Children's museum in Portland

Yesterday we decided to drive down to the portland children's museum. Kara says that the water room was her favorite part. We did spend a lot of time in there.

Kiersten kept wanting me to check his breath to see if it smelled stinky or clean. I was saying it smelled good, but then she would spot a cootie bug, and get back to brushing.

Everyone had to take advantage of this photo op.

making stuff out of clay. The girls liked doing it, but once Ben and I started getting dirty from the clay, we were outta there.

Vicky was so nice to hold Evie most of the time so I could play with the girls. and I know how heavy that kid can feel after holding her for a while.

Kara told Ben she wanted her face painted like a puma. this was his creation. Though, after further questioning from Jason and me, I'm not convinced he even knows what a puma is. ;)

Kiersten didn't like her face paint, and wanted it off as soon as she looked in the mirror. I think she was expecting to look like she did on halloween when I put a little eyeshadow and lipstick on her.

I let Kiersten paint my face because I felt bad about how much she hated hers. I thought that stuff would wipe right off, but you really had to scrub to get it off.Evie was pretty good until the last part. Then she screamed in the car when we were leaving.

the girls liked digging in this rubber stuff.

after a few hours here, we met up with Ben's brother, Jason and his new wife, Lisa. Vicky had met her already, but it was Ben and my first time meeting her. She is really great. And the girls just loved her, especially Kiersten. We stopped by their house for a bit. I apparently missed out on fun times with their cat, as I stayed in the car to nurse Evie. Ben had to fight to get Kiersten to wear pants that morning. We didn't want her running around and climbing on things in a dress, so he made her wear pants, but agreed she could bring a dress to change into after. So Kara decided to bring a dress to change into also. The changed and got their faces cleaned, and then we went to Garlan and Jill's house. Sara and her family came over too, and we all went to dinner at a mongolian bbq place. It was pretty good. Kara loved sitting by her cousin Karen and playing with her. Kiersten was a little jealous of Kara having a friend. After dinner we went back to Garlan and Jill's for a while. Jason and Lisa had to get home, but Sara came back over and played games. It was a fun time, and we probably stayed later than we should have, but it's worth it when you are having that much fun. And I dominated at Boggle, of course. hehehe.

weekend visitors

Victor and Nancy drove with little Tommy to visit us for Easter weekend. It has been lots of fun so far. They arrived around 3 am on friday morning. Ben had an appointment that day, and Kara had school. The rest of us hung out all morning, and then drove up to tukwila to get Ben from work. We went to lunch at one of Ben's favorite Seattle spots, Tats. It was okay, but I was expecting a lot better from how much he always raves about it. Then we had to hurry down to pick up Kara from school. Poor Tommy and Kiersten were stuck in their carseats for quite a while. Later that night, we dyed easter eggs with the girls. They both thought it was really fun.

They did keep dropping the eggs, so we ended up with more cracked ones than not.

This morning after breakfast, Ben and Nancy took Kara to see "how to train your dragon". They all said it was a fun movie, although Ben was kept busy cleaning Kara's 3D glasses, because she kept touching them after touching the popcorn. Victor, Tommy, Kiersten and I stayed home. We listened to the conference talks, and Kiersten helped me make a cheesecake.

She kept calling it a pie, and thought she would get to eat it as soon as it was done baking.

We drove out to the Tacoma children's museum to meet Ben, Nancy, and Kara. We got there a bit earlier than them. Kiersten had fun building while we waited.

Poor little Tommy got hungry, so he was happy to see his Mommy.

helping the girls with art projects.

Nancy and Tommy. He is so good at standing up.

isn't he just so adorable?the girls always love this fishing boat.

Tommy got dressed up in one of the costumes.

Ben and Vic learning origami.

more art projects.

Kara playing at the cash register.we decided to have Easter dinner today, since the Sutherlands will be leaving in the early afternoon tomorrow. Kara set the table and helped make all the decorations for it. She loves doing it, and was so proud to show everyone what she'd done. She even chose the seating arrangements.

and a shot to include Ben.

The birthday party

Kara's birthday party was at the children's museum in Tacoma. This was the first year she got to invite her own friends. I think we ended up with 10 children there, including Kara and Kiersten. And of course, the parents too. We really tried to let her pick out as many things as she could about her party.I even let her wear a necklace that didn't really go with her outfit. Kiersten getting her party hat on.

Here she is holding up 4 fingers. She is so excited to be growing up.

posing in the birthday chair. The museum had a girl there to help with the party. It was so nice to have her cleaning up after everyone, and making sure things were running smoothly and on schedule, so we could just enjoy the party. We ordered pizza, and Ben met the guy outside, and brought the pizzas down. The mom from another party saw him and thought he was her pizza guy. He told her that it wasn't her pizza, but she wouldn't believe him. Even though she ordered 6 pizzas from round table, and we ordered 4 pizzas from pizza hut. She got mad and went up to tattle to the girls at the front desk that we stole her pizza! I thought it was pretty funny when one of them actually came down to check that we had the right pizzas. Hers showed up a few minutes after that.

Kara opening her presents from her friends. She got some really nice gifts.

opening her gift from Kiersten. She gave her some play-doh and bendaroos. I was pretty surprised at her reaction to opening them. She has seen them on tv and always says she wants them, but I didn't realize how much. She didn't even have the package half open when she started saying, "bendaroos! I wanted these so much!" It was the most excited she got over any gift, to my surprise.

I wanted to take her picture in her party hat before the cake, and she kept making this face. I was confused, because it is not one of her normal "picture faces". It turns out she was practicing blowing out the candles. Ben had given her some tips on how to blow without spitting.

This is the clsoest picture I got of the cake. It's not my favorite cake I've ever made, but I wanted to let Kara help. She picked the shape, the flavor, the colors, the decorations, and I even let her help frost it and she put sprinkles on too. So I guess I should be proud of it, since she helped so much.

some of her party guests.

For the second half of the party, they got to play in the children's museum. All of the kids loved pretending to fish out of this little boat.

Kiersten crawling through a little door.

Kara selling food to the dad of one of her friends.

my girls learning to farm.

Kara is the best toy sharer. She got this new barbie, and brought out all of the others so Kiersten could play too. She did get upset when Kiersten made 2 of the princesses dance together. She said, "girls don't dance together!" After that she decided she wants to use her birthday money from Great Grandma Howard to get some boy barbies.

She made this cute mouse with her bendaroos. She played with them most of last night and a lot today too. I just can't get over how much she loves those things. It's such a simple thing, just wire covered in wax. But I guess sometimes those types of things are the most fun.

01/11/09

We have been doing lots of fun things this week with Grandma Van Sickle here. The girls have really been enjoying all of the activities. Poor Ben has had to work a lot of the time she's been here.


We took the girls to the zoo. I forgot the stroller, but they loved sitting in this double stroller that we rented. They were really cute sharing their snacks and Kiersten's blanket.

Kara drawing a picture at the children's museum in Tacoma. She is very into drawing lately. It's fun to see her draw actual pictures instead of just scribbling.

Kiersten playing in a little boat at the children's museum.

Here we are after making fun cupcakes with Grandma!

Here are the fun panda cupcakes we made. Vicky made the all brown bear. It is supposed to be the scary one since all of the pandas are so happy. The Kara bear and Kiersten bear are the ones with bows on their heads. The fat one is the Kiersten bear.

Poor Kiersten has had a cold. I guess she needed to blow her nose. This is why she was smiling so big when I got out of the shower. I thought she must be feeling better, or be happy to see me.