Just busy growing up

The girls have really been interested in trying new things lately. They are trying to grow up so fast, and I guess I kind of have to let them. For a school project, Kiersten was supposed to create a "career person" with background and tools that someone in that job would use. She insisted that she wants to grow up to be a pop star. It was a family homework assignment, so I made everyone help. Kara helped out a lot, Evie drew some faces of fans, and stuck on a few stickers. Ben drew a guitar for Kiersten to cut out and decorate.

Turned out pretty fun.

This weekend, Karalee asked me to teach her how to sew. I wasn't sure how she would do, but had her start with a purse. She caught right on. I am actually pretty impressed how straight her lines were. She goes pretty slowly, but I was able to get her to try sewing fast a couple times. But I could tell it made her uncomfortable, so for now she is sewing at a snail's pace, but with beautifully straight lines.

She did a great job! I almost feel badly that I didn't teach her sooner. I almost had her do a buttonhole, but decided to save that for another day.

She wanted to make something else, so I got out some fabric I've been meaning to use for a skirt for her. I kept it pretty simple, but she did have to sew a gather stitch. I asked if she'd like me to attach the waist band, but she wanted to do it. I fully expected to find holes that would need to be fixed, but she pinned the waistband on so carefully, and sewed so slowly, that she didn't have any holes to fix. There was one small flaw on her hemline, so I had her unpick about 2", and re-do it.

It turned out super cute! She couldn't be more proud of herself. It did take kind of a long time, so I made a bow for it to pass the time. 

I think it turned out pretty much as good as it would have if I'd made it myself. She wore it to school on Monday, and was happy to report that no one asked if it was home made. Apparently that's the test to tell if it looks good or not.

She didn't want to quit sewing, so she made a purse for Evie. I let Evie pick out her fabric, and she chose this fun pattern. I showed Kara how to do a drawstring, and now she is anxious to make something for Kiersten next.

Evie is the proud new owner of a red beta fish. She loves having a pet. She had planned on naming it "Lovely", but once she picked out her fish, and brought him home, she decided she'd like to call him "Bacon" instead.

She picked out pink rocks and a pink castle for his tank. She had such high hopes that he would live in the castle, but we told her he probably wouldn't go inside it. But her instincts were right. That fish spends 80% of his time inside the castle. I think he's still a little overwhelmed to be in such a big tank after his little cup. This week has been pretty full of excited reports on Bacon's activities. When she's not at school, she updates me every 10-15 minutes on his exciting activities. This morning when I went to wake her up, she was lying on her belly, with her chin propped up in her hands, and gazing lovingly up at the tank. She said, "shhh, Mom. I'm singing Bacon a lullaby"

On Saturday, Kiersten asked if she could make everyone breakfast. So I decided she could certainly try. We had some leftover bacon ends and pieces, so I put them in a pan and had her stir and break them up with a spatula. She did a pretty good job. When they were close to done, she got a little splattered, and asked me to finish for her.

She also made French toast. She got to crack the eggs, stir them up with the milk, and put in the cinnamon. I even let her dip the bread. She was afraid to get her hand too close to the griddle, and was sort of flinging the bread over. So I had to take that part over, and put the bread on the pan once she had dipped it. But she did want to try flipping them over all by herself. She did a pretty good job.

Enjoying her hard work!

On Monday, I told Evie I'd take her to the Magic house, but when we got there, I realized they are not open on Mondays until summer. She was heartbroken, so I tried to give her some other options of fun activites, but she said no to everything. No zoo, bowling, chuck e. cheese, ice cream shop, etc. I was surprised I couldn't talk her into anything else, but headed for home. After a few minutes she asked if we could do an art project. So I stopped at the craft store and let her pick out a project. She also got this cute little apron for 74 cents!

She picked out this cardboard heart box. She painted it red with purple polka dots, and then decided she didn't like the polka dots, and painted back over them with the red. She gifted it to Ben, but he asked if he could keep it in her room. She agreed, and is now keeping Bacon's food in there.

I needed a project to do while Evie worked on her box. Luckily, I bought this lamp that I love, but the shade was a little blah.

A stencil and a little paint, and I have a fun new lamp. I love how it turned out!

Last night Kara really wanted me to take a picture of her hair after she took out her high pony tail. When she was younger, we always called her "Kara Fawcett" because of her long, luscious locks. But I think it might be time for a new nickname. Any suggestions?

It was almost spring...

We had a couple of nice days last week. The girls were so happy to play outside. They rode bikes one afternoon (no pictures), and on Friday I took them to the park to play after school. They sure had a lot of energy to burn off.

