Bird House

One day Karen asked me if she could build a bird house. I told her we didn't have any wood. She said she didn't need any, that she just needed some card board. Well, we had some of that, so I told her sure. I gave her some cardboard and some scissors, showed her how to cut it, and left her to it. I honestly thought she would get tired of it or think it was too hard and give up. So I was surprised when a little while later she came to me and showed me her birdhouse.

I was seriously impressed. She had a hole for the birds and had even taped a piece to the front as a perch. Karen finished it off with a string taped to the top to hang it on the tree. I was so proud of her for finishing a project, not giving up, and for making it work. It even looks really good. She was also very proud of her project. I helped her hang it in the tree and she's excited for a bird to make a home in it.

All Better

Karen has healed phenomenally well. By the 5th day after surgery she was hopping around and wanting to do everything like normal. The doctor insisted that she stay down for 10 whole days and it was quite the battle to get her to sit or lay on the couch for the last 5 days. After 7 days she won more often than I did. But she is all better now and eating more than she ever has before. For example, the other day she had 3 cinnamon rolls for breakfast, a snack, 2 drumsticks for lunch, cookies, popcorn, candy (we went to a movie) and everything on her plate at dinner (can't remember what we had). She's like a bottomless pit. I know that she will be growing in no time. We feel that this will bless her life in many ways and we are glad we did this tonsillectomy.

We also had school pics taken of the kids. We love to have a local photographer take the pictures rather than get the real school pictures. The school picture packets are very expensive and you get a bunch of wallets that are never used anyway. The lady who takes their pictures get much better and cuter photos anyway for a much better price with a CD of 5 poses. We love it and are very grateful to her for them. Karen's pics are even posted on her blog because Karen is just that cute! http://capturedpix.blogspot.com/2011/09/more-dates-for-school-pictures.html Scroll down at this link to see them. I'm posting my favorite of Karen and Michael below.

It was a beautiful area where she took their pictures, so I took the kids back to get a few more of my own with both of them together. Mine didn't turn out quite as good as hers, but they did turn out cute.

Starting School

School has started and we now have 2 students in our home. Karen has started 1st grade this year. A full day, lunch at school and best of all 3 recesses has Karen loving 1st grade. She's so excited to be such a big girl and loves making new friends. Here she is on her first day.
Michael has also started school this year. Preschool that is. He's watched his sister go to school for 2 year and has wanted so much to go too. Well, it's finally his turn and he's so excited. He loves his preschool and new teacher. He told me that he loves the girl with the princess backpack in his class. Look out girls, here comes my heartbreaker!

Graduation & Birthday

Wednesday was Karen's kindergarten graduation. It also happened to be Neils' birthday. He was able to take off the morning and come to Karen's graduation program. It was really cute. They had all the kids dress up in their favorite outfit (dress up, costume or other) and then they had a cute little fashion show featuring each child. It was amazing the variety of outfits as you can see.

Then they sang a few cute songs, had a slide show of activities throughout the year and got their "diploma". It was a lot of fun and Karen sure loves to be in the spot light.

She had a wonderful teacher this year and she is going to miss her. Though she may have her again in a couple of years since she will be teaching 2nd grade from now on.

We also had a fun little celebration for Neils birthday. I made an R2D2 cake for him since he loves his StarWars. I tried making homemade marshmallow fondant. It did taste a little better than regular fondant, though I really don't think regular fondant tastes too bad. But I don't think I will do it again cause it was a lot more trouble to work with. I'm glad I tried it though. Neils thought it was great.

He can't tease me about me being older anymore since he is now my same age! Ha!

Karen turns 6

Karen was very excited to turn 6. She wanted a princess party with a unicorn cake... no, a crown cake... no, a castle cake. Yes, definitely a castle cake.

So mommy looked on line for some ideas and decided that I wanted to learn to use fondant so I could make a cute castle cake for Karen's birthday. A friendly neighbor who used to work at a bakery and did fondant professionally offered to teach me how. It wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined, though a lot more time consuming than I'd imagined.

Don't look too close otherwise you'll see how imperfect it really is, but for my first attempt I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. Karen told me that she didn't like the cake she LOVED the cake. It was nice to make my daughter happy on her birthday!


It's a lot of fun and quite satisfying to learn something new. Karen was very excited and the kids both loved watching as I decorated the cake.

We had a fun party in the morning with a friend and a cousin. That night we went out to dinner with Neils' family to celebrate Karen's birthday and mother's day. She thought her birthday was the greatest! Thanks everyone for making it great!

Budding Artist

My daughter is constantly developing her artistic talents. Sometimes it's a bit overwhelming how many pictures she makes and tapes up around the house. Yesterday I found both her and her brother's door covered with pictures. They were so cute I had to take a picture. Only one of them were Michael's and I'm sure you can tell which. The one with writing on it says "Karen is sick dont deestrv(disturb)". Most of the people depicted are Karen and Michael with a couple that have mommy or daddy or a friend.



