I Made This For The Girls Bathroom Mirror

I found a sign that had this message in the bathroom at my youngest child's school.  It was taped to the mirror, and I loved it.  So, I came home and made my own version to go on the mirror in my girl's bathroom.  In this day and age, girls worry at such a young age about body image, and I don't want my daughters to go through that.  I make sure I tell them everyday that they are beautiful and loved. 

But a little extra encouragement can't hurt. :)

Sliding

Yesterday the girls and I went to my nephew's birthday party at one of those inflatable places.  They had slides, an obstacle course, bounce house, bounce house with basketball, a climbing wall, and my personal favorite, air hockey.  Kasi and I played three games, and I killed here every time.  The funny thing was, most of the goals I scored were helped along by her.  She kept scoring on herself...it was pretty funny.  Brandi had a ball on all the inflatables.  I got her mid-slide in the picture.  They let the kids play for over and hour, which was nice.  Brandi tried the rock wall several times, but never got more than a couple of feet off the ground.  Even when my mom and I took turns giving her a boost, she couldn't do it.  I actually have video...I'll see if I can get it to upload.  All in all, it was a great day to be a kid yesterday!

My Girls Are Making Bracelets

I can't wait to see what the finished products look like!

Silly Bandz

I should be voted mother of the year.  Want to know why?  Because Junior and I drove all over town yesterday trying to find these stupid Silly Bandz.

No one had any in stock, and most of the store refuse to tell you when more are coming in, because apparently they are afraid of being swarmed.

Really?  Over shaped rubber bands?

But, being the great, awesome mother I am, I went online last night and ordered 48 of these stupid things for my girls.  Why, you ask?  I think it goes back to my childhood, and always being the kid who didn't have the latest "must have". 

My girls have been talking about these things for a while now, but have only recently decided that they want some, because "all the kids have them".  I know it's materialistic, but I don't want my kids to be the kid I was.  Does that make sense?  And if that means I have to spend, gulp, $13 on Silly Bandz, then so be it.

And it was totally worth it when I told them this morning that I ordered them, and they did proclaim me to be "the best mom ever!".

Working The Girls

I know I have posted pictures in the past of Ryan helping Junior work on cars.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, the girls decided that they didn't want to be left out, so Junior put them to work.  I don't think they did much more than loosening a few bolts, but they were happy to be included. 

The Girl's Pottery

I got a phone call from the pottery place today telling me the girl's pieces were done.  Of course they had to have them today, so we ran over there to pick them up.  Kasi loves hers, and so do I..  Even with black wings, it is a pretty cool looking fairy.

Brandi was a little disappointed that hers didn't come out "perfect".  I told her it was perfect because she made it, and that seemed to cheered her up a bit. 

I think the next time we go, I will paint something, too.

My Girls Love Me

My girls love that we have a cement parking area in our yard now. It's not quite a driveway...it's more like parking spaces. Anyway, we bought some chalk at Walmart last night, and this is what they did with it:

I have the sweetest daughters in the entire world!

I love you too, girls!

Hearts Of Clay

My girls got gift certificates for Christmas to a pottery place, and up until a week ago, I had completely forgotten about them. Bad mom, I know. I convinced my mom to take the girls and I today, and they had so much fun. Kasi painted a fairy, complete with black wings. Weird, I know. Brandi painted a back, shaped as a moon with a fairy sleeping on it. They both did great jobs. We had to leave them at the place to be glazed and fired. We'll go back next week to pick up the finished pieces.

I hinted to Junior (okay, I straight out told him) that he should take the kids to make me a Mother's Day gift.

I hope he listens.

Fort

The other day, during Spring break, the girls were in their room. They were playing nicely, and quietly. Most parents know that when kids are quiet, they are usually up to no good. So I got up and went to check on them, and this is what I found:

They had made a fort, using all the blankets in their room, and they were just hanging out in there. I was pretty impressed that they worked together, and that it came out as good as it did.

If only they could play this nicely all the time...

The Phone

As most of you know, I have two daughters. Kasi is going to be 13 in a couple of months, and Brandi Rose is 8.

One of them spends every waking moment on the phone. Her friends call here, or she calls them. All the time. It's insane!

The funny thing is...it's Brandi! Kasi hates using the phone...she's like me...but Brandi loves it! She will literally spend hours talking to her little friends.

I am not looking forward to her teen aged years...if she's this bad now...

The Girl's Room ~ Part One

If you read my post yesterday, you'll remember I mentioned the circle stickers on the walls in my girls room. The above picture shows what they look like right now. I really like them, but I think I might need to get another package. I want to put some a little lower, and also on the walls below. The girls have so much stuff, and right now it is boxed up and piled along the wall. I don't know what else to do with it. I am hoping to get a few of them into their closet, but first I have to rearrange their clothes. As mush as we are settled into this new place, I still feel like I have so much to do!

I Finished The Mirror

You can see the before picture here.

It doesn't really look that much different, just a little less shiny. I hung it back in the girls room, and it looks really good with all the other brown.

