school: week one

The girls had a great first week of school. Kara got 100% on her spelling test, and won an award for star speller. Kiersten was so proud to bring home a certificate saying she completed her first week of preschool. It had a pencil taped to it, which she calls her "prize pencil". she hasn't let me sharpen it for her yet, and it is still proudly taped to the certificate on the fridge. Since they have been mostly in new clothes all week, they've been wanting their picture taken every morning before school. Here's Kara, excited for her day as class helper. She took her my little pony hot air balloon for show and tell.

They both loved these shirts, because you can't see in the picture, but the buttons are sparkly and shiny.


On friday, I said we didn't have time for a picture, and Kiersten got upset, and asked, "how will I know if Aunt Nancy likes my boots?"


On saturday, we wanted to make sure Kara ate a good breakfast, so she'd have energy for her soccer game. So I did pancakes, eggs, and bacon. I decided it would be fun to jazz it up a little, which is something I've been trying to do a little on the weekends lately. For Kiersten's plate, I tried my best to make it look like a sun. I saw something similar to this online, but had to make my own adjustments, of course. Kiersten thought it was hilarious.

I destroyed the eggs trying to make Kiersten's sun rays, so I couldn't do the same for Kara. So I got the idea to try to make hers look like a bird. It's standing on a branch. Ben couldn't tell what it was supposed to be, but Kara knew right away. I wish I'd taken pics of some of the other things I've done lately, such as a pb&j sandwich looking like a watermelon slice, and a grilled cheese to look like an ice cream cone.
Evie loves playing with Kara's old backpack so she can be just like her sisters.
On saturday, it was Evie's daddy daughter day. She was so excited to get to go with him. He took her to the rhododendron gardens and took her to buy candy and a balloon. He had more fun than he thought he would.

We didn't take pics of Kara's soccer game on saturday, but she did much better. Her energy was way higher, and she scored her teams only goal. She was a lot more willing to get in the cluster and take the ball away. It was raining the whole time, so Kiersten and Evie were a little whiny, but they still had fun too. Kara got knocked down a few times. The first time, she started crying, but after that, she made a point to be tough and stay out on the field. After the game her coach told Ben that he thinks she has a natural skill for soccer, and encouraged us to keep her in it.

While Ben and Evie were gone on saturday, Kara made a family apple tree. I thought it was pretty cute. That's me to the left, the pink paper is a drawn picture of Kiersten, Ben is floating in the middle, the monkey sticker is supposed to be Evie, and the tiny picture in the apple on the trunk is Kara. I thought it was a cute thing to do.
Kara's 2 best buddies at school are Alex and Devin, both boys who have been in school with her the last 2 years. Her teacher told me that Devin keeps writing I love Kara on his work, and I thought that was so cute. Then Kara came home from school with a mobile she made. when I turned it over, it said "I love Devin" on the back in 2 places. I laughed about it, but Ben didn't think it was very funny. He confronted her about it. At first she said she didn't know who wrote it, but eventually admitted it was her. He warned her not to love boys or say she loves them, and she got really upset about it. I tried to step in, but she could tell he really meant it. Later she came to me crying that daddy wont let her be friends with Devin and Alex anymore. I explained that's not true. He is glad for her to have friends, as long as she doesn't think they are "boyfriends". He told her she can say or write that she likes them, but he doesn't like her saying she loves any boy but daddy, or her grandpas. I think he needs to deal with the subject more gently in the future, so she doesn't feel like she's getting in trouble about it. Later, she showed him a picture she made, on which she had written, "I sort of like Alex and Devin".
The other thing he didn't like is this picture Alex made for her. It's a picture of her saying, "hi alex" and him saying "hi Kara". He is giving her a flower, and at the bottom, it says, "they kist". Again, I thought it was kind of cute, but Ben wasn't happy about it. Poor Kara...

first day of school

The much anticipated first day of school is finally here! The girls were so excited last night to help me pack their lunches and set out their clothes for the morning. Karalee even insisted on setting her alarm clock to wake her up. Kiersten will be doing the preschool program and Kara will be one of 5 kids in the kindergarten program. I am relieved there are other kindergarteners in the class. In Kara's first year of preschool, there was only 1 kindergartener, and she seemed to be doing more babysitting than learning. So I'm glad that Kara will have a group of peers her own age to learn with. Kiersten is really excited to show her teacher that she can write her name.

