Kiersten's new big-girl bed was delivered on thursday! She has been loving sleeping in there all by herself. I was ready for a fight to get her to sleep in there, like we had with Kara, but so far, there hasn't been an issue. She is taking naps in there, and going to bed at night. Much better than the 3-4 months it took for Kara to get used to it.
This is the look we get if Ben or I try to lay down on her bed. She is already very territorial about it.
she was also very excited about her new bedding.
Saturday, we went down to visit Ben's uncle Garlan and aunt Jill in Vancouver. His Grandma Hill was in town, as well as Jill's mother. and also his couisn Emily with her kids. His cousin Sara lives in Vancouver as well, so we got to see her family too, and Jason came over. It was fun hanging out together. We watched little Karen play soccer, and that was just too cute. I loved the kids kind of half-heartedly kicking the ball around. Then we all headed back to Garlan and Jill's for lunch and games. The kids all put on a little singing show for us, and that was so cute. Later I went to the mall with Emily and little Austin. That was a nice, relaxing break, and then we went a little while longer playing games, before heading home.On sunday, we went up to Alder lake with some friends for lunch and s'mores. On the way up, Kara started saying she felt sick. I think she must have gotten car sick from all the winding roads, and also playing her leapster. So we had her turn it off, but about half a mile before we got there, she threw up all over herself and the seat. It was really terrible smelling, but we got her cleaned up, and she felt much better after, even though she had to sit pants-less in her wet carseat for the rest of the drive. Less than 10 minutes after we got to the lake, we were bringing everything from the car over to one of the firepits, and Kara suddenly started screaming hysterically. She had her hand cupped over her face and was screaming that a fly was on her. I pulled her hand away, and out it flew. At that moment, Kiersten started wandering off into the bushes, so I tried to calm Kara down, as I ran to rescue Kiersten. Kara was still crying and crying, and Ben and John were on their way back over, so I sent Kiersten over to daddy, while I tried to comfort Kara. I thought she was just scared, but I looked at her face and saw that it must have been a bee instead of a fly, because she had been stung. It started swelling, so we just put ice on it. It stopped bothering her after about 20 minutes, but it took her a while to get back into a happy mood. I feel so badly for her. This is her first bee sting. Ben tried to make her feel better by saying that the bee died because it stung her. Although, you can't really blame the bee, she did trap it on her face by covering it with her hand. As I was icing her wound, more bees kept landing on her, and I was having a difficult time shooing them away. That's when we noticed a huge underground nest right by the firepit. So we moved our stuff to the picnic area so nobody else would get stung. Lunch went well, and then the kids played together while Ben got a fire started. Here are the girls eating their s'mores. surprisingly, they were not as much of a hit with the kids as they were with the adults, but they did eat some.
when we got home, the girls and I took a nap. Then Ben made dinner for the girls, and I made some cupcakes for Kara to take to school tomorrow. I was frustrated to find I didn't have a cake mix, so I had to make them from scratch, but it didn't really take too much longer. The girls were watching cartoons, downstairs and Ben and I went up to watch football for a bit. Suddenly we heard Kara say, "Oh my gosh! Kierssen! what did you do?!" that was enough to get us both to our feet and headed down to check it out. Kiersten had found a black sharpie and scribbled all over the kitchen floor with it. Ben started searching for the marker, and I started scrubbing. It took over an hour to get it all up. Since it was taking so long, it was apparent I wasn't going to have time to make frosting, so I sent Ben and Kara to walmart to buy some. I was still scrubbing when they got back, so Ben helped her get started on the cupcakes. I was able to help her finish them, and then I had to make lunches, and we all went to bed. Today is Kara's day to be classroom helper at school. That was why she needed to take the cupcakes. She also got to bring in a toy for show and tell. she chose her mickey mouse handy helpers she got at disneyland. She was extra excited to go to school today. she proudly walked into the classroom and announced, "hey everyone! look what I brought for snack time!" she was instantly surrounded, and that made her a little defensive of the cupcakes, so luckily the teacher took them, and they backed off a little. She gets to hold the flag during the pledge of allegiance, and be first in line to wash hands at lunch, and a bunch of other little things that she has been really excited about.
Kara scootered up and down the sidewalk.
Evie was bummed to get stuck in the stroller, but I cant trust her not to run away, so that is where she spent her time outside. she also got to try out some new sunglasses.
This is how things were looking. Weeds, dead tulips, and all. I'm sure my neighbors were getting tired of looking at this mess.
As soon as I was done weeding, and Kara saw me start planting flowers, her scooter was put away and she was outside with her windowsill flowers, which had outgrown their plastic confines. Though I hadn't planned for them, we were able to make room.
much better. Though every year, those lilys are bigger and taller, I decided to leave them for now. If our renters want to pull them out or move them, I will not complain.
Also related to moving, we turned Evie's crib into a daybed. First, so it will be easier to move, and second, because we wanted to store the pack 'play she was sleeping in almost every night instead of her crib. She was pretty excited about it. Suddenly she has no problem with wanting to sleep there. I guess it was the caged in feeling that was putting her off. We completely cleared out her room so I could clean the carpet, so we put her crib in our room for now. We then moved everything from the guest room that didn't get packed or put in the yard sale into Evie's room. That left the guest room empty and ready for cleaning. Finally, we moved the girls into what had been the guest room so I could tackle their room. It turned out to be a great move. It works better than the room they have been in. We really wish we'd thought of making that change a lot sooner.
We did a lot of searching yesterday for the tv stand for the girls' tv. During the search, Ben came across Kiersten's old giraffe toy. So he brought it in for Evie to ride. She has been on that thing ALL morning! Good call, Ben!
so far we have around 30 bins packed up, and almost 5 weeks left to pack up the rest. We are finally making good use of our way too big dining room! It is kinda weird to be living with these bins, and empty drawers and cupboards. I can't wait til we are moved and can unpack. It has been interesting as we pack each room or closet, how much stuff we have that we don't use, want or need. Our walk in closet is really filling with things intended for our big, neghborhood yard sale in a few weeks, and I don't think we'll miss a thing. But some of our neighbors are going to be getting great deals on some pretty nice stuff, just because we finally admitted that we never use it.
