Pink, Pink, Pink

For Keagan's party this year we did a Pinkalicious theme.  It was so much fun.  8 little girls, all in pink, pink decorations, pink prizes, pink cupcakes.  PINK!

 the birthday girl, waiting for her friends to come

 we started by coloring a cupcake page and a Pinkalicious page until all the girls got there.

 Then we read "Pinkalicious."  The girls sat so good.  They all wanted to hold a baby doll.  Yes, Keagan has enough baby dolls so all 8 girls got one.  

 We did "pin the star on the wand."

 we painted the girls fingernails pink.

 We did a prize ball.  It took me 2 hours to make, and about 10 minutes for the girls to unroll it.  

and pink cupcakes!   

 It was such a great party, and I think the birthday girl had fun!

 Parker ordered this fancy cake for us to eat on Keagan's real birthday, which was Sunday.  He got home Saturday night after she was asleep, so she woke up and saw it.  She was so excited!

 me and the birthday girl on her birthday

 the balloon garland that I made for the party.  I thought they turned out cute.

Guess who's 4?

Keagan McClary!

 A couple of weeks old

 1st birthday

 2nd birthday

 3rd birthday

 yesterday, 4th birthday

Keagan, you are such a joy to our family.  You constantly keep us laughing and guessing.  You are so good at making friends and are always wanting to talk to anyone.  We love you, our fiery red-head.  Keep dancing!  

keagan's new thing

Anyone who knows Keagan knows that she talks....a lot....a lot....a lot.  She doesn't stop talking until she asleep.  However, her new thing is sign language.  Not American Sign language, Keagan Sign Language.  So, the majority of the time I don't know what she is trying to tell me.  She knows a handful of real sign language words, such as: girl, thank you, please, tree, mom, dad, beautiful.  When she tries to have a conversation with me--well, it can be difficult because she makes up her own signs.  Sometimes I can figure out what she is saying, other times, not so much.

We were walking home one day after picking Easton up from school and she was having a Keagan Sign Language day.  It was SO QUIET.  And usually in Keagan's presence it is not quiet.  On the way home she told me a story of a girl planting a tree, or at least that is what I think she was telling me.

She always keeps us on our toes.

our visitors

In the middle of August Parker's sister and her kids came out to visit from Virginia.  We hadn't seen the kids in a year, so it was so nice that they stayed with us and we got to spend extra time with them.

One day we went to the dinosaur museum with the other cousins that live here in town.

 the whole group of cousins--all 9 of them.

 Keagan and Olive

 I love this picture of the boys.

Easton, Austin, Aidan, Jackson

 Easton doing the water erosion part at the museum.

 Easton, Keagan, Austin, Briana, Abbey

 Easton, Austin, Briana, Abbey, Keagan

 Keagan and Olive

Another day Carrie and I left the kids with the husbands and went shopping.  Some much needed girl time.

 We totally should have gone to the royal wedding.  We would have fit right in.

my date with easton

a couple of weeks ago Easton and I went on a date to the last night of the Timp. Storytelling Festival.  It was fun to spend that time with just him.  That doesn't happen very much.  It included lots of cuddling, especially when the sun went down and it got chillier, and lots of, "I love you, Mom."

random

the other day I was running errands with Keagan and saw a big sign on the side of the road that read, "black missionaries eat free on Wednesdays."  What??  I did a double-take and quickly realized it was 2 different signs close together.  The way they were placed and the hill I was driving on made it seem like they were one sign.  They actually read, "Margaret Black for city council," and "missionaries eat free on Wednesdays."  :)

heartbreak

The other day I was walking with Easton, holding hands, into the Kindergarten playground before the bell rang and a kid ran by.  Easton dropped my hand so fast.

It broke my heart a little bit.  I am not ready for him to be "too big" to hold my hand.

what a difference a year (or two) makes!

doing the kids 1st day of school pictures, I went back and looked at the old 1st day pictures.  So amazing to see the differences!