They are also excited about their new shoes and backpacks. I guess I didn't get that great of a picture. Kiersten's is my little pony.

Kara has a Mario Kart backpack, featuring princess Peach. She also has a lunch box to match, which she is pretty excited about.

arriving at school

Kiersten has been dreaming of the day that she would be staying at school with Kara, instead of spending the day with boring, old mommy. She immediately started introducing herself to her new friends, and even told Mrs. Wright that she isn't going to have any accidents today. I hope that's true! Her shirt had a detatchable necklace and chains, which she broke off on the way to school. She was really upset about it, and crying. I think I can fix it though. I wasn't to worried about it, because I got that shirt for $4.00.

Kara immediately went into "big sister" mode. Being overprotective, bossy, and extra sweet to Kiersten all at once. I've warned her several times not to boss Kiersten around at school, but I knew she would. I also know her teacher wont let her get away with it too much. She's had siblings in her school at the same time before.

On saturday, Kara had her first soccer game. Here are the Tigers waiting patiently on the bench and cheering their teammates on the field. Kara is to the right.

It took her a few minutes to be willing to go after the ball. She seemed to be worried about being rude to the other team, by taking it away. Ben and the coach both had to tell her it was okay.

She did better in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of play. by the last quarter, she was hot, tired, and upset, and didn't want to go back on the field. She just wanted to sit in the shade eating snacks. Ben has lots of ideas what he wants to work on with her. We also decided that next week, she needs to have a bigger breakfast than just a bowl of cereal to keep her energy level up better. I think all of the kids will do better next week, now they've played an actual game instead of just practicing and doing drills.

fall cupcakes and sprinklers

This was our last week before the girls start school, so we've stayed pretty busy. Kiersten has been begging to make cupcakes, and on wednesday, she cleaned her room, and talked Kara into helping clean the playroom too. So I went through a cookbook with them to pick out a flavor. They ended up choosing a yellow cake, which was good for me, because it was a simple recipe.

They took turns putting in ingredients and turning on/adjusting the speed on the mixer. They both still complained that the other was getting to do more or better ingredients.

Evie really wanted to be involved, so I let her down from the highchair to participate. She didn't get too many jobs, but she still felt like a big kid helping out. the other 2 were going crazy over who got to put in the eggs, so Evie ended up getting to do that part. She almost smacked away the measuring cup I'd put them in for her, because she was clapping so wildly for herself.

They looked through my hello cupcake book, and chose to do pumpkins. there was a template for the faces, but being a little lazy that day, I just melted down some colored chocolate and free handed the faces. They are on that wax paper to Kara's right. I didn't have any yellow, so I used a neon green to look like they were glowing, then I outlined them all in black. In retrospect, they would have probably looked a lot better had I just used the templates, and it probably wouldn't have taken much longer, but owell, too late now.

We made a vanilla buttercream, and colored it orange. Then I piped that onto the cupcakes with a star tip to make it look stripey. Then Kara's job was to put the faces on. I kept reminding her to keep the stripes vertical, but she did several of them horizontally, and they didn't look too bad.

I happened to have some chocolate covered sunflower seeds, so i decided we'd use those for stems. That was Kiersten's job. she kept saying she wanted to make them girl pumpkins, and asking if she could put bows on their stems. I told her no several times, but she ended up doing it anyway on most of them, and they actually looked kind of cute, I have to admit. Both of the girls only wanted to eat the boy pumpkins, though. Maybe they were trying to keep the girl ones around longer or something. Some of them got named, but I can't remember the names. See what I mean about the faces turning out a little sloppy? That's what I get, I suppose for being lazy.

I made enough faces to decorate 15 cupcakes. Even though I cut the recipe in half, we got 32 mini cupcakes out of it. So I sent a bunch of them to work with Ben to share. They are certainly not perfect, but good enough to make the girls happy. Kara also had a few issues with the spacing of the faces, but I guess it doesn't matter.

