Going Dark

Unfortunately I am going dark for a few days.  No, I am not swearing off the internet.  I am turning in my computer.  Yet again.  It has stopped charging, and the battery only last so long, ya know?  So, hopefully we will be back up and running soon.  2 weeks ish maybe.  See you soon!

Baby Nyla

I used to watch a little boy for his mom while she worked.  Then, his mom had a baby, and I haven't been able to watch him or the baby in forever.  Its completely unfair!  However, the other day, there was a funeral at church, and I wasn't planning on going because I had nap time babies, and it just wasn't worth it.  But, I went to help set up.  As I was about to leave, Jace and his little sister came in.  In all my selflessness, I offered to watch them.  Its just the way I am :)

Turned out, she was a huge hit at home!  Everyone wanted to hold her.

Since then, I have held her a few times at church, and both times Kelsey has gotten hurt...  The first time, she came over to see the baby, and fell off the church pew.  The second time, she was trying to climb up in my lap, and she hit her knee.  Poor Kelsey :)

Perhaps most surprisingly to me, is Dylan.  He loves baby Nyla, and asks to hold her every time I have her.  This is his "Mom!  Don't take my picture face" :)

This is his happy smiley face :)

He held her so long that she fell asleep.

Love me some baby holding! 

This is it!

The first day of the rest of my summer.  Truthfully, if feels like the kids have been out for almost 2 weeks.  No, they have still been GOING to school.  They have just had party after award after movie day after fun time that it seems like they have been done for 2 weeks.  Their awards day was on Tuesday, and if they didn't come back the rest of the week, they weren't counted absent.  But did my girls want to go back to school.  Sure did!  Today is early release, and then they are out for the summer!!!  Yay.  Can you tell how excited I am? :p

I meant to get a picture of the girls to put up.  Comparison wise, you know.  First day/last day sorta thing.  But, I am an airhead, and in the rush to get out the door, I forgot.  I did, however, get a picture of Kaitlyn's hair.  She wanted something really special, and it just so happens we had the time this morning.  I got the picture because, unlike me, she doesn't have eyes in the back of her head, and she wanted to see what it looked like.

 If you could see her, she is wearing a Sunday dress.  Actually, she has been wearing her pretty Sunday dresses all this week, because she didn't have PE and wouldn't have to wear shorts underneath.

This is the kind of girl she is...  Covered in cinnamon and sugar (they had waffles this morning), with her hair all done, and a dress to wear...  Heaven help me! 

 Happy Summer to you!!!  I will take an after picture when they get home, but it won't be as purty...  It never is :)

Buckles

My child is obsessed with buckles.  Shopping carts, car seats, helmets.  Doesn't matter.  She MUST put the pieces together.

 No, she doesn't have some horrific skin disease.  She has an older brother.  Who allows her to play with his Halloween stamp, which she promptly put all over her legs.

 She is always quite pleased when she can get things to fit the way they are supposed to!

But, funny girl that she is, as soon as they are together, she screams for help to get them "un guckled" so she can repeat steps 1-3 all over again.  Yay for me! :p

Heaviest Stroller Ever

My child is obsessed with certain things.  This old infant car seat was downstairs for quite a while before we gave it away.  But, whenever her tiny brain remembered it was there, she would play with it.

Kelsey! Whats that?  "Bee bee!  See?!?!"

Please note, while the straps may not have been adjusted to fit Bee bee's height and weight, she IS buckled in.

Funny little girl that she is, Kelsey would do her best to push the dang thing around, base and all, like a stroller.

Except, car seats aren't really meant to push around.

So sometimes it took all her little 2 year old strength to lean and push that bad boy.

Goofy girl!

Harry Potter and the Secret of the Bookfair

In school this year, the (older) kids didn't get assigned a science fair (thank goodness!), but they did have a book fair.  It is kinda like a book report and a science fair got together and had babies.  Kari had to read a book, then use a trifold board to present it, with specific information.  Kari, having read all the Harry Potter books, decided to do her project on the first book.  She designed and drew the spread herself.  She eventually colored the center part blue too...  she thought she might skip it, because she was worried about time and markers, but found another marker and decided it would look better.  This is apparently what Hogwarts looks like, according to Kari :)

 I downloaded a font called "Parry Hotter", and we used that to type up all of her information.

There is Hedwig, making a delivery.

And this is the Forbidden Forest, complete with Lord Voldemort/Professor Quirrell (the purple hooded figure).

The Quidditch Field and the lake and giant squid :)

Complete with Harry on his broom, chasing the golden snitch.

Kari actually won an award for her project!

She got second place out of the entire 3rd grade (60 something entries).

I am very proud of her hard work, as I made her do the whole thing her self.  Well, I typed what she said, but that was a time thing.  I am so pleased she loves to read as much as she does, and that she is as hard working as she is.  Congrats Kari and good job!

