Miss Kate Turns 3!

Can't believe my baby is 3! Miss Kate - We just adore you. You are the cutest, happiest little thing. You are such an easy going little girl who is spoiled by her older brother and sisters.

Here are a few things about you at age 3:

1. You LOVE Dora and would watch it non-stop if I let you! You also love to play Nick Jr on the computer whenever you can get a chance (which isn't often with your siblings always being on them).

2. You play dress up almost every day and love to wear princess dresses.

3. And speaking of clothes . . . almost every day you insist on wearing a skirt. Shorts just won't do!

4. You are quite the little swimmer. You wanted to take swim lessons with Chloe and I really doubted you'd be able to keep up. But you rocked! You did so great and you love to stay under the water . . . much longer than I'm comfortable with!

5. You love to count things and you're learning to identify letters. You love to point them out wherever we go.

6. You are my little helper in the kitchen. Whenever you hear the mixer come out, you drag your little chair into the kitchen to see what you can do to help (knowing that you'll then be able to lick the beaters later). You love to crack the eggs, pour things in and stir.

7. You never walk anywhere. You flit and fleet and twirl around wherever you're going. You tip toe and gallop and leap all around. You're so cute to watch.

Your big day started a day early when Aunt Tori and Ryan took you to Build A Bear and let you choose a stuffed animal. You picked this cute little dog and named it T-Ava.

As soon as you woke up on your bday you asked if you could blow out your candles, so you got to do that several times throughout the day! And your request for bday breakfast was banana chocolate chip pancakes.

All day long you kept singing "Happy Birthday to Me. . . " and then you'd ask me "Mom, are you so proud of me?" I am Kate. More than you'll ever know!

We got ready for your big day and then headed out to Peter Piper to meet the cousins for lunch.

Your bestest friends - Carson & Grant

And following tradition, we took just the birthday girl to the restaurant of your choice . . . big surprise . . . Red Robin!

We love you Miss K-K! Now stop growing up so fast please!

Feeling Lucky!

I have NEVER considered myself to be a lucky person.

I rarely win anything . . . until this past month. I won a couple of things.

Lucky Win #1

One morning I turned on the news and it was doing a give-away for Suns Play off tickets against the Spurs. 12th caller would win. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to call in for a contest only to get a busy signal. I've always thought they were rigged.

But this time it started to ring.

You know when it rings a couple of times only to then announce that your call didn't go through? I thought that was going to happen, so I was completely surprised when someone actually answered and said I was the 12th caller! Woohoo! I won 4 tickets to the game that night. I was so excited to call and let Brent know. We ended up taking Blake and Tracy (guy who works for Brent who had been trying to get play off tickets but they were sold out). We had such a fun time!


Lucky (for Blake) Win #2:

So this was more of a win for Blake, but he won the class tadpole at school. The teacher had sent home a form saying if you were interested in winning the class tadpole and tank, sign the form and send it back in. Just to appease Blake (and again, thinking we'd never win . . . ) I signed the form.

When I went to pick him up from school that day, he was beaming from ear to ear as he held the tadpole! He has fed that thing every day and cleaned out the tank once a week since we got him and I've never had to remind him once!

Lucky Win #3 So I usually enter blog contests if it just requires leaving a quick comment. One of my favorite blogs is http://www.picky-palate.com/. She has the yummiest recipes and great giveaways. One of her giveaways was for a $50 gift card to Crate & Barrel, a year's subscription to Rachel Ray AND a sampling of McCormick's new sample size spices and recipe cards. I left a comment and was comment #517. Didn't think about it again until she notified me that I had WON! She uses the random # generator to pick her winners, and LUCKY ME . . . I was picked.

My Grandma Misel used to always say "You'll never win if you don't try." She loved entering contests and trying to win things, and I think I inherited that trait.

I think that by winning all of these great things in one month's time, I've probably used up all of my luck and won't win another thing for the rest of my life.

But that's why I've documented it on my blog.

To remind myself that there was once a month where I did feel pretty LUCKY!

End of School Celebration!

We have been so excited for school to end. No more waking up and rushing everyone off in a million directions. Not having to worry about homework or schedules. We even had a FHE a couple of weeks ago and planned out what we wanted to do this summer (and I then added what cHoReS I'd like them to do this summer . . . ). Here are a few things that made the list:

• Lemonade Stand (check)
• Bowling at Brunswick
• Summer Movies at Harkins
• Trip to Utah
• Swimming at Basha Pool
• Reading program at the library
• Free Kids Night at Bass Pro Shop
• Free Cooking class at Young Chefs Academy (Hayley really wants to learn to cook this summer)
• Pajama nights with friends and sleepovers at grandmas

So to make their last day of school special, I decided to have a little celebration. Got these ideas from Secrets of a Super Mommy and let me warn you of something. When you read her blog, if you're like me, you'll most likely feel like a VERY inadequate mother. I did. But her ideas are fabulous. My other thought was - I never want my kids to know HER kids, say in college. Can you imagine them exchanging stories about their childhood? My kids would feel so gypped.

So first, each kid woke up to a special sign on their chair.

And I made a Boredom Buster can. Her blog lists dozens of ideas of things kids can do if they're bored. You can just print them and cut them into strips. I separated them into three categories: Crafts, Cooking & Outings. That way if I'm not up for cooking or going on a field trip, they won't draw from that area.

And then I hit the dollar store for cheap and easy crafts and puzzles and a few new paints and supplies.

They were not expecting anything that morning, so it was a pleasant surprise for them. Hayley asked "What did we get last year on the last day of school?" Um. . . Nothing.

End of the year teacher gifts were a beach towel with Oprah and some sunscreen.

Here is the pic from their FIRST day of school:

And here they are on the LAST day:

Remember jello pudding pops? Do they even make those anymore? Well I found a recipe for chocolate mint oreo pudding pops and made some for them to have after school. YUM! A fun way to celebrate the start of SUMMER!

Other May Happenings

First and foremost . . . Kate's hair is now somewhat long enough to pull it into pigtails once again. Still working on the top, but hey - every month is an improvement! Still waiting for pics from Brent from the Fathers & Sons campout. We girls had a GNO with the Fairrington gals. Went to Famous Daves for dinner and played around at the mall. Maybe when Stacey posts the pic from dinner I'll steal it and add it on here. In the meantime, all I have is a picture of all the girls who got to sleep in my bed while dad was gone. They were thrilled. I was sore the next morning . . .

Blake was THRILLED to win the class tadpole. The kids have been begging for a pet for years now. The teacher said they were going to have a drawing for all who were interested. I said he could put his name in the drawing just so I'd seem like a cool mom. Never thought we'd "win." But Blake is happy and never forgets to feed the tadpole or change the water. I can't complain.

Had a bbq for the YW activity this month. Thought these place settings turned out cute. My sister gave me the pattern for the gun holster. And loved the plates from Hobby Lobby. Used the leftover place settings to serve up a bbq dinner for the family the next night . . .

The kids were dying to have a lemonade stand for weeks! They served lemonade, popsicles and peanut butter brownies. They made out with $20 and were thrilled beyond belief! They're already asking when the next one can be . . .

These two would live in the bath if I'd let them.