You don't know me, but hey, can I hug your toilet paper?

It's been a busy, busy week!

Thankfully the rain has finally let up, but we got soaked a few times going out the past couple days.

Today the weather was just teasing us, every time we went outside it started sprinkling!

We come back indoors and the sun comes out!

 

Do you know what this bug is? I've found them all over recently.

http://www.amentsoc.org/images/harlequin-larvae.jpg

The girls found three today and were freaked out so I quickly looked them up and found out they are Ladybug larva! I'm surprised I've never noticed them before...they are quite freaky looking.

Looks like a picture of some alien robot drone on their back!

I guess it's a good year for the ladybugs.

At least better than for my garden, which is in a sad, sad state.

Burned from the heat wave, then froze from our cold nights, and now drowned.

It's not good.

I was going to pick up some more veggie plants this week, but the garden centers don't have a proper roof and they're not fun to shop in the rain.

 

It was such a downpour the other day. We had stopped at a store and they had samples of dried blueberries in little cups that the girls were snacking on.

Then it rained so hard while we were getting to the truck that it rehydrated the berries. ha!

 

I took the girls out shopping early in the week and Vivian had to go to the bathroom so I took her out of the cart, then went to get Shiloh out of the cart.

There was a lady with a couple bags who was waiting for someone to come out of the bathroom and she was  standing near me and wearing a similar raincoat.

Vivian got confused and scampered over to this lady and starts squeezing the big pack of toilet paper that the lady is holding.

The lady didn't notice and I called to Vivi, but she was too captivated by the plastic-wrapped squishiness of the toilet paper.

THEN Vivi starts hugging and patting the toilet paper which attracted the attention of the tp-buying woman. Finally Vivian realized her mistake and rushed back over to me all red-cheeked.

It's just so funny when I think about it because Vivian was just so enamored with the toilet paper, of all things!

 

 

 



Finishing up the school year...

Shiloh was watching me scoop up ice cream for her and Vivian.

Shiloh: "Why do I get more ice cream than Vivian?"

Me: "Because she's Lactose Intolerant and too much ice cream will bother her stomach."

Shiloh: "Oh, so I get more ice cream because I'm just Lactose?"

 

Vivian "Shiloh! Stop shouting! It makes wax in my ears!"

 

You know how stores sometimes put these annoying poles on the sides of the shopping carts?

Did you realize that sometimes this means the cart won't fit through the door?

Ahem, I didn't.

But in pinch, as in the cart is full of children and groceries, and people are following right behind you...I did discover that you can quickly tip the cart back a bit and maneuver it out the door.

In fact maybe no heard the smack of the pole banging against the door frame as you tried to pull it through in the first place, and maybe they didn't even notice you tipping a cart to get it through the door, and perhaps even maybe the heat of midday hid the embarrassed flush that came to my cheeks.

Yep, maybe.

(Honestly, I was a little peeved. If I'm shopping with a cart, I don't think it's too much to ask that the cart fit through the door! :-P )

 

Can you tell we have a Kindergartner in our house? ;-)

This is a simple game that I also did for Shi when she was 4.

I wrote a bunch of words on paper and then had Vivian read them (with and without help) and then she had to find something in the house that fit the word and tape it on.

She loved it and Shiloh wants me to make a version of it for her. :)

Vivi hasn't had reading come to her as easily but she's taken to this game more than Shiloh did when Shi was her age.

Vivian is carefully sounding out the words as she sees them through the house, then she even spells them out.

I think we'll be playing the game again soon. :)

I also found it amusing that Shiloh has been having trouble with one of her spelling words "pencil" and it was one of words in the game. So Vivian chose to put the paper into Shiloh's pencil box, so now every time she opens her bag she has the word right there.  ;-D

 

We're getting to end of the school year and Vivian's work has been super-easy.
A lot of simple review and coloring and she's been done so quickly...even with me adding extra writing and number work for her.

But poor Shiloh, the ending pages of her Language book are just having her write story after story and words that she might hear at a pond or that she'll see in a Zoo etc.etc.

And this type of work is what Shi dreads all year long, so we've had long frustrating days.

Counting down the pages!

Today she was supposed to write words of things that she thought were beautiful, so I started mentioning some things that I thought were beautiful and Shiloh piped up with "birds!"

