And when we're not at the pool...

I straightened Evie's hair a few days ago, and boy was she thrilled with herself. She loved having it straight and long. Of course the other girls are beyond jealous of the curls she wakes up with every morning.

Kara made these pen, pencil, and marker cups for the kitchen cupboards with my leftover scraps of contact paper and some cans.

All the girls helped me empty and clean the cupboards and drawers so I could line them with paper. I did really well cranking out the shelves for a few days, but I haven't gotten back to it. It's not even half way done. We accidentally ordered twice the amount of contact paper as we meant to, so I could probably do every drawer in the house if I really felt like it. It will be good to have it down the road when it gets torn up though.

This is how my cupboards turned out. I love it. It was also a great excuse to clean out and rearrange the cupboards. And you should see my pile of stuff to go to good will. I love to purge.

Ben's softball game last week was early, so I decided to take the girls. Of course they spent the entire first half at the playground, and didn't even look over to the softball field once.

Queen of the mountain.

Love these sweet girlies!

Proof  that I glanced over to the field a couple times. There's Ben in the light blue shorts. About halfway through, I made the girls go over and watch him play.

At first I didn't really want them playing in the sprinkler, but then it was so hot, that they were dry within minutes after they played in it.

Kiersten is doing a summer soccer camp. She is so happy to play again. I feel badly that we didn't get her on a team this spring. She really loves it. Afterward she was happy to be all sweaty and out of breath. She said, "it feels great to run around and get a workout!".

On Friday Kara and Kiersten went to a cooking class at Schnucks. I meant to sign them up for more classes, but waited too long, and this was the only day I could get them both signed up. They had such a great time. It was a barnyard theme, and they came home talking all about how great pork is. Kara wants to cook the meal they practiced for the family one of these nights. I will definitely be signing them up for this again in July. Sidenote: they are turning back into blondes after working so hard all winter to become brunettes. I was pretty shocked at the difference in Kiersten's hair color on the first/last day of kindergarten. She's a regular chameleon.

This is my life: in pool pictures

Since we are at the pool every weekday for swim team, and most afternoons, evenings, and weekends for fun, I have tons of pictures. So here they are. This has been our month of June. When we get back from vacation, swim team will be over, but I'm sure we'll still have plenty of motivation to be at the pool.

Kiersten has put on several water ballets.

Kara turned out to love swim team, which she thought she would hate. She has already asked me if she can do it again next year. I'm pretty impressed by how far she has come. She keeps setting new personal bests for herself.

Kiersten earned 2 second place ribbons at her meet this week. She is beyond proud! I'm not sure if she realizes that one of the races was only between 2 girls, but it doesn't matter. She improved her backstroke by almost 40 seconds, and no longer cries and freaks out at the mention of the dreaded word: backstroke. She is always pushing herself and giving 100%. I couldn't be more proud.

My little Kara bear has turned into a brown bear. despite my efforts to keep her slathered in sunscreen. I guess there's only so much you can do.

Now we just need to get Evie out of the floaty! I let go of her in the deep end yesterday, and she did not even try to kick or stroke. She just stiffened and sank, so we'll have to work on that! 2 months ago, she was swimming a little at her swim lessons, so I know she can do it.

A day for Daddy

The girls have been hard at work planning lots of fun surprises for Father's day. They made him these paper ties that I found on this blog. Kara also wrote a paragraph about all the things she loves about him.



They gave him a new money clip, and the new Kirby game for 3DS. They were all able to play it together after dinner tonight, and seemed to have a lot of fun.

They wanted to take him to Swing Around Fun Town, where Kara went with her girl scout troop a few weeks ago. Kara wrote 3 clues about where we were going for Kiersten to read to him. Then he tried to guess where we were going. They have been pretty excited about this surprise.

We played 2 courses of mini golf. The second course was more enjoyable, since I took over for Evie. She didn't want to keep playing, so that course went much more quickly, and involved considerably less whining.

We rode the bumper boats, but didn't get any pictures. We were all soaking wet afterward. Ben and I were both still damp by the time we got home. After that, we took Evie and Kiersten on the go-karts. Kara didn't want to ride, so she took a few pictures.

I was surprised she got some decent shots. Kiersten was loving it, until a particularly aggressive lady bumped into us. Then she was just worried about the rules having been broken. But she got over it by the last couple laps.

Lastly, we went inside to play in the arcade. Kiersten was thrilled to hit a jackpot and get 1000 tickets.

Hopefully he had a fun time. We stopped at a store on the way home for him to get some new shorts, since he's been wearing shorts that are way too big after losing a little weight. The girls wanted to make him nachos for dinner, so that was a relatively easy dinner. After that, they had picked out some cookies for him at the store, so they gave him those, and of course enjoyed a few themselves.

summer activities

We have been practically living at the pool for the past 2 weeks. I think I've finally convinced the girls to hang their bathing suits to dry instead of throwing them into their laundry hampers. I was just doing the same laundry over and over for that first week.

Kara has really been interested in the basketball hoop this year. Ben kind of helped her, and gave her some tips, and she has gotten better at shooting. The last 2 times I've taken her to the pool, she has spent most of her time shooting basketball with the teenage boys. They have been very nice about it, and letting her hang out with them.

Evie is getting more confident in the big pool. It's nice not to be stuck sitting in the baby pool area the whole time we're there.

She still likes to hang out in there sometimes.

Kiersten really wanted an under water picture. This was the best one we got. We'll have to try again with her goggles so she can do something cool.

Evie also wanted an underwater shot, but I couldn't get one. She doesn't stay under for even a second. So she had to settle for this.

The girls have been having a great time swimming with their friends, and making new friends on swim team.

We brought the giant beach ball back again this year. Kara told me that it makes her very popular.

Kiersten and her friends had a lot of fun trying to get on top of it. I don't think any of them were ever successful, though.

They had their first swim team meet on Tuesday. It took a while to get the kids all set up for a group photo. Kiersten is in the front row, 3rd from the left. I couldn't get her to look at me, it was really loud. Kara is in the middle behind a blond boy, and looking right at the camera.

Poor Kara woke up crying at midnight on Monday night. She cried that her ear was hurting and I could not get her to stop crying until after 3:30. So I took her to the Dr, suspecting swimmer's ear. The Dr said she did have swimmer's ear, plus a middle ear infection. So she is on ear drops and an antibiotic. She had to stay out of the water for 3 days, including showers. So she didn't get to participate in the meet. I still had her dress for the photos so she wouldn't feel too left out. Yesterday was her first day back in the pool, and her ear didn't bother her at all. I think I am going to find a swim cap for her, so we don't have this issue again.

Evie gets very bored and VERY grumpy at the swim team practices. It has been a challenge. Next year she will definitely be doing swim team along with them.

Group photo. Once they finally had everyone lined up, I hurried to get a picture before the photographers were ready. I didn't want to get in their way, or mess with their ability to get a great shot.

Kiersten went to girl scout camp on Wednesday. She was very excited. It was a day camp, and she wished she could have stayed over night.

Just a handful of our troop were able to go. They were a little restless during the 40 minute drive, but only because they were so excited to get there.

We were a little early, so they spent 10 minutes digging up pill bugs. I was a little surprised how willing they all were to let bugs crawl on them. I know if her friends weren't there, Kiersten would have been screaming and running away.

They had a great time! And I still can't believe how inexpensive it was. Just $12 per girl!