The Rest of May in Pictures

Seriously, May is over?!  Where in the world did it go?  Literally it seems like we just celebrated Kinley’s birthday.  Yet, here we are at the end of May.  Now that I’m blogging again, I try to remember to take pictures daily.  So, for my last post of May, I’m going to do an end of May recap via pictures.

First up - we joined Talyn’s class on a trip to the zoo.  I think Bode had one too many pictures that day!

I was able to get out for a short walk with the kids and my mother-in-law and had this gorgeous view:

We then came upon the last week of school.  At the very last minute, like 9:30 the night before Kinley’s last day, I decided to put together a quick teacher appreciation gift for the girls’ teachers.  I googled teacher appreciation Hershey bars and came across a super cute printable, but I’m cheap and didn’t want to pay for it.  I decided to open Photoshop and make something similar.


Kinley’s last day was May 22 and Talyn’s last day was May 23.  This picture was taken on Kinley’s last day.
 

When I picked her up from preschool, I almost didn’t recognize her!  The teachers had painted faces.



Oh, and look at my yummy lunch one of the days.  Chicken, bacon, ranch, and lettuce wrapped in a tortilla.  So yummy!

We spent the Memorial Day weekend with my in-laws.  They wanted to have an end of the school year bbq for the kids.  The first picture is of Bode off by himself playing in the dirt.  We were at my sister-in-law’s house and they are working on their landscaping.  He had no care in the world that the other kids were off doing other stuff rather than playing with him.  We were then out at Mr. Chaotic’s parents’ house.  The kids’ favorite thing to do is ride on Papa’s four-wheelers – and the boat too, but I forgot to get a picture.  The view is off their back porch and so peaceful, well, except when the other boats are cruising up and down the river. 


My birthday happened to fall on Memorial Day this year.  We celebrated with lunch at Qdoba.  I was really wanting Chinese, but my favorite place was closed.  What!?  They never close on Christmas…why Memorial Day?  After lunch we came home and Mr. Chaotic mowed the yard.  It was in dire need!  Also, Bode needed his nap.  We then left for supper and went to Bruno’s for taco pizza.  OMG.  The best taco pizza ever!!  After that, we stopped to pick up an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  Cory and the kids ran in to pick it out while I stayed in the truck.  Got home and they put my candles in it and as soon as Cory lit them, Bode thought it was time for him to blow them out.  His feelings got hurt when we told him Mommy had to blow them out.  When I was done, we relit the candles and gave Bode his chance to blow them out too.  All in all I had a pleasant birthday. 

This past week has went surprisingly good.  I say that only because my daughter’s love to be in each other’s faces twenty-four seven, which in turn leads to me constantly yelling at them to leave each other alone.  We started Tuesday off with a trip to the library.  The kids must have thought we weren’t going to be going back because they overloaded our bag with books.  The library has a 25 book limit so we ended up having to leave two of our books.  If you can believe it, Mr. Bode walked the entire way to and from the library! {It’s 13 blocks one way!}

Mr. Chaotic’s mom had sent back home with us his trucks from when he was a little boy.  I’m not talking a few either.  There are monster trucks, micro machine cars, Hot Wheels cars and the little city, his transformers, and more of his GI Joes.  All circa the 1980s!  This was taken of the three kiddos playing with dad’s old toys.

Last but not least, we have Mr. Bode riding his new Strider balance bike.  We decided we wanted to try one with him to see if they really do work as well as they’re hyped up to work.  He’s not quite sure what to think but really doesn’t mind walking the bike.  He refuses to sit on the seat at this point, but we are just letting him do what he’s comfortable doing.

 
That’s it from me.  The last of my month in pictures.  Now, onto June.

Talk to me:
Did May fly by for you too, or was it just me?
Do you have any summer plans with the kiddos or will you be flying by the seat of your pants like myself?

Kinley’s Birthday and Mother’s Day

This year, I was lucky enough to share Mother’s Day with Kinley’s actual birthday {May 11, 2014}.  We had decided that since we were sharing the day with each other, she could pick where our family ate lunch and I would pick our dinner spot.  She, suprisingly, picked a Chinese buffet {I for sure thought we’d end up at Taco Bell}.  She wanted the one in our mall, but they switched owners and we don’t care for it anymore so we went to a different one.  It was alright.  Not my favorite, but it was her choice.  After lunch, we came home and did presents.  So fun! 

We had found her a Peppa Pig playhouse.  She loves it.  The above collage is of her opening Peppa.  Pure excitement and total satisfaction!  This little girl is obsessed with Peppa Pig.  We currently have 23 episodes on DVR, just in case Peppa’s not on when we happen to turn on the TV.

