rotary park in centralia

Ben's cousin Emily has been in washington visiting her parents down in Vancouver. So on sunday we drove down to centralia, and Emily and Jill drove up to meet us for lunch. We always have so much fun hanging out with these guys. Emily's 2 little boys are the same ages as Kara and Kiersten. It was nice to get a break from all the unpacking and organizing for an afternoon.

Kara and Lex made up an obstacle course together. It was really cute. I loved when the ice cream truck came around, and Lex informed us that, "my cousin needs ice cream to cool her off".

as fun as the playground was, the kids all ended up under the pavillion, playing with Ben's 3DS, and Emily's IPADs. It made it easier to keep an eye on them while we adults played a few rounds of boggle.

Jill hiding from the camera.

Evie had fun, but ended up crying for much of the drive back. There was really bad traffic for a sunday.

Now that we are getting the new house organized the way we want it, I will try to take a few pictures soon.

really long moving post

We are moved into our new place. It has been slow going, and really hard to get anything done with the 3 girls around. So Ben and I have been having to do most of the work at night after they go to bed. On Friday, we loaded the uhaul with our 60 rubbermaid bins packed full of our stuff. They fit perfectly 4 across in the truck and stacked nicely. I'm really glad we used those, even if it was a little expensive. We also took over as much of the furniture as we could get into the truck. I thought we would be able to make it in one trip. We got the largest size uhaul, which is supposed to be able to move an entire 4 bedroom house. But we filled that truck to the brim twice, plus had to make two trips with both our regular vehicles completely filled. So now I'm extra glad about everything I've been selling on ebay and craigslist the last few weeks. not to mention the things we got rid of in the yard sale and gave to goodwill. a lot of that stuff was large, and would have taken up lots of space. Friday night, we unpacked a few bins and took them back to our house to get all the last minute stuff. Then we stayed there friday night, packing. Saturday morning, I was so glad to have a few of Ben's friends over to help us. I focused on finishing up the last bins, and cleaning, and wrangling the kids while they took everything over and unloaded it. We had found renters, and they were to move in a week later, but they asked if they could move in as soon as possible. so we had them come over saturday night to help clean, and we gave them a free week for helping. It got pretty clean, but there were things I'd have liked to get cleaner. They didn't seem to care though. we slept at the new place that night, and early the next morning we met them for the walk through, and gave them the keys. I really wanted to get everything in it's place and unpacked as quickly as possible. So it was quite frustrating to not have it happening so fast. It's also been an adjustment not having the same space in closets, etc. After a few furniture purchases and storage items, we are getting it all squared away. Last night we really made a lot of progress. Evie's chair came the day before we moved in. so it was here waiting for her. She is so happy to not have to fight over Kiersten's chair anymore. the girls just love the jetted tub. Ben put in some bubble bath, and it really foamed up a lot. The tub has been nice for Ben and my sore muscles too.

On saturday night, when Ben got home with the girls, he got Kara out of the car and told her to go to the bathroom. She said she remembered where it was, and as he set her down, she literally fell asleep. Her legs just buckled and she face planted right in the driveway. It was kind of a bloody mess, and she had a fat lip for a few days, but it looks like it's healing okay. The girls got to pick out some new things for their rooms at ikea and target thanks to the painfully small closets. so they are pretty excited to be here. The best part, is the 20 minutes it takes Ben to come home from work. Last night he had to stay a little late to finish some things up, and I actually did not fill with dread when he told me he'd be leaving closer to 6. That used to really push back our night and routine, but yesterday it was no big deal. He will be going from filling up his car with gas every 4 days, to only once or twice a month. So that makes up for the few things we aren't in love with about this house. (Even the giant house spiders) I have never been a spider killer. I always had someone else around to kill them. My parents, Angie, Ben, etc. So I can always get out of it. When we lived in salt lake, I would set something over a spider, and wait several hours for ben to get home, refusing to go in the room where it was. So I have loved the past 4 years of having no spiders in our house, and very few in our yard. But there certainly is no shortage of them here, and Ben has been spraying, so we are starting to find them dead. It's better than alive, but still unpleasant. One jumped on me the other day while I was putting away laundry. I had just sent Ben downstairs for a break and to get Evie to sleep. She'd JUST stopped crying, so I had to fight my instinct to run screaming for Ben. So I looked for something to throw on the top of it so he could get it later. But then I started thinking it might escape and crawl all over the girls with it's yucky, spidery legs. So I decided I had to kill it. I grabbed a boot of Kierstens and smashed it. (eyes closed, of course). I was too scared to lift up the boot, so I ran out of the room. I grabbed the vacuum and went in and used the longest attatchment to push the boot away. He was still there all squashed and curled up, so I vacuumed him up. So there's my first ever spider squashing experience. Yesterday I had to vacuum up some dead ones, and one live one that I was too scared to squash first. So I can't WAIT til we bug bomb and finish spraying!!!

