The Birthday Girl!

Happy birthday to the most easy going, funny, caring four year old MONKEY we know!  She is definitely the calm in my storm these days!!!  She's so (99% of the time) flexible and goes with the chaos flow of our everyday life! 

Four years of BIRTHday fun!

She asked for a Blueberry party (her favorite Strawberry Shortcake character) but I had a hard time finding just Blueberry things, so we made our own!  I always let the girls help make their cake, but then they have to disappear while I decorate it! 

We haven't met too many little girls Kailee's age, so we opted for a low-key party with the Kent family back in Heidelberg.  Lauren is a gymnastic instructor for the SKIES program, so we had FREE AND PRIVATE access to the gym.  The kids had a blast and I almost felt like squatting there for the next month because it was the PERFECT place for Luke to roam free!!!

So fun!!!

A private lesson from Lauren!  The gym class for Kai's age here in Kaiserslautern conflicts with Hailey's school pick up time or Kai would DEFINITELY be enrolled!!!!  I keep checking back to see if they have changed the times!  She's on a waitlist for a few other sessions!

According to Leevi and the girls, no party is complete without a pinata!

Singing Happy Birthday....Kai had the most adorable wish when she blew out her candles "I wish I could see my friends all of the time"  :)  

We've known for years that the girl loves cake!!!

Present time!  I sent a list with Leevi to the States when he was traveling this summer!  

Handstands!  Belle is a professional!

It was an awesome afternoon!

Since the party was low-budget, I asked Kai if she wanted to go to the salon to get her hair done!  Hailey had an early release the day before Kailee's birthday, so we were able to go around noon instead of cramming it in after school on a school night!  The girls had their hair straightened (by request!) and two color extensions put in!  Hailey got blue and pink and Kai picked purple and pink. So fun! 

Kai's hair was fine when she woke up in the morning, but Hailey's was back to her typical morning crazy!!!  BUT, as promised, I flat ironed it again before school!!! 

It wasn't even two hours before one of Kai's extensions fell out!!!!  Ughh!!!  Her hair is very fine and I guess they hadn't wrapped it around enough strands!  You better believe that I dragged all of us back to the salon so they could put it in again!  They lasted about a week and a half...

 

I always like to save their actual birthday for family.  Even if it falls on a weekend, I will plan their party on a different day so we can spread out the birthday fun!  Kai requested a Belle cake and again she helped make it, but then was forced to play in her room while I decorated it!

The big girl had her 4 yr check up on Friday!  She is in the 87% for height and she got all four of her immunizations without the slightest of a whimper (seriously!!!) 

Happy Birthday, baby girl!  We love you!!!

 

 

More Lukey

Yes, we are sooooo guilty of calling him Lukey!  Leevi even does it!  Or Luka, or Mister, or Luka Booke!  Hopefully, he'll learn what is real name is!  :)  I'm attempting a blog purge this weekend but since it usually takes me at least 3 attempts to get one post done, we'll see!!!  Luke is amazing us by the day that it's so hard to keep up with his milestones!  I love to watch his progress as he tweeks his crawl, his standing, and his sitting!  Just last week, he started pulling himself up and now he's already learned to "walk" his feet up to get a better balance!  I'm a little more comfortable with him crawling around the tile floor, but now I just have to watch for him pulling up on the couch, toy shelves, chairs etc!  Oh my!!!!!  I'm really scared to voice my prediction of when I think he will walk!!!!  At this point, he can get to practically anywhere he wants to, so might as well bring on the walking, BUT then that leads to the climbing AND then the jumping!  Yikes!!!!  Might need to bust out the hair dye before he is ONE!!!



 

This pic of Kai cracks me up...he was totally irritating her while she was trying to play...here she is in action trying to block him!  :) 

 This fridge Leapfrog toy is one of the few items I've had since Hailey was a baby...definitely a family favorite!!!

