October projects

After we made the paper pumpkins last week, the girls were very excited to put out halloween decorations around the house. When we were done, Kara said she thought we had more decorations. I thought so too, but I couldn't specifically remember anything that was absent. I decided we should do a few decorating projects to halloween the house up a little more. Kiersten found these wooden peanuts halloween magnets when we were at the store getting fabric for her halloween costume. She picked one out for herself, and each of her sisters.

As usual, Kara took a really long time trying to get hers just right.

I colored Evie's first, and then gave her a crayon to do some scribbling over the top.



Here they are proudly displayed on the refrigerator. The girls love rearranging and playing with them.

I've had this fabric sitting around for months, so I decided to sew myself a skirt. I made it one size too small, to encourage myself to keep losing weight. That's why it's so tight in the picture. I thought it turned out pretty good, and I only had to do the buttonhole once, which was great.

We found a foam jackolantern kit in the halloween box. i must have bought it on clearance last year after the holiday. The girls had fun creating their faces. I let them each decorate 3.



I also had a foam ring that I bought and never used. So I decided it should be turned into a halloween wreath. I just got some fun colored ribbon, and tied it closely together all the way around. This is how it turned out. I really like it, but Ben said it was weird. I guess that's okay for a halloween decoration.

I also bought some cheap-o window clings that look like little green goblins looking out your window. Yesterday, the girls didn't notice them, so today when we got home, I said, "It looks like someone is peeking out the front window." The girls both freaked out! I thought they would get that it was a fake decoration, but they both got upset and thought there were bad guys in the house. Kara refused to go in the house until I went in to make sure the monsters really were fake. (even though I'd already told her they were, and that I'd put them there.) We came in and I pulled up the blinds for the girls to see and touch them. Kara refused, but finally believed they were plastic. She said, "who would want to scare kids with pretend monsters in their house?" I felt pretty bad about it, so they might have to go. But I think for now, they are not scared of them anymore.

9/2/11

On wednesday, a new Disney store opened up in the south center mall next to Ben's office. So, being the disney lover he is, of course he told me about it and suggested I take the girls to the opening. We got there about 9:55, and had to wait in line until 11:15. I thought of leaving, (especially since I'd forgotten the stroller) but the girls freaked out at the mere suggestion. So we waited forever to get in. Once we were in, we were too late to get the free gift (which was just Mickey ears, so the girls weren't that disappointed). But I thought for standing in line that long, I'd better get them something in the store. So I told the girls they could each choose 2 things. I ended up spending less than I planned, as they luckily chose things that weren't too pricey. Kara chose a princess stamp set, and a set of fairy figurines. Evie chose a Daisy duck doll. Kiersten chose a large princess Aurora doll (not surprising, as she's one of her favorites). Her other choice was a prince Eric doll. If you know Kiersten well, you probably know about her obsession with, and determination to marry Prince Eric of The Little Mermaid. She talks about him all the time. So she is beyond thrilled to have this new doll. She hovered over me as I opened the package, and kept warning me not to rip his sleeve, be careful with his arm, don't let his boot fall off. Once he was out of the packaging, she said, in her manly-est voice, "thanks, Kiersten's mother. don't you know I have a wedding to get to?"

After a few minutes of dancing with Kiersten, he, Ariel, and all of the barbies and polly pockets got dressed up for the wedding. Kiersten wanted to wait to have the wedding after Ben got home, but happily for him, she couldn't wait that long for them to kiss, so they were married right away.

With the girls starting school soon, I want to make their last few weeks of summer really fun. So I got these sun catchers for them to paint. They really enjoyed it, and made hardly any mess.

I think they did a fantastic job painting, and I will get them hung in the window as soon as I'm satisfied they are dry enough.

Kara's first soccer practice was yesterday. It was only 6 miles away, but it took forever to get there, because of a Blink 182 concert. Once we were there, the 2 little girls settled on a blanket to watch the practice.

There are 6 kids on her team, but only 4 were at practice because of confusion over which school it would be held at. If you can't tell, Kara is to the right in pink shorts.

I'll have to get a closer picture of her in her soccer gear at her next practice on tuesday. She looks like such an adorable little soccer player. She had so much fun learning her new skills.