Yesterday, the landlord called to see if she could come replace the sliding glass door. I agreed, thinking they'd be here, maybe an hour or two. she showed up with her dad, and some guy they found outside of a home depot. She introduced him to me, and he said, "I'm an alcoholic, but I'm 3 years sober." I don't think I really replied, and then he just said, "I only work til 4". I thought that wouldn't be a problem, since they showed up at 11. But he, and all of them ended up being there til after 7. She had asked me to keep the kids downstairs to be out of the way, which I was fine with, but when we went up for snack time around 2, I was thinking they'd be done, or almost done. They had just finished getting the door out. We went back downstairs, and the landlord's mom showed up with donuts, so they took a donut break. Then her husband and kids all showed up and were all just sitting around on the couches and helping themselves to glasses from the cupboards, which I thought was a little rude they didn't even ask. just when they were getting back to work, pizza showed up, so they all sat around forever eating and expecting me to keep the kids in the basement all day! So finally I just let the kids go back up and do what we needed to do. I did make sure they stayed out of the way. By the time Ben got home from work, they were still there, and they ended up leaving without even getting the new door in. So they had to come back for a few hours today to finish up. It's not easy dealing with landlords. I guess we got used to owning our houses, and being able to do as we wanted, but I still feel that they were stepping over the line a bit. And Ben was not happy about the home depot guy they brought over. They know nothing about him, and here he was talking to the kids, and wandering around the house. So, it's annoying, but we keep reminding each other of the reason we decided to move here, and how much it's worth it. but I don't think we'll want to rent again. Our next move will have to be a purchase, so hopefully we wont have any more issues. I think we'll be pretty happy here as we get more and more settled. I hope to get a few pictures soon. It's different, but there are several things I like better here.

Happy FIRST birthday, Evangeline!

My littlest girl turned one year old yesterday. Doesn't she look so cute napping quietly in her bed? While she was napping, this is what the girls and I were doing. With moving on friday, I had planned to just blow up a few balloons, but Kara wouldn't let up about decorating. I had some pink streamers, but that wasn't good enough, so we ended up cutting some pictures out of a my little pony calendar which Kara had 2 of. They were so proud, and excited for Evie to wake up from her nap.

We emptied the livingroom for carpet cleaning. Then we decided to just leave the couches in the dining room, and we brought down the beds so the bedrooms can be cleaned. We found a renter for our house, and she is moving in the day after we move out. (she'd move in sooner if she could get us out any faster). So I am doing as much of the cleaning this week as I can. The girls thought it was fun to have a family sleep over in the livingroom.

When Ben got home from work, we played some party games, and then Evie opened a few gifts from us. She is also getting her own chair, but we didn't want to buy it to move it, so it will be arriving at our new place after we move. Kara took all the gift opening pictures. I think she did a pretty good job!

She liked the 2 toys she opened, but the clothes barely got glanced at and then thrown as far away as she could get them. this puzzle was her favorite thing. she played with it all night.

I didn't want to bake another cake, for many reasons, so we found this little fudge cake at wal-mart. Kara didn't think it was birthday enough, so I let the girls put sprinkles on, and I wrote Evie's name on it.

I made tacos for dinner. Something that Evie can eat, right along with the rest of us. I told her to smile, and this is what I got. she was pretty tired, and fell asleep in her highchair soon after this.

I had to hold the cake just out of her reach while we sang "happy birthday". she kept trying to grab that flame.

her first task was to pick off, and eat as many sprinkles as possible.

once she got a taste of the chocolate fudge icing, she dug in. I cut some cake off for the rest of us, so that is the part that's missing. Evie mostly stuck with the icing. she did eat some cake, and she did rub some into her hair.

she kept showing me her hands, and waiting for me to clean them off. I'm usually pretty on top of that. But I was letting her get good and messy. Before too long, she started trying to wipe the chocolate off herself, and then started getting a little upset.

