Magic House

Last week I took the girls to the magic house. It's been quite a while since we've been there, so they had a blast. there were a few new things, so that's always exciting. Here's a bunch of pictures of the girls enjoying the exhibits.

Evie insisted on bringing her Lamb that she got for her birthday. She loves that thing, and wants to take it everywhere with us. It wasn't as big a pain as I expected it to be. She didn't set it down much at all. 

One of the new exhibits was a performance room with a stage and costumes. Evie wanted help getting this cloak on, but once she looked in the mirror, she looked sad and said, "I a bad guy?!"

The girls were excited to do their makeup. We spent a lot longer in here than I was expecting, but it ws nice, because I just got to sit n the audience section and watch them have fun. 

Evie was on the verge of being too big for this little seat. But she begged to get in. I think it reminded her of the seats at her school last year.

Kara was the only one who could get the bubble pulled up araound herself. The others would pull way too hard on the rope. 

After we were done at the children's museum, we went to McDonald's for lunch. While the other two were playing, Evie was obsessed with Ronald. She climbed all over him, sat in his lap and whispered in his ear. When I wanted her to come over to the table and eat, I asked her what she was telling him. she said that she told him that she wants sparkly shoes for Christmas. 

I told the girls it was national hotdog day a few days ago, to get them excited about having chili dogs for dinner. When I picked them up from the gym daycare, Kara had made her sisters each a hotdog hat. They weren't as excited to wear them, as she was about having created them. usually I throw things like this away after the girls are in bed, so they don't feel bad. But I didn't have to throw these away. I saw them both in Kiersten's trash can before the end of the night, hehe. 

craft day

Kara and Kiersten both earned a craft day by doing their chores yesterday. So I decided to get out some popsicle sticks and let them make something. Kara wanted to make a pencil holder, so Evie decided to make the same thing. Kiersten wanted to make a trinket box to keep her "most special secret treasures". Kiersten got to paint first, since I thought that made sense with how I planned on having her do the box. the other 2 were pretty impatient waiting for the glue gun to heat up, since I thought it made sense for them to glue their sticks on first, and then paint.

Karalee was so proud to use a glue gun by herself for the first time. she did a decent job, but gave up with about 6 more to go, and begged me to just finish it for her so she could watch Kiersten paint. 

A fly got into the rinse water, and all three girls were freaking out. Kiersten was crying and wouldn't go near the table. She insisted that it was a bee, and that it was trying to get her. Kara was upset because she wanted to save the fly. But I eventually got them calmed down after he was down the drain and out of sight. At least he died in pretty, sparkly pink water. 

Evie did such a good job painting, much better than I had expected. She was so careful to paint the sticks one at a time, and rinsed out her brush after each one, whether she was changing colors or not. She only used pink and purple, but asked me to paint some blue strawberries for her. But then she ended up painting over most of the ones I did for her. 

Once Kara and Evie were ready to paint, Kiersten was about done, and it was her turn to watch the others as she waited for her sticks to dry and be ready for gluing. 

Kara's rainbow pencil cup. She took forever because she painted the inside as well. I told her I didn't really think she needed to, and she said, "don't worry, I don't plan to drink out of it or anything".

Evie is very proud of her pencil cup. she keeps showing it to me as if I've never seen it before, and waits for me to act all surprised and impressed. She also keeps saying, "I paint wike a big girl!"

Kiersten's box was kind of a pain to put together, because I ran out of glue gun sticks, and had to use tacky glue. So that took longer, and had to be propped/held together longer. But she is so happy with it. She keeps reminding me that it is delicate, and assures me that she'll be super careful. 

Ben gave Evie her first sour gumball this weekend. she felt so betrayed, and I felt awful for going along with it. 

Kara had picked out a big lolly pop, and did actually let Evie have a taste. 

kiersten got a crown that was full of little candies, and lights up. 

yesterday the girls were eating lunch, and Kara started saying, "turkey vulture! turkey vulture!" As I was coming over to see what she was talking about, convinced she was exaggerating, I was pretty surprised to see that she was right! My unreasonable fear of birds of prey made me pretty uncomfortable to see this guy right out on our deck. 

here's a closer picture right before he flew off. We have a bunch of mouse bait boxes outside right now, and probably some dead mice, so if that is what attracted him, I hope he doesn't die from eating the poisoned mice. But hopefully, we wont see him again any time soon. 

Missouri Botanical Gardens

Since we had the Sutherlands visiting for Evie's birthday, it was a perfect time to go see the botanical gardens. It was so pretty, and I definitely want to go back on a weekend so we can plan to spend the entire day. The girls were pretty impressed with all of the fountains.

This sculpture was fun for the kids to pull on and ring the bells. 

Kiersten really wanted Kara to get a picture of her making bunny ears behind my head. 

There were some mazes for the kids to run around in. they weren't too challenging, but Kara was sure upset when Tommy ran ahead of her, and she thought he was lost forever. 

The kids loved putting their hands in this waterfall. 

One of the highlights was the pond where you could feed the fish. The kids had a great time here. 

Kara wanted to stay longer with the Sutherlands, but Evie and Kiersten both wanted to go, so we didn't see the rest of the gardens. But I'm sure we'll be back with Ben soon enough. 

Evie just loved tickle time with Tucker. He is such a fun baby, and easy to laugh. 

Kiersten is swimming so much better all of a sudden. on sunday night we went over to the pool, and she just started swimming around. I was a little surprised, as I've only seen her be able to go a little bit before she panics and puts her legs down. Maybe she'll be able to do swim team next year. 

Last week Ben and I went to a cardinals game. It was really nice to be in the "champions club" because it was air conditioned, and had all you can eat food and drinks. It was such a hot day. we got to go down on the field during batting practice to get our pictures taken, and it was so hot! I thought the game was going to be miserable in that heat. But our seats were just outside the champions club area under an awning with big fans going, so it was actually pretty nice after all. I still haven't gotten the picture of us on the field from Ben, so I'm assuming they haven't sent it to him yet.