Mid Winter Break - February 2012

Last Saturday morning drove to Portland while the girls watched Charlie and Lola and Barbie Fairy Secret. Girls watched Jared play Mario and then we played Just Dance 3 with Alton. Shaila made homemade Play dough with the girls. Then we joined Jason and Debbie and fam and David and Missy and fam and Campbells at Chevys for dinner. Played a Zoo card game with the Campbell's before bed. Sunday morning went to church with Campbells. Girls had sharing time from Shaila. Keira told us she learned day/night. She proceeded to cover her eyes to show us the night that Jesus created and uncovered them to show us day:). Ella is in heaven holding Riley in the last picture.

Valenti"m"e's Day - 2012

Had a fantastic Valentine's Day. Spent the morning in Ella's classroom with Keira and helped make crowns for her Valentine's Party. Keira eventually wandered around and found some stations to do with Ella. Went out to watch Ella briefly at recess with Kristina and Molly and then went back to work in Ella's class gluing the last art docent pieces onto some blue backing paper.  Ended up staying all morning with Ella and Keira at Ella's class. I heard Valenti"m"e's day more times than I could count.

Yesterday, while at Ella's gymnastic's class, we were upstairs in the viewing area and Keira was playing with some boys. They were playing ghosts and squid. Keira wanted a snack so we went downstairs to wash our hands. I asked her if there were any ghosts in the bathroom and she said "no mom, ghosts don't have feet!"

Sense and sensibility - February 2012

Reading the last page of Sleeping Beauty tonight Keira said they weren't in thier married clothes referring to Aurora and the prince. It does say they get married on that page after all. So I asked the girls tonight if they were going to get married in the Temple or a castle. And Ella said the Temple. So I asked why and she said with a bit of a grimace like I should know better "because I don't know where a castle is" (duh).

Bingo! - February 2012

Spent the morning putting together Valentines for friends and family. Keira surprised me by writing her name on a lot of them. She tired after a while but did a great job. She struggled with the K which I helped her with most of the time and the R looked more like an N but I've only seen her write her name a couple of times before. Ella was super helpful sealing the envelopes and putting puff stickers on them. 

Then the girls got to play at Alara's and Kaedria's in the afternoon so when they came home they were running short on gas and patience. Add to the mix that a friend from school who we had a play date with a few days ago was diagnosed with lice and our evening was spent checking for it.

Fortunately this stumbling block didn't prevent us from going to Bingo Night. Ella was looking forward to it especially because we were taking Abbi too. They had a great time together and I enjoyed taking them out for a little girls night out. Abbi let Ella borrow a purse she could take to buy her bingo cards from. It was crazy crowded and we ended up finding some chairs in the back and we were lucky to get them. We sat near Mrs. Orkney which the girls loved. Ella won a bingo and picked out a $10 McDonalds gift card. I won an Amai gift card good for a mani or pedi. Keira didn't make it because she was busy screaming up a storm and being defiant while we were getting ready to go. While we were at Bingo Travis sent me a video. I think the poor baby was just tired and hungry. She mellowed out after Ella and I left, hence the video:) She says "Sorry mom but I'll be good."  Awe!

Keira's first swim lesson! - Jan 2012

Keira looks stunning all geared up for her first swim class. Her teacher is Barb and Keira always likes picking out which swimsuit she is going to wear. Ella had Barb for one of her swim sessions too.

Keirasaurus - January 2012

Thanks Shaila for a great dinosaur costume. Keira didn't want to try it on at first but eventually she came around. 

January 2012 Snow and Friends

Over the snow break a couple of weeks ago we built a Hawaiian snow girl and a snow caterpillar. We had hot chocolate and some sort of baked good almost every day and played Uno, Skip-Bo, and Book of Mormon Bingo while watching the snow fall from Ella's bed.

Before the snow came Ella had a sleepover at Abbi's and then just as the snow was leaving town Abbi had a sleepover at our house. I thought it was fast that Abbi's mom asked Ella for a sleepover the first play date but I stayed and chatted for a while and her mom went to a lot of trouble for the girls to have a night to themselves and Ella was having so much fun that I let her stay over.  They made heart cookies and played video games and watched Matilda.  Abbi fell asleep during the movie but Ella watched the whole thing and told Abbi's mom when it was over so she could turn it off.  Ella didn't want to sleep in Abbi's bed with her.  She wanted her own bed which cracks me up.  She has always been that way.  So Abbi set up a bed next to her on the floor but ended up sleeping in her bed later with her mom.  And when we had Abbi over they didn't want to go to sleep but were a bunch of cuties and somehow managed to fall asleep after having ice cream sundaes and playing video games and tea. Keira slept in Ella's room on the floor and Abbi and Ella slept in Ella's bed. Keira wanted to too but I assured her that Ella was a bed hog and there wan't any room anyway.  She was still a little sad but got over it.

 Keira and Riley at Kris' Hello Kitty Birthday party!

 Kris

 Painting pottery

Ella totally hogged the bed when I slept with her when she was sick. Unfortunately she got her cat and blanket in the line of fire when sick.  Dad did his best to clean them but the next morning when we gave them to Ella she gave me her cat back and asked me to clean it again:)  So one  Fabreeze/Oxi-Clean/Shout soak later and the cat was smelling great.  Ella said she smelled like grandma. 

Keira screamed like only she can in the bathroom at Mountlake Terrace pool because I told her she couldn't go back to free play. She had a little accident. The pool was colder than usual because someone forgot to turn on a switch or something.  Poor baby...good times!

Last Sunday when I came home from church the girls greeted me happy and huggy and we all jumped up and down screaming with joy at our own little scream fest. It helps me to forget the days we suffer through screaming and throw up;)

Kris brought over their pottery items they painted from her birthday party.  Ella made a mug for dad and painted the dad blue and half of the mug pink and the rest of it black and orange. And Keira painted a heart dish pink with black polka dots and some blue and yellow puff paint. She said it was for dad to put his mug on. Dad is super lucky.

Uvillage was a bit boring for the girls last Saturday while mom and dad took care of some cell phone business. We had to go to both the Apple and AT&T store. So afterward we treated them to Cold Stone and drove under the Freemont bridge to see the Troll.

Ella loves Uno. We played it with Keira the other day and had a blast. Ella usually likes to play until she wins but is actually a good sport otherwise if she loses.

Went to the "Comfy Concert" Feb 2nd, held by Bothell High School's talented musical groups. We got in the car to go home and Ella said "that was so much fun!" And then she said "ride the blue train!" after reading the electronic message board. We got to see some of the young women from church perform. Melanie sang a solo to Se Tu M'ami which was amazing and Nikole and India and Melanie all sang together in a women's group which was very well done.