Ballwin days carnival

On friday we happened to make a trip to target, and saw a huge fireworks display. There were several other cars parked there watching and clapping. We wondered what it was for, but couldn't think of anything. the next morning when Ben went to get his hair cut, the lady cutting it told him that this weekend was "ballwin days", which is a big city wide carnival in the park. So we decided to go check it out on Sunday since we were busy all day saturday. Ben dropped us off and went to park the car, so the girls played on the playground while we waited for him.

The splash ground was on, but Kara was the only one that would get wet, even though it was super hot that day.

The library had a booth with this bean bag toss. Kara signed up for the summer reading program earlier in the week and is zooming through it.

Kiersten desperately wanted to ride the ferris wheel. No one else wanted to, but I ended up riding it with her. you can see my head sticking up in that red car on the right. She loved it, and kept trying to stand up and lean over the edge to shout at Kara. I was not a fan of that.

more rides.

most of the carnival games were "children win every time". so we went home with some prizes.

Evie played the ducky game.

She won a large prize, but didn't want any of them. All she wanted was this hammer, so they refunded Ben some money. I was surprised they did that.

Kiersten loved spinning the ride, but Kara hated it and got dizzy when she did.

they were really excited to get to go on so many rides all by themselves.

Sharing a funnel cake. I can't believe I used to have the stomach to eat a whole one of these by myself. I had Kiersten and Evie chowing it down just as fast as they could and I still couldn't finish the whole thing.

They were pretty tuckered out when we got home. Ben put a movie on for them in the guest room.

mom's helpers, patio furniture, and neighborhood pool

So far we are having a pretty fun summer. Evie loves having Kara home all day. 

The other day I was really behind on housework, and trying to catch up. the girls just kept getting into things, and making new messes. So I made a list of all the chores they could help out with, and assigned point values to each one. Then they got to sign up for the jobs they wanted to do, and once finished, earn the points. Kara ended up with 22, and Kiersten with 9, and Evie with 2. Ben decided they would each get .50 per point to spend at target that night. Evie was so cute trying to help Kara with the dusting.

Kiersten also signed up to dust. That's a pretty popular chore around here. That night we went to target, and Kara got a fur real bunny, a hello kitty tin, and some candy. Kiersten got fairy wings, a package of cookies, and some candy. Evie picked out some gummy bears. It was a pretty successful day. I got all of the things done I was trying to do, and the girls were busy helping instead of making more of a mess. I did make sure the understood that they will still have to do chores without being paid, and this was a one time thing.

Our new patio furniture arrived. It has been really nice to be able to eat on the deck. We have such nice evenings here. this wasn't my first choice, but I'm glad we ended up with it, because it's really sturdy. I think the chairs can hold up to 400 lbs or something.

This area has already been rearranged a few times, and might get moved around again. We have to find the balance between what looks best and what is safest with little kids.

One of the best parts of our neighborhood is the community pool. We had lots of fun swimming on saturday. Kiersten loves the 1 1/2 ft kiddie pool.

Evie got in the water some, but mostly just wanted to play in this little house. luckily there were no other little kids playing over there. But I'm sure she will have some fights over it before the summer is over.

The water was kinda cold that day, but the girls still wanted to stay.

Bow holders

Now that the girls have their own bathrooms, one bow board wasn't working out so well. So I decided to make a few new bow hangers for them. I just bought wood cut outs to paint. The girls really wanted to help paint. At first I did not want to let them, because I thought they would turn out looking pretty sloppy. But they were so excited to paint, I couldn't turn them down. So I let them paint their  own, and I helped draw designs on them for a guide. they actually did pretty well, and no one made a mess.

Kiersten was painting giant globs at first, but as soon as I had her watch how Kara was doing it, she caught on, and did much better. I did have a few little touch ups on hers after she was done, but I was impressed how well she was able to paint inside the lines I made for her to follow.

I just stapled some grosgrain ribbon to the backs, and they turned out super cute. I did the lady bug for Evie, since she was asleep. Kara made the heart almost entirely by herself, and Kiersten made the butterfly one with my help. now they are hanging in their bathrooms full of bows from top to bottom. 