Get a Clue

One evening, a few days ago, the girls asked daddy to play a board game with them.  He asked which one, and they requested Clue.  Now, to this point, they hadn't actually played Clue.  You know, by the rules, so daddy spent a few minutes going over the basics.

Then, they divided up the cards and started moving around the board.  Most of the time, I refuse to play card games with hubby.  He writes things down that he hasn't been shown, simply by inferring things from things he already knows...  The nerve!  It's not that he counts cards...  He just knows what is in your hand, and what you are going to ask for. 

Then, Kelsey woke up from her nap, and chaos broke loose.

"Mom!  Dith! (dice)  Play!"

Sorry Kelsey.  This is a bit over your head.  Plus, you will just move things all over the board and mess everyone up.  

Besides, your dad is gonna win anyway...  It makes it significantly less fun to play with a know it all :)

Lipstick

I have recently discovered green apple chapstick, by the Chapstick brand.  It smells delicious, and wears well.  I have also found the cake batter flavor, but that one just makes me hungry :)  Well, this little lady, it seems, takes the flavor literally, and sometimes applies more lip gloss IN her mouth than ON it....

Most days, when the girls leave for school, we lock their bedroom door.  That way, it keeps her out of the bathroom she isn't supposed to be in, and keeps her out of their stuff.  Therefore, she can't break their things, and has limited access to things like markers and lip gloss.

This particular day, I noticed she had been quiet for about 3 minutes and decided to go investigate.  I am glad I did.

You  never know what she will get into next....

New Glasses

 Earlier this year, we went in for the kids annual eye check up.  Kaitlyn, it seems, still has near perfect eye sight, and much to her disappointment, did not need glasses.  Kari, on the other hand, was nearly blind again, and needed new lenses.  Crazy enough, with the insurance pitching in, it was actually cheaper to get the girl new frames AND lenses than it would have been to just get new lenses to put in her old frames.  So, here is her before picture.

And here is her after!  No!  Wait.  That's not it....

Here is her after picture!  Doah!  That's not it either!

Mom.  Seriously.  Get your stuff together!

And here is her after picture :)  Can I just say I kinda love this picture?  The blurred background.  The close up shot.  This is straight out of the camera.  I wish I could say I am getting better, but I am still mostly just point and click, so I don't think luck really counts.

Ok.  Back to glasses.  Look closely.  Did you notice a difference?  They are practically the same.  No really.  Look again.

They look so similar as to almost be exactly the same, huh?  Don't worry.  They aren't exactly the same. But awful close.  Kari would have gotten exactly the same frame, but they didn't have it in stock.  So, she hunted around until she found the closest thing.  I thought the original frames were cute on her face, so finding a similar look didn't bother me.  And these are slightly larger, so they look like they fit her face a bit better.  Still love her cute little four eyed face!

Couch Light

Some people are really good at catching the light in a cool way.  I think I am decent at noticing when that time could be, but not always so great at catching it.  Or maybe, my model isn't always the most cooperative.  I don't know....

Try looking pensive Miss Model.

Little better :)

There we go!  Now we are getting some interesting planes of light!

Was dat?

There's a cute little face :)

And, of course, a silly smile that has nothing to do with light!

Easter

This is for you Piko, my Easter skittles pedicure :)

The Easter Bunny branched out a little bit this year and is quite proud of itself.  The kids got a lot less candy IN their baskets.  But they got flip flops, and a t-shirt, a toy and pens and notebook.  And they looked completely full too!

My kids recently asked for some devilled eggs when we went to a get together.  So, for Easter, I saw these little babies floating around on pinterest.  The kids really liked the colors, but, ironically, they didn't like the yellow part.  They would have liked it plain, they said, but they didn't like it with mayo and mustard.  Which, in my opinion is crazy, because anyone who eats dry cooked egg yellows is asking for a dry mouth!  And no, they didn't taste like vinegar at all.  And, in real life, the colors looked more pastel and less vivid.

Growing up, my parents always called the Easter bunny and had him come on Saturday, so we could spend Sunday doing the religious side, and I suspect also so we wouldn't be late for church.  Our Easter Bunny compromises a bit.  He brings the baskets before church on Sunday, but miraculously hides the eggs during church, so they can find them afterwards.  Here they are, not in their Easter outfits because I am dork, ready to get some eggs!

I'm not sure Kelsey understood what was going on, but she was feeding off the older kids excitement :)

The Easter Bunny did a great job hiding eggs this year.  He went upstairs and down, and had several levels of difficulty for each child.  It took them more than 30 seconds to find them.  It was fun :)

The Easter Bunny also did something different this year that he has never done before.  He hid coins in the eggs.

The kids thought it was pretty fun to find the ones that clanked around like coins.

Kari had to find the tall ones :)

It was a good time to remember the real meaning of Easter as we had gotten news 1 day earlier that my cousin's 12 year old boy had passed away in a tragic accident.  It was nice to put things into perspective, and know that we/they would see him again.  Happy Late Easter to you!