That time we found jelly beans in Sydney's closet...

Chris is in full-blown Ironman training mode. Working out several hours a day. He does do some in the mornings and at lunch but almost always every evening. Leaving me some extra time with these two!

 Making our own pizzas at Old Chicago!

A nice night riding bikes around the park.

Our neighbors got new sand in their sand box which prompted a mermaid Maddie.

 

It's Derby season in the Bluegrass so Maddie participated in her school's Derby parade!

It's also Cinco de Mayo so we had a little Gustavo's with grandma.

Switching gears...

I mean how does one actually do this to someone's hair?

Speaking of...we're having a bit of a rough patch with Sydney. Earlier in the week I came into the playroom just in time to catch her before jumping off the house. Evidently she's been jumping off the house onto big panda.

I got that taken care of and I found something suspicious. The bathroom trash can had some candy wrappers in it one morning (we don't allow food upstairs.) The girls acted like they didn't know anything about it so I assumed Chris had eaten some candy and I forgot about it. 

Until last night. Chris went to check on the girls and found jelly beans scattered around Sydney's closet. And - this is so gross! - dumped into this toilet bowl cleaner holder thing we have. (Which doesn't hold a toiler bowl cleaner, but rather the sponges to clean the toilet....but STILL!)

I then found Hershey Kiss wrappers next to her bed and empty Nerds boxes under her bed. I asked her about it when she woke up and she didn't deny it. I asked her how long she'd been eating candy after bed. 

She held up three fingers. 

3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months? 

I have no idea. 

I don't even know how she got the candy upstairs or how it has gone undetected. We had a big talk about obeying, not eating junk after we brush our teeth, not taking food upstairs, NOT eating out of a toilet bowl cleaner holder, etc. And I thought she got it.

Until I caught her in the pantry walking out with a chocolate bunny.

So....all of the candy from Easter got thrown away.

Praying I can figure this little girl out. She challenges me!

But boy is she cute!

AND!!! We are headed out soon on a cruise with K and D ... and we are so excited for this adult getaway! This is our last cruise together when the photographer put us in the WORST (best?!?!) pose ever. Still makes me laugh!

Family Camp-Out!

Last Friday, we went to Camp Crestwood for a camp-out with some families from our church. 

Now, the church had been talking about this for weeks and Maddie wanted to camp SO BAD. My original plan was to just send Chris and Madeline. Then Chris started to feel bad that he wasn't bringing Sydney so he decided to take her. I was all, "whatever, I'll just watch Netflix and eat Doritos." But, ultimately, it's not logistically easy with a dad and daughters, especially when it comes to the bathroom and the bunk rooms. It was supposed to rain so if we needed to take shelter we could go in the bunk rooms, but they were gender specific. The thought of sending Sydney into a bunk room with Maddie as her only chaperone was enough for me to put down the Doritos and go camp.

I say all of this to explain how I ended up camping. Because, I don't camp. But, you know what? We had a blast!

The girls were PUMPED when they saw the tent set up.

We had a painting class!

Sydney went abstract.

It started raining so we took refuge inside for a bit and played board games.

The rain cleared up and we ate s'mores, got in our jammies and fell right to sleep. 

Or not. These two were so crazy they didn't fall asleep until after 10. They slept all night. Chris and I tossed and turned. Between the trains running ALL night, the steady rain, and the unsteady air mattress, it wasn't the best sleep I ever had. But, the girls had so much fun I'm glad we did it. And I think we'll do it again. :)

Saturday we were up early and then I ran Madeline to her friend Carson's birthday party.

Her Kinder BFF LucyKate was there. 

Side story: Maddie and LucyKate share a locker and originally sat together. Except they got too chatty and Maddie got moved to a table with Murphy. Then she and Murphy talked too much so she got moved to a table with Raine. Do you see a pattern here? She already is not allowed to sit with Lizzy so I'm not sure there's anywhere else for her to go. I keep waiting on the day she tells me she sits with Mrs Priscilla (the aide.)

