Ice Cream

Pictures from our neighborhood ice cream party. It was a success!

First Day of School

My kids started school at Thomas Edison Charter School last week. They were sooo excited to go back! Andrew is now in first grade and goes to school all day. I really miss him. We bought a bunch of lunch making supplies and my good friend Aimee sent me even more fun stuff, so he gets excited to make his lunch each night and eat at the school. Olivia is now in kindergarten. She has the same teacher that Andrew had last year and is in the room right next to him. So far, she loves going and came home telling me she made new friends. She said she just walked up and asked a girl her name and now she has a friend named Stella! I was pleasantly surprised to hear that. She has always been pretty reserved but maybe kindergarten will bring out the social butterfly in her! Andrew told me that he also is making lots of new friends. When I went to pick him up, he announced that I needed to meet one of them. This little boy ran up to me and started shouting out his mother's phone number so I could call her and arrange for them to play. Haha. He also told me that he made friends with a boy even though he had long hair. I said, "What's wrong with long hair?" He said, "No mom, it was long like a girl! But I'm still his friend." I wonder if I should show him pictures of his dad from high school. :)

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Olivia turned FIVE! She has never had a birthday party with friends, so I let her pick a theme and some friends came to help celebrate. The theme she chose was "Littlest Pet Shop," her favorite toy.

Food: Vanilla Cake, Bunny Snacks, Monkey Skewers, Mouse Munch, and Puppy and Kitten Chow.

I made a huge collage in the shape of a 5 with pictures of Liv through the years. 

We played games centered around cats. Kids had to pair up and roll balls of yarn across the floor with their noses. It was a huge hit.

 Millie and her friend Anika even tried it... but had to be coaxed by Ben.

After the yarn game, we went outside to eat donuts off a string. It was supposed to be like cats playing with dangling toys. This game definitely elicited the most laughs.

All the kids lined up after the donut eating contest for a picture.

We then played "Pin the bow on the kitty." I was up until some unholy hour the night before making all those bows!

I set up an "Adoption Center" for each kid to adopt a littlest pet shop. After games, we decorated little houses (favor boxes) with stickers and all the kids picked out their pet.

Then we opened presents! She got spoiled with lots of fun toys from friends, as well as a butterfly garden and a new backpack from Ben and I, and a scooter from Ben's parents.

She's pretty serious about that scooter.

We then blew out candles and ate until everyone went home.

Happy Birthday Liv!

Swimming Lessons

I forgot to post about swimming lessons last month. The kids look forward to that every year. They learned so much. Liv has always been very cautious in water, but she shocked me by turning into a little fish this year. Andrew can swim for a few feet with no help now and Millie was a stinker through most of it, but that's nothing new. :)

Lindsey and Cooper did the water babies class with us too. I don't know if Cooper liked it better inside or outside the pool. He seemed pretty content to crawl around.

 This picture pretty much sums up Millie's personality.

She hammed it up when dad came to watch and even put her face in the water.

Bracing myself for her wild jumping.

Liv practicing front float!

Andrew jumping off the board!

The kids had a great time, but I'm so glad it's over. I was exhausted after carting three kids to the pool each day.