summer begins

Kara's bike was missing a bolt, and Ben couldn't find one that was the right size to replace it, so we ended up giving her bike to goodwill. So I felt that she got robbed of bike riding last summer, and have been nagging Ben to get her a new one. She finally got it on Saturday, and by monday the weather was nice long enough for her to try it out. She has clearly forgotten a few things. I guess it's not all true what they say about always remembering how to ride a bike. 

Evie is quite good at her trike. I'm sure in no time, she'll be graduating up to a big girl bike too. (or inheriting one)

Kiersten does fine as long as she's not going uphill too much. I don't know what I need to have them do to get stronger at pedaling. I guess just more practice. 

We had a few collisions...

They all gave up pretty quickly on the bikes, and wanted to do sidewalk chalk. Kiersten was so proud that she drew Minnie Mouse for Evie. 

so Kara had to draw Minnie Mouse as well, to  show her superior drawing skills. Kiersten was pretty mad about it. 

And Evie had to draw an outline around Kara. She always begs and begs, and Kara doesn't want to lay on the ground for fear of a bug crawling on her. But in the end I always make her do it. 

The kids are still excited to be out of school. I just wish the weather would cooperate a little. We've had thunder storms galore. We've only been able to get to the pool once so far. I know it's a matter of time before the girls get sick of being stuck in the house all day, with me finding new ways of tricking them into helping with housework.

Karalee's first slumber party

We let Kara have a slumber party the weekend of the 18th. She has been begging to have one forever, and was even keeping a little journal with all the details of who was invited, what they would eat, and what they would do. She invited 9 girls from school, and 6 of them were able to come. 

Kiersten had one friend sleep over. they were so cute, trying to make sure they were separate from kara's group at first. As the night went on, they found that they did want to be part of the group after all. I was so busy trying to get Kiersten and Teagan to get closer to the other girls, that I didn't even notice all of the creative poses happening. 

I 

After dinner, they had a cookie decorating contest. I set out 4 bottles of sprinkles we've had for at least 2 years, and was shocked that every last sprinkle was gone within 5 minutes. 

The winning cookie! I was the judge, and Kara kept acting like she would obviously win, so she was quite surprised when she didn't. this little girl ended up saying she had a tummy ache after just 2 bites. 

I thought Kara had it all pretty well planned out in her little slumber party book, but she actually hadn't planned any games, so I helped her come up with a few simple ones. they played " I never..." but instead of being a drinking game it was a candy game. If they had done the thing that someone else said they never had, they were supposed to take a candy. I wasn't supervising too close, but noticed after a minute that they were taking a candy for pretty much everything. ( I can't believe 5 out of 7 girls have kissed a boy in their class) And one of them actually said, "I've never drowned and died." All 6 of the others took a piece of candy. 

After games, dress up, and some barbie play time, they all put on jammies, and had a dance party to Kara's new kidz bop cd. 

Ben arranged the family room so everyone would have a place to sleep. 2 of the girls were only staying for the party, and their parents picked them up around 11, so that made for some extra space. They all picked out a movie to watch. Kara had asked Ben to make himself scarce during the party, and he did for the most part. But 2 little girls took a liking to him and decided to sit and watch basketball with him while the others watched the movie. Then one by one they all made their way upstairs, so we just let them sleep in the livingroom, and put a different movie on up there. 

Kiersten and Teagan said they were going to sleep in kiersten's room, but they were out within 20 minutes, to sleep by everyone else. 

In the morning the girls played twister while Ben and I made breakfast. Some of them had never played it or even heard of it before. 

Then we took them down to play in the basement while they waited for their parents. Some of them colored on the windows with window crayons. 

The rest played WiiU.

I was a little surprised how loud and crazy they got. I always think of boys as being rowdy, and girls being more reserved and timid. But our house was insane. Kids were running everywhere, screaming at times, a few little spats, and one girl even got stuck to one of our mousetraps. but it was fun, and everyone calmed down when they were asked to. 

Ben spotted a box turtle in the back yard, so he picked it up to show to them. Everyone was very excited, and they all wanted to touch it, but he didn't let them.

hopefully the little guy isn't too traumatized by all that attention. 

I'm glad she finally got to have her sleepover. Now we can stop hearing about it for a while until she decided she wants another one. It was a little more intense than I expected, but something I'd definitely let her do again. Maybe next year. 

Milestones

Kiersten's preschool graduation was last Thursday. All the kids sang with their classes. Kiersten's class sang about animals, and she was the butterfly. 

