Father's Day

The kids were so excited for Father's Day this year. They all worked very hard on their cards for him. I think Kara took over an hour on hers. Poor Evie has a scratched up nose from falling down at 6 flags :( and notice Kiersten's cute new haircut. I'll have to get a better picture when it's not all wet. The girls gave him a whole bunch of fun size twix, and then later ate most of them, so he only got a few, the little stinkers!

Kara is so proud of her fancy card she made. 

Ben got a framed photo of the girls wearing chiefs outfits for his desk at work, and a canvas for him to hang in the basement. 

He also got a chiefs suncatcher for his basement, and a grill cover that is the wrong size, so I need to get that returned and order the right one. 

We went bowling, but I forgot the camera. It was fun though. After that, we decided to go to the water park.    It was our first time there. We tried to go to the twilight swim a few nights ago, but it got canceled for a thunderstorm. 

Kara on the rope swing. 

And on the rock wall. Ben said it was pretty hard to climb. 

Ben wanted to get a picture of the girls getting dumped on by the giant water bucket that tips over. 

Karalee's first time jumping off the diving board. She was so nervous. Ben was telling me that she was just trembling, but finally went for it. 

hopefully he had a great day. We love you Ben!!!

Final soccer game and cousins visit!

Kiersten finally had her last soccer game after several postponed games made the season drag on into June. She is so much more confident now, and really goes after the ball. 

I couldn't convince Ben to come, even though it was her last game. He wanted to stay home and do yardwork instead. He ended up cutting himself with the hedger, and having to go get 8 stitches. Maybe next time he'll listen to me...

Kiersten made 3 goals. She is so much better now than when she started. 

She still goofs off a little here and there. 

She really likes her coach. She told him she would miss him so much until fall. 

My sister Jackie came over from Chicago with her 3 little kids for a few days. The girls really love playing with cousins. It was nice every day, so we spent lots of time outside. 

These 2 best buddies didn't fight once during the entire visit. 

The kids played Kiersten's Pretty Princess game over and over again. 

It was nice to take all the kids over to the pool. The girls have lots of fun now that they are able to swim pretty well. 

Evie is finally willing to float without me holding onto her. It's her new favorite thing, but she still gets a little nervous occasionally if she drifts too far from me. 

Kiersten's doing pretty well with her doggie paddle, but she still mainly stays in the shallow end. 

We also took the kids to 6 flags. We spent 5 hours there. It was so fun, but exhausting. Most of the time was spent in the little kids area. 

Cash was too scared to go on the joker ride when we first got there. By the time we were leaving, he wanted to go back and go on it. He was so proud of his bravery for riding it. It's a swinging gondola type of ride. I wish I had gotten a picture of him on it looking so proud!

All the kids got super hero capes, and had tons of fun playing with them all night. 

After 6 flags, we hurried home so Ben and I could go out while Jackie watched the kids. It's always nice to have a night away from the kids, when they are being taken care of by a family member. So that was really nice!

cleaning crew

The girls were driving me crazy last week. So in an effort to both keep them busy, and keep them from making messes, I recruited all of them to help me with some chores. I made a sign up chart, and they all got to earn points for the chores they helped with. Kara earned the maximum amount of points, so she got to purchase the most special privileges. She chose a movie party with popcorn, a board game party, and painting fingernails. Kiersten earned play time with play dough. and Evie didn't do enough chores to earn anything, but she got to participate with her sisters' activities. 

They aren't always the most helpful, but at least they aren't off somewhere creating more work for me. We made it fun, with cleaning music, and every girl had a belly washer to carry around with her. It was kind of fun, even if I still ended up doing about as much housework as I normally would have anyway. This picture was Kara's idea, and she kept reposing everyone in different silly ways. She begged me to let her hold the windex. At first I said no, but she promised not to spray it. 

I loved my fabulous little helpers! I think we'll plan another cleaning day soon. Maybe the next time we get a thunderstorm :)

6/4/13

I have been trying to keep the girls busy as possible since school got out. On Kara's last day, Evie and Kiersten didn't have school. During the day I let them make frozen chocolate bananas. Evie had to get dressed up like a monkey because monkeys eat bananas. She wore this costume around for several days before she got tired of it. 

Then we went to the store and got silly string to surprise Kara when she got off the bus. 

All of us moms had a great time spraying the kids with silly string. Most of them liked it. 

Kara was one of the few who seemed particularly upset about it. But once she realized she could brush it off, she calmed down and enjoyed it. 

All of our bus riders on the last day of school. (plus Kiersten)

Later that afternoon, several moms from Kara's school all brought their kids to the park for a huge play date with tons of snacks, and friends. 

It did rain a bit, but the kids didn't really mind, and there was a pavillion for the moms to hide out under. 

The kids played all sorts of games, and had a water balloon fight. Kara was bragging afterward about a certain boy hitting her with 7 water balloons.  

That same weekend, we went to 6 flags with some friends.

I was surprised to spot Ben on this ride with Evie!

It was a nice sunny day. 

We have only been able to get to the pool once, because of all the thunderstorms we've been having. We went on the first day it was open, but the girls didn't even make it into the water before they closed it for thunder. I was going to wait the 20 minutes, that they require before letting you back in, but glad I didn't as it started pouring rain on the way home. The kids were thrilled to have a nice day last week to go. 

Evie tired out pretty quick.

Kiersten really wanted a swimming picture. She wouldn't open her eyes for me though.

Yesterday Ben was home sick with strep. So I decided to get the kids out of the house for a while so he could sleep. We went to the park for a few hours. 

Kiersten is still trying to master those rings.