Care Package from Kotomi

The girls and I were so excited to get a care package from Kotomi today! Kotomi was out Japanese exchange student who lived with us for a month back in March. We miss her very much and were thrilled to get a box from her! We opened it up to find so many goodies!!! In addition to some very sweet notes to all of us, we found...

A Hello Kitty bank for Ali's birthday gift

Lots of Japanese snacks! Some of these looked like Japanese versions of Funyuns and Cheetos!

Japanese outfits for the girls! When I held the camera up to take this picture, Brooke said, "Japanese Cheese!" I promise she came up with that all on her own!

There was also a gift for Steve and I, a beautiful painted bell. Thank you Kotomi! We miss you!

Daddy's Little Trapper

Steve has been making a lot of wildlife videos lately for a new feature on the Wildlife Solutions web site. When we were in the keys he took some videos of the key deer and just last week he did some videoing of a sand hill crane rescue. You can watch those videos here. Well, Brooke has taken notice, and today she decided to make a tree frog trapping video of her own. Maribel captured it on Brooke's Vtech Kidizoom camera.

Ali's Third Birthday: A Babydoll Tea Party!

This past weekend we celebrated Ali's third birthday! Three years old?? Are you kidding me?! We started the morning off with the traditional DeMoor birthday pan"CAKE" and the birthday song.

A few months back I had asked her what kind of party she wanted to have, and she was certain it was going to be a baby doll tea party. I've never thrown a tea party before (well not officially.. we've had plenty impromptu ones with water from the faucet and teddy bears on the floor). But Ali wanted a real tea party and she stressed, "REAL tea!" So we invited the cousins over to celebrate. The invitation read:

Little Ali is turning three!

Help us celebrate over tea.

Bring a baby doll and your fanciest hat.

What could be more fun than that?!

We started off with the kids at their fancy table with tiny tea cups and REAL tea. Mom helped by making cucumber sandwiches and Steph brought fruit kabobs. The kids had a good ole time ordering us around for more this and more that. I think they got a good kick out of being served by the adults and talking so formally.

Here mom is serving tiny sandwiches and I am refilling the tea.

Tasting her REAL tea!

Mmmm.. yum!

More Birthday Tea Party Pictures

After the kids finished their tea and sandwiches we played a few tea party games. Here they are making edible bracelets out of licorice laces and fruity cheerios and cereal straws. I got the idea out of the Family Fun magazine.

Then we played pin the tea bag on the tea cup and had sugar cube relays where they had to race with a sugar cube on their spoon.

Mom made these adorable tea pot and tea cup cookies with some cookie cutters I found on eBay.

And here is Ali with her teapot cake! I'm usually not one to attempt a difficult cake task, but this one was hard to pass up. It really wasn't all that bad. I cooked the cake batter in my 8-cup Pyrex measuring bowl, then cut the spout and handle out of frozen Sara Lee pound cake.

I have to give a HUGE thank you to Steve and Mom, Dad and Grandma for helping me out on the morning of the party. I had been sick with food poisoning since Friday night. When I woke up on Sunday, the morning of the party, I felt like I needed to cancel the party and go to the ER because I was so weak and dehydrated. But thankfully, Steve turned into the "Gatorade Police" and kept on me to keep drinking. And Mom, Dad and Grandma came over early to help me pull this party off. Thank you!!!!!

Turtle Rescue!

As you might imagine, we don't pass up too many turtles on the road without rescuing them. It's in Steve's blood that he has to help them all get safely across the street. And I must admit, it's rubbed off on me too. The other day we were heading out of our street and found a gopher tortoise crossing the road. Steve excitedly put the car in park in the middle of the street and called for Brooke to unbuckle and come help him. I had to snap a few pictures since this is pretty much what life is like around here. Our girls are definitely wildlife technicians in training.

Here Brooke is getting instruction from daddy on how to pick up Mr. Turtle.

Helping him across the street all by herself!

Goodbye Mr. Turtle and stay out of trouble!

Ronald McDonald House Moms4Moms Outreach

Last night was our last Moms4Moms outreach of the season. We are breaking for summer. I have enjoyed my role in Moms4Moms so much this past few months. It's been an awesome way for me to stay tied into my social work roots and stay involved in serving others.

For our last outreach project I organized our participation in the Ronald McDonald House Share-A-Meal program. We were responsible for feeding the 40 guests of the RMH a good hearty dinner. We went with a Mexican theme and all the moms donated food and their time to help pull it off. We tried to give it a festive feel with mariachi music and red chili pepper lights! We had tons of food left over which we packed up in the fridge for them to have for lunches for the next few days. We got to take a tour of the house and learn more about what they do there. For those of you who aren't familiar with the program, The Ronald McDonald House provides lodging to families who have a child in the hospital. Some of the stories we heard last night were amazing.. one about a little boy born at 26 weeks. It was enough to make me want to rush home to hold my kids tight and be so thankful for their health.

The RMH is always looking for volunteers to bring dinner in for their guests. You can help too!

Click on PLAY below to see some of our pictures!

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