After all the performances, The kids got their graduation certificates. Kiersten was very proud. 

She is sad that most of her friends aren't going to the same elementary as she is next year. But I'm sure she'll make new friends once the school year begins. 

Evie graduated for the 2 year old program at preschool. She and one other boy are the only ones who haven't turned 3 yet. Since they both have summer birthdays, they got to celebrate the last week of school. Her friend's "birthday" was Wednesday, and hers was Thursday. She was thrilled to be the birthday girl! When I take her to the gym with me, she always wants the babysitters to pretend it's her birthday, and they have a pretend party. So she felt extra special to bring birthday treats, and have a crown, and all of her friends singing happy birthday. 

On Friday there was a picnic at the preschool, for all the kids to say goodbye. Then they had a magic show and the ice cream truck came. The school paid for them each to get a $1 treat, but the truck took so long getting there, more than half of the people left, so the director told the kids they could have anything they wanted at any price point. The girls had so much fun, and Evie had a hard time letting go of her teacher when it was time to leave. I wish I hadn't forgotten the camera!
That same night was Kara's "bridging ceremony" at girlscouts. She graduated from the daisy troop to the brownies. It was at a park and the kids had a great time playing while we waited for everyone to show up. 

The girlscout leader had to help all the girls but 2 remember the girlscout oath. 

proud new brownie!

The whole troop, minus one little girl who moved away last week. These girls have had so much fun together this year. 

Environmental fair

Kara has been loving attending the center for creative learning on Mondays. She loves her regular school already, but she loves CCL even more, since it's a different way of learning. They had their big environmental fair last Friday. It was an event with all of the 1st graders who attend CCL to show off what they learned this quarter, and to do a fundraiser for the world bird sanctuary. Of course Kara had signed up to cover the earliest time slot. So when we got there, the teacher wasn't there, and I was pulling out my hair trying to figure out what she was supposed to do. Of course as soon as I just asked Kara, she knew exactly what her booth was about, and how the game was supposed to work.

Her game was an egg toss. There was a hummingbird, cardinal, and eagle's nest, and different sized "eggs" for the kids to toss into the nests. The nest Kara made was the hummingbird nest, and she brought white jelly beans for the eggs. Luckily I just bought the stuff she said she needed to bring. I was skeptical when she kept saying she needed to bring jelly beans and snickers, when the teacher hadn't sent a paper home about it. I also had been hesitant to send her to school with a bunch of sticks and leaves, without the teacher having requested it. I guess at the CCL, they do things a little differently than her regular school. I'm used to getting papers, and emails and texts about every little thing. So next time I'll just trust she knows what she is talking about. (the snickers were the prize when someone got  3 eggs into a nest).

She made about $8 during her 20 minute shift, and then 2 more girls from her class showed up to relieve her. She was excited to get to go see the other booths.

Kiersten and Kara playing a game with magnets taped to stuffed birds. They had to try to catch the appropriate type of food. They gave Kiersen a prize, even though her bald eagle caught an ant :) I guess maybe they do eat those.

These  boys are in Kara's CCL class with her. She made sure to quiz them about what owls and eagles eat.

I didn't realize I cut this hawks face off. Whoops! There is an owl just to the right of Kara's head too, if you can see it. It's a little fuzzy. Kiersten was a little nervous about the hawk. She kept asking if it knew how to fly or not.

Just when we were checking out the raffle baskets, and deciding which ones to bid on, Evie wet her pants, and we decided to leave. The girls were disappointed, as Kara now fancies herself quite the lucky charm. But Evie was miserable, and my jeans were wet too, so we left.
It was fun to see Kara so proud of her work, and to meet her CCL teacher. She came home from school a few days later with a printout of her powerpoint presentation she made. They ended up not showing them at the event, as it was pretty hectic. But I was impressed. Mostly I am happy to see that she is loving being there, and learning new things, instead of being bored, relearning things she's known for 2 years. I definitely plan to send her back next year, and hopefully Kiersten will test in as well.

Mother's Day 2013

I had such a nice Mother's day on sunday. Kiersten and Evie went with Daddy to pick up some breakfast for me first thing. Then, the girls gave me all the cards they made me, and things they made at school. this picture was right before we noticed Kiersten had smeared black beans all over the wall behind the chair.

I thought it was funny that Ben took a picture of me making her wipe it off the wall. One of those honest mother moments in life.

Ben helped Evie make the cutest card, and she was super proud of it. So proud in fact, that she wont let me have it. She carries it proudly around the house, showing it to me several times a day.

