Spring dance recital

Kara's class had their spring dance recital yesterday. She was really excited. The paper her teacher sent home said to be there at 1:30. Kara kept reading it to me and reminding me. Then all day yesterday she kept asking what time it was until it was finally time to go. She did get a little sad when she realized that she had to wear her school uniform and not her new outfit she'd picked out to wear. waiting for the show to begin.

Evie was happy while we were waiting for it to start. Once it finally did, she was not too happy to have to sit still on my lap and be quiet.

Kiersten really wanted to be up there dancing too. i guess we'll have to get her in dance lessons soon. Kara's teacher does a summer dance program, but the big recital is the same day as Katie's wedding. So I don't know if it would be a good idea to sign her up if she's gonna be disappointed about missing the recital.

They sang and danced to the song Peter Cottontail.

I totally thought Kara was the best by far. She was the loudest singer, at least. And she didn't miss a step.

While the other groups were performing, Ben and Kiersten snuck away and bought this flower for Kara.

She was pretty pleased with it. The pinwheel has been a real hit as well!

and that's pretty much how our sunday was spent.

poor baby! :(

Ben has been taking walks with the girls lately when he gets home from work. I love it because I can finish making dinner in peace. A few nights ago, Evie came back with this fresh scrape on her face. He said her shoe came off and she tripped. It doesn't seem to be bothering her though. I was glad her burn was mostly healed, and about ready to get family pictures taken. Now we'll have to wait a little longer. Kiersten wanted her picture taken too. It has finally been sunny this week, so the kids have been playing in the backyard a lot.

Today I let them eat lunch outside. Evie got to have her first picnic with the other girls. She was kinda naughty at first, grabbing their food, and making a mess. She did calm down and come sit in my lap to be fed her lunch. I was surprised she ate any of it after eating half of Kiersten's corn dog and several chips.

It was interesting to see Kiersten getting terrorized by someone else for once. She didn't know quite what to do with Evie coming so aggressively after her food. I think she'll be glad at dinner when Evie gets put in the highchair again.

I thought this was a funny, if not the most flattering picture of Evie. She was still pouting from having found Kiersten on my lap trying to eat her corndog in peace. Look at that sad owie!!

After lunch they ran around and played for a while.

Karalee tried to teach the other 2 to play soccer.

they didn't really get it this time.

planting

Evie is not happy to see the baby gate set up, but she just wont stop climbing up the stairs. my cute little nappers.

Evie loves when Kiersten doesn't finish her snack, especially when she leaves it within reach for her to snag it.

she has started smiling differently than she used to. We rarely see her huge open-mouthed smile. now we see this cheesy little grin. It does show off her cute little tooth.

Kara's homework assignment on friday was about gardening and growing food. The extra assignment at the bottom is always optional. This one asked the kids to plant something to grow in a windowsil garden. I found this little flower kit at wal-mart. She had a lot of fun planting the seeds and getting it all set up.

Here it is in the window getting ready to grow. Also pictured is the plant she gave me for mother's day. The teacher helped them make flower pots and plant the flowers at school. It says, "you're the best mom a kid could ever have". I think it's pretty cute.

I also got them some radish seeds to plant in this big pot. Kiersten loved getting to help and get her hands dirty.

After everyone was cleaned up, I surprised them with a third project. Kiersten smashed up some oreos with the ice cream scoop.

Then we made worms in dirt with ice cream, oreos and gummy worrms.

It was a fun morning.

It's your day, Mama!

Kiersten was very excited on sunday to inform me that it was "my day". Ben was sweet enough to have my favorite breakfast ready and waiting for me as soon as Evie woke me up that morning. He took the girls to buy me a gift on saturday, and they couldn't wait til the next morning to give it to me. We played a game of hot and cold for me to find the gift. I finally located it in the washing machine. Please ignore Kiersten's bum scratching... They got me this adorable charm bracelet, and picked out all the pieces for me. The 3 girls are obviously my kids' birth stones. The hexagon beads are my and Ben's birth stones, and they just chose a few other cute beads and charms to complete it. Isn't that the cutest present?

I've been making tons of bows for the girls lately. Here is Evie sporting one of them.

Kiersten and Kara have started requesting certain bows. They will draw pictures of how they want it, and go through all my ribbon to pick out what they want.

On days she doesn't go to school, Kara expects me to make her a matching bow for whatever outfit she picks out. I don't know how long that will last though. I guess until I get tired of making them.

a week in Idaho

On monday, we headed out to Kerry and Lana's to spend most of the week there. The girls were excited as usual about all the animals. Papa bought them little helmets so they could go riding. Kara went first. She had fun.

Kiersten really liked it. She kept begging to "dwive" the horse herself.

She also wanted to make friends with the roosters, but they kept getting away from her.

Kara always loves playing fetch with Duke.

Grams had bought a little tea set and some dress up things. They enjoyed their afternoon tea party. I think they used chocolate milk in the tiny little cups.

We decided to go visit Grandma Hill one afternoon. The girls had fun at her house, and Ben and Kerry were able to fix a few things for her while we were there. Evie crawled all the way up her stairs without assistance.

On friday we drove to Twin falls to see Nancy, Victor, Tommy, and Whitney. She is such an adorable little girl! She is just precious. Evie was walking up to her while she was sleeping on the couch, and Kiersten exclaimed, "oh no! Mommy, Evie's gonna get the princess!".

I wish I could have spent much more time cuddling with her, but I had a really bad cold, and didn't think I needed to be coughing all over her. I did hold her for a bit, and was able to hold in all my coughs until I was done holding her. It's nice to hold a baby that just lays in your arms instead of wriggling all over.

saturday we had an easter egg hunt with Tommy. That was the girls' third hunt, and they weren't tired of easter at all. They had tons of fun.

Tommy and Evie had some baby friendly eggs to find.

He loved finding those blue eggs, but did get distracted a few times with his fun backyard toys.

The girls got super spoiled again! And after they had these 3 hunts, they got to come home to the easter things that had been left behind. So they have candy that should last the rest of the year.

Kara took some of her easter candy to school for her class helper day. I think next year I will hardly buy any candy!

Evie got to try her first sucker. She was enjoying it until it got dropped in the grass too many times, and got taken away. Now if she sees her sisters with one, she goes crazy trying to get at it.

the daddys enjoying the hunt

Later that evening, Grandma Van Sickle was taking dinner out of the oven, and Evie was standing nearby. She put her hand down on the oven door and got a second degree burn on her hand. I have been racking my brain to remember what I was doing, and why she had wandered in there without Ben or me noticing. I was helping the girls with something, but I just can't remember. I felt like the worst mommy in the world! It was really sad and scary, but she handled it well. She only cried for about 15 minutes. When I took her to the doctor on monday, he was surprised she would let him handle it and dress it with no fussing or crying. I guess it must not hurt as bad as it looks like it should. He thinks it will heal fine. She had an ear infection when I took her in, so he put her on an antibiotic, and said it will also prevent the burn from getting infected.

my big, tough girl! Still so sweet and happy, even when injured. She was even good for our long drive home to washington.