Mother's Day weekend

On Saturday, the girls did a bunch of chores, and got to choose a reward at the end of the day. Evie chose to bake cupcakes. I was not too happy, as I was one week into my 2 weeks without sugar. So I found a recipe that only made 4 cupcakes. The hardest part was making the frosting without tasting it. The girls seemed to like it, so I guess it turned out okay.  

 

 

 The girls banned me from the dining room all day Saturday, so I was very excited to get in there on Sunday and see what they had been up to.

 It was really fun to open all of their little gifts they've been so busy making for the last few weeks.

 I also got a yummy breakfast in bed that morning. Ben forgot about my not having sugar, so I did drink a small amount of orange juice. But oh well, we can't be perfect all the time, right? Evie made an all about mommy picture. She said I am 5 years old, my favorite thing to do is play wii U (???), my favorite food is salad, I dress up in a cape, and I always say goodnight. Funny to see me through her eyes. Though I think she got me confused with Ben for the Wii U answer. I very rarely play.

 I now have plenty of bracelets and necklaces. Now I can finally make them clean up the bead mess in Kara's closet. I've been turning a blind eye since I knew they were making me something for Mother's day, and didn't want to spoil the fun. But I am more than ready for that to get cleaned up!

 Kiersten even made me a hair bow.

 This glitter tote bag was one of the things Kara won in her sleepover basket. I was actually pretty surprised that she made it for me. She had been pretty excited about it when we went through her winnings. I used it that day, and had lots of stickers and glitter on my arms by the time we got home.

 

 Ben bought me a new shark spray mop! I am so happy with it. It is much sturdier than a Swiffer, so I don't have to worry about breaking the handle. (as I've done 3 times now with swiffers) I was kinda disappointed that I had just cleaned the floor really well the night before, but in no time the girls took care of dirtying it up again so I could use my new toy. Ben also got me these super pretty roses. I love moving fake flowers out of the way to put real ones in their place!

I got to talk to my mom on the phone for about 45 minutes, so that was really nice. I hope all you moms had a nice day too! I always feel kind of silly on mother's day. I'm just doing what a million other moms out there are also doing. But it is very nice to see the kids so happy and excited to show their appreciation and love, so you can't really beat that. I just love being mommy to my 3 fun girlies!

Important kid stuff

May is always really full of school activities. This week was particularly Kiersten-heavy. On Monday she had an ecology festival at CCL. They got to do a little performance, and present the projects they've been working on.

They got to show off their artwork. Kiersten was very proud to show me. She said, "Mom, I'm very gifted at art".

They each designed their own t-shirts.

Kiersten's group did a presentation on gardening. They made a poster, a powerpoint presentation, bookmarks, and a compost box.

They were very excited to show off the powerpoint. It was super cute.

They made a compost bin, and were thrilled to show off their worms that live inside.

On Wednesday Kiersten had a magic performance. She's been staying after school for the past 6 weeks for a magic class. She's shown us a few of her tricks, but was excited to show off at the performance.

They all got to choose a magician name. Hers was "Kiersty-poo-puppy".

She performed a dollar bill trick. She turned a regular sized paper dollar into a large one. We were all impressed!

After the performance, they were all awarded a magic wand. She has already asked if she can take more lessons.

Kara did a project on Ruby Bridges at school for their famous American unit. All of the kids that did the same person worked together to create a big paper doll. Kara's name got chosen to get to bring it home, so she was pretty excited to show it off.

The other girls wanted a chance to pose with Ruby too.

Today was Kiersten's kindergarten celebration. Evie got to go with me to the school. The kids were so excited to see the parents come into their classroom.

They performed 4 little poems. I'll just post one for now, but they were all super cute. Kiersten was showing off a little more than normal.

They were very happy to be given their kindergarten completion certificates.

Kiersten's teacher is currently on maternity leave, so she brought her baby to visit the kids today. They were all thrilled and distracted, and everyone had to get their picture taken with their beloved teacher. She will be back for the last week of school.

School carnival

Since I was helping out with the school carnival, Ben came home from work early to bring the girls. I did get several chances to get out there and see them having fun. Of course the first thing they wanted to do was get sno cones.

They loved playing in the bubbles.

Kara won this football at one of the games. But a boy took it from her and threw it on the roof. Luckily, she was able to win another one later at the same game. The next morning, there was a ball on the porch with a sweet note from the boy, apologizing and saying he bought it with his allowance.

