A Spa Sleepover Party

I survived my first BIG sleepover and our first "kid only" party without the parents/siblings hanging around!!!  I made Hailey be very picky in her guest list and we only invited her 4 closest buddies.  I'm not a big fan of "invite the whole class to be polite" kind of parties and these four girls have been to our house for several playdates or babysitting nights and actually 3 out of the 4 have spent the night at one time or another, so I felt confident that I wasn't getting in over my head!  :)  The girls had a blast and were way more calm than I expected!  :)  After a pizza dinner we started on the festivities...Leevi disappeared upstairs :)  and came down when I needed him and Kai actually hung up there a lot up with him by choice which was nice that Hailey didn't have to share her friends/party with her little sister!  :) 

The invites!!!

Hailey wanted to pose with her nail polish cake after school and I had planned on taking her picture with it after she was dresssed for her spa day but I forgot, so I'm glad we snuck this one in there.  

I didn't go overboard on the decorations considering it was only 5-6 yrs there to appreciate them! :)  The tissue paper pom-poms are quick, cheap, and super easy to make (google it!)  Of course the PX didn't have the colors I wanted so I opted for the crisp, spa white!  ;)  Leevi upload some new Kid Bop songs on Hailey's iPod, so the girls jammed out with her iDog speakers. 

 Craft time!!!!!

Gotta love Melissa and Doug....my girls have had a blast doing M&D crafts like these in the past.  The kit included a wooden jewelry box, paints, paint brush, glitter glue, glue and jewels to glue on....for a great price on Amazon!  And this was their 'party favor' to take home. 

 Spa time!!!!!!

The girls, of course, wanted to paint their own nails, so I had it easy....although they did have to sit there for awhile to let the gobs of paint dry!  :) 

 Cake and present time!!!!!

The sparkler candle was quite exciting (probably a little much for 6 screaming girls!)  :) 

Facials!!!!!!!!

I wish I had thought to see if the face mask I bought was clear or green but I didn't check until right before the party....they still had fun getting gooped up!!!! 

 Playtime between activities!

These recycled juice bottles worked great for water bottles for the girls Friday night/Saturday morning....no confusion over cups and no spills to worry about! 

Movie time and Bedtime (finally!) :)  

We watched Swiss Family Robinson, but only made it through about half of it because it was getting so late.  The girls didn't object to bedtime and all crashed within about 20 minutes!  It probably helped that they had had school that day too!  They fell asleep around 10:30 and slept until between 8-8:30....I was so glad they slept in and weren't up at the crack of dawn because they weren't in their own beds! 

Happy 6th Birthday, Hailey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 6th Birthday, Hailey

We can't believe our baby is S-I-X!!!!!!!!  Thankfully, Leevi was home (and off work because of President's Day) for her birthday. (He was home all week and we just said goodbye for the next 6 weeks!!!!!  Although we are pretty sure that he'll be able to sneak away for a night or two every few weeks.)  

We ate a birthday breakfast and opened presents and then took the girls to an indoor water park close by.  We hadn't been before and we were really surprised at how "American-like" it was. 

Birthday breakfast!  I wonder what her wish was....

Present time....she, again, was a great guesser at what her wrapped presents were.  The small gift on the bottom left was a pair of Ariel/Prince Eric earrings which at first glance she guessed "credit card" (she meant gift card) and then said, "it's either that or earrings"  Little turkey!!!

She insisted on wearing her birthday crown from school!

At Miramar waterpark....I only took a few pictures with my iphone because I certainly couldn't walk around with my camera.  They have a big wave pool, hot tubs scattered about (indoor and outdoor), two really fast/high waterslides (Leevi tried them out), and 3 big kid waterslides that both girls went down.  Everytime Kai goes down some super scary slide I am shocked yet then wonder why it surprises me at all.  :)  They really had the heat cranked in there so it was perfectly toasty and again I was surprised (but shouldn't have been) that there were no lifeguards and practically no safety rules...you could go double on the slides, kids were making trains, or crashing intentionally into one another at the bottom.  But everyone was having fun!  :) 

After a few hours at the waterpark we came home and had cake for an afternoon snack.  I hate when they have sugar after dinner before bed, so we opted for early cake with plenty of time to burn off the sugarhigh!

The birthday video.....

Leevi had the day off from work on Tuesday and we picked Kai up from preschool and took cupcakes to Hailey's class during lunch. 

Don't mind Kai's crazy hair and inside out clothes...it's was Silly Sally day at her school (post to come on that!)

Hailey had her birthday party on Friday night and I'm still sorting through pics and videos of that....it was a Spa Sleepover!  :)  Stay tuned......

Yikes! Single digits!!!!!

This whole pregnancy has flown by and I knew these last few months with the holidays and Leevi traveling so much would especially go fast!  I feel like I just made my post at 30 weeks and now we are already into single digit weeks left!!!!  We are excited!!!  The girls are really loving feeling the kicks and Hailey really thinks it's a boy now because of how hard it will kick her head when she lays on my stomach!  :)  Of these 8 weeks to go, Leevi will only be home for 7 D-A-Y-S of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   For the final stretch he'll be about 3 hours away and might be able to sneak away for a night and he'll be certain to jump in his car the moment my contractions start given how fast Kailee decided to come.  Leevi will be home on April 7th and we hope to have a nice relaxing Easter and then the baby is welcome to come anytime!  :)  Leevi will take off the rest of the month to help us adjust, get the girls to and from school, and start organizing for our move.  I've got all of the baby things and clothes washed and now am just finishing up things around the house and a slew of routine appts (dentists, doctors, vet, taxes, on and on it seems...as much as we can do without a newborn!) 