And Ben gave me a new laptop too! I have been wanting one that is small, and I can take around the house with me. The others we have are quite large, desktop replacement type laptops, and have to stay plugged in pretty much all the time. So far I have loved having a lighter little one to use wherever I want. Now I just have to get used to using a new OS, not too easy for me...

After the gifts, we all went to the movies, and saw "The Croods". It was a pretty cute little movie. My favorite part was eating popcorn and Reeses pieces while watching it.

I hope everyone else had as happy a mother's day as we did :)

school carnival and treat making

Kara's school carnival was on friday. Since Ben's basketball group had playoffs that night, I took the girls by myself. It was raining at first, but just a sprinkle. It didn't deter the girls from wanting to get sno-cones the second we got there. 

Kara didn't want to wait in line for the "tiger" bounce house, so she went and got right into the plain one, while I waited with Kiersten and Evie, who insisted on waiting for the tiger one for 15 minutes. 

After waiting in line, Kiersten finally made it in, and jumped for less than 3 minutes before she got out and said she was done. Kara was glad to take her place for the remaining 7 minutes of jump time. 

Evie was so excited when she saw the rides, but was disappointed to discover they wouldn't let her ride any of them. :( She would have done fine on them, but rules are rules...

Kiersten and Evie both won light up rings, but Evie's quit working after less than a minute, and Kiersten immediately gave hers to her, and took the defective one. She's definitely a sweetie. 

I bought 66 tickets, and told each girl they could use them for whatever they wanted. I worried they'd use them all on snacks, but they actually did a pretty good job with them, and were able to play every game at least once, and still get a few snacks each. It may have helped that Evie couldn't go on the rides, and that saved a few tickets.

Kara and Kiersten did great at knocking down the tiger teeth. Evie fully expected to be able to do as well as them. So she got quite frustrated when she couldn't even throw the bean bag far enough. She ran up and smashed all the teeth down in one blow with her fist instead, and then begged for a prize.

Kiersten was thrilled to win a plastic pig in the stuffed animal race. But when she discovered that it was a "pooping" pig, she was a bit disturbed. She got over it pretty fast, and is now very proud to show everyone how the pig can poop. 

Kara really wanted to enter the drawing for the raffle baskets. So I bought 5 tickets, and let each girl put one in the basket they wanted to win. Kiersten and Evie both went for the Hello Kitty basket. Kara put hers in the arts and crafts basket, and I put the last 2 in the game night basket with Ben and my names on them. Kara was surprised that she won a basket. It was actually 2 baskets, because so much stuff had been donated. Each class had a theme for parents to send in donations for the baskets, and she won the basket that her class had put together. I felt silly that I had bought glitter glue, window markers, and a few other things, thinking they would be fun, but I wouldn't want my kids to have them. Ha! So now we are all set with tons of art projects to do this summer. She won all kinds of paint, markers, crayons, coloring books, craft books, bracelet kits, play dough, modeling clay, paint brushes, chalk, sun catchers, a glue gun, gift cards to Michales, JoAnn, the Painted Zebra, and more stuff, I can't even remember it all. We had parked a few blocks away, and it was not so pleasant for me to carry her winnings back to the car. But she was so excited that it was okay. She kept saying, "this is ridiculous!", "I can't believe this happened", and "mom, can you believe I actually won?" In the car on the way home, she announced, "well, I just pinched myself, and this is NOT a dream!"

One day last week, I let the girls make Teddy Gram/snickers race cars. they just shoved a teddy gram onto a fun size snickers, then used frosting to attach 4 m&m's for the wheels. 

It was easy and everyone was able to do it by themselves. 

Kiersten used a 5th m&m for the steering wheel.

We also finally got around to making sugar cookie Easter baskets. I had all the supplies, and meant to do this when Jackie was here, but we never got around to doing it. I just let them roll sugar cookie dough in colored sprinkles, put the rolls in a muffin tin, and pressed in the center to make a well, and baked them.

Then the girls filled them with frosting and green coconut to look like grass, and put jelly beans to look like eggs. 

I bought some candy cane basket handles, but didn't want to buy more than one package, so we only had 6 with handles. I had originally bought some twizzlers for the rest of the handles, but a package of twizzlers doesn't exactly last for 2 weeks with me around. 

This was another easy treat for Evie to help with. She gets frustrated when we do things she can't do too. 

They turned out cute, but I didn't think they were that easy to eat, and get a huge mouthful of frosting. also, the coconut got everywhere when the kids ate them,

But oh well, at least they had fun, right?