I will try and get a picture of their room posted a little later. I have been doing a bunch of posts today, and right now my brain is fried.

I think I might go take a bath and relax for a little while...

Brown

Last weekend, I finally got frustrated enough and unpacked the girls room myself. We've been in this place for a month now, and they were still living with everything in boxes, and their room was a mess. I had warned them that if I had to unpack their stuff, I would throw stuff away as I went. You see, they packed their room at the apartment themselves, and took everything, and I mean everything.

Four garbage bags later, their room looks great. When we first moved, I let them decide what color they wanted to accent their room with, and they decided on brown and pink. They found these really cute peel and stick decorations for the walls, and they were perfect since we are not allowed to paint.

I also decided to paint their shelves and things to match their room, which will be quite time consuming. This mirror used to hang in the hallway at the apartment, but there is no hallway here, so Kasi asked if she could have it in her room, since her dresser doesn't have a mirror. It's an old, antique-y looking thing, and it is gold. I want to paint it brown to match her room, but I am not looking forward to it. There are so many little curvy places...it is going to take me forever!

I also want to paint this little shelf brown, with pink hearts. I am not looking forward to painting the spindle thingys, but I am sure it will come out great when it's done. I bought this shelf when Kasi was about a year old, and it has always hung in her bedroom. I wish she would have stayed with the pastel color palate, but I guess a part of growing up is that her tastes will change. At least she didn't want her room black like mine was when I lived at home.

And FYI, my black room was awesome. White walls and everything else was black. My mom decorated it for me for my birthday, and then sold the house a few months later.

I loved it while it lasted, though.

Sliding

My girls.

So beautiful.

Yes, I may be biases, but it is what it is.

It's my right as a parent to think my girls are the most beautiful girls in the world.

And I do.

Making Sugar Cookies

This year, I put the girls in charge of making their own cookies. I bought some bagged sugar cookie mix, handed it to them with a big bowl and a wooden spoon, and let them go at it.

They added the butter and egg, and started trying to mix with the spoon. After about thirty second, I saw little hands mixing the dough, and it came out perfect.

It was then time to get it on the cookie sheet, and start the decorating. They had a ball! They made some that had the sprinkles on the inside, and they called those their "surprise" cookies. They were delicious!

I am glad I let them do it all on their own, too. Next year they are going to want to try and do more, and I am going to let them. It will be interesting to see what they will want to make!

My Girls

Here's a random shot of the girls. I took it a few weeks ago when we were fishing. I wish Ryan was in the picture, too, but what can I do. He hates having his picture taken. I used to be the same way, too. In fact, there are very few pictures of me in the past 15 years since I have been married. I wish I had taken some when I was pregnant, but I always thought I was too fat. These days, I have accepted that fact, and will, most of the time, smile for the camera.

Life is too short to hide from the camera. I mean, when I die, I want some pictures of my life to leave my kids. I mean, Junior and I have already provided them with our term life insurance, but I want them to have memories, too. Wonderful memories of a mother who was always smiling. Well, at least of a mom who was willing to smile for the camera.

Kasi's Country And Brandi's Angel

How awesome do these look?

I let the girls pick out these signs in the Dollar Tree, and they had a ball painting them.
kasi said she was going for a camouflage look, and I think she did great.
Brandi was just trying to make hers look as colorful as possible, and I think she did an amazing job! They are already planning which signs they will get next.

The Girls Bags

Remember these bags I made for Kasi and Brandi to trick or treat with?

Well, the girls loved them, and they worked so well! They held a whole lot of candy.

The best part for me was all the compliments the girls got on them. I mean, who doesn't love hearing that something they made is beautiful.

I think next year I have to come up with a manly version for Ryan...that's if he even wants to go with us. I mean, he will be almost 15 by then...

Somewhat Wordless Wednesday

This is a picture of my girls looking at some kind of gross little critter at the zoo. I love how I picked up their reflections in the glass. I took so many pictures, and when I got home and downloaded them, I couldn't remember what half the animals are called. I think next time I will take a little notebook and write down the names as I go. Or does that make me too much of a geek?

Brandi's Business Idea

I mentioned on my other blog how Brandi wants to own a fashion store when she gets older. This is something she has been talking about for a while, and for a seven year old, she has thought pretty seriously about what she needs to do to accomplish this goal. First she wants to open a store here, in South Carolina, and once it is doing well, she wants to open a second store in New York. She is going to be selling her sister Kasi's designer fashions, and make lots and lots of money. She said she is going to hire old models who will wear the clothes in the store, so people can see what the clothes look like. She said she will pay them more than any other store so that they will be happy working for her.

I told her she is going to have to take a lot of business classes in college to learn about running a business. She will need file transfer software so she can connect her two stores to one inventory list. She also needs to talk her sister into designing the clothes. Although Kasi does want to be a fashion designer, I am not sure how happy she will be working with her sister.

All I know is that they have many years to figure it all out.