school carnival and treat making

Kara's school carnival was on friday. Since Ben's basketball group had playoffs that night, I took the girls by myself. It was raining at first, but just a sprinkle. It didn't deter the girls from wanting to get sno-cones the second we got there. 

Kara didn't want to wait in line for the "tiger" bounce house, so she went and got right into the plain one, while I waited with Kiersten and Evie, who insisted on waiting for the tiger one for 15 minutes. 

After waiting in line, Kiersten finally made it in, and jumped for less than 3 minutes before she got out and said she was done. Kara was glad to take her place for the remaining 7 minutes of jump time. 

Evie was so excited when she saw the rides, but was disappointed to discover they wouldn't let her ride any of them. :( She would have done fine on them, but rules are rules...

Kiersten and Evie both won light up rings, but Evie's quit working after less than a minute, and Kiersten immediately gave hers to her, and took the defective one. She's definitely a sweetie. 

I bought 66 tickets, and told each girl they could use them for whatever they wanted. I worried they'd use them all on snacks, but they actually did a pretty good job with them, and were able to play every game at least once, and still get a few snacks each. It may have helped that Evie couldn't go on the rides, and that saved a few tickets.

Kara and Kiersten did great at knocking down the tiger teeth. Evie fully expected to be able to do as well as them. So she got quite frustrated when she couldn't even throw the bean bag far enough. She ran up and smashed all the teeth down in one blow with her fist instead, and then begged for a prize.

Kiersten was thrilled to win a plastic pig in the stuffed animal race. But when she discovered that it was a "pooping" pig, she was a bit disturbed. She got over it pretty fast, and is now very proud to show everyone how the pig can poop. 

Kara really wanted to enter the drawing for the raffle baskets. So I bought 5 tickets, and let each girl put one in the basket they wanted to win. Kiersten and Evie both went for the Hello Kitty basket. Kara put hers in the arts and crafts basket, and I put the last 2 in the game night basket with Ben and my names on them. Kara was surprised that she won a basket. It was actually 2 baskets, because so much stuff had been donated. Each class had a theme for parents to send in donations for the baskets, and she won the basket that her class had put together. I felt silly that I had bought glitter glue, window markers, and a few other things, thinking they would be fun, but I wouldn't want my kids to have them. Ha! So now we are all set with tons of art projects to do this summer. She won all kinds of paint, markers, crayons, coloring books, craft books, bracelet kits, play dough, modeling clay, paint brushes, chalk, sun catchers, a glue gun, gift cards to Michales, JoAnn, the Painted Zebra, and more stuff, I can't even remember it all. We had parked a few blocks away, and it was not so pleasant for me to carry her winnings back to the car. But she was so excited that it was okay. She kept saying, "this is ridiculous!", "I can't believe this happened", and "mom, can you believe I actually won?" In the car on the way home, she announced, "well, I just pinched myself, and this is NOT a dream!"

One day last week, I let the girls make Teddy Gram/snickers race cars. they just shoved a teddy gram onto a fun size snickers, then used frosting to attach 4 m&m's for the wheels. 

It was easy and everyone was able to do it by themselves. 

Kiersten used a 5th m&m for the steering wheel.

We also finally got around to making sugar cookie Easter baskets. I had all the supplies, and meant to do this when Jackie was here, but we never got around to doing it. I just let them roll sugar cookie dough in colored sprinkles, put the rolls in a muffin tin, and pressed in the center to make a well, and baked them.

Then the girls filled them with frosting and green coconut to look like grass, and put jelly beans to look like eggs. 

I bought some candy cane basket handles, but didn't want to buy more than one package, so we only had 6 with handles. I had originally bought some twizzlers for the rest of the handles, but a package of twizzlers doesn't exactly last for 2 weeks with me around. 

This was another easy treat for Evie to help with. She gets frustrated when we do things she can't do too. 

They turned out cute, but I didn't think they were that easy to eat, and get a huge mouthful of frosting. also, the coconut got everywhere when the kids ate them,

But oh well, at least they had fun, right?

Papa and Grams visit

Ben's Dad and Lana came to visit us on the 14th. The girls had so much fun having their undivided attention. We all went to the zoo for the day on Monday while Kara was at school. The girls thought it was pretty fun to feed the geese, but I was worried, because these geese were quite aggressive. 

It had rained a little that morning, but was stopped by the time we got there, so it made for a pretty perfect zoo day, with not much of a crowd. 

The girls are always excited about tea parties with Grams. This tea party was extra special, as Minnie Mouse was able to attend! 

Since we had Kerry and Lana here, Nancy drove out with her kids so they (and we) could meet her new baby! The kids always have so much fun playing together. 

snuggling with the sweetest little guy!