 Leevi didn't object when I told him I was going out to look for leg warmers for his son!  Most of the boy pants are so restricting and stiff so it's hard for him to move around.  PLUS diaper changes are already a wrestling match, so once his pants come off they usually stay off!  Our tile floor is so cold and these seem to help a lot! 

 How are they both so big already??!!!!

 We are making some progress at dinner time!!!  I think he's eating at least 75% of his cereal.  I thought we were golden at bedtime when he went 7 hrs straight and was only up ONCE in the night at 3:30am, but alas, not so much last night!!!!!

 He was being cute and snuggly on Kai before naptime!  He also has been resting his head on my shoulder before he goes to sleep!  You can imagine how HARD it is to put him into his crib when he does that...my heart just melts and I want to freeze time!!!!!

 Family date night!

 The monster attacks!!!  He loves pulling up on whoever is laying on the floor!!!  He got my hair here!!!!

We are definitely into fall here!!!  It's freezing when we walk to school in the mornings and it's hit or miss in the afternoons!  It was so much easier to have a baby in Hawaii!!!

And two cute videos!!!!

Social Media!

Technology never seizes to amaze me...even with all of the flaws of social media, I can't stay away!  Blogging and Facebook make living so far away bearable!  Pintrest is the latest addiction (not really...I don't have time for an addiction, but I definitely will search on there for a specific idea...birthday, house decor, kid craft, etc.)  I actually have a few projects waiting in the wings for Leevi for the house!  Below are a few of my favorite things pulled from the web....

 



Pillowcase mattresses...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these for our cold tile floor!  They are massive though, so I just had to buy a trunk to keep them in.  After giving a whole-hearted search, we found an antique 120 year old trunk from Belgium...my first major European furniture buy (that could definitely be a whole addiction in itself over here!!!)  But,yes, the pillows are great and we even used them to corral Luke to the carpet when he started crawling (now, there is no point!) 

Ivory soap and toilet paper dough!!  This was pretty awesome and the making of it was just as fun as the playing.  Microwave a bar of ivory soap and it puffs up into a cloud!  Then add water and toilet paper to make a molding dough!  Pretty awesome experiment!

Peanut butter playdough!  Peanut butter, honey, and confectioners sugar!  And Leila was VERY helpful in cleaning up!!! 

More Pintrest fun....mix fabric softner with water to brush doll hair!  We spent an entire afternoon brushing barbies and babies!

 

 

And my favorite social media steal!!!!  I joke that Pintrest is the reason that I needed to have another baby!!!!   I had been on the hunt for a German wine crate and I was waiting for Luke to sit up a little better on his own....Luke sitting up and crawling away came practically simultaneously, so I'm not sure I could have gotten this shot much later than I did!  My window of easy photographing is OVER! 

5 months!!!!!!

I think this is the FIRST month were I don't feel like time is flying!  I think Luke is playing tricks on my mind because he is doing things that should be happening a few months from now, so it makes me think that he's a lot older than he is!  :)  I still have absolutely no time to catch up on anything especially because we spend a lot of time in his room when we are home because it's carpet and not tile!  He is way too adventurous to be left for mere seconds!  

Because he is on the move, we have been taking him to the nursery during church on Sunday...I find it funny that at 5 months old we are already wanted him to burn his energy!  :)  I chuckle to myself at how enjoyable my time up in the chapel is (both girls also go to Children's Church)  Leevi and I can actually pay attention to the sermon!  The nursery gives us a pager (just like at a restaurant) to buzz us during the service if Luke needs us.  Pretty cool! 

Enjoy the pics...here's to wishful thinking that I'll get his 6 month post up on time!  :)

FIVE months old!!!

With my photo assistant!  (You guys think I'm exaggerating when I say that she's ALWAYS in just her underwear!)



Such a patient pup!!!  She's had to deal with so many babes over the years!!!  Thankfully she's not a dog who likes to give constant kisses, but she did get Luke in the two middle pictures!  Love his face!!  :) 

So busy!!



