsored by a French National Bank and KRISTA won! :) She reieved a certificate from the Bank and an MP4 player! I'm so happy for her because she really takes pride in her art. She loves drawing, painting etc and has requested private art classes for next year on several occasions. After winning the contest I think I'm going to have to find room in her schedule for a 1 hr/week class. She is so inspired by drawing.

Krista's Award Ceremony

Last Friday night there was a gynmnastics evening and award presentation for Krista. Krista knew that she would be doing a group and individual routine that evening, but she had NO idea she would be getting an award! At the end of May she scored 335 points in the Departmental competition near Switzerland. This was the highest number of points that they have seen for Krista's age group. After her individual routine she was called onto the carpet for the presentation of the award. YAY for Krista!

We also received news that she will be competing in a very high level next year (DF2) in a duo routine. This is the Federal Division (as opposed to the Criterium Division). To my surprise she will also be competing in an individual routine as well! There were 3 other girls selected from their team to compete individually. Usually at this point in rhythmic gymnastics they move to group routines only. I was pleased to hear her "group" would be a duo also! She will have a lot more to do for next year...preparing for both the duo and individual. I'm sure she'll be training a minimum of 3x a week. We have decided to stop tap dance next year, but keep going with ballet, since it really compliments gymnastics. Krista also is SO anxious to take drawing lessons next year too, so we will see how that can fit into our schedule.

The presentation of the award by her club!! What a great surprise for Krista!

Krista's 9th Birthday Party!

A SLUMBER PARTY!!!

Well, I am pleased to announce that I am STILL alive after Krista's FIRST (and as Toomas jokingly said.. LAST) SLUMBER PARTY!! What a sucess it was! The girls had SO much fun! They did EVERYTHING you could ever hope to do at a slumber party!

Krista invited 6 girls to the group party, 3 of whom would sleep over. Six girls sleeping over seemed like way too many, so we settled on 1/2 who would sleep over. The group party was from 3:00-6:00, and the sleepover lasted until 11:00 Sunday morning.

I baked a pretty neat cake for Krista this year---an ice cream cone cake! I decorated it with chocolate scoops, a strawberry scoop and complete with a "cherry" gumball on top! It was sad cutting the cake. I took some photos though and the girls just absolute RAVED about it! It was well worth the extra effort.

The "main" party was a scrapbooking theme party. We took a bunch of photos and I let the girls loose with all of my scrapbooking accessories. We used the kitchen table, and the island so they could spread out and work. It was quite a cleanup, but the the pages looked wonderful and the girls had so much fun letting their creatives minds loose.

The scrapbooking took a lot of time, so afterwards it was immediately presents and cake. Krista is really into faries this year so her friends. Her friends were wonderful and got her the cutest gifts ever---a fairy watch, a drawing fairies gift set, a fairy game, a petshop stuffed animal, an art kit and a TICKET to go see Lorie in concert (a pop singer). She was SO spoiled!

I was already tired at the end of this party, but had to keep going.. the night was still young! I cooked the girls Krista's favorite dinner ('veggie bouillion' white rice, breaded fish and carrots). A totally simple meal, but one that the girls ADORE! After dinner they played games (indoors and out), decorated a slumber party pillowcase, and watched movies. It was BEAUTIFUL weather this weekend so we really lucked out, but boy was it was HOT! They had a squirt-gun fight with the neighbor boys next door while I set up the air-mattresses downstairs in the family room. I had 3 mattresses set up side by side. Krista wanted to be able to stay up late and watch videos, so it was much more logical to put the noisy girls downstairs than next to Kaitlyn's room!!! The girls stayed up WAY too late, giggling and telling scary stories to each other--and I became a bit frustrated on several occaions. I think it was probabally at least 2:30 a.m. before they finally crashed!!! And guess what?? They were up BRIGHT AND EARLY this morning at 7 a.m. sharp!

For breakfast Toomas went to the bakery and got fresh croissants, petits-pains au chocolate and other goodies for the girls. After breakfast they played some games on the computer and played hide-and-seek in the house. They had a wonderful time and Krista was sad to see everyone leave. Fortunately one of the girls invited her to go to a pool today in Germany so she will be TIRED when she gets home tonight! I think everyone will sleep well tonight!!!

Here is the photo evidence!!!

Krista's 9th Birthday

Today is Krista's 9th Birthday!! It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital meeting Kritsa for the first time. WHAT a ride it has been these past 9 years! I'm so thankful for the wonderful blessing of Krista Marie. She is an AMAZING little girl and I am so blessed to be her Mom! I can't tell you how often Krista amazes me with her brillance and talent! I am SO proud of my little superstar.

I am attaching a Fairy Birthday card that I made for Krista. She is currently enjoying the magical imaginary world of Fairies and her favorite book series at the moment is the Disney Fairies Collection. I'm also attaching a few photos that her teacher took this morning at school for me. I baked 30 chocolate chip cupcakes for the class for Krista to share this a.m. Oh, and news just in, Vanaema's package JUST arrived. We will be opening presents and having cake this evening! Stay tuned for more photos! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET KRISTA!!! WE LOVE YOU! Mommy, Daddy, Erik and Brie XO XO

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Erik's Tennis Tournament and Celebration

Erik finished up his tennis season with a bang. They had a mini-tennis tournament and celebration on Wednesday and the kids had a blast. There were 6 members of Erik's team who participated. It was held at a local tennis complex that is ENORMOUS--about 15 or more courts (outdoors). They also had an indoor complex, but fortunately it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day so the event was held outdoors. The kids arrived at 1:45 and proceeded to register. Upon registering they received a tournament t-shirt and a baseball hat. Each team was color-coded by hat so the leaders could keep them together. There were probabally 100 kids or more participating in the tournament from all over the area. It was for 6-8 year olds so Erik was the youngest. He will be able to participate for a few more years so that will be fun for him. The kids did various circuit activities---each lasted 20 minutes and then they proceeded to a different court for another activity. They had so much fun! At the end of the day there were drawing tables, gifts, drinks and cake for the kids. For the finale, they gave each child a certificiate of participation, and also a helium air balloon. All the kids gathered on the main court and they counted down to the release of the ballons. All at once, hundreds of balloons were released up into the air... accompanied by LOUD shreaks of exitement from the kids! It was a great way to end the tennis season for Erik.