I know that I have not been very consistent at posting for the past few months. But I have to say that life NEVER seems to slow down. I thought that once I got the kids started back in school things would slow down a bit, but trust me they haven't. It has been nothing but Colds, Flus, PTA, Homework, Chris gone to NC, Super Saturday, Callings, Gymnastics, Joy School, Strep, Play Groups, Laundry, Doctors Appointments and the list goes on and on and on and on. I have been so stressed out I pretty much collapsed last week and spent a good 3 or 4 days without leaving my bed. So it is time to prioritize, reduce the to do list, and if needed replace good things with better things. I feel like through the hustle and bustle of life I have lost track of family members and friends. So it is time to start blogging again.

I bought some watercolors so that the girls could paint rocks, but they ended up painting the trees, firewood, and water tap. Needless to say by the end of the trip we had a lovely campsite.

Well it finally happened. Hallie joined the ranks of millions of other first graders with cute toothless smiles. To be honest it caught both Chris and myself by surprise. Her tooth wasn't even loose. On Sunday night at about 10 Hallie got out of bed to tell us something.

I was annoyed, and before she could get a word out I told her to get her little behind back into bed. Of course it is always the times that I get the angriest that the kids have a legitimate excuse to get out bed. She turned around and grinned at me and I noticed that she was sporting a toothless grin. I cried for about an hour that night. I know it is lame but what happened to my little baby. She is growing way way too fast!

It was the annual Elk Ridge Easter Egg Hunt. It was FREEZING outside but, that didn't deter the kids any. Within 2 minutes they managed to find all the eggs.

My little girl is on her first soccer team. I am so proud. Some of my best childhood memories were on the soccer field and it has been so fun to see Hallie play. They play 3 on 3 with 4 quarters that last 15 minutes. 3 on 3 means a lot of running, but Hallie never gave up she kept on running. She is a fierce little soccer player and a good runner just like her Dad.

Hallie an her friend Lucy.

Brooklyn was a good little cheerleader and cheered Go Hallie Go at the top of her lungs the entire time. It was really cute!

The past few weeks have been what we call in our family, birthday row. We have had 4 birthdays in our family in 2 weeks. My brother Ben's was the last, and so to not let on that we are all running out of birthday steam, I purchase a pinata to liven things up. I am the only one with kids in my family, and although the kids liked it, it was for the adults too, but if you are going to do a pinata you have to do it right.

So here is a list of my pinata pet peeves.

Pinata breaking is for the older ones, gathering the candy is for the kids.

I am all for letting the kiddies hit at it a couple of times, but pinatas are only fun if they are demolished and the candy can go flying in a million different directions.

If for some reason the pinata falls off of the rope, and the candy has not flown all over the place, then you tape it and try again. I HATE IT when people pick it up and dump it in a pile on the ground, it is lame

Whats up with all of the different candy rules. Honestly, what are the chances your eye is going to get poked out by a flying sucker.

So about 50 comments from people walking by, and 100 swings later it finally shattered into a million pieces and yes much to my and the kids delight, the candy flew everywhere.

And those are the rules for a good pinata. I am kind of embarassed for writing so much about pinatas. It is a little on the nerdy side, but oh well I am just keeping it real.

I have the BEST calling in the world. I absolutely love activity days. The girls are cute as can be and the activities are a ton of fun. This month we worked on etiquette. We made movies displaying good and bad etiquette, had a movie night where we watched our movies and made a montessori placemat, and then we had an etiquette dinner. The girls got all dolled up, we used real napkins, tablecloths, and had a bunch of cute kiddie food. The girls got to practice all of the things that we have been learning, and practice good dinner conversation.

We have 25 girls and so it was a full house but it was fun.

Some of the food we had

Ahh Kindergarten. I am always amazed at the different ways they are able to make learning fun. Hallie has an amazing Kindergarten teacher. It is so nice to know that she is taken care of while she is at school, away from me. St. Patrick's Day they went on a leprechaun hunt at recess. That sneaky leprechaun left their classroom a mess, but left some leprechaun gold behind. Hallie was so excited. To make the day even more exciting she found a four leaf clover on the way home from school. It was actually a weed but I didn't have the heart to tell her.

To celebrate the "Sh" sound the kids had silly sh-oe day! Hallie's shoes had just about had it, and had come apart to the point that they were talking shoes. So we decided to make them into a silly face.

To learn about the different historic places in America the kids had a Kindy 500. We got to decorate a car. Hallie chose an ice cream truck which turned out really darling. We printed out different ice cream pictures and she wrote the prices. She helped me paint and glue and even designed a license plate. Brooklyn and I got to go to school and watch as the kids paraded around the school in their cars. After that the kids drove to different parts of the country, and learned all about them. It was really cute and she had a blast.

She thought of the Sweet Stuff

To Celebrate the 100th day of school, and passing off counting to 100. The kids got to make a poster with 100 things on it. We had a blast glueing on all of the jewels.