Fashion show and Yard sale

Friday was a no tv or video games day again. I made a big list of fun things we could do. Kara was so happy to check things off the list when we did them. She even added a few things to the list. my favorites were, kwiit time (quiet time), lit brit (light bright), read books, math, and fashin shoe (fashion show). She brought down her cd player for the fashion show and turned off all the lights in the house except the playroom. Then I was to sit on the couch and ooh and ahh over all the "looks". Evie was a little too interested in the cd player, so halfway through she got put in her highchair for lunch time. If I used either of their names, Kara would instruct me to please just call them "model".

evie was so cute stealing their purses and accesories, but with that and the cd player, the girls were pretty happy when i put her in the highchair.

by the time the show was over, Evie must have gotten bored, because she fell asleep like this.

Our neighborhood HOA decided to put on a huge yard sale event this weekend. There were tons of houses with sales going on, and since we're moving in july, we also took advantage of the opportunity to get rid of anything we don't want to move. On saturday, I walked around to all the other sales with Karalee, and she was thrilled to find several little girls selling lemonade, cookies, and candy. So on sunday she really wanted to sell cupcakes. All my cupcake pans are packed except the jumbo ones. so I made her some of those. At first she was just sitting there, hoping for customers. But as soon as Kiersten came out, she started yelling out to people to come buy the cupcakes, and it totally worked. She was a natural sales-girl. She just needs to learn not to lick the product she's trying to sell to someone. They made just under $10, and that money is sure burning a hole in Kara's pocket. She can't wait to spend it. Ben talked her out of spending it at the other yard sales, and we plan on letting them use it for a new game or something fun.

we sold tons of stuff and made a good amount of money. Ben even arranged for a goodwill truck to be there at the end of the second day so everyone could just donate the things they didn't sell. That was so nice to just be done with all the stuff that's been cluttering our house! I was surprised to get a phone call from someone wanting to come over and look at the house as the sale was ending. They were nice though, and didn't care that the house was a mess, as I'd been outside all day doing the yard sale, instead of inside, cleaning. We've started having lots of interest in renting our house, (including one stinky scam artist) so hopefully we'll start getting some applications in and get it rented soon after we move out.

my ballerinas

I've had some tulle in my craft room for almost a year now. So I decided this morning was the time to use it. I had 1/2 yard of 4 different colors. So I cut that into strips and tied it onto ouchless headbands the girls have, but never wear. Then I just made little bows for the front to add a little bling. Here's Kara showing off her burgundy/lavender tutu.

They have already performed several ballets for me this morning. I love this picture, how Kiersten is looking up to Kara to see what to do next. I think it's a classic big sister- little sister interaction.

Kiersten got the yellow/cream tutu. She was a little disappointed with her color, so I added some little bows throughout the skirt, and made her a matching hairbow. That completely solved the problem! But then Kara was jealous of the hairbow, and I had to make her a matching one as well.

You can tell when Kiersten feels pretty. It makes it kinda hard to get a regular smile out of her though.

dancing together.

Kara thought Evie felt left out, so we put her in this pink tutu that I made for Kara about a year ago.

I don't know if it was a coincidence, but she started spinning in circles as soon as I had it one her, silly girl. (and yes, she's holding a bath sponge. it's currently her favorite thing to drag around the house.)

one well loved Daddy!

The girls were really excited about father's day. Kara brought home a mug she made for him on her last day of school. So he has had that for a week, but there were still lots of fun surprises saved for yesterday. Kara woke me up at 6:30, wanting to make breakfast for daddy. I told her to go back to bed for a while, but she was so worried that he'd wake up before her. So she sat on the couch watching cartoons and ensuring that he stayed in bed. Once I heard him moving around upstairs, we started cooking, and Kara was very concerned that we make the right thing. She was very happy that he liked his breakfast.
The girls decided they would like to take him miniature golfing, and luckily, the weather cooperated with the plan. So after lunch at his choice of restaurant, we headed over to the putting zoo. It was very busy and crowded, but still lots of fun. Evie was a handful. She just wanted to be included in the fun.

I knew Ben would want the weekend to enjoy his father's day gift, so we wrapped it on friday and hid it for him to find when he got home from work that night. Kara wanted to make him a special treat, so we made the rice krispie treats he's been requesting for a week or two. The girls took FOREVER to pick out this card for him at the store. They both liked different ones, but eventually came to agree on this bright one.

He has been playing his new 3DS game tons this weekend. We gave him the new street fighter.

Kiersten was a little jealous of the mug Kara made at school, and wanted to make him something too. I took her to the store with the intention of finding something easy for her to make. The second the girls saw these shirts, they really wanted to make one for him. It was a little messy, (especially Evie's part) but it turned out pretty cute and he really liked it.

I hope everyone else had a super fun father's day weekend too!

little detectives

First, I'll just get this photo out of the way. the girls were playing keep away in their new room a few nights ago, and enjoying their recently downstacked bunk beds. Kiersten jumped right into the side railing, and this was the result. I can barely stand to look at this picture, it's so sad. But it looks much better now. She acted fine the rest of the night, and only remembers it now when she sees it in the mirror. I still feel awful about it though. My poor baby! Why are my kids suddenly getting hurt all the time?!? 2 things led to this blog entry. First, last weekend when we were packing up stuffed animals, we came across blue of blue's clues. The kids had obviously forgotten all about her, and were thrilled to see her and play with her again. The second thing, was last night. They were playing detectives, and going around the house with note pads writing down clues, and drawing pictures of clues. So the obvious thing for me to do, was to set up a game of blue's clues. They came down for breakfast and found blue on the counter with 2 notebooks and pens ready to go. It wasn't hard for them to figure out she wanted to play the game. She told me in my ear that she wanted us to find a friend for her to have a playdate with. They were also excited to be provided with paw print badges with their names on them to wear while we looked for clues.

