Hello Family and Friends,

I have been taking absolutely no pictures lately what-so-ever! That's my excuse for not posting for so long. Things have been really slow around here so not much to report. I am sure that passing around a horrible cold helps. Today I am suffering from the flu and wouldn't be feeling too bad if my head didn't hurt so much. Anyone have any magic cures for headaches?
The girls are back playing Chess, Hera is in a Young Rembrandt's art class (which is awesome), and we have the kids in tennis lessons on Saturdays. I have also started taking Tennis lessons with Ted which is going pretty good. I found an awesome park less than 10 minutes from my house that has tennis courts open to the public (you think that would be more popular here but it is almost impossible to find courts that are free) where I have been bringing the kids to practice. At this park they also have a play area and two dog areas, one for large ones and one for small. I also took my friends lab puppy to puppy training which was very interesting, and kind of a crazy thing to do for a friend. Hmmm, I wonder why I would mention something like that? I think I'll leave that to your imagination for now.
Of the few photos I have taken lately here is Isi helping herself to whatever she wants in the fridge. She even has figured out that she can push a bench into the pantry and reach higher shelves. She is such a mischief! I fear I may encourage her because I can never stop laughing at her.
Ted bought this cute art table for Isi and this is the master piece she created within an hour of waking up. She can't stop drawing and painting and is pretty good with mess. These paints my mom bought are awesome, and specifically for two's, they wash a little easier and, of course, are non-toxic. Now if she could just resist painting the wall or using her milk for water.

Backing up a little, January 31st I had the most awesome visit with my friends Connie, baby Ryder, and Shannon. It was great to hang out and have a few girls nights out. I can't help but laugh that I don't think we were out later than 10:30 the whole long weekend they were here. We have to do that again sometime for sure.

Chat more soon!!

Love Charmaine and Family

Awards, Awards, Awards

It's been a big week here for the girls. They received awards left, right and center. I attended award ceremonies for each girl for being honor roll achievers. Then Ted and I went to the 'Reflections' award and exhibit of the students art they had all entered for this once a year program. Hera won an award for participating and Athena won the award for 'Literature Excellence' and will go on to compete at State level. AWESOME! (Isi loves this word and it comes out really fast sounding more like asum). The thing we find really funny is this was Athena's whole writing class had to participate and write a poem that would go toward their grade. Athena can't stand writing poems. I was editing Athena's poem and I kept pushing her to do better. She must have re-written this poem 20 times before I let up on her. We had tears and everything at one point, I even thought it would be days before she would talk to me again, but I couldn't let her waste her beautiful writing talent. I think for all of us here this was proof hard work definitely goes a long way. In the end, this is what she wrote for the theme ' I Can Make a Difference By...' ;

MY FANTASY STORIES

I can make a difference by

Writing my fantasy stories,

about fire-breathing dragons and funny fluffy fairies.

I can bring people to different places and times,

to where our minds burst with imagination

And we read to those mysterious sounds.

We could go under the sea

and meet a singing what!

We could meet a rhyming, rocketing bumblebee,

or play in outer space with as alien who loves to sail!

I can make a difference by

Inspiring and encouraging reading,

and to help them slip into the realm of believing.

Athena Sfikas, 6th grade

Here is adorable Hera with her award. Her little sis trailing behind. I think she expected an award also.

Isi had her very first official haircut. I can't believe her hair is neat and tidy for once in her life. Maybe it will last for more than one day? The hairdresser was asum! I have tried like crazy to cut her hair and it wasn't working so I finally got help. Isi sat in a toy airplane and watched a princess movie. She never flinched once however I did catch her checking out her reflection in the mirror now and then. It was a little hard to let go of the baby curls. At least I have a cute little card from the hairdressers with a clear pocket full of her hair and a little photo as a keepsake.

I think she looks older with the haircut. I had to put this photo up because often when she laughs she puts her hands over her mouth and I just love it. Her shocking phrase of the day was 'Anna, wha do in?' (Hera, what are you doing?). For some reason she calls both her sisters Anna.

Ted and I had date night on Friday. We saw the movie 'Cloverfield'. A very, very intense show. The whole thing was shot from a hand held camera so there was severe shaking through the whole thing. I spent almost the entire time staring at my feet because it gave me some of the worst motion sickness I have ever had. I thought for sure I was going to cause a huge scene because I vomited all over the floor. Thank goodness I didn't, but as soon as I got home I went straight to bed. You are all now warned! So much for romance.

That should about bring everyone up to speed. I hope some of you are enjoying a long weekend and that we meet back here soon!