The lady in pink to the left is the school custodian who came to kick us off the field. Something about, they didn't water the field enough during spring, so now they have to water it every night during the summer. Looks pretty dead to me, but owell. The coach was really mad about it. They finished up their practice on the basketball court. She learned, throwing in bounds, stopping the ball with the side of her foot, and passing and shooting. He even tried to teach them to do a header, but all of them backed away at the last second. She is excited for her first game, and keeps reminding me that her coach told her to practice at home. one more quick story, sorry no pic to go along with it though. The other night, the girls were all in bed, and Ben and I were downstairs watching a movie. He heard Evie crying, so I went up to get her, and found she had gotten out of bed, and instead of going into the hallway, she ended up in the closet, and somehow shut herself in there. When I opened the door, she was pounding and pushing on the wall, and was so upset. It took her a long time to calm down. She had dropped her binky and cup in there, while she was trying to get out. I felt so bad. she really was terrified. Kara started crying when I told her about it, and said, "that must have been so scary for her, mom!" Isn't that just the saddest? Ben felt sad about it too. so now, we have to make sure the closet is closed and the door is open when we put her to bed.

8/21/09

Last friday I had a headache all day, so when Ben got home, he fed the girls dinner so I could take a nap. I felt much better after, but the problem was, I couldn't fall asleep later that night. Ben and the girls were asleep, and I just wasn't tired, so I went downstairs for some cleaning time. A few weeks ago, glidden was giving away free paint, so I had ordered some paint that I thought would be good for our master bathroom. When I got it, I thought it might actually be better for the kitchen, but I hadn't quite decided. So as I was cleaning, I came across the can of paint. I decided to tape off the kitchen, just to see how much work it would be. It didn't take long at all, so I decided to go ahead and paint. I'm glad I used it for the kitchen and not the bathroom. There is a lot less wall space than I realized because of cupboards and appliances. I stayed up til 3:00 painting, then decided to take a break, but I fell asleep on the couch. Ben woke up at 7:30, and started looking for me. He was surprised to find me downstairs on the couch with the tv on and the kitchen painted green! I admit it was kinda random, but I like how it turned out. I hadn't finished above the cabinets, but it was mostly done. We had to hurry and start getting ourselves and the girls ready for Ben's fidelity softball game in Samammish. It was supposed to start at 10, but due to traffic, and a detour, we arrived at 11. Surprisingly, we were some of the first people there. By noon, most everyone had arrived and the game started. It was a combo softball game/barbeque with the Tukwila, Seattle, and Bellevue branches. It was fun to see everyone from Seattle again. I haven't seen some of those people in a really long time. It was also fun to see everyone else too. I didn't watch much of the game, but I still had fun playing with all the little kids that were there! Of course Kara made friends with all of them. As soon as that was finished, we headed over to a birthday party for Nathan and Sara's son, Ethan, who was turning 7. It was also at a park, so that was a pretty long day for us, and a fun day for the girls. We stopped at costco first for some stuff, and I waited in the car because Kiersten was sleeping. Ben and Kara came out with a new book for Kiersten, and flowers for me. Ben said Kara had insisted on getting them for me. Here is a picture of her smelling them. The birthday party was really fun. The kids all shot nerf guns at each other, and then they had a treasure hunt. They went all over the park until they finally found the treasure. Kiersten even had a goodie bag in the treasure, even though she didn't participate with the hunt. After the party, we came home and just crashed. I guess we are getting pretty old.
The next day, I decided to do as much cleaning as possible, and asked Ben if he could take the girls somewhere fun for 2 or 3 hours. He decided it would be a good day to visit his brother, Jason. He didn't want to drive all the way to Portland, so I think they met up about half and hour north of there. Here are a couple pictures.

It worked out well for me that they ended up being gone for more than 5 hours. I was really able to get a lot done. I got to a lot of those things, that don't need to be done too often, but still need to be done. Things like windows, washing walls, disinfecting lightswitches and doorknobs, that usually get sent to the bottom of my to-do list. They got to come home to an especially clean house, and then Ben helped me finish up the painting, and we all went to bed exhausted.

This week, Ben has had a lot going on at work. Tuesday their big boss came to town, and that was a late night, I think that was the night they did an event with clients until after 9:00. So the girls were in bed asleep by the time he got home. Then wednesday was his gym night after work, so he got home a bit late. Last night, the branch had a bowling get-together, which he ended up leaving early, but still didn't get home in time to have dinner with us. We have all felt like this has been a very long week. As for the girls and I, we have been up to the usual; going to they gym, grocery shopping, trips to the dry cleaner, doing laundry, and housework. And of course plenty of play time, and just goofing around. Yesterday, Kara woke up from a nap, convinced that Daddy had, "gone away in a balloon". she was really upset, and I tried to let her call him to see that he was okay, but we couldn't get him, so that was a few hours worth of drama for her. She was glad when he finally arrived home, and was okay. This weekend, we plan on going nowhere, and just relaxing around here all together.