Happy First Day of Spring

I suppose in the past we haven't necessarily dressed up for the first day of Spring, but since we actually live in a climate with seasons now and because Hailey has been learning about it in school, she talked me into allowing her to wear her Easter dress to school today!  The day started at a brisk 30, but it's a gorgeous 55 right now around lunchtime.  I'm glad we got the one snow that we had in December and by February I was still wishing for one more, but now I'm glad to see sunny skies and our days get up into the high 60's.  But this perfect weather leads to more time outside and less time inside to get work done (or get myself caught up again on the BLOG!)  I'm not complaining though!!!  Happy Spring!!!!

Seriously?!?!

The pinker and poofier the better...it also has to pass a "twirl" test! 

You're a Grand Ole Flag

Hailey's school had another performance (Patriotic Day?) during the Bobcat Assembly  Here's a video of the two first grades and two kindergarten classes singing part of Yankee Doodle and then You're a Grand Ole Flag...pretty cute...sorry about the shakey camera...I blame the wiggle worm who was sitting on what's left of my lap!  Again, I LOVE that her school is so small!!!  Today when I volunteered in Hailey's class there were only 10 kids (3 were out sick)....TEN!!!!!  Ten kids and 3 adults....crazy!!!  :) 

"Reading" and Reading!!!!

With all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, Leevi traveling, and Hailey's birthday, I forgot I had this video of Hailey.  We were watching old videos one day and we found one of Hailey "reading" Go Dog Go at age 2...she knew that she could now really read Go Dog Go, so we recreated the video.  :)  Those Dr. Seuss books are sooooooo long, so I've spared you and cut the movie to just a few pages.  She also found another "reading" video where Kai was only a few days old and she made Kailee come lay on her lap to recreate that one too!  Too funny!!!! 

We are so proud of Hailey's reading progress this year and LOVE to hear her read us her bedtime stories!  :) 

Silly Sally Day

On Tuesday last week Kailee's class had a Silly Sally day during the week they were learning about the letter "S".  We found out about it before the four day weekend and that's all she asked about everyday!  She picked her own outfit of crazy hair, inside-out-backwards pajamas, and mixed match boots.  They read Silly Sally by Audrey Wood and did some fun activities. 

Since then, we've actually had to say goodbye to her teacher, Ms. Kitty!!!  Sniff, sniff....with our post closing down we knew she was job hunting and we are so happy for her that she found a new school in Wiesbaden, even though it means she had to leave us early.  With that being said, we have decided to pull Kai from school too for the remainder of the year...with everything downsizing rapidly here, her class had been combined with the Full-day Preschool kids and into a large room with divided sections of babies, toddlers, and Preschoolers.  Even though the numbers are small, it got a little too nutty for me and I felt like it was becoming more social hour than a rigorous preschool curriculum :)  Ha!  Which I suppose is actually ok considering she's only 3 and because of her September birthday she will have two more years of preschool anyway.  I think we'll adjust fine...my day won't be so choppy with dropoffs and pickups and Hailey is super excited that she can start riding her bike to school again (that 30 min gap in the mornings between H and K's school start time really threw us off during the cold winter) And it's actually easier and just as quick to walk/bike to school because of the walking path vs. the driving path and the in and out of the car.  Kai does GREAT playing independently so I think I'll still be able to get things done during the day and we'll still set aside time for "school work".  And I'm banking on her being just as helpful with the baby as Hailey was with her!  :) 

On a side note, I was searching for ideas of an easy way to gather up the girls "memories"....Kai's journal she brought home from school, random photos or copies of their photo birthday invites/thank you cards, special artwork, report cards etc. and I think I'm going to attempt storing them in this large scrapbook box I found on Amazon.  It's perfect because it's a wide box and hopefully it will serve it's purpose and it will be something they can take from home when they leave the nest...yikes!  :)

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!!!