With Love,

Charmaine, Ted, Athena, Hera and Isidora

Little Rockers and Ski Bunnies

What a great holiday we had. Isi is checking out the guitar for the game 'Guitar Hero III' for the Wii. They had way too many cool stuff to play with. Isi spent days in a Princess dress I bought for her with a crown Athena made for her and a wand. It was really cute. As much fun as it was we always miss being around everyone we care about so plan to get your rear ends down here sometime! I made the most amazing turkey ever! I always over cook everything but my Christmas diner turned out fantastic. Below is the Chocolate, cheesecake torte I made. It's got a layer of cheesecake between the chocolate layers and has a homemade buttercream frosting. It tasted as good as it looks. Now to try and burn off the extra 5lbs which I thought would be going away by now but seem to be sticking around.

This was a project Athena and I made for her teacher who loves Superman. I love how he turned out and had to share him with all of you. I can't stand buying gifts for teachers so I am always asking the kids to make something for them. I am sure teachers get enough junk and I like to do something different.
This last weekend we had a blast skiing at Big Bear Lake in California. The kids took lessons all day and ski much better than Ted already. It's crazy how they can pick things up. As for myself I was off by myself a lot enjoying some great snow. Thank goodness skiing comes back fast and I was off like I had never stopped for so many years. It snowed so much on Sunday we had to put chains on the tires before driving home. It was a very long trip back especially since there was an accident on the road down that held us up for almost 2 hours.
Going back a few days more, we spent a night in Palm Springs so we could get a full day of skiing in on Friday and here is Isi pretending to sleep in our bed. The hotel was awesome, like a palace, and we had a great time.
Isi is starting to say sentences now. She is saying things like awesome, ready daddy, good morning, I see you, I'm coming, tv, Princess, Jasmin, Aerial, and hungry. I have got to write them down more because I want to remember all of them. She also sings every chance she gets.

Post more soon!
Love the Sfikas Family

Christmas Eve 2007

I can't believe that Christmas is already here! I had dreams that Santa Claus came last night and forgot to leave gifts. That was one of the worst nightmares I ever had and even made me wake up to check the calendar. I am always the first one up in the morning so let's see if this holds true for another year. Even though it's just us this year we are still planning on having a turkey diner tomorrow, my mouth is watering already.
As for every year, the school has a 'Gift of Caring' tree and the kids get to bring an ornament home, we purchase the gift for someone on the ornament and send it back to school. This year made me bawl my eyes out because I bought for two moms. One mom wanted a gift card from a grocery store so she could buy food for Christmas, and the other wanted toiletries ( I went a little crazy and bought her a nice brush, toothbrush, a shaving gift pack with shampoo and conditioner, and a body lotion gift pack with soap included. I can't imagine asking for these things for Christmas and wish them better years to come.

I am finally putting up some photos from our 'Reindeer Run' which had a great turn out. It was almost freezing that morning which made the muscles really tight and harder to breath but we still made it the whole 2 1/2 miles (4 km) with three very brief stops. This week alone we manage to hit around 15 degrees Celsius during the day but get all the way down to freezing at night. This is about 10 degrees cooler than average for winter. We definitely feel it a lot more this year than last.

Do you love our antlers? They even light up! This photo was when we finished the race. When we finished we were given raffle tickets and prizes were given out when everyone finished. We won a gift certificate to a restaurant called 'Pei Wei'.
While we took part in the race Ted hung out with Isi playing on the playground. I had to have a picture of Isi's hair when she came down the slide.

Yesterday we visited the Zoo for their annual 'Zoo Lights'. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun with mule/wagon rides, carousel rides, and of course all the amazing lights. I knew it was going to be busy but never did I expect to see that many people in one place. It was nuts but well worth it.

We miss everyone and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love The Sfikas Family

Well, I know I have waited too long to post when I have a ton of things I want to share with all of you. We have slowed down lately since soccer is finished, along with tennis lessons, and weekend chess and it has been really nice to do what we want when we want and just have fun as long as the homework is done. Homework and projects are driving us crazy! Even at this moment I am practicing staining paper with coffee for Athena's Egyptian Newspaper she made to make it look antique and it's due tomorrow!
We had a community event called, "Snow Day In The Park". Above is Isi falling in love with Daisy bear who runs a booth where you can make your own Teddy just like 'Build a Bear' but they are mobile so you could actually have this company come out to your house for a party.
The kids actually got to play in snow that was made just for this day. Isi enjoyed it as well and was happy for hours just trying to walk on it without slipping. I could have done without it since I found out I was just tall enough to be a snowball magnet and Isi was just short enough to be missed entirely the whole day.
A crazy rainstorm came through Phoenix. I thought for sure this water was going to come right up to the sliding door but the rain would let up just enough here and there to keep it from coming any closer. The 'wash' system they have in place around here works amazingly well so there was no flooding in our area. Because it rains so little here when it does something weird happens to the pavement and it becomes as slick as ice. You wouldn't believe how many cars had slid off the roads and into things like the brick walls that we have around our yard.

