9/30/11

One day this week, I decided to make the girls' snack into a spider I had seen somewhere online. My grapes were huge, though, so the legs looked weird, and I did the face differently, but the girls really got a kick out of it.

Kara is still having soccer practice 2 nights a week. Some of the other younger teams have changed to only practicing one night a week. I secretly hoped that our team would do the same. But the kids are getting better at each practice.

Kiersten and Evie love playing on the playground during practice. Evie had so much fun this day. It was the last day before she started getting sick, so it's nice to see smiling pictures of her. All I've seen the last few days, is a sad, miserable face.

As we were about to leave for practice, I noticed Kiersten was in dress up clothes. I didn't have time to make her change, as we were already a bit late. So I let her wear her outfit to the practice. There happened to be another little sister on the playground wearing a tutu and fairy wings. They decided to play together right away, and spent the entire hour together.


They usually spend a lot of their time at practice fighting over snacks.

On wednesday, the girls wanted to do a project after school. So I let them make paper pumpkins. They both were so proud to get to use the paper cutter, and the stapeler.

Here they are with the finished pumpkins. Now Kara really wants to get out all the halloween decorations. I told her we'd probably do it this weekend.

Since Evie was too sick/too little to help, I made her a smaller pumpkin so she wouldn't feel left out. It was enough for her to get to touch the supplies and tools, and she ended up almost as happy about her pumpkin as the other 2.

I think they turned out really cute for such an easy project.

We ended up hanging them from the fans in their bedrooms.

Yesterday was Kiersten's first class helper day. She woke me up in the morning, all excited, and wanted to get her hair curled. Because she got dressed and ate breakfast so quickly, I had time to do the curls for her. She was so proud, i really should do it more often. She decided to take her baby zhu zhu pet for show and tell.

After school, she kept telling me that she was so special, and telling me excitedly about her day. When i tried to get her to tell Ben around bed time, she didn't really have much to say. I guess she was tired of talking about it.


Kara was class helper today. She ended up taking Kiersten's Ariel and Eric barbies. Ben tried to talk her out of it, but Kiersten was okay with it, so that's what she took. I'm sure Kiersten will want to bring prince Eric for show and tell herself, so the kids will just get to see him twice. Today was also their first field trip of the year. they got to ride a ferry boat. they both had lots of fun. I was glad I didn't volunteer to chaperone, because i ended up taking Evie to the doctor today, and she has a double ear infection. So I'm glad i didn't have her out and about, and crying the whole time.
After I took their picture together, Kiersten said, "mommy, you need to take a very special picture of just me on my best field trip day ever".

rotary park in centralia

Ben's cousin Emily has been in washington visiting her parents down in Vancouver. So on sunday we drove down to centralia, and Emily and Jill drove up to meet us for lunch. We always have so much fun hanging out with these guys. Emily's 2 little boys are the same ages as Kara and Kiersten. It was nice to get a break from all the unpacking and organizing for an afternoon.

Kara and Lex made up an obstacle course together. It was really cute. I loved when the ice cream truck came around, and Lex informed us that, "my cousin needs ice cream to cool her off".

as fun as the playground was, the kids all ended up under the pavillion, playing with Ben's 3DS, and Emily's IPADs. It made it easier to keep an eye on them while we adults played a few rounds of boggle.

Jill hiding from the camera.

Evie had fun, but ended up crying for much of the drive back. There was really bad traffic for a sunday.

Now that we are getting the new house organized the way we want it, I will try to take a few pictures soon.

Evangeline's birthday party

Evie will be turning one on the 13th. Since we are moving next weekend, and expect to have a really busy week getting ready, we decided to have her birthday party this weekend. The girls put together goodie bags for all of their friends who were invited. They were very careful to put girly things and colors in certain bags, and more boyish things in other bags. Most of my cake making stuff is packed away, but we did come across the big cupcake pan I used for Kara's 3rd birthday. So I used that. We have been letting all of our food run low, or run out so it will be easier to move. So I had no sugar and hardly any flour. Rather than go buy entire bags of each, I opted to go with cake mix and canned frosting. The girls put on tons of sprinkles. They were so funny, placing each one by hand just where they thought it was needed. I thought it would look better with big fondant sprinkles, but I didn't want to buy more fondant, when I know I have some packed away in a bin in the garage. But I think the regular sprinkles looked good too.

We had her party at Stewart Heights park. It's a really kid friendly water park. We had lunch and the party first in the regular playground area, and went to the water park after. We got there early to claim some tables, so the girls had lots of time to play.

This spinning toy was fun, but hard for Ben and I to stay on.

After lunch and cake, Evie opened her gifts. Well, she opened the first gift, played with it for a second and then squirmed in my lap while I opened the rest and showed her. she is getting 4 new teeth at once, so I was just glad she wasn't crying at all.

This water park is perfect for kids. They do have a deep end that is sectioned off, but the majority is wading depth and spray toys. I think all the kids had a great time.

I played in the water with Evie for about 15 minutes, before she got tired and went down for a nap. She slept for a long time considering all the noise and people around.

Kara and Kiersten loved playing with the other kids. Kara was even big enough to go on the waterslide this year. She is getting too big.

I had a nice spot to sit with Evie while she was sleeping to watch everyone hanging out in the pool.

As soon as she woke up from her nap, Evie was ready to start getting wet again.

Kiersten picked out this adorable swim suit to give her for her birthday when I took them shopping a few weeks ago. So it worked out perfectly when we decided to have her party here. I'm glad she had this new one, because it fit perfectly. I would have thought her old one still fit, and now I see that she may be getting bigger than I realize.

She still has a couple gifts from Ben and me to open on the 13th, and we'll put her in the highchair to really dig into some cake on her birthday.

puppy party and playing at the park

This morning Kara and Kiersten hosted a birthday party for one of kara's stuffed animals. It's a puppy that they both love to play with. Kara did ask permission to make some decorations, but when I said okay, I didn't realize she was gonna be taping stuff all over the wall. The little purple dot near the center is what Kiersten made and GLUED to the wall. Good thing glue sticks are washable. the long, skinny things are tails for "pin the tail on the puppy". Kara said this was the party photo. Then she said, "this is the funnest party I've ever been to!" So I guess next year we can do this exact thing for her birthday and save a couple hundred dollars.

and the guest of honor with his birthday cake. I suspect that they just used their leftovers from snack time to make it though...

The party was going fine, until I saw Kiersten laying on the stairs with her eyes squeezed shut. I asked what she was doing, and Kara said, "I'm being her mom, but I wasn't keeping an eye on her at the party, and a man came and took her in the woods and shot her." I usually let them play what and how they want, and use their imaginations, but that one was too much for me. i told them I don't like them playing games about killing or guns, and that they had to play something happy instead. Kiersten jumped up and said, "a big dinosaur came and got the bad guy, and I came back alive!"

Last week I took the girls to the park to play. It was the first nice sunny day in a while. Here are a few pictures of the fun.

Kara was a little disappointed to have to sit in a baby swing. Sometimes there is a normal swing there instead, but not this time.

Kiersten is so proud to be able to pedal her bike on her own. The other day she pedalled all the way around the block twice by herself when we went on a walk. usually she gives up and walks or rides in the stroller. I was glad not to have to push or carry the bike home for once.

Evie got to swing for the first time. She kind of liked it.

She also got to slide for the first time too.