The first picture is of the actual Peppa Pig playhouse and the second is the Doc McStuffins Operation game that Talyn picked out as the gift from her & Bode.  Peppa’s house came with just Peppa & George, so Mr. Chaotic found more characters, but are waiting on them to arrive.  We had no idea how incredibly hard to find this little Peppa Pig stuff was.  Turns out it’s mostly available over in the UK via eBay.  Also, it’s not cheap!  Seriously though, Mr. Chaotic loves eBay so we have been watching for everything Peppa in hopes of finding a few inexpensive items to add to the collection.

After the birthday excitement, it was time for Bode’s nap.  We just did odds and ends around the house while Mr. Chaotic also napped.  By the time those monkeys woke up it was almost 6 PM!  We ended up just eating dinner here at home as everybody was getting crabby with each other. I was slightly disappointed, but it is what it is.

 

The girls had made little crafts in school for me for Mother’s Day.  Kinley’s class planted grass in a clear plastic cup, grew it, and then when it was time to bring them home, they put decorated faces on the cups.  Of course, I forgot to get a picture.  Talyn’s class made little flower pots with the pretend grassy stuff and then a popsicle stick with a clothespin type flower on it, which they clipped a picture of the student holding a sign that said “Happy Mother’s Day!”  Again, I forgot to take a picture.  Earlier that morning, I had made an Angel Food cake so that was my {massive} treat to myself.

Talk to Me:
Are there any little cartoons that your little ones are obsessed with?
Did you have to treat yourself on Mother’s Day?  Or am I the only one who does that?

Guess Whooo’s Five!…The Party

Over the weekend, we celebrated Kinley’s 5th birthday.  The celebration started on Friday with a Night Owl Pajama Party that included her {girl}friends from preschool.  Check out these darling invitations we crafted:


I happened upon the owl template here way back in March when I first started researching owl-themed birthday parties.  My original plan was to just do a “join us for Kinley’s birthday party” for the wording until I stumbled across this adorable pin, which completely fit perfectly with the type of party we wanted.  I used the font KG Be Still & Know.  I am in love with Kimberly Geswein fonts!  As for the party décor, I chose Owl Blossom from Birthday Express.
                                  
We’ve been experiencing an unusually cold, wet, and windy spring here so I wasn’t sure what the weather was going to be like for our party.  We lucked out and had a mostly sunny day in the 60s with very little wind!  I was ecstatic for the fact that we could do the party mostly outside – everything but watching the movie.  The girls started arriving shortly after 4 and we just played outside.  We have a massive backyard with a swing set, small trampoline, Barbie jeep, 4-wheeler, and a whole slew of balls plus other outside toys.  The kids were set!

(don’t mind the extra bows, balloons, and party hats…I didn’t want to leave the little friends’ faces online)

We ordered pizza and were able to eat that and the cupcakes out on the patio while appreciating the gorgeous day (less mess for me to clean up inside!).  Speaking of cupcakes...did you see the super adorable owl cupcake cake?  I literally saw this on Pinterest a couple of days before I went to order the cake and the pinner had commented that it was from Walmart.  I eagerly went to our Walmart with no luck of finding the same cake or a very helpful bakery employee.  She told me to come back the next day when the cake lady was working.  So I did...and I'm very glad I did.  I showed her the picture on Pinterest and she said they would have no problem doing that, even if they had to use their phones to Google it.  So helpful!  And I thought it was freaking amazing!  The best part - it was $15!!

After cupcakes, we set up the piñata and let the kids each take a turn pulling the strings.  I adore the pull-string piñatas; they are so easy and you don’t have to go hog-wild lashing out at the thing trying to get it to spill the candy!  Each party guest collected so many little frooties tootsie rolls and dum-dum suckers.  After the piñata, we made our way inside so we could start our movie of choice, which was Frozen.  Once inside, we discovered we still had presents to open!  She received some great gifts from her friends.  We were a bit late in starting the movie and making the popcorn, so about an hour into it, the parents had started arriving to pick up the girls.  We sent the girls home with their bag of candy from the piñata, the little box of goodies from Birthday Express, and the adorable owl tumbler from Birthday Express.  We also added a little puncher balloon ball thingy to the box of goodies.  Overall it was a blast for the party girl and her friends!  I don’t think they minded one bit that we barely had any decorations – that would be just a few balloons!

Happy Birthday Sweet Kinley!  We love you very much!!

Spring In North Dakota

When you live in North Dakota, you really never know how to dress your kids for school, what to prep for dinner, or even if you should wash your vehicle.  One day it’s sunshine and 75 degrees, the next it’s raining -or snowing- and barely above 30 degrees.  Mr. Chaotic has been determined to make grilled steak & shrimp for a week, maybe two.  And so he finally just did.  In the rain/snow mix, of course.