Soon enough we'll be holding our blessing!!!!!  We have 99.9 % decided on names but I think we are going to keep those hush, hush just to add to the fun!!!!!!!  :)  

The only real difference that I can tell (besides my tanned arms!) is that #3 seems a little lower.....   :) 

Happy Valentine's Day

School Fun

Here's a cute video of Kai singing the Months of the Year song they sing during circle time in the mornings at school!

Hailey's class has been working on composing a letter this week.  In case you can't see it (or translate it!) here's what is says....

Dear Mom,
        How are you? I am happy.  I love you Mom. We been lrne (learning) aboit chameleons.  Mom I have been good.
                              Love,
                              Hailey
   

And nothing to do with school but just a random picture of the Princesses helping each other out!  These are Kai's favorite dress up shoes which are waaaaayyyy too little....I felt like they were the Evil Stepsisters trying to cram her foot into the glass slipper!!! 

Labor Day Camping

I've been attempting to go through my computer and delete and sort pictures and realized that with the rush of our return from Virginia and the start of the school year I never got around to blogging about our Labor Day weekend camping trip.  We drove down to the American campsite at the military resort Edelweiss and tagged along with the Doziers who had a company camping function. 

The fields across from where we stopped for lunch.  These flower gardens are everywhere in the Spring and Summer.  You pick what you want and put your money into a box! 

  

 

Leila girl made the trip with us....I'm not sure she has been camping since our days before kids when we camped on the beaches of Hawaii!!!



Gorgeous views on the ride down!!

I love how it seems that they have the same expression!

She feel asleep for the last 10 minutes of the 4 hour drive!

Our 10 person tent....it needed to be big enough for my air mattress!  :) 

Girls and DIRT!

The dirtiness of camping makes me cringe!

Smores!

Shortly before the hustle and bustle of the campsite woke her in the early morning

Snoopin...

Packed up and ready to head home

Leila had stuck her nose into some stinging nettle grass and had a hive reaction, so we drugged her up with Benedryll and she slept the entire ride home.

No Benedryll there just a long weekend!!!

Saving Money by Spending Money...

A few weeks ago the PX's had a ridiculous sale and put practically ALL of their winter clothing on sale for 75% off!!!!  Since NOBODY really lives in Mannheim anymore, our PX was fully stocked!  A ran into a few of my neighbors while shopping and we'd laugh at each others carts and a lot of people posted their receipts on Facebook of their crazy savings! 

There were a few fancy holiday dresses that the girls have been eyeballing but I told them they needed to wait until they went on clearance.  Hailey has it in her head that she needs to wear formal gowns to church each Sunday, so I was able to stock her closet with $6 and $7 dresses!  Kai has been begging for a fancy dress that included a matching one for her baby and thankfully they still had her size (she wants to wear it EVERYday)  I didn't buy too much for the girls because 1. they already have too much and 2. the older kid clothing doesn't have as many quality Carters and Oshkosh as the infants do.  I got a few things for Hailey for next Winter but not much of a selection.  Where I had to control myself was with the infant/toddlers Carter's complete outfits for $3!  I wanted to buy every style in every size in both genders!   And it really doesn't get too warm here in Germany for very long so I didn't have to think too much about the seasonal weather at least for a baby.  I didn't cut off any tags, so whichever gender clothing I don't need for this baby will go into my "Gift Closet" and I will be stocked for baby shower presents for awhile!  :)  Unless, we decide that our family isn't done growing yet.......   :)   The talk of #4 comes up often...we'll see how much we talk about it as we adjust to a family of 3!  :) 

The "confession" picture text that I sent Leevi!  :)  I told him that I was trying really hard to control myself! 

How Kailee occupied herself while I shopped...the lingerie section is right next to the children's clothing, so she kept bringing me "outfits" 

Some of the final spread at home...I spent $160 BUT saved over $500!!!  And that's saying a lot because the PX clothing is typically lower than a regular store (i.e. Carters!)   And (not pictured) I bought two pairs of boots for myself...a $70 black pair for $17 and an $80 brown pair for $20.....CRAZY!!!! 

Kailee picked these out for the baby!  And at $2 each, how could I say no?!

30 weeks (Already?!?!?!)

For all of you (5 readers) out there begging for belly pics...here they are!!!  I didn't like any of them and considered retaking them and then reconsidered my brief moment of insanity.  I said last time that I wasn't going to do them with the timer again but Leevi is still out of town.  I think I look the same as with the girls...I have two specific belly pics of Kai at 32 weeks that I'll recreate so we can compare.  Really, really, really thinking it's a girl!  :)  The only thing I'm holding onto that is drastically different from my pregnancies with the girls is that my initial pregnancy test had a SUPER strong line instantly where as with both girls, it was the faintest of a line where that maybe if you held it at a certain angle in a certain light I could trick my eyes into believing that I was pregnant!  :)  

I'm still feeling great but am having some ligment pains in my back that come and go...hoping it will eventually stretch out and I won't have to put up with it for the last 10 weeks.  I can't believe how fast the time is flying!  I'm still slowly checking things off my To-Do list before the baby comes and while of course we are super excited to meet this little one, let's hope it's in no rush to get here!   The girls were right on time and I hope this one is just as considerate!  :)  My next doctor appt is on the 8th so maybe we'll get some cute ultrasound pictures to add.