Ben and his new best buddy.

Everyone left on thursday to go home. It was a fun visit, and Kiersten is already talking about next time we'll go out to visit Papa at his house. She says that's what she wants to do for her next birthday.

More room makeovers!

I haven't gotten around to posting the finished pictures of my latest projects. So here's a bunch at once. 
We did the second guest room/craft room before Christmas. I did the painting, and we got a full size bed for when we have multiple guests at once. I didn't think that would be very often, but we've actually needed the second guest room several times now, so I'm glad Ben talked me into giving up part of my craft area. 

This shot shows my bow making/scrapbooking/sewing table. I thought I'd miss having several different tables for the different things, but it hasn't been any trouble at all now that I have my custom closet down there to keep organized. It still needs some accessorizing, but it's definitely a happier place to be now that it's not a white, boring jail cell. 

I put up the framed cork board to hold my bows that are currently for sale in my etsy shop. I just thumb tacked pieces of ribbon to the board so I can clip the bows right on. 

Ben used curtain rods and chain to make this ribbon holder for me. It's so nice to have it all at arm's reach when I'm creating, and nice to be able to see exactly what I have. Though I still dream of a true sewing table, with a surger, this setup actually worked out pretty well for me when I was making the girls's princess dresses.

I already posted pictures when I got the closets put in, but here's a picture with it all filled up. 

I intentionally left the area to the right with a rod for guests to hang their clothes, but as you can see, it quickly got filled up too. 

about 2-3 weeks ago, I painted inside the basement closet that we use for the kids play area. That wood is where a shelf used to be that Ben removed so they can play in there more easily. there is still a taller shelf above for storage. I wish I had a before picture to compare, but o well. The flowers and bees are fathead stickers that the girls helped put up. 

Ben put up a wire shelf and rod, so the girls play clothes can all be hung and more easily accessible. I thought it'd create a huge mess, but it's less of a mess now that they don't have to dig through a bin to find what they want. 

He also hung a light below the higher shelf, and they do actually spend a lot of time playing in here. They also drag the toys out so they can play in the family room, but it has stayed pretty organized so far, and I think it's easier for them to clean up now they can walk around in there instead of ducking and crawling. 

Evie's room finally got painted about 5 weeks ago. I was determined not to paint another pink room, but she was so determined to have a pink room like Kiersten. So we finally decided on a much lighter pink, and only did it 2/3 on the wall. Then I picked 2 shades of brown I liked, and used those along the bottom third of the wall. The butterflies are also fatheads, and so far she hasn't peeled a single one off, though I'm sure it's bound to happen eventually. Every time she goes in there, she mentions the butterflies, and how they can't get away. 

another view to show the stripes a bit better. Of course all the stripes that I got perfectly straight with no bleeding, ended up behind furniture, and the spots I messed up on were out in the open, and had to be touched up. I'm sure it's more noticeable to me than anyone else, though. 

She couldn't be more proud of her room, and loves showing it off to anyone who comes over. I'm glad I resisted the urge to do a Minnie Mouse room, since who knows how long she'll keep loving Minnie? Kiersten loved Wow Wow Wubbzy at that age, and now never mentions him, or watches the show anymore. Hopefully it'll be a few years before I'm having to repaint any of their rooms. 

girls sports

Kara has been participating a Go St. Louis since the fall. She had to read 26 books, do 26 good deeds, and run 26 miles. She has had a great time doing it, and it was interesting to find out what things she considers a "good deed". On saturday, all the kids who participated ran in a 1 mile race. Ben said they weren't timed, but all got medals. There were 5000 kids from all different schools. She is pretty proud. 

All the kids from her school that were there. She was excited to wear her t shirt and medal to school today. they did a group picture at the school, and also were supposed to talk to other students about their experience. It doesn't sound like she talked to anyone about it, though. 

I couldn't go to Kara's race, because Kiersten had her first soccer game at the same time. She was assigned to the black team, and was a little sad not to be on the purple team. Her name suggestion was "cool black kids", but they ended up going with the black dragons. My personal favorite was the kid who suggested they be called "the batmans".

She was one of the faster runners. there are two six year old boys on the team, that were both faster, but barely. 

A dancing picture of Evie, as she felt left out. She kept doing tricks, and begging me to take her picture. 

She's not so great at it yet, but I definitely see an athleticism in her, and she tries so hard, and really listens to the instructions, so I'm sure she'll just keep getting better. 

There are four boys and two girls on the team. Of course, the other girl on the team is now her best friend. It was kinda cute that they kept getting caught up in giggly conversations when they were supposed to be running drills. But when the coach would remind them what they were supposed to be doing, they got right back into it. 

And a few pictures from our first six flags trip of the year.