Hera has been a crafting maniac lately. This is a 'lime, milkshake puppet' she made. You can move the mouth with a stick that is glued to the inside. She has made many flavors and has been mass producing them for all her friends at school because they are in such high demand. Hopefully that ends soon cause I would really like to have some of my kitchen counter back. I also keep telling her she needs to start charging money for her work.

Both girls participated in,"The Clash" (chess tournament) this weekend. Hera won one game out of four which is pretty good since she is still just a beginner, and Athena won a trophy for placing 22nd in her division ( kids from here till about 12th place have won two to two and 1/2 of their games). I am so proud of them and expect some even higher results in the next tournament.

Here is my finished dining area after repainting the whole thing. The 'Aztec Brick' looks much more muted in person but I couldn't get good enough lighting to really show it off. The rest of the walls were painted in 'Bagel'. I am very happy with the results and can't wait to start on the next area. I even already have the paint for the next living area.

My littlest Isi has days where she throws tantrums left, right and center, wants to be naked all the time, and doesn't always take naps anymore. This can lead to time outs and in this photo she had fallen asleep in her time out spot after refusing to apologize for hurting one of her sisters. She is so cute!!! It took all my will power not to pinch her to pieces.

Chat more soon!
Charmaine

Hairchop?

Here I am in my new hair cut. Ted loves it however I am disappointed with my top weave. I had the same thing done as last time by the same hairdresser and the light parts are too light and the dark ended up too dark. I didn't go in expecting to loose so much hair either but my hairdresser twisted my rubber arm to do a strong bang and, what you can't see, a lot of layers. The cut is 'kind a' cool but the color should be warmer and lighter. My hairdresser said I to come back if the excess color doesn't wash out and Ted keeps arguing that it's beautiful and that it's fun to do things a little different. I guess I'll give it a week before making a final decision to go in and have the color fixed or not.

This weekend was supposed to be family picture weekend until I found out last minute the kids had chess, then it was too dark when they got back, now Ted is leaving the next two days to California. I was hoping to use the photos to make cards like I did last year, now that will depend if I can get the photos done Wednesday.

Most of our outside lights are up and all my gifts to be sent are wrapped. Now I somehow still have to package everything up and get it ready to go.

Of course with all this to do we have started painting again. Can't wait to show you all the colors I picked. I am trying to pick desert type colors and am having a lot of fun with it. This however means no one is allowed to visit my house because it is really embarrassing how messy it is with boxes of decorations all over and furniture out of place along with painting stuff all over my counters. Oh well, it'll get done when it gets done and eventually look fantastic.




I am leaving you with a picture of my snowman family for my yard that I guilted Ted into buying because we don't have enough stuff after all these years to even light up the whole front of my house. I can't say I feel guilty about any of it myself cause their just too cute.


I wish you all peace, patience, and happy moments during this stressful, beautiful time of year.
Hugs and kisses,
The Sfikas Family

Flashback!

I was having a moment where I was thinking about where we were last year this time in our lives and brought up these pictures, especially because I have no new pictures at this moment. Get a load of how much my kids have changed in just the last year.


It's almost Thanksgiving! That means if I want to blend in with other Americans I have to have all my Christmas decorations up this weekend. Scary or what?
Things have been a little slower around here lately. Hera took part in her first Chess tournament last weekend. Kids who go to these things are usually really good so you can imagine how proud I was when Hera won one of her games out of the three she played. I would put them in more if our weekends weren't full of soccer, tennis, and super group (weekend chess).
Athena is finally feeling better after taking her to the doctor with a bad cold to have her tested for strep. When we had her tested the doctor said she was negative so I started teasing Athena that she was going back to school only to have the doctor say he was concerned that she had the first stages of pneumonia, put her on a round of antibiotics and said I really need to keep her home because she is really sick! He even wrote me a note to excuse Athena from school.
Isi had her shots this last week and started crying ' Sorry, sorry!' at the nurse as if to make her apologize. She couldn't have broken my heart more. Isi is also officially in potty training! I didn't expect her to be ready yet but thought I would let her wear her new princess panties a few hours a day to get used to the idea but now as long as she is home she wants to wear panties and is willing to use the potty. She has been using her own potty all week and even ran to it the other night without me asking and bringing her. We are so proud. Now to get her trained outside the house.
Ted spent the last week in Vegas and is slowly recovering. This week we are going to watch the LA Kings play the Coyotes. It should be a blast.

I hope everyone is doing well and
Happy American Thanksgiving!
Love The Sfikas Family