Kinsley's Preschool Bike Rodeo

Jared has done it.

Novalee has done it.

Sadie has done it.

This time it was Kinsley's turn.

My goal has always been to get their training wheels off before the rodeo but Kinsley has been extra cautious since her fall and surgery on her knee last year.  

Hopefully this summer we can get them off.

She didn't seem to care.  

And she had a good time and that's what matters.

I think I might have a little ginger snap on my hands!!!

I guess it could have been the shirt making it look orangey red.

But I'm seriously hoping he's got a little Vessey in him.

  Besides the forehead of course!

He deliberately did pouty face when I told him to smile.

He doesn't even know how to talk yet.  

Could he really already be obstinate? 

Little stinker.

Baby Shower for Bethany

This week I got to co-host a baby shower at my house.  I basically just needed to provide the space, decorate and bake some cupcakes.

Easy enough.

Unless you have six kids and two part time jobs.

 Even one hour before the party started my house still looked like a bomb went off. 

The dust pan was full, even after round two of sweeping. (I usually have to sweep like two or three times a day).

Crayons all over the kitchen floor.

Dishes in the sink.

Duplo Mega Blocks and Plastic Food all over the living room.

I might have found six or seven socks thrown about the downstairs.

Library books all over the couches and rug.

I don't believe I've ever worked so fast in all my life.  

I was mopping at turbo speed. 

Thankfully it all came together and thankfully Wesley saved the day by rushing home and herding the kids outside to eat dinner and then took them straight to swim lessons so I could clean like a mad woman.  

Here are the cute guests and Bethany the guest of honor.

Now for the decorations.

 I saw this on pinterest and totally wanted to try it.

It was so easy!

I just cut raindrops with my Silhouette.

Hot glued them to thread that I pinned to my wall and later tied to the umbrella.

Easy, easy, easy.

The food table turned out cute too.

Sara made all the food and it was amazing!

I found this on Pinterest also.  It's so cute!

It's the guest list.

I found the almost exact same elephant online but it had the bunny on his trunk so I just edited it out.

Then amazingly I had a stamp pad in the old preschool supply box!

I love when I don't have to run to the store for things!

 I used some burlap scraps I had left over from some pillows I made and cut triangles out.  I used my silhouette to cut out the letters and heart.  Then I just traced them on the burlap and filled them in with permanent marker/blue paint.  I then hot glued them to blue ribbon.

I loved having the excuse to craft a bit. 

 It reminded me how much I like it.

Congratulations to Bethany and Thomas!

Mother's Day

I got everything I wanted for Mother's Day this year!  

My list was long, so that's saying something about how awesome my husband is.

For mother's day I really REALLY wanted this super cute teapot that I saw at Safeway with an orchid growing out of it.  

I really just wanted the teapot.

  I have plans to have Grand Tea Parties with the girls this summer.

The very elegant orchid that came with it is currently sitting in an empty can of black beans.

She's a beauty.

Every year my husband wakes up early and makes me breakfast in bed.  Then kids all come up and "quietly" gather around my bed and wake me up by yelling, "Happy Mother's Day!"

This year I was loaded down with presents.  I loved all of  them.  Sadie had spent at least an hour drawing cards with little flowers on them.  She was so cute working on those, trying hard to make it so I couldn't see them and ruin the surprise.  She has such a tender heart.

After church I got to take a nap or be left alone to do whatever I want in my room.

Guilt free leisure time!  

Wahoo!

Well mostly guilt free...I did feel a bit bad that Wes was working extra hard so I could take a break when I'm sure he could use one just as much as me. 

I might have requested these books a week earlier knowing that I was going to get guilt free leisure time... 

Later we went to my mom's.  She hates taking pictures because she thinks she always looks bad in them.

  She's so pretty so that is just silly.

  But maybe if she wasn't talking in the pictures... Haha!  

