Thanksgiving Weekend

On Thanksgiving, we decided to get out all of the Christmas decorations. we always find fun things in the bins that we bought on clearance after the previous Christmas, like these reindeer hats. 

The girls and I put out all of the Christmas decor. It was fun being in the new house, to decide where everything should go. 

Ben helped the girls decorate the tree the next morning while I was out shopping the deals. 

After I got back from shopping, and helped Ben with putting lights on the house, we drove out to Indiana to have Thanksgiving weekend with Nancy and Victor. The kids had so much fun playing together. Whitney is such a little doll, and my girls absolutely love doting on her. 

Things got a little rough in Tommy's room, so I ended up having to break this up.

Nancy planned a turkey hunt for the kids. It was really cold, but they all had fun following the GPS.

They all found their turkey craft/snack.

On sunday, Kiersten woke up and announced she wanted to get her ears pierced. Since we were already planning to go to pizza for lunch, we stopped by the mall first. Kiersten was so good. She didn't cry or wince. I didn't even realize the first ear was done, because she had absolutely no reaction. The girl who did the piercing was surprised. She said usually at that age, they expect a lot of tears and wiggling. 

The haven't even bled one drop. When Kara got hers done this summer, they bled a little, and were sore for several days. Kiersten's must have been placed perfectly, because hers were just a little bruised the first day, and been fine since. She is so proud to be a big girl and really is trying to act more mature this week. 

Ben found this little pre-lit tree, and bought it for the girls to decorate. Kiersten picked out pink, purple, and blue ornaments, and I let them do the whole thing by themselves. I haven't moved a single ornament. They are pretty proud of their very own tree upstairs. 

Pajama party

Since all the girls were home from school today, I thought we'd get to sleep in. But Kiersten and Evie both woke up at their normal time, so I said something like, "well, I'm gonna have a pajama day this morning." That was enough to give Kara the idea for a pajama party in the livingroom. She spread out a bunch of blankets, and we all ate poptarts together.

Then I rolled all the girls' hair up in rollers. Evie refused to stay in her jammies. Once she heard the word "party", she insisted on putting on a dress. 

We told scary stories. Kara's was my favorite, with a vampire bat named Honolulu. The girl who slayed him went on to become president of the United States. 

Then we did make overs. Evie wouldn't hold still very long, so she  just got a little purple eyeshadow and lip gloss. 

Evie was happy to help give the make overs, however. 

I ended up with crazy blue eyeshadow, and lip liner all over my chin.

Isn't she fabulous??? She let Evie have a little too much free reign with the eyeshadow. 

my sweet Kara.

After the make overs, we all painted our nails. I let Kara do Evies, and they were actually okay.

No pajama party would be complete without a pillow fight. 

All in all, a pretty fun and relaxing way to spend the day with the girls. 

turkey trot

Kara had a "turkey trot" race at school last week. The parents were invited to the school right before, and all of the kids loved having us there. 

The first grade getting ready to race. If you see the girl in the back row with a pink shirt, Kara is in front of her. 

The silly face picture. Kara is right in the center. 

Evie couldn't stand me taking pictures, without getting one of her. 

And then, of course, Kiersten needed her picture taken as well. 

Start of the race. 

Kara kept a pretty light jog the whole way. I didn't see her walking, or running very fast. 

She predicted her time at 17 minutes, but finished just over 13. Here's a picture of her coming around the corner to the finish line. 

My brother in law, Josh was in St. louis last week, so we had him over for dinner one night. the girls were so excited to see him. When he left to play basketball with Ben, they were all pouting, and Kara said, "it seems like he's here for other things besides just seeing us". 

On my birthday, Ben made burgers for us, and Kiersten was impressed by how large Daddy's burger was. Here she is pretending to eat it. 

Time for tea

Three happy girls! Ben got new boots for all the girls a week and a half ago. Kara and kiersten want to wear theirs constantly. Evie has only worn hers a few times, and isn't wearing them for this picture. On a side note, I crocheted that top that Evie is wearing. so now Kara and Kiersten have each requested one as well.

The girls have been dying to have a play date with their friends. So since yesterday was early out day for Kara, we invited over a family that has 3 girls all the same ages as us, that is also new to the area. I think they moved here right about the same time as us from AZ. It was fun, but crazy. They played dress up, danced and sang along to Kara's CD player, and then we had the tea party. It was hard to calm them down and get everyone out the door when it was time for swim lessons. 

Evie and her little buddy, Colby. They like to color together, and whine and wiggle throughout their sisters' swim lessons every tuesday and thursday. 

Kiersten and her friend, Teagan. They are in the same swim class, and are the only girls. They had so much fun playing together in Kiersten's room. They will both go to kindergarten next year at Kara's school.

Kara and her BFF Addison. These 2 adore each other. They are in the same class at school, the same girl scout troop, and have swim lessons at the same time, though not the same class. I think they have bonded over being the new girls in school as well. I think I want to do another party soon with some more kids from their class. Apparently these two had told a few of the other girls about the tea party, and told them they would be invited, but I hadn't talked to any of those moms, and we planned this kinda last minute, so I only invited this one family that we see all the time. Maybe we'll do something like this in January for her birthday.

Trick or Treat 2012

The girls had such a fun Halloween this year! They didn't get to wear costumes to school, because kiersten's school had the parade last week, and Kara's school doesn't allow costumes. They had a fall party earlier in the month instead. But she was excited that her bus driver had a halloween goodie bag for her when she got off the bus.

Purple Posie, Minnie Mouse, and Captain America!

While we waited for Kara to get home from school, I finally let Kiersten paint her little pumpkin from the pumpkin farm. She wanted to make a frankenstein face. 

Evie didn't want to paint hers, but did tell me to paint it like a monster. She ate a cookie from school and watched us paint. 

Kiersten did a great job on her fanken-pumpkin.

I made Evie's look like a random monster. I was surprised she was actually willing to carry it out to the porch. She doesn't usually like things that are scary.

Kiersten is always happy and ready to pose.

Kara was hard to get a smile out of. She kept saying, "but Captain America is tough".

Evie really wanted to take her baby doll  trick or treating, but Ben made her leave it behind. 

Ben put this wagon together when he got home, and put blankets in there for the girls.

Trick or treating!!!

After visiting a few houses with the kids, I went home to make dinner, and hand out candy. I've never had so many trick or treaters. There were huge groups. One group was 18 kids all going around together. And the kids all wanted to tell jokes. I've never heard of that, but Ben said that several people they trick or treated to, asked the kids for a joke first. I guess every area has it's own traditions. 

I thought it was funny that Kiersten turned for her picture pose before taking the candy at this house. 

When they came back home, the girls loved seeing this "mummy bread" I made. 

I also made monster tacos, which they thought were hilarious, and Evie even ate some.

I also froze plastic spiders in ice cubes to surprise them. It's fun with kids, because to them it's not a tired old gag, but a fun halloween surprise!

They all ate pretty well, so they could get candy, and go back out to more houses. Evie didn't want to go again, she just wanted to hang out with me. Kiersten went to one more house, and then told Ben she was done, so he sent her home too. 

When they got back, they had hot chocolate and some other spooky treats.

Witchy finger cookies!

Peanut butter eyeballs! these were a big hit.

crunchy pretzel and marshmallow bones! These were Evie's favorite, and I had to move them away from her so there would be some left when Kara got back. 

I got this bat headband on clearance at the grocery store, so I wore that to hand out candy. I was kinda sad not to dress up this year, but too busy and tired to do anything about it.