I said "That's great, do want to write a certain type of bird?"

Next thing she pulls out our bird identification book and starts picking out the birds that she thought were most beautiful.

Actually it took her language work in a whole extra direction as she wrote down "Roseate Spoonbill" and "Ring-necked Pheasant" lol.

 

Now if we can just a creative way to get through the rest of the pages we might just make it!

 

 

Fashion never sleeps

"Vivi, go pick out some fresh pajamas, okay?"

 

 

"That's a shirt, not a nightgown. You need to pick out shorts or pants to go along with it."

"Yes, you can wear legwarmers if you want...or just get some pants."

 

"Hmm, that sweater is not for sleeping...Did you get that out of the closet?"

 

 

"Your shirt is on backwards, Dear."

 

 

"Ah, never mind. My Fashionista."

BTW: Her fever finally went away. yay!

Why I buy boy shorts for my girls

These are two pairs of children's shorts.Both are the same size.

Both are from the same company.

Both are for a 5 year old child.

 

The only difference is that one is made for a girl and one is made for a boy.

Any guesses which is for which?

(Sigh)
 

I went out the other day shopping for shorts for the girls and store after store, I only found too-short shorts in the girls' departments.

If I'm lucky I can find Capri's but not this time.

So finally I had a light bulb moment and went over to the boys' department and right away I found shorts at a decent length and basic colors.

Paired with a pretty top and no one is the wiser.

 

I was just disgusted with the difference. There should not be such a difference for such a young child.

Not only for modesty's sake, though I definitely think girls should be more covered and not less, but also for playing.

Girls want to play on the playground and not burn their tushes on the slides.

They fall and need more clothing protection just like boys.

They walk through bushes and climb trees and need protection from the rough bark and branches.

They need covering to protect them from sunburn.

They want to sit on the concrete driveway and color with chalk and not have their bare bottoms be on the dirt or scrape up their knees.

Ugh, just let them be kids.

 

Okay, off my soap box. But watch out, I might climb right back on! ;-)

 

Flowers and fevers

 

We visited a BJ's store last week. The girls had never been in one before and Shiloh was nervous about the high aisles. She thought something might fall on her.(Hmm, she gets that from her Mama)

 

Vivian has come down with a fever. I braided back her bangs this morning so I could keep a cool cloth on her head.
She looked too precious!

Hopefully her fever will break soon, it reached 104 this afternoon which is too high for me!

 

I took the girls for a walk yesterday and there was a little field where the girls loved picking dandelions (or dandies as Shi calls them).

They needed one "vase" each...plus one for some wild purple flowers that they found.

I just love how the girls dress up everything...

Even my garage floor is decorated in pink chalk flowers. :)

Mother's Day (belated)

The girls helped me decorate Boston Cream Cupcakes for Mother's Day.

Despite some snafus with the cream filling, two bags broke during the piping and we also had an incident of cream squirting across the kitchen, the cupcakes were quite delicious.

And thanks to the girls...quite beautiful!

My little bakers-in-the-making

Later, we went incognito. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day.

My garden sprites

"Are you ready to work in the garden, girls?"
"Wait! We need our ba-danas!!"

Ah yes, we must look beautiful while gardening.

(I'm not even going to tell you what Mama was wearing, but it definitely wasn't as stylish as my girls!)

Shovels ready, but it seemed like they spent more time riding their bikes than anything, hmm...

My new Azalea, it's just so pretty!

There is always a big Bumblebee hovering over my laundry.

My laundry security chief.
Mr. Bee stands guard against laundry thieves...we haven't lost anything yet.

Good job, Bee.

Don't come between a Bee and his laundry.

Young at heart...

...but unfortunately not quite that young of body!
DH and I have been playing like kids, but our bodies have been way to quick to remind us that we are not!

We took the girls to the playground this week...actually a couple of playgrounds and DH went down one slide, once.

His tush hurt too bad to go down again.

Vivian kept saying "But Dada, I can go down and it doesn't hurt. Look! See?"

Lol, Poor DH couldn't figure it out and kept checking the slide out for flaws.

 My family!

 Shiloh's little bike is getting too small for her but I didn't think there was much sense in buying a bigger one until she learned how to ride without training wheels.

Well, a new bike was big motivation to her and she set her mind to it.

