May Happenings

 Claire-Bear loves jam.  In fact, she often asks for a jelly sandwich with no peanut butter, the exact opposite from Stella, who doesn't like the jam/jelly at all!  When our rhubarb shot up Claire was excited to make some strawberry-rhubarb jam with me.  We use the jello short cut method and it's yummy!

Ice cream on the steps!

Our girls just love Shopkins.  They aren't always the best at keeping tack of their collection, but at times they are the only things they want to play with.  One morning before school Claire snuck this little "Hailey Blow-Dryer" into her backpack after I told her no Shopkins at school.  On the way to school I called her out on it, expecting this to cause a melt-down.  She reluctantly handed it over when we arrived at school and I was so proud of her for making the right choice after trying to be sneaky!










We bought some plants for our garden at the green house down the road and they have free train rides for the kiddos.  This was a fun little visit for the girls.  They also had lots of fun planting our garden beds too.  Hopefully we'll have some healthy vegetables to snack on this summer!

Claire-Bear fell on the sidewalk on the way home from the sitter's one afternoon.  Stella was so sweet.  She's such a mother hen - she helped clean up Claire's cut and put band-aids on her bruised up knees.

We love visiting our local restaurant for dinner, The Riverview.  Thursday wing night is a family favorite!  We can't visit without taking a peak at the water (and usually a photo)!

Mom left work early to kick off Memorial Day Weekend and we headed out to play a family round of golf.  The girls were bored (and hot) by hole #5 but we all had a fun time!













On Saturday we headed to Burlington for an AAU tournament.  While daddy was at the gym the girls and I visited North Beach and met up with Caroline, Caleb, and Esme.  It was so much fun!












Sunday we headed over to the St. Michael's College campus where the games were being held.  The girls weren't too interested in watching the games so we stayed busy out on the lawn instead!

Daddy taught the girls how to play catch with velcro mitts which they thought was pretty cool!

Claire and Micaela picking apart
helicopter leaves

And a Star is Born!

Stella and Randy visited the golf course this weekend and a photographer just happened to be there taking shots for a story about golf.  You can read the article here.

These great shots are all courtesy of the Watertown Times online news.

Claire with friends
at the birthday party

This wasn't all fun and games though.  Saturday Claire was invited to a birthday party in which Stella very much wanted to attend.  As parents, it is hard to see your kids sad, and it's also hard to explain to siblings who are such great playmates that they do need to separate from time to time.  We could have called the parents and asked if Stella could come along too, and it probably would have been just fine, but we opted to take advantage of this teachable moment instead.  After a few tears because "Mom, Kennedy is my friend too!", Stella was a good sport about it, and even asked if she could buy a present for the birthday girl too.  We promised Stella she would do something fun with daddy after he took her to his basketball game and low and behold, she chose golf.  (What a lucky daddy!)

When the news about the front page of the Watertown Times came we went online to show Stella the pictures.  Perhaps we made too much of a big deal about it because Claire's feelings were a little hurt.  She was sad, insert tears here, because she didn't get her picture in the paper too.  Once we reminded her she was able to play at the party with all her friends, she cheered up.

 We also had a yard sale over the weekend.  This is a picture of just the shoes! Most of these were handed down from their four cousins, a few were bought for them new, and Stella had a ball helping set up the sale.  We gave each of the girls $15 from our profit, although Stella helped out much more than Claire.  This was a fun way to start talking to Stella about fractions, and how coins add up to one dollar.  We also allowed them to spend their own money at the store afterward.  This was not so easy for Claire-Bear, she wanted toys costing more than what she had, but she'll get there!

Saturday afternoon Mom headed back to SUNY Potsdam for a senior recital for one of the students she's worked with.  The girls happen to know Luana from Gymnastics.  Since we were afraid the concert was too long for them to sit quietly they did not attend, but daddy brought them by afterward so they could see her all dressed up and congratulate her.

Mother's Day 2016

Mother's Day was extra special this year because with the girls in school now, events were planned to be involved with.  Both girls classrooms hosted a 'Marigold's with Mom' activity so I took the day off and spent some time at their school.  It was nice having special time with each of the girls, and even nicer seeing the things they wrote about me.  It felt like a Mom WIN reading their perspective and knowing they don't see 'hurry up' or 'get on task' as something I like to say, or 'the spa' as something I really love, or 'watching a movie' as something I'd do if I had time.  Based on their notes, I'm pretty sure they know I love them!  Since I had taken the day off on Friday Claire-Bear and I had a few hours at home alone so we made some play dough and read some books.  It was nice having some quiet time together.  On Mother's Day we all spent some time outside cleaning the garage which felt so productive and made me really happy!  Then we headed to the Cactus Grill for dinner with Grammie, Pa, MJ, Neil and Logan.  The margarita's were delicious!

I recently decided to help with Ministry Shares at our church.  The girls helped me decorate 118 envelopes for our 'Wall of Money' project.  Although I'm fairly certain they don't really understand why we are doing this, they sure were excited to help decorate envelopes!

Before

Two weekends ago Randy and I took a road trip to New Rochelle to visit Iona College and have dinner with Devin at a benefit for his golf team.  It was wonderful to see the College, visit with Devin, and of course have some grown-up time.  We met up with the McCarthy's afterward for drinks and Salsa dancing - except we just watched.  That was really fun too though!

After

 

The girls had an extra snow day a few weeks back so Mom took the day off and we headed to the mall so they could have their hair cut.  They both wanted shorts cuts and they turned out great!  We haven't traditionally done much clothes shopping so when I took the girls to the shoe store afterward to pick out something new they were both super excited!

Some random pics:

Stella playing "school", which she's taking a liking too.  She loves school, and she loves to read.  She's doing such a great job learning too!  Claire playing with kinetic sand.  She's always drawn to the dirt, mud, and sand.  In fact, last night at the playground she made 'sand angels'!

We recently bought a new Casper mattress and the girls really like it!  We ended up having to tell them they need to sleep in their own room because there wasn't room for us!

We are so happy to be able to get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine.  This year the girls are big enough and strong enough to ride their bikes to the playground.  What fun!