It was 60 out, but Evie wouldn't take off her jacket, because she was all excited about the new rain coat Ben ordered for her. I need to get a picture of the matching boots, they're super cute.

Kiersten found a couple little boys from her kindergarten class to play with, so we didn't see much of her.

Kara wanted to stay for dinner, but I had planned on lasagna, and didn't think that would work well to take to the park. I thought we might do lunch at the park over the weekend, but it got cold again.

The pond was still mostly frozen. Kara actually wanted to wade in the foot of melted ice around the edge to retrieve some Cheetos someone had thrown out onto the pond. Where do these ridiculous ideas come from???

They thought it was pretty hilarious to see the ducks waddling around on top of the ice. Maybe I'll save up some bread crusts for when it warms up again.

Kiersten is my sweet girl. There is just no better word for her than sweet.

Kara showing off her awesome dangling skills! (just kidding, she was flipping over the bar, not just dangling)

Of course, we are back down to 35 again today :(   And a lady at the gym told me to expect snow on Thursday (hopefully not!) But it was nice to have a week of spring, and hopefully there is more to come. The birds sure seem to think it's spring time.

St. Valentine's Day 2014

For Valentine's Day, we had our usual heart shaped pizza. It was pretty tasty. We got it from one of my favorite places this year, Pizzarelli's.

My little Valentine's were so sweet.  

I remembered the rose napkins that were on the table at a restaurant in Disneyworld, so I looked up how to make them. I thought they turned out pretty cute. The girls just loved them.

The girls were excited to open all their cards and gifts.

Evie got some stuffed animals from her current favorite show, Doc McStuffins. I think she finally has all the friends she has been wanting.

My funny little Kiersten. She's been having a great time with her new diary and princess book.

Kara couldn't have been more thrilled about her new figures for Disney infinity. She went straight downstairs to play.

Pretty short and sweet! I got spoiled with roses, Chocolate covered strawberries, perfume, and gift cards to one of my favorite stores.
Hope you all had a wonderful day full of love!

Mid-February fun

I finished the Valentine hats that the girls requested. Karalee's is my favorite, and might be my favorite I've ever made. She wanted really long braids down the sides, and seems to be pretty happy with the result.

She requested, "more red than pink".

They were very anxious to play out in the snow after school on Tuesday.

Kiersten also loves her hat, and says in the mornings, "where is my sweetheart hat?" when she's getting ready for school.

I asked Evie what kind of hat she wanted, and she said, "with lots of rainbow hearts". so I assumed she was talking about conversation hearts.

The writing didn't turn out so great, I kinda wish I'd left them blank.

 

Lots of fun in the back yard!

 

 

She had been sick, so I didn't let Evie go out to play in the snow. I asked if she'd like to help make hot cocoa. She said an enthusiastic "yes!" and also suggested we make some cookies. I thought that was a good idea. But could we get them made before Kiersten got cold and decided to come inside???

It turns out we could! The first batch was just out of the oven, when I heard Kiersten tapping at the door.

enjoying some cookies and  cocoa to warm up.

Ben or Kara must have taken this picture of Evie. I just found it on the camera, not sure what was going on here.

Kara earned her cooking patch for brownies this week. She chose to make a cheesecake, and I bought all of her ingredients, but we forgot to make it. She remembered at 8:30 as I was sending her to bed. So we hurried and made it. We actually got it in the oven in less than 15 minutes, so I thought that was pretty good. I was surprised how hard it was to just let her do it. I had to stop myself from taking over several times. I didn't realize I was so controlling, but I wanted her to do it herself, and noticed, how often I tend to just step in and do it "faster", "better", "cleaner" etc. But she did a great job. When I told her to put it in the oven, I noticed she was completely trembling, she was so nervous to do it. I really need to give her more chances to do these things, I guess.

It was so fun to see how proud she was of herself. When I was cleaning up after she went to bed, I noticed she used a 1/3C measuring cup for the sugar instead of 1/2C. so it wasn't quite as sweet as normal, but it actually tasted really good. I don't think anyone missed the extra sugar.

Yesterday I taught Evie to write the word "red" and the word "cat". She was so happy and proud. The picture didn't pick it up so well, but you can see the first 3 times where I helped her, and then the very bottom one is what she did all by herself. I told her she was getting so smart, and she said, "I know. I gonna celebwate by dwawing a surfboard with ears!" It's the tiny scribbly thing in the middle of the paper, but very hard to see.

On the back of the page, she drew the cat she had been writing about. At dinner I asked if she could remember how to spell the two words. It took her a few minutes of thinking, and a little help, but she got them both eventually.