So she got her new bike! :)

(She wanted to pick a bouquet of dandelions to hold in the photo)

The Princess and her new carriage

Her new bike is a little hard for her to handle since she's so new to riding without training-wheels so she only rides it when we can help her and is mostly sticking with riding her smaller bike for now.

So Mama rode her new bike around with the girls riding their small bikes.

They loved having their Mama riding with them so much...BUT

I am in such pain today!

My tailbone is super-sore.

I couldn't move in my sleep, I can't sit easily, I can't get in and out of the truck without pain.

Ack! The bike looks so sweet too...not at all like the torture device it is!

I bought the girls some bandanas. I showed them all different ways to wear them, but they quickly figured out that they make great super-hero capes.

Being a super-hero is hard work!



Even Super Heroes need a nap now and then...

 

Vivian got a book from the library that mentions a banana split sundae in it.

Every time we read it, she has to ask me every detail about banana splits...from how the bananas are cut to how many cherries go on top.

Finally I said, "What do you think is the best way we can learn about a banana split?"

Shiloh piped up "I know! You can get us a workbook about banana splits!"

Lol, you might be a Homeschooler...if workbooks are the first thing that come to your mind.;-D

(She takes after her Grama!)

 

The other day Vivian told Shiloh, "My feet smell like perfume!"

Shiloh replied "Well, my feet smell like dandelions...but um, dandelions are stinky so they kinda stink."

Ha!

 



Crafts and Curtains

Shiloh received a beading craft kit for Christmas, we finally opened it up.

It's a bit of a pain...beads everywhere. I have to keep the beads on the little frames and iron them forever to get them to stick together. I burn my hands.

But...we did make some cute things.

Every member of our family made something.

I finished the new kitchen curtains...in my clearance Valentine fabric!

Open.

Closed.

I use a simple button and embroidery floss to hold them open.

They look so pretty from outside too!

This is our new bathroom curtain I sewed up yesterday. I love the floral pattern so much.

This window is right above the toilet (not the best placement for either) so the curtain has to be either hand-made or hemmed to the right size.

 

It took me forever to get around to doing a few simple curtains.

I'm supposed to tackle a few dresses for the girls next, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for those! ha!

 

Taking the Divas to the Dentist

Shiloh had her appointment with the Pediatric Dentist this past week.

Boy, am I ever glad I decided to take her there instead of having the work done at the local Dentist.

It was well worth the hours of driving!

Plus, I was able to call and get Vivian in for her teeth cleaning at the same time.

Go Mama! ;-)

 

First of all, they found ONE small cavity...not the several that the other Dentist mentioned.

It's also so small that they're not even going to do anything now...and possibly the tooth will fall out before it ever needs anything done.

They just gave us a prescription for a stronger toothpaste to help keep the cavity small.

Soo...if I had just stuck with the local Dentist, poor Shiloh would have gone through unnecessary dental work.

I am so not cool with that.

Needless to say, the drive is worth it to me and my girls will not be going back to the Dentist here.

The Pediatric Dentist also confirmed that some marks on Shi's teeth were from when her teeth were forming, which is what I had originally been told by her old Dentist.

But then suddenly they changed their mind this last time and started saying the marks were caused by drinking too much juice.

What?! The girls rarely drink juice at all so I knew that totally bogus, even Shiloh protested and told the hygienist that I don't let her drink juice.

So anyways it was confirmed...marks not caused by invisible juice.

Woot!

We can still have tea parties with invisible drinks without fear of rotting our teeth out!

 

There was another 2nd grader there, a boy, and he was so huge next to Shiloh.

Eek, made me nervous to ever think of her going to a classroom with kids twice her size!

 

Then it was Vivian's turn, the Dentist immediately commented on her clothes and remarked about what a Fashionista she is.

It's not just me that recognizes her talent, lol! ;-)

Hmm, but was it the Disney Princess Rain boots she wore (on a sunny day) that tipped him off or her collection of multi-color beaded necklaces?

Maybe it was just the whole ensemble!

She had a good appointment as well, just a simple cleaning this time.

 

Then we had lunch at Cracker Barrel which was so nice since we don't have one locally.

They gave me so much french toast I had enough for breakfast, lunch, and breakfast the next day!

It was yummy too! :)