Maddie, Lucy and Lizzy.

Maddie and Carson. Happy birthday buddy!

Easter 2017!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend!

My beauties!

 Sisters!

Sisters again!

I have no idea why Tia took this picture 35 feet away? HA!

The girls doing the princess dress-hold is cracking me up!

We had a massive egg hunt at my parents. Like legit. So. Many. Eggs!

We went to Easter service at church.

We got some rest, and then went to Lexington for Easter with the Hughes side!

*********

Madeline had student-led conferences at school. I went and she reviewed her work with me. She read me a book and showed me her writing and math progress. 

I also ran up to school to shop at the Book Fair with Mads one day.

It's been so nice and warm lately, we've been doing a lot of popsicles on the patio with our neighbors! 

 Claire and Collin live behind us and we love playing with them. Maddie is doing summer camp with Claire this year and is so excited!

As for Sydney? Just keeping me on my toes. All day every day.

 She's a busy busy busy girl. She does technology class at school and ballet/gymnastics at All About Kids each week, but now she wants to do soccer as well. She's my little athlete! 

Next up: our first family camp-out!!

I've decided that moms don't make enough!

It's been a wild week in our house! 

Sunday we went to a big neighborhood party for Savannah's brother.

Maddie has had a loose tooth on the bottom for a few weeks. That night, I noticed a permanent tooth was coming in behind the baby teeth.

We actually had a dentist appointment for Tuesday so I was curious to hear what the doctor had to say.

It wasn't great news. Madeline has to get all four bottom teeth pulled to make way for her permanent teeth. She has a tiny tiny mouth (which certainly doesn't impede her talking) and her big teeth literally have no space to do anything. So, we made an appointment for a few weeks out. I'm not looking forward to that. :(

That same day she came home with her behavior goal for the week. I thought it was a great goal!

Then I noticed her teacher's behavior goal for Madeline.

 HAHAHAH! Maddie said, "My goal is to be a leader. But Mrs. Cantrell suggested I be quiet while I work." I laughed so hard. I have seriously never met anyone who talks like Maddie. She can go ALL day. 

On Wednesday, I didn't shut my garage door all the way. And two birds came in my house. And flew around, pooping everywhere while I screamed. It was actually funny, in hindsight. I called Chris and he came home to rescue me. (He thought it was a really ridiculous situation, didn't love that I cancelled his Ironman workout....but nonetheless, he came to save me. Love him!)

On dance/gymanstics day, the Easter bunny popped in for a short visit. 

Sydney's teacher continued doing so much with so little.

Speaking of Syd, she helped me some cleaning on Friday so she got an ice cream treat.

We came home and found Stella had some blood on her. Poor doggy has a tumor that occasionally ruptures. It's not the funnest thing to clean, but someone has to do it. I got her cleaned up and then we got Maddie off the bus. The neighbors came over to visit and all of a sudden, Maddie started screaming.  There was blood everywhere. Her loose tooth was hanging by a thread. She was screaming. The neighbor girls were screaming. I wanted to scream. There was blood on her hands, down her chin, it was everywhere. Then I realized I had to handle the situation (when did I become an adult?!) So, I sucked up it up, I pulled the tooth and got her cleaned up. 

 All better now!

She was in much better spirits after the tooth came out and she got cleaned up. I called Chris and asked for a raise. Between cleaning up Stella and Maddie, I decided moms don't make enough! :)

Friends missing one tooth!

Last minute, our friends invited us to Disney on Ice. They had 2 free tickets so Maddie and I hopped at the chance.

 I told her she could pick one souvenir (she wanted about 10) and she chose a $12 snow cone. Yes, you read that right. I paid $12 for a snow cone that came in this Ariel cup. 

It was a great show! I can't wait to go next year and bring Sydney. We loved it! 

Late night out for Maddie and Audrey!

  

Hoping for a less messy week next week!