They were very proud of their creations. It was torture for them to have to wait until after dinner to eat any.

Since only 15 got to become pumpkins, we made some chocolate frosting for the rest. I also let them use the sunflower seeds to decorate the chocolate ones. They turned out very...interesting... and artistic...

Today was super hot, so after we got back from grocery shopping, I got out this sprinkler beach ball for the girls. Kara picked this out weeks ago, and this was the first time they've gotten to play with it. We've just been so busy for the past month.

She kept trying to run and jump over it, but she'd just end up hitting the top and bouncing back.

Kiersten complained a lot about getting wet. I don't think she had much fun. The only reason she kept getting back in the water, was to prove Kara wasn't having more fun than she was. She took a nap when we went inside, so I'm sure she was just tired and grumpy.

Ben went grocery shopping the other day at sam's club, and came home with this cute little picnic table. It's perfect for the girls, and they are always asking to eat in the backyard. When we had people over on monday for burgers, Kara took her plate out here, and sat by herself to eat.

space helmets and sassy soccer star

Ben recently decided to have a daddy-daughter date with each of the girls individually on the weekends. On saturday, he took Kiersten out for a movie, candy store, and other fun stuff. So that left me at home with Evie and Kara, who was determined to make our day fun at home. Right after breakfast, she made up a list of things to do, and told me we'd just keep checking fun things off the list til we ran out, or it was time for bed. One of the first things, was to have a party on mars. So she made these paper hats for us to use as helmets, and we all sat on her bed (the rocketship).

Evie's space helmet.

I let Kara take this picture, but I was trying to help her hold the camera still, and my helmet fall back at the last minute. I hoped I'd caught more of it than just a small corner, but I'm sure you get the idea what it looked like from seeing the others.

After the rocket ship landed on mars, we played a few games and watched "open season 3". According to Kara, it was the first movie the martians had ever seen. We had time for a few more fun activities before Ben and Kiersten got home, and then we went to a birthday party. I forgot the camera, but it was really fun. The girls had a blast, but were exhausted by the time we came home. They sure love those bounce houses, even Evie. Maybe we'll have to do that for one of their birthday parties.

On sunday, Ben helped his friend move, and took Kara and Kiersten with him to play with their little boy. So Evie and I went school clothes shopping without them. At first, I was kinda sad they would rather play with thier friend than go shopping with me, because it can be fun. But I have to admit that it was way easier, and faster with just Evie. We got everything they need, without them begging to get more stuff they don't need. we stopped at a sale Ben wanted me to check out, and still had time for a cinnabon and time to let Evie play in the kiddie area for a while. So it was a nice day. Monday was low key. We had Sandy and Jen over and Ben made burgers. It was a nice, relaxed afternoon.

Kara had her second soccer practice yesterday. She is loving it. There are 4 girls and 2 boys on her team, all 5 years old. They have their first game on saturday. The coach asked them for team name suggestions, and all he could get were "princesses", "fairies", and "charging unicorns". So he told them all to talk to their parents about it and come to practice on thursday with a few better suggestions. She is definitely the most aggressive/confident player so far. I'm sure the other kids will get more daring after another practice or 2. Kara was doing so well at dribbling, so the coach had her run around trying to steal the ball from the others as they practiced. The first time, as soon as she ran toward the others, they all kicked their ball out of bounds rather than face her. So he made them try again, and they all tried to keep dribbling, but she was able to get them all out. She was so proud to be chosen to steal the balls. It's all she talked about on the way home. Kiersten and Evie don't have as great of a time watching her practice in the heat for an hour. Hopefully as it starts to cool off a bit, they'll be a little happier. Here's a picture of my silly little poser before we left for practice. She's pretty proud of her "soccer clothes". I wish I could share the look on her face when we got her uniform yesterday, when she saw that it was black and gold, and more than a bit oversized. She said, "I only have to wear that to the games, right?"

and since Kiersten has no intention of being out-sassed by Kara, here is a picture of both of them, posing away.

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.