Kiersten quickly found the first clue. It was on dad's tie. They both took it seriously and took a long time to draw their clues and then think about what it could mean. The second clue was on my face in a family photo. After that they were sure blue wanted me to wear dad's tie and play with her. But we decided to find the third clue. Kiersten spotted all 3 of the paw prints. The last one was on a closet door. (please excuse the moving mess in the background)

I didn't even get a chance to ask, "now what do we do?" before they both shouted, "thinking chair!!!" and ran off to their room to think about the clues. It only took a little help from me to get Kara to put together that dad's ties belong in mom's closet. and off they ran to check it out.

waiting in the closet was their favorite little stuffed puppy. turns out, that's who blue wanted to have a playdate with.

It went pretty well, but the 2 puppies did end up having a small spat, at which point, I decided we'd better go downstairs for breakfast. I could barely get the girls to sit in their chairs and eat. they keep excitedly talking about playing again, and what kind of mystery we can solve next. So this wasn't exactly planned to be an all day game, but it looks like it might last a little longer than I'd anticipated. (Kiersten just came upstairs and proudly announced that she will be wearing her blue's clues underwear today.)since Evie was napping during the game, I wanted to share a photo of her too. It looks like she is sleeping on this box, but she just blinked as I took the picture. She was climbing all over this box of old clothes, and I thought it was cute.

getting ready to move

I was thinking this blog was going to be pretty random, but when I looked at the pictures I quickly realized that they are all related to the fact that we are getting ready to move next month. I have been putting off working in the flower bed in front of my house for several weeks now. It looked great in April, but then may was so rainy, I didn't want to get out there. Now that Kara's out of school and it isn't raining every day, I didn't have any excuses left. Also, if we want to get our house rented out, we need to get some pictures soon. So I took the kids outside and let them play while I worked. Kiersten enjoyed riding her bike in a princess gown and new sunglasses Daddy ordered for her. Kara scootered up and down the sidewalk.

Evie was bummed to get stuck in the stroller, but I cant trust her not to run away, so that is where she spent her time outside. she also got to try out some new sunglasses.

This is how things were looking. Weeds, dead tulips, and all. I'm sure my neighbors were getting tired of looking at this mess.

As soon as I was done weeding, and Kara saw me start planting flowers, her scooter was put away and she was outside with her windowsill flowers, which had outgrown their plastic confines. Though I hadn't planned for them, we were able to make room.

much better. Though every year, those lilys are bigger and taller, I decided to leave them for now. If our renters want to pull them out or move them, I will not complain.

Also related to moving, we turned Evie's crib into a daybed. First, so it will be easier to move, and second, because we wanted to store the pack 'play she was sleeping in almost every night instead of her crib. She was pretty excited about it. Suddenly she has no problem with wanting to sleep there. I guess it was the caged in feeling that was putting her off. We completely cleared out her room so I could clean the carpet, so we put her crib in our room for now. We then moved everything from the guest room that didn't get packed or put in the yard sale into Evie's room. That left the guest room empty and ready for cleaning. Finally, we moved the girls into what had been the guest room so I could tackle their room. It turned out to be a great move. It works better than the room they have been in. We really wish we'd thought of making that change a lot sooner.

We did a lot of searching yesterday for the tv stand for the girls' tv. During the search, Ben came across Kiersten's old giraffe toy. So he brought it in for Evie to ride. She has been on that thing ALL morning! Good call, Ben!

so far we have around 30 bins packed up, and almost 5 weeks left to pack up the rest. We are finally making good use of our way too big dining room! It is kinda weird to be living with these bins, and empty drawers and cupboards. I can't wait til we are moved and can unpack. It has been interesting as we pack each room or closet, how much stuff we have that we don't use, want or need. Our walk in closet is really filling with things intended for our big, neghborhood yard sale in a few weeks, and I don't think we'll miss a thing. But some of our neighbors are going to be getting great deals on some pretty nice stuff, just because we finally admitted that we never use it.

playing together

Ben was disappointed that I didn't post a blog update last week, so I thought I'd give him 2 this week. A few days ago we had a barbie hair salon in the livingroom. Everyone got new hairdos. I'm kinda weird about not wanting them to take out the original hairstyles the barbies came with, but I realize these are their toys, and meant to be played with. So we took out all the elastics and clips and they got to brush them out to their heart's content. They'll never look like new again, but neither of the girls care, so I shouldn't either. I really am trying to change my annoying ways. Eive was all up in everyone's business. She kept putting these play earings in her mouth, so I decided to clip them onto her ears. She kept them on for almost 30 minutes.

Kiersten had to have her picture taken with every single one of the barbies she styled. I did end up helping her a bit. This one was particularly hard to see the perfect curls get brushed out all frizzy, but oh well.

Kiersten loves making Ariel and the other barbies dance with "prince Eric". Eric from the little mermaid is her favorite prince. She completely plans on marrying him eventually.

This is pretty typical when the big girls are trying to play. Evie-saurus just gets right in there and joins in the fun.

Kiersten loves the days when Kara doesn't go to school. Here they are playing volleyball in the backyard. I think Kara has some natural talent for it.

Kiersten thinks she is such a big girl. and I guess she's more right than I may like to admit. She is SO excited about going to preschool in the fall.

They played a little soccerr too.

One of them kicked the ball right at Evie. It knocked her down and bounced off. she didn't cry, but she was a little stunned. I was trying to get a picture of them kicking it, but caught it a little late, right as they were running away and blaming each other for knocking her down.