My dad Larry gifted this sweet mother of all surprises to me.  I love, LOVE elephants.  I don't really know why.  I don't know much about them.  I think I just like that they are extremely hard workers and that when their trunks are up, it's considered good luck.  Plus they are beautiful and sweet.

I kind of teared up a bit when my dad gave me this.

  Almost a whole week with my crazy six kids and it's still in one piece to that's something to celebrate!

I look forward to spoiling Wesley on Father's Day. 

 He totally deserves some spoilage. 

Kinsley's Last Day of Preschool

Today was Kinsley's last day of home based preschool.  

I'm not a 100% sure how I feel about it.  I've been co-teaching the preschool for the last three years.  

As of now I don't have plans to continue it with the youngest two and so it's kind of bittersweet.

I can't believe how much Kinsley has grown this last school year.

At the beginning of the school year her head reached just to the top of the middle door hinge and now she is at least a couple inches above it.  

She is getting big!  

Kindergarten, ready or not, here she comes!

Robots

This morning I was kind of grumpy.  

I was also feeling a little introspective.

I'm blaming it on the rain.  

While helping Hite with a puzzle that might have been a bit too advanced for him, Kinsley kept intruding on my thoughts with a zillion questions. She kept asking me the same thing over and over and OVER again.  I'd answer her.  She would ask me the same question a different way. *eye twitch

At some point I must have completely zoned what she was doing because before I knew it she had taken down the one and only file holder downstairs on the counter and starting cutting all the paper up in it.  The file is a bit misleading because I do sometimes pull out scrap paper from it for them to use for crafts.  

She kept announcing to me that she was making a robot.  Which I kept saying, "Awesome!"  She'd say, "Look!"  I'd glance over and again say, "Awesome!"

Hours later I found this.

That is the remaining balance on a restaurant certificate that has been severed and glued to the body of this "robot."  

"Awesome."

Church With Caleb

I guess climbing onto tables has branched out beyond just at home.

And to think I was just thinking church hasn't been so bad with this toddler...

"Helping" mom with the Primary Newsletter.

Fathers and Sons Camp Out

The boys left for the annual Fathers and Sons camp out on Friday.  I seriously tried just about everything to convince Wesley that Caleb would really love LOVE going camping too.  I even tried the, "Look how cute he is outside" scheme.  Nope.  Didn't work.

I ended up with Sadie, Kinsley, and Caleb (the two oldest weren't with us.) 

I'm not sure why it can't be called, "Fathers, Sons and Daughters Camp out."  I mean that does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?  Plus it would be more inclusive.  

That's a good thing, right?

Hite had the best time camping with Wes. 

 

 Here at home we got pizza, the kid's favorite food.  We put Caleb down for bed and commenced Operation Girls Night.

Sadie is not girly girly, like at all.  So some of the things I wanted to do, I had to argue to her were necessary if we were going to be able to have a girls night, i,e. a girly movie and doing hair.  

Her pick for a movie was either this super weird lizard movie or Pokemon. 

 Please, for the love!

She also didn't see why we had to brush hair.  Seriously.  Sadie.  Come on.  

We I picked Rapunzel. 

I brushed their hair.  Sadie wanted the bare minimum done to hers.  Of course.

They brushed mine.  

The movie ended.  

They tried to prolong going to bed by being extremely cute.  

Which worked for about five minutes.

I tucked them in and read to them a book.

THEN THE BEST NIGHT EVER BEGAN.

I watched the rest of all the episodes of Heartland on Netflix.  My way.  Which means skipping episodes that don't really look interesting.  Fast forwarding to key parts of others to satisfy my curiosity.  And then watching the season finale to wrap it all up.  It was grand!

Then I played "Frozen Free Fall" on the Xbox until I ran out of lives.  I know it's a kids game.  Don't judge.

I also squeezed in some weight lifting.

Went up to bed and got to sprawl out across our bed!  

This was the best part of the whole night.

Wes sent me this picture captioned, "All tucked in."

Laying in my soft, warm, cozy bed made it really hard for me to feel jealous.