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.

  

Shiner

I picked up the two older girls after school today. Like normal.  

Novalee started talking to me non stop as soon as she got into the car. Like normal.

I gave her about 70% of my attention while trying to placate everyone else in the car and also drive well enough to avoid any accidents. Like normal.

Today's story included a paddle and a ball.  Her friend hitting her in the eye.  Crying.  (She claims this never happens.)  But seriously, I feel like she comes home about once a week and tells me about something minor that happened at school and how she cried.  She can be a bit dramatic.  Today's story also included a visit to the nurses office at the insistence of the gym teacher and her refusing to use ice because she said it hurt. 

Anyways, as the talking continued we decided to go to the library which we visit probably once a week.  

It's typically a nightmare.

Something bad always happens there.

I seriously must love reading for how much crazy has happened at the library.

Today's drama was, relatively speaking, incredibly mild.  Caleb just decided as soon as we walked into the kid's section to mess his diaper.  Fine.  Except I didn't bring anything with me, as this was an unplanned trip.  Fine.  Except his diaper was dangerously loose and I didn't dare carry him around anymore so I strapped him into his stroller.  Fine.  Except he started screaming and crying from that moment on.  And somewhere around this time I looked over at Novalee to see this.

Holy Dang!

"Um, what was it again you were saying 
happened at school today?"

That is going to be one ugly black eye for a few days.

Cheesecake

On Wednesday Novalee and I went to the 2nd Annual Mother/Daughter Talent Show at our church.

Novalee and I aren't performers.  Well, actually, I'm not a performer.  So this year we decided to share our love of baking.  Novalee loves to bake treats and I love spending that time with her in the kitchen. Ever since she was super little, she would love to come into the kitchen, get an apron on and help add and mix ingredients.

Really times in the kitchen with her could be some of our favorites.  (Probably because I spend a lot of time there anyways preparing and cleaning up meals.)  We love to turn on music and have dance offs.  Basically, I do old granny moves and she laughs really hard, then she spins my moves into something cool.

Wednesday we "baked" a No Bake Cheesecake with Oreo crust and danced as well as we could to Meghan Trainer.

 The Cheesecake looked so yummy.

  Too bad I'm on a dessert fast.

Here's my little cuteness at the talent show.

Here Kitty Kitty

Since it has finally stopped raining every. single. day. we have been able to enjoy the outdoors more.

My flowerbeds in the front yard have been sadly neglected longer than it has been raining non stop.

So the kids and I have been spending more time out front.  We have been having some serious cabin fever over here.

The only one suffering from us hanging outside more is our cat 'tilda.  She is the definition of a scaredy cat.  She is afraid of everything.  Loud noises, baby cries, cat toys...you name it.  Wish we had known that before we adopted her from the humane society four years ago into our family of crazy.

Here she is getting lovins from Hite. 

 I would say this is a step up from when Caleb decides she needs food and water NOW and dumps it on her head when she is hiding in our foundation vents.  

The little sisters love her too.

 I feel like she took up the opossum motto to just "play dead" in hopes they would leave her alone.