Kiersten wasn't as lucky as Kara at the ball throwing game.

Kara and I stayed after the carnival, to decorate her teacher's door with another mom. It was late, and I wish I had done a few things differently, but I guess now I know for next year.  

Kiersten got a crown painted on her face. I didn't have a chance to get a picture at the carnival, but she was waiting up when Kara and I got home.

Kara was so sure she was going to win another raffle basket this year. So I have spent a few weeks reminding her, that not everyone can win, and that she might, but not to count on it, because that would be really lucky to win 2 years in a row. (Plus I only bought her 6 tickets). So of course she won a hello kitty/sleepover basket! She only put one ticket in again, so now she's convinced she's the luckiest girl ever, and poor Kiersten is convinced of the same. Of course she'll be sharing most of her winnings with her sisters. Ben and I may have also already pilfered some of the candy... shhh...
She is so excited about everything she won, and is hard at work planning her slumber party. She got candy, popcorn, movies, games, hair accessories, crafts, nail polish, and all things girly. When we got home, Ben had it all set out on the counter for her. So I didn't get a picture of her with the basket.

Last week I asked if she wanted to get a manicure with me on mother's day, and she said no. Her reason was that she doesn't like girly stuff. So I had to call her out on putting her ticket in this basket, and winning. She said, "well, it's different at a sleepover, because you're supposed to do girly things at sleepovers".

We had a hard time fitting it all into one picture. She was already trying to make party favors the next morning. Her slumber party isn't until the 30th, so we told her to wait a little bit so we don't have them sitting around for weeks. One of the things she got was a party planning book, and she has been making good use of it. She has a 4 page outline of everything she's planning. I'm curious to see if she sticks to it, or if it all goes out the window when her friends are here.

I had to get a pic of Evie's butterfly face paint when she was asleep in bed. That stuff was a nightmare to clean off! The black came right off, but the pink did not want to wash away. I got most of it off her forehead, but she had very pink cheeks the next day.

Class parties

Kara had a spring party at school a couple weeks ago. They had a trivia/minute to win it party. It was fun to see her interacting with her buddies at school. Kiersten had a party too, but it overlapped with Kara's, so I could only help out at one.

Kara's minute to win it challenge was putting together a cereal box puzzle. It was harder than it looked.

The kids were super cool in their prize sunglasses.

I also got to help out at Evie's preschool Easter party. It was really fun, and I love that her school gets to celebrate actual holidays. I was in charge of the snack. The cupcakes and peeps were a big hit. I don't know who divided up the groups, but Evie was lucky enough to be with her best little buddies.

I ran the bunny hop game, so that's really the only game I got pictures of. The kids had a blast. Some of them fell down, but nobody cried, thank goodness.

After snack and games, they got to hunt for Easter eggs on the playground.

Evie found her 6 eggs rather quickly.

After all that., some of the kids were still asking, "what's next?" The energy is just endless with these little guys!

The craft they made was an egg carton that they used for the egg hunt. Evie is very proud of hers, and wanted me to save it with the other Easter stuff for next year. Hopefully it will still be intact when we get everything out next Easter.

I know I already shared Six Flags pictures, but I got some more this weekend. This one just to show off my new short hair :) (and super cool sunglasses borrowed from Kara)

Kiersten jumped at the chance to try on my sunglasses.

Kids just having fun posing for pictures while we waited for food.

I had to get a picture of Ben's leg wound. He got this playing softball last week. It looks awful in real life. He came home really bloody still. But I am proud to say I got most of the blood out of the t-shirt he used to wrap it up so they'd let him keep playing.

He's had a pretty miserable week with this leg, especially now that it is scabbing over, and breaking back open. Hopefully he learned his lesson about "sliding into third". He had another game this week, and I was at the playground with the kids, but kept an eye on him to make sure he didn't try to pull any funny business again. He still went to his basketball and football games this week, so it must not be too bad...

Ben and I were practically jumping for joy that the girls are both tall enough to ride this without an adult now. They always want to ride it, but we both hate this one. It is nauseating.

Ben not winning a prize for the girls.. hehehe. I always stand there hoping he doesn't win, so I don't have to find room for a giant stuffed toy. Kiersten really wanted that smurfette.