Sirloin wrapped filets, New York Strip, shrimp, texas toast, and of course his famous texas toast grilled cheese for the kids.  So delish.  Oh and we also had baked potatoes that I had done up in the oven.  Mmm, my favorite.

While Mr. Chaotic is outside grilling, the kids are outside making a mess of themselves in the puddles.  He even got them to stop and take a picture together.

It had been raining for at least two days straight and last night or early this morning sometime, it decided to turn to snow.  HUGE wet snowflakes coming down like crazy when I woke up this morning.  It’s really hard to see in the picture because of the screen on the window, but the ground was almost covered by 7:30.  Luckily it stopped and was all melted by 11 when we went to pick Kinley up from preschool.

We are all hoping for a little break from the craziness of our weather as we head into May.  I’m pretty sure it’s not unheard of to have a snowstorm in May in North Dakota.

Talk to Me:
   Do you get Spring where you live?
   Which season is your favorite?

Happy National Sibling Day!

I just want to throw a shout out to my siblings today, in honor of National Sibling Day.  One thing you may not know about me is that I have a total of five siblings.  FIVE!  I have three immediate siblings as well as two step-siblings.  When we were all still living at home, it was almost like the Brady Bunch, with three boys and three girls, Mom, & Dad.

Unfortunately though, due to us all being spread out across the United States and/or the world, the last time we were all together for a family picture was probably when I was in high school, practically a hundred years ago. I did come across this most recent picture of us together when we were at my older brother’s wedding in August 2012.  The only one missing was my sister, Renee.  I had to dig back even farther to find one of her from her college graduation in May 2011. 



We’ve all had our ups, downs, and in-between, however, I hope they all know how much I love each and every single one of them!  I truly hope that we will all be able to get together someday once again as obviously we are in dire need of an updated family photo. 

XOXO! XOXO! LOVE TO ALL OF YOU!!!! XOXO! XOXO!

A Peek At Our Week

Snow Day Monday.  I woke up a bit early that morning and actually had time to turn on the morning news.  I was a bit surprised when I saw that school was cancelled due to the blizzard that was reportedly on it’s way.  When I peeked out the blinds to see just how treacherous it was out there, I was slightly confused as it didn’t seem like a blizzard to me.  Eight inches of snow later, along with extremely gusty winds, I was thankful I didn’t have to trek the kids to school.

 

Tuesday.  After the blizzard, I was obligated to shovel.  You see, I have a certain two-year old that cannot get enough of being outdoors.  Mr. Bode loves to shovel and he will not stop whining begging me for permission to get outside.  “Me shovel, Mommy?” sounds adorable enough – that is until it’s on repeat 100 times.

Seriously though, how adorable is he?!  He’s the only one out of the three kids that has ever offered to shovel.  I must say he does a pretty good job for being two.



Wednesday.  We had Bode’s therapy appointment.  We wrote a new plan for the upcoming year.  We’ve also decided that he doesn’t really need the therapy for his legs anymore and will now be working strictly on his speech to be sure that everybody will be able to understand him.  I am able to understand him about 50-60% of the time, but to outsiders, they’re more likely around the 20% mark.  So we need to work on that.  The speech therapist will be coming every two weeks.  Oh, and it started snowing again.

Thursday.  After picking up Kinley from preschool, our normal routine is to come in, have lunch, and then Bode lays on the couch watching cartoons until he falls asleep takes his nap.  Since it was still snowing that morning, I decided it would be okay to let the two of them stay outside to play.  We started shoveling (again), and when that was completed, the kids and I went to the backyard to swing.  Yup, Mr. Chaotic had put the swings out over the past weekend so they were covered in snow.  They sure had a blast!

Friday.  Another day of no school.  Talyn’s school was closed for a Staff Development Day.  Reluctantly, I took my three kiddos to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  We came home and Bode was having a meltdown, so he went down for his nap early!  The girls and I continued on with our day by eating my gourmet PB&Js for lunch.  Ha.  Besides lunch, the girls and I took advantage of the napping two-year old and finally completed their tie blankets.  Grandma had sent fleece fabric home with them shortly after Christmas, however, it was something that I kept procrastinating.  I am glad to have them done.  They are both extremely happy to have new fuzzy warm blankets to use since Mother Nature has still not made up her mind which season we are in!

One last picture, just because it’s so stinkin’ adorable.  Mr. Chaotic and his princess.

Talk to Me:

Did you have a snow day this week?
Shoveling…love it or hate it?

Under Construction

An entire year has crept by of me neglecting my little corner of the world wide web.  I feel like a complete flop and am hoping for a do-over.  Most likely, you have noticed a couple of changes around here.  Over the next couple of weeks (or so), I am planning to continue making changes to my blog, and maybe even starting over completely.  During my absence from the blog, I realized that I need a game plan.  Stay tuned...