 2009-2010 (1st year of preschool) 

Easton was 3 and a half

 2010-2011 (2nd year of preschool)

Easton was 4 and a half

 this year, 2011-2012 (kindergarten)

Easton is 5 and a half

 2010-2011 (joyschool)

Keagan was almost 3--one month away from being 3

this year, 2011-2012 (preschool)

Keagan is almost 4

It is crazy and happy and sad to see how much they change, just in a year!

1st day of preschool

Keagan had her first day of preschool today.  She was up and dressed and ready by the time I got up--which was 8:30, so I don't even know when she got up.  She was SO excited.  She kept asking me, "Is it time to go yet?"  When 10:00 rolled around, she was jumping out the door.

her cute new backpack 

outside preschool.  I have decided this is my new favorite picture of her.

Keagan, I can't believe you are in preschool! (for the 2nd year....)  You are such a fun girl and I hope you discover a love of learning.  I hope you listen to your teacher and learn so much this year!  We are excited for you and love you so much.

my kindergarten boy

Easton's first day of Kindergarten was today. AAHH!! He was ready, but I don't know if Parker and I were.

cool, new backpack

cheese, extra big for Mom.

At the Kindergarten evaluation, his teacher gave us a blank cutout and we were to decorate it to look like Easton. I think we did pretty good.

At school

sitting on the rug, waiting for the bell to ring.

Easton, I hope you love school. You are such a sweet, strong boy and we love you so much! I hope you will come out of your shell and meet some really good friends this year. Good luck!

ssshhhh.....

the prince is sleeping.

as I am putting Easton to bed tonight, he looks over at his toy box and says, "Look what Keagie did..."

he's got a new ride

Easton has been working on getting a new bike. He has been riding his big-wheel around for the last year and a half. We did a prize chart and for every extra thing he did, he got a sticker.

The finished prize chart.
The new bike. He was so excited. On the way to the store, I was telling him the store might have to put it together, so we might not get to take it home right away. We were in the bike section, he picked out the yellow and red one, and a salesclerk came to help us. Easton walks right up to him and says, "So, how does this work? Do we take this one, or do you have another one that we put together, or do you put it together and we come back and get it?" The clerk kind of laughed and said, "Have you been here before?" We did have to come back the next day to pick up the assembled one, but Easton understood that and didn't complain.

He wanted to go straight to Grandma's to show her the new bike and rode it in her driveway for a minute.

That night, after dinner, we went outside and he rode for an hour in our cul-de-sac. It was awesome.

He is one happy boy.

swim lessons, round 2

Our second round of swim lessons went so good. There was about a month in between lessons, and I was worried that they would forget what they had learned the first time around, but they did awesome. Keagan was in Preschool level 2 and by the end of the 2 weeks was swimming under water by herself for a few feet. Easton was in Level 1 and his confidence was so much better by the end. He could back float by himself and float on his tummy much better.

Keagan's teacher was a boy this time, and I think she had a little crush on him, although she adamantly denies it. :)
She would talk about Jacob all the time.....

Easton's class was smaller this time, with only 4 kids--the first session we did had 6. So, that was really good for him because he was able to get more one on one attention with his teacher. There were also some extra teachers swimming around that helped each class when they needed it.

I am so proud of my little fishies.

super random kid quotes

*while driving to taekwondo today, for some reason Easton was talking about Thanksgiving. Keagan pipes up and says, "I love 'Hungry, Hungry Hippos!'"

*then, on the way home from taekwondo, "Keagan, you are weirder than a hedgehog!" ---Easton

proud mama

I signed Easton up for Taekwondo through the university. It is a summer program and is 6 sessions. He loves it. The first week at the end of class they sat in a circle and said why they were great. One kid said because he plays basketball, another said because he is nice to his siblings, etc. I didn't know if Easton would understand what he was supposed to say, but when it was his turn he said, "I am great because I have a good soul." I wanted to run across the room and hug him because I was so proud of his answer.

At the end of class last time the teacher let them run out their extra energy with the pool noodles. They each got a shield and a "sword" and chased each other around the room. He loved that part and it was so funny to watch them all.