W.R.E.C.

So yesterday my friend Maria called and invited us to go to the Water Resources Education Center. I know what you're thinking, and I was skeptical at first too, but we decided to go. It was cold and rainy yesterday, plus this activity was free. So we hopped in the car and left. It was actually quite a fun place. They had all these exhibits teaching about water and where it goes and how it gets there. Plus how to save water. They also had a cool kids area with slide, puzzles, games, puppets, toys etc. The kids had a lot of fun. They got to play with all the exhibits and look at fish, frogs and birds, and just run around. IT was educational and fun, which is a double bonus. Thanks Maria for showing us!!!
Here is Matt checking out one of the exhibits. Here is Kaitlyn trying to pump water to all of Vancouver without overflowing the pump. She was working pretty hard!

Here's Matt navigating the "stream" and in the lower corner you can just make out his friend Gavin.

Here is Matt, Kaitlyn and Marshall having fun in the tunnel.

We tried to get Kaitlyn to put on a puppet show for us, but apparently show buisness is not in her future, she was too shy :)

Fishin'

Last night Gabe and Wendy invited the kids and I to go fishing with them for FHE. Aaron was sadly at class and unable to participate, but we made sure to text him and let him know we were going :) My kids were so excited. Kaitlyn was so loudly excited that I'm pretty sure she scared away most of the fish. Matt and Katie had a blast playing with worms, which included, but was not limited to putting the worms on their arms, bellies and head. Annie was quite the caster and could get the line almost as far as her dad. Gabe did most of the actually help, but Wendy and I did are part. Wendy got the great job of unhooking the fish so the kids could throw them back in the water. I made sure to test the worms out to make sure they were edible for the fish (I'll leave this story to your imagination since it is still quite awful for me to remember). All the kids caught a fish. I was going to draw an arrow on the picture so you could actually see their fish, but alas, haven't figured out how to do that on the blog yet.

You can see from Kaitlyn's picture how well I dress my kids for such an outing, and of course Kaitlyn has to make sure and pose with her fish.
Annie shows what most of the kids were actually feeling as they pulled their fish in.

Here is Gabe, showing the pure exuberance of what I'm sure was his biggest catch ever!

The Greatest Show on Earth!

Last night we went to the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus with Gabe and Wendy and the girls.It was our first time ever at the circus. It was pretty cool. We got there an hour early and you got to go down onto the floor to meet a bunch of the circus people. The show was great too. Kaitlyn said her favorite part was the tigers, Matt said his was the cannon (they shot two girls out of these HUGE cannons). They also had elephants, horses, clowns, tightrope walkers etc. It was a fun, but late night. Matt fell alseep with a half-hour left, but Kaitlyn braved it until the very end, only to fall asleep the second she was in her seat in the car. We'll see how tired she is when she gets home from school today, I actually had to wake her up to get her to go. It was worth it though.

Kindergarten

Today was Kaitlyn's first full-day of kindergarten. She goes from 9:25-3:35 on Monday's, Thursdays and every other Wed. I know, what a wacky schedule! I asked her what she wanted for her special breakfast, and (she takes after her mom), she wanted bagels and cream cheese, or as she calls it, the white stuff. So I made an early run to Panera and got her a blueberry muffin with hazlenut cream cheese.

We then got her all ready for school. The kindergartners for the first two weeks have to wear name tags with their bus number and their teacher's room on them, so if they get lost from the bus to the room, anyone can direct them where to go. That would be what the big green paper is on her shirt.

Matt and I then walked her to the bus stop. There was a nice boy named Alex (a 5th grader) who was a bus buddy and was in charge of getting the two kindergartners from the bus to the classroom, so I was a little less worried about Kaitlyn. I was good and didn't break down until after she was on the bus, but then I cried the whole walk back to the house. Matt was unconcerned. He actually was quite excited to have the house all to himself, and when I asked him later if he missed Kaitlyn he gave an enthusiastic "NO!"

Here she is after school. She was pretty pooped, but actually hasn't fallen asleep yet. She did tell me however, that she doesn't like riding the bus. Aaron and I asked her why, but she didn't give any reasons. We asked her to try it one more day, then we'll see. I might be taking her. All in all, she had a good day. She is excited to get to buy lunch tomorrow (it's pizza day) and check out her first book from the library!

New Form of Punishment

The kids were driving me nuts today. Between pulling hair, hitting, spitting, yelling, kicking and fighting I had had enough. So when Aaron got home I ordered him to do something about the kids. This was his response. (This ledge it about 8 feet up from the floor). But I don't know, I don't think they look too repentant.

The Big 05!

My sweet little (big?) girl turned 5 today. I can't believe it's been five years already. She is such a wonderful girl. She loves to learn. She is always asking me to help her read books, and to write her letters. She is so excited to start kindergarten (even if Mom is not!). She loves to play with my little ponies, polly pockets and to do anything arts and craftsy. I can't believe she started out so small. She's pretty average now. We just love her personality and her fiery spirit. That red hair really comes into play sometimes :) Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!!!

Kaitlyn had her pony party today. She invited five friends. We started out the party by painting some wooden ponies. Then we played pin-the-tail on the pony. Lunch was Little Ceasers, and then it was time for a little game with each girl getting to open a pony to take home. Then came Kaitlyn's favorite part of the party, the pony pinata. The girls had a blast hitting it, with Annie Atkinson doing the honor of breaking it open.

Then came the cake and ice cream. I think Kaitlyn had a great time. She was so happy that her friends could come a spend such a special day with her. Happy Birthday Bean!!!

Here are Kaityn's friends starting at the left : Lauren and Carly Ray, Kaitlyn, Annie Atkinson, and Gabby Lacher. They are all such great girls!

A Simple Request ?!?

It all started out with Kaitlyn asking for a My Little Pony party for her 5th birthday. I thought, okay, I can do a my little pony cake. In fact it will probably be one of the easiest ones I've done. Not in the least! After I started doing my research to find the best way to make one, I quickly realized it was easier said than done. You could buy the Wilton Pony pan for like $35, but what's the point if you're only going to use it once? Then a bunch I looked at were just a cake with ponies set on top, or elaborate pony houses made out of fondant, but since I believe that cake should be edible, and let's face it fondant just isn't, I quickly ruled those out. That left one option, making my own. Once again I was feeling rather confident. I had done some pretty cool cakes over the last couple of years (excuse me for bragging a little bit),
Here is the duck cake from Katilyn's first birthday. I did have help from my mother-in-law for this one, and a duck pan complete with directions. Kaitlyn's second birthday was Mickey Mouse, and my sister helped with this one.

Third year was a Little Einstein's theme, ergo a rocket cake. I did this one by myself.

Her fourth year she wanted princess. This was probably the coolest, but by far the easiest one to make. Did this one myself to.

Now we are to this year. I went to Michael's and bought a 12x18 inch pan, since a regular 9x13 was not big enough. Then I had Aaron draw me an outline for the pony, since my would end up looking like a stick figure. Then I placed the outline on my finished strawberry cake (and just f.y.i. it took three cake mixes to fill that pan!), then I cut out the shape and set to decorating. 2 1/2 hours later I'm finished. I'm sure Kaitlyn will point out that rainbow dash actually has a blue body instead of pink, but oh well. I did the best I could. It is far from perfect but I think it looks like a pony. What do you think?? I'll post pics of the pony part tomorrow!