I love this chocolately little girl. Here's a picture of her showing us how old she is now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVIE PIE!

Evangeline's birthday party

Evie will be turning one on the 13th. Since we are moving next weekend, and expect to have a really busy week getting ready, we decided to have her birthday party this weekend. The girls put together goodie bags for all of their friends who were invited. They were very careful to put girly things and colors in certain bags, and more boyish things in other bags. Most of my cake making stuff is packed away, but we did come across the big cupcake pan I used for Kara's 3rd birthday. So I used that. We have been letting all of our food run low, or run out so it will be easier to move. So I had no sugar and hardly any flour. Rather than go buy entire bags of each, I opted to go with cake mix and canned frosting. The girls put on tons of sprinkles. They were so funny, placing each one by hand just where they thought it was needed. I thought it would look better with big fondant sprinkles, but I didn't want to buy more fondant, when I know I have some packed away in a bin in the garage. But I think the regular sprinkles looked good too.

We had her party at Stewart Heights park. It's a really kid friendly water park. We had lunch and the party first in the regular playground area, and went to the water park after. We got there early to claim some tables, so the girls had lots of time to play.

This spinning toy was fun, but hard for Ben and I to stay on.

After lunch and cake, Evie opened her gifts. Well, she opened the first gift, played with it for a second and then squirmed in my lap while I opened the rest and showed her. she is getting 4 new teeth at once, so I was just glad she wasn't crying at all.

This water park is perfect for kids. They do have a deep end that is sectioned off, but the majority is wading depth and spray toys. I think all the kids had a great time.

I played in the water with Evie for about 15 minutes, before she got tired and went down for a nap. She slept for a long time considering all the noise and people around.

Kara and Kiersten loved playing with the other kids. Kara was even big enough to go on the waterslide this year. She is getting too big.

I had a nice spot to sit with Evie while she was sleeping to watch everyone hanging out in the pool.

As soon as she woke up from her nap, Evie was ready to start getting wet again.

Kiersten picked out this adorable swim suit to give her for her birthday when I took them shopping a few weeks ago. So it worked out perfectly when we decided to have her party here. I'm glad she had this new one, because it fit perfectly. I would have thought her old one still fit, and now I see that she may be getting bigger than I realize.

She still has a couple gifts from Ben and me to open on the 13th, and we'll put her in the highchair to really dig into some cake on her birthday.

independence weekend!

We had such a fun weekend. On saturday, Ben took Kara and Kiersten to see Cars 2, while I ran some errands with Evie. They really liked it. We stopped and bought some fireworks on the way home, and the girls were so impatient to use them. Ben and I were doing some packing/cleaning in the garage, and some neighbors were doing their fireworks. Evie smiled the first few times, but when Ben decided to set off a particularly loud one, she started screaming. my older girls were never afraid of fireworks, even as very small babies, so I was a little surprised to see Evie so terrified. But as long as I held her, she didn't really cry again. (but she did cling to me).

of course, they had tons of fun doing sparklers.

We decided to set off a few ground fireworks, but save all the big ones for later, after dark.

They were so cute oohing and aahing over all the ones that went up high. It's a little distracting with practically all of our neighbors setting off such huge fireworks displays all at once. Kiersten kept saying she didn't know which ones to look up at.

On sunday, we had tickets to the Tacoma Rainiers game. It was a perfect day. It was nice and warm, so nobody was complaining about being cold, and nobody got sunburned either.

Evie had a good time making friends with all the people sitting around us. She fell asleep for the second half of the game, but woke up just in time for the big fireworks show they put on. She actually watched them and only whimpered a little. Kara and Kiersten were adorable singing along loudly with Katy Perry's firworks song.

It turned out to be a great game, and our team won.

Ben and Evie were both starting to get sick on the 4th. So we just went out to lunch at a bbq place we've been wanting to try. then we did a little shopping at the mall, and went home. We played a game together for much of the afternoon, and just as it was getting dark, the neighborhood fireworks shows started up again. It really is insane listening to constant fireworks for hours on end. The girls and I went out and watched them for a while, and then went in to bed. but the girls kept being woken up by huge booms outside. I finally got them to stay asleep around midnight, but the fireworks kept waking me up til after 3! some of them were shaking our entire house. I was worried about something landing on the roof and starting a fire, but nothing like that happened. (thought I'm sure we have plenty of firework remnants on our roof right now).