We started him on cereal recently in hopes that he'll sleep a little longer at night...it's been about a week and I'm not sure that he's actually consuming enough to make a difference yet!  :) 

Such a busy little man!!!  The two top photos are from last month when he first started crawling and the two bottom ones are a little more recent.  The first time he sat himself up was in the bottom right photo...Kai, Luke and I were LAYING on the floor and I look over and found him in a SITTING position! 

His latest trick as of this week!  He pulled up to a standing postition all on his own!  Ughh!!!  BUT he doesn't last long before he FALLS OVER!!  We spend practically all of our time in his bedroom because of the carpet!  Another reason why this house was meant for us...the newer housing have all tile! 

  

His new bathtub!!!

I just love those dimpled hands!!!

A sister sandwich!!!

So helpful!

And some old videos!  I have a new video of his latest crawling technique but it might be another week before I have a chance to get it off my camera and edit it!!!!  He is up on his knees and kind of hops around...too cute!!!!! 

 

 

  

FIRST day of FIRST grade

We are already into our 4th week of school and I am just getting around to posting this!  I've given up on ever catching up and have completely stopping using the term...I'll never be caught up on the blog, the laundry, the house chores BUT I am loving the kid time and am appreciating the special moments I get with them!  Leevi has been working long hours and I appreciate the moments I get with him too, so any chore that hasn't been done after 5ish, just gets added to the pile the next day!  We've have had to shuffle our evening routines a bit when Leevi works late because the girls refuse to eat dinner without him (I love that!).   We'll do baths (and sometimes even books!) and then eat when Leevi gets home (thankfully, they are past the messy dinner stage and we can sneak that bath in ahead of time!) 

 

Hailey is loving 1st grade and her teacher seems great....she does a lot of songs, signing (Hailey calls it hand language) and has a great motivational behavioral system.  She's pregnant with her first baby, so I'm not sure of her long-term plans, but I hope whoever replaces her is just as wonderful and sticks with the routines that she's set with the class.  I was worried about Hailey being overwhelmed coming from our tiny Mannheim community to a school with almost 1,000 kids in grade K-5.  There are T-E-N first grade classes!!!!!!!!!!!  She has 17 kids in her class and has talked about a few of the little girls.  So many of the kids live off post here, so it's hard for me to get a feel of the kids in her class without seeing their parents at drop-off and pick-up everyday.  So far her best buddy is a boy named Luke who we met the week before school started who are friends of a friend from Mannheim.  Hailey and Luke ended up being in the same class and since they both were new to the school they seemed to migrate to each other and play together at recess.  We were too late to get the girls registered for any sports/dance this season and I was hoping they'd meet a few friends that way but Hailey's after school clubs should be starting soon.  Both girls are doing a soccer clinic once a week and Awanas on Sundays, so maybe they'll start meeting some more friends there.  

The big FIRST GRADER!!!

Trying to sneak Luke to school!  He'd make a great show and tell!!

I think Kailee enjoys her "alone" time playing by herself...she seriously would be a great only child and can play Barbies, Princesses, and make crafts for hours.  I'm still trying to get into a better "schoolwork" routine but something always seems to pop up.  We do go to storytime at the library once or twice a week and her soccer clinic is during the school day. 

And I need to add (BY CHOICE) she lives in just her underwear!  She strips down the second she walks in the door and even sleeps in only underwear! 

Her schoolwork on Hailey's first day was a Welcome Home sign (which she thought to make!) and a family picture.

A few days before school started I bought chocolate hippos at the commissary for a celebratory after school snack on the first day.  They were both super excited!  :) 

Luke's naptime is still pretty crazy because he's always running around on some errand or big sister function!  I tried to let him get at least one good nap in his crib and will schedule our errands/walk etc around that!  In the pic below I had laid him down to get my shoes on and the stroller ready to pick Hailey up from school and he grabbed that pink blanket and couldn't stay awake any longer!