Accident prone Evangeline

Evie somehow pulled her elbow again last week. We seriously have no idea how it happened. She just walked oven to Ben, threw herself on the floor and started crying and saying "OW!". so he brought her up to me, and she fell asleep. We thought it had to do with her tooth she was cutting, but every time she rolled over she would start to cry again. I took her back down to Ben, and he noticed she was not using her arm, and crying every time it was touched. So I took her into the ER to get it re set. I will never take her to the ER again for a pulled elbow. Just like back in October, they tried over and over and couldn't get it back in place. So decided that it must be fractured, and wanted x rays. I really didn't feel it was broken, but they wanted the xrays anyway. So I got to hold her down on the x ray table again, and make her cry and scream so they could take x rays which backed me up that she didn't have a broken bone. So again, just like back in October, they ended up giving up and sending us home. So that was 4 hours wasted, and spent torturing and upsetting her, that she would have been much more comfortable at home. I fully appreciate and respect those who work in the ER, but I just did not like how they kept acting like I didn't know what I was talking about, and just wouldn't hear me out. I'm her mother, I know her. I know how this injury was last time, and I knew her arm was not broken. So next time, I'll just wait til the next morning and get her into the ortho dr. to get it popped back in.

The next morning, Ben took her to the ortho to get it fixed up, and they took care of her. She was happy and using her arm again by the time they left the office. I think she might have done it on the stairs. I've seen her a few times walking down the stairs, and slip, then grabbing onto the hand rail to catch herself. We don't know for sure, but that's my best guess. Poor thing is always getting hurt! she was just recovering from getting her head scraped by falling out the front door, then this happened, and a few days later, Kara was chasing her to tickle her, and she fell and hit her head in the same spot she already has a scar, a bump, and a scab. She also bit her lip, and bled all over herself and me. I feel like just wrapping her up in bubble wrap every morning.

I didn't take any other pictures this week. I got really swamped with house projects and a bunch of orders in my etsy shop. I am caught up now, and Kara is done with school, so hopefully we'll have some fun pictures coming up soon. I'm especially excited to post pictures of the girl's room makeovers when we finish them up. Kara and Kiersten's rooms are looking really cute, but Evie's isn't even started yet.

Kindergarten grad!

These sisters sure love getting their pictures taken together. For every picture I take of them, there are probably at least 5-6 times I have to tell them no, we don't have time for pictures right now. At least i know their childhood will be well documented.

Today was Kara's kindergarten graduation. (even though she still has school for 4 more days next week.) She was disappointed that Daddy couldn't make it, but excited for the little girls and me to show up there. The kids recited a little poem, and we watched a slideshow of all the events throughout the year. The teacher did a good job of getting pictures of Kara in there too, even though she's only been in class for 2 weeks. She has taken pictures of her about everyday, and just randomly inserted them along with the other kids. Every time A picture of Kara came on screen, Evie would excitedly shriek, "wook! Kawa!" all the kids thought that was funny.

Almost all the kids in her class live in our neighborhood. I was surprised that several of the parents came right up to me, knew who we were, and exactly where we lived, and had heard about us from other neighbors. One lady even knew my and the kids' names.

She got a graduation certificate, and her teacher pulled me aside after to say that she hasn't had much time to assess Kara, but from what she's seen, she will be fine for first grade. I didn't say anything, but I wasn't at all worried about her readiness for first grade. She is pretty far ahead of the work I've seen coming home, so I know she'll be fine.

After the ceremony, the parents could choose to take the kids home, or let them stay for PE. Kara wanted to stay, so I let her. Right as we were walking out of our house to get her from the bus stop, Evie fell and bloodied her head, so I quickly ran inside to get her cleaned up and calmed down. then I put on a movie for Kiersten and set Evie by her to watch while I ran to the bus by myself. Right as I was out of my yard, I saw the bus drive past me, and I looked down the street but didn't see Kara. I walked down there to make sure, but she was not there. So I waited for the bus to come back by, as it has to go to the end of our street, and turn around to get out of the neighborhood. I thought the bus driver saw me, and I waved so she'd stop, but she just drove by. So I thought she must not have seen me after all. I called the school to see if she was still there, or if the driver was going to take her back, and they didn't have her, and they called to driver who said she had gotten off the bus at the stop. So I started panicking and told them she wasn't there. We figured she must have gotten off at the wrong stop, as the teacher supervises them onto the bus to make sure everyone gets on the right one. I ran back home to check on the girls, and make sure Evie was okay, and was going to start driving around looking for Kara, when I got a call back from the bus depot saying they had her and were bringing her back. So I went back to the bus stop to wait. I ended up waiting almost 15 minutes for her, and when she showed up, the driver told me that Kara had fallen asleep, and slouched down onto the seat. So she thought she got off at her stop, and had seen me, and thought it was weird she didn't see Kara with me, but figured maybe I let her play at a friends house or she had run ahead of me. When she got back to the depot, she spotted Kara asleep in her seat, and woke her up. Poor Kara was really upset about it. She wouldn't talk to the driver, or answer any questions. Even I couldn't get a word out of her the whole walk home. Once we were in the house, I opened her backpack, and found some popcorn she'd brought home. As soon as she saw it, she cheered right up, and got back to her normal self. She seems to be over it already, and says she still wants to ride the bus.