Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunts

Our neighborhood decided that the younger kids would have a traditional egg hunt, which Ellie participated in while the older kids would have The Amazing Egg Hunt, following the success of their Amazing Race game last week. They were on teams of two and each team had to complete 5 challenges to get their eggs and candy!
sam and his buddy Alex preparing for the Race
Running to the next station, where they need to complete a challenge before finding their eggs and getting their clue to the next station!

Team Lukitsch won the Amazing Egg Hunt ! Way to go, girls!

Guess Who Got a Haircut !?

For the past week, Ellie has decided that she wanted her hair cut short. Of course I wasn't sure how serious she was, but she kept asking and when I finally said, "How about today after school?", she was all about it! On the way there, she did say "I hope I don't cry." I didn't ask if those would be tears of joy or sorrow.
Her "BEFORE" shot
And the scissors are out, there's no turning back !
She was absolutely thrilled with her shorter "Do".

This is what we left behind ! And she's not even missing it!

I Can Do It !

Ellie loves to eat bagels in the morning, toasted and then spread with peanut butter, butter or cream cheese. Of course, I am the one who usually does the spreading, but one morning last week, she told me "No, Mama, I can do it "
How independent she felt to do this on her own and sometimes I forget that she is capable of doing these things that I just do for her automatically.

Good job, Ellie ! I bet that was the best bagel she ever ate!

Felicia

Our little girl is growing up ! Last night we attended orientation to middle school with her. I can't hardly believe she's old enough to be in middle school! She is having a fabulous fifth grade year and is eager to make the jump out of elementary school. She will attend Tomahawk Creek Middle School in September and has been recommended for all honors classes by her teacher. She has also chosen to take Chorus as her elective because she loves to sing. She plans to run cross country and is undecided about whether or not she'll continue with cheerleading or not.
I took this picture of her just a few days ago after a new haircut. I love her hair this length, so bouncy, just like her personality!

The Amazing Race, Beckenham Style

We have a great neighborhood for our kids to grow up in, lots of families with kids their ages, hardly any traffic, lots of grass and wooded areas to play and roam in. Some things they all like to do together are play kickball, tennis and baseball , make forts in the woods and play competitive games like The Amazing Race. Last weekend Felicia and her two BFF's created amazing Race challenges for the other kids. The planning took all day. They created and wrote all of the clues and set up all of the challenges. Of course there were arguments along the way, but at the end of the day, they all played and they all had a great time. I hope they always remember some of the neat things they've done together.
And the race is on !

Here is Ellie with two buckets and one sponge. Her challenge was to use the sponge to get all the water from one bucket to the other.

Updates

I haven't seemed to have time these past few weeks to take pictures or blog, but here are the updates on what's been going on:

Everyone is doing very well on their lenten promises. Ellie has not eaten candy or desserts. When she went to a birthday party and was handed a huge goodie bag full of candy, she handed it over to me and said, "Can you save this for me?" She has quite a stash growing, waiting until Easter. The rest of us has not cheated either. I think poor Bethany, giving up chocolate, has the hardest one !

We are looking forward to Spring Break in 2 weeks, when we'll travel down to Florida to visit Grandma Rose and Poppy for the week.

Felicia has started softball season again, so we're back on the field and she is debating whether or not she would like to pitch. She has moved up to fastpitch softball, so it requires learning a whole new technique. Stay tuned...

Allergy season has hit our house once again ! Steve seems to be affected the worst in the beginning, then Felicia and Sam follow, I start later, but also finish later.

Felicia has chosen her courses for middle school next year. She was recommended for honors classes in English, social studies and science, will take regular math and chose chorus as her elective. Another middle schooler and our sweet Bethany will be going to high school in the fall ! Bethany , of course, chose year round art for her elective.

Sam continues to grow by leaps and bounds and I just noticed yesterday that he is now taller than Bethany.

Ellie, whom in the beginning of the school year was having trouble remembering every letter in the alphabet, now brings home the challenge list of spelling words. she has worked hard and is now doing very well. I am so proud of her !

And, finally, yesterday was the first day of spring and we were rewarded with an alomost 80 degree sunny day to enjoy after our long, cold winter. We soaked up that sun all day long !

St.Patrick's Day

This year I didn't take any pictures on St. Patrick's Day except this one. Under each child's plate at dinner, I hid a VA Lottery Scratcher ticket to see if anyone would be lucky ! Unfortunately, no one was, but it was good fun anyway. The leprechauns came to our house while we were all at work and school to turn our milk and our toilets green !!! Ellie was so amazed!

Fourteen

Bethany chose going out for a Hibachi dinner for her birthday, so we visited Shogun, a restaurant close to home that we hadn't been to before. She loves Japenese places where they cook in front of you. Hopefully after the cost of that meal, the other kids will pick McDonald's for their birthday dinner LOL !!!
This guy was really good, Ellie giggled and loved watching his "tricks".

Back at home, we enjoyed homemade chipwiches (chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream in between) after singing to Bethany.
As always, the weather was beautiful for her birthday. It's amazing how in the last fourteen years, every year on March seventh , it is usually warm and sunny. I think there was only one year it wasn't.

Tea Party

After attending a birthday party yesterday with a tea party theme, Ellie wanted to recreate one at home for when Daddy arrived home from Dallas. He had been gone for 5 days. It took her and Felicia about 3 hours to prepare everything and we were encouraged to dress up for the occasion. The event was held in Ellie's room. There was even music and dancing !!!

We all squeezed around a little table that Ellie and Felicia had set up with pillows to sit on. We had homemade slushies, mini flower shaped sandwiches,cheese and crackers,veggies and dip,pickles and olives and cookies. What a fun way to have lunch !

Girl Scout Cookies !

Once again, we have a girl scout in the house and , once again, we have lots of yummy cookies in the house !! Ellie sold 115 boxes and we picked them up on Wednesday evening. Our task now is to get them all delivered. The troop was a top seller in the area, really great since this is a first year troop ! Way to go, girls !
Bethany is so wishing at this point that she hadn't given up chocloate for lent...!!!