Another day after naps I found Karen had decorated her shirt with stickers. I guess it didn't have enough bling on it for her.Another day she decided to make a crown and become a queen. I had to help get a crown the right size, but she loved it. When the crown was finished and declared beautiful, she announced that now all she needed was a throne. This is what she devised for her throne.

Just a funny picture. One morning I woke up to find my kids on the far side of the bed on the floor with Karen reading a book to Michael and Michael playing games on daddy's iphone.

Princess and the Frog

On Saturday Karen had a special Princess party. She and I went over to a friend's house and had a princess tea party and then went to the movie The Princess and the Frog. It was so fun, all the little girls dressed up like princesses and had a lot of fun together. We had Karen use her bride dress from Halloween and she dressed up like Belle getting married. It was fun to hear comments as we took her to the movie, most of which were "what a beautiful princess". It was a cute movie. Karen got scared in some parts, but she was brave sitting on my lap. Here are a couple of pictures. My little poser.

Ute Cheerleader

We love the Utes and have taught our kids to love them too. Michael loves to put on his Ute shirt to be "just like daddy". It's so cute. Karen has sadly grown out of hers and I've been looking for a new one, but when I saw this cheerleader outfit I just couldn't pass it up. It's got a separate shirt and skirt so she can wear just the shirt if she wants too. When I brought it home and showed her she immediately wanted to put it on. She looks so adorable!

Michael saw her and told her she looked like a princess and asked her to dance. They danced around the dining room for several minutes while Michael sang "dancey dance, dancey dance, dancey dance....." It was really cute and had to share.

Hair Dressers

My kids got bored one day and asked if they could do my hair. I said sure. They got the spray bottle and the brush and comb and both started pulling them through my hair and getting me and everything around me wet. I quickly took the spray bottle away and they decided that they now needed clips to go in my hair. They went and got the box of Karen's clips and they proceeded to put every single one of them in my hair. We took pictures to remember the fabulous job they did on my hair, which they were very excited about. Fun eh?

Kindergarten

Karen started Kindergarten today. She was very excited to start school and a little nervous. I wasn't too worried since she's had preschool for a year. They asked a parent to come with the child for the first hour of school so daddy stayed home this morning to watch Michael so I could be with Karen at school. We all went together to see Karen off and take pictures, then Daddy and Michael walked home while mommy stayed at school. Here's some fun picture in front of the school.

They have a cute playground just for the kindergartners separated from the rest of the school by a half wall all the way around. It's really a cute little playground. Michael loved it too and wanted to get in on the picture taking.
They line up along the wall of the playground when the bell rings and the teachers come out to get them to take them into class. (I blurred faces for safety)
Mommy was able to help Karen with a few "get to know you" activities in the classroom. She was excited to be able to sit by two girls that she knows from primary. There is also a little boy from primary that she knows too. There are 24 in her class and she's excited to make new friends too. I know she will love school. As I was driving home suddenly I felt a little sad. I didn't expect that, but I guess it is a big deal after all. I no longer have a baby girl, she's growing up so fast.

(P.S. I'm so excited to have a camera again!)

Neils Birthday

On Tuesday we celebrated Neils' birthday. We had a few presents which the kids helped him open.

Then we went out to dinner. The kids always find interesting ways to entertain themselves in restaurants. This time it was with a cylindrical ad on the table.

At the end of the dinner as we were getting to go boxes, Michael decided he wanted to help. This is how he helped. I thought it was cute and very funny.

Miscellaneous

We had a lovely vacation last weekend to Denver and the Starfest Sci-fi convention. It was a lot of fun, especially since we left the kids with their grandparents. It was a nice weekend getaway, but definitely needed to be a couple days longer. Here's a few fun pics. Plus some other miscellaneous pics of the kids having fun.

Life size Doctor Who Tardis! Awesome!The only place you can find a Pirates vs Ninja's competition.Even babies get dressed up for these thingsShe looks so much like Luna Lovegood! and pretty good Lucius MalfoyDaddy is the horsey! yay!

Daddy asked them to say chocolate instead of cheese and they screamed it!

Michael helping mommy dry her hair

Always riding double

Discovery Museum

I've heard so many wonderful things about the Discovery Museum in the Gateway downtown, so when Karen's preschool was going I thought it was a great opportunity especially when I could go and Michael could too. We've never been before so it was exciting. Michael always wants to go to school with Karen and so he was really excited to be able to actually go with her that day. It was wonderful. The kids had so much fun and loved all the exhibits they had there. Here are a few pictures that show some of the things they were able to do there. This first one is in an area with balls and tubes everywhere.This was the waterworks area and Michael would have stayed here the whole time (if I would have let him).This was a wind tube where Karen and Michael spent a lot of time. They were intrigued with this and thought it was so cool.
The weather station where Karen was the star!
This was the absolute favorite. The mini helicopter where they could get in and out and even get in the cockpit and air control tower. They loved this and didn't want to get out when it was time to go.