Am I too comfortable saying "No" to my kids?

So I was at the Kroger grocery store the other night with my girls after school to pick up a few things for dinner that night. I am pretty comfortable saying "No" to all questions of "Mommy can we get this squishy ball?, "Mommy can we get this (every sweet cereal that they see)?" and all other questions that come up around a grocery store. I usually respond with pretty practical answers of "No, you already have a ball that you play with, or we already have cereal at home. " Well, we get to the checkout stand and of course my girls try their luck (even knowing that I always say no to these requests) and ask if they can have some candy. Well I matter of factly said - "No, it's right before dinner, and we have some treats at home that you can have later. " Well, the lady in front of us checking out whips out 3 dollar bills and while handing them to my daughters says " I never had any children to get candy for, so here you go" I was taken aback and perplexed and insisted that they didn't need it and tried to hand her the dollars back. She says-" Just spoil these girls just this once for me, it would make my day" So what do you say to that?! Needless to say, my girls got their candy, and were taught a lesson that there are still good people in the world. And I will be grateful to the lady that helped me say "Yes" this one time.

Hula Anyone?

We threw a Hawaiian party for B's 7th birthday this year. Here are some of the decorations.

We had the girls make their own fruit kabobs and also meat and cheese kabobs. We also had jello jigglers and I wasn't expecting the girls to put those on kabobs too, but they did. The kids had fun with them.

The food was good throughout the party also, it seemed that every time the girls found themselves in the kitchen they would nibble on some more cheese cubes or eat a few more grapes.

It was a busy week and I opted out of making a cake for this party. So no creativity this time. Instead we had cupcakes. While eating the cupcakes it was the quietest the girls had been all night.

She had 5 girls come over from her class at school. They were pretty comfortable with each other and there were giggles and chatter during the whole party.

The highlight of the party was that my friend came to teach them a Hula Dance. She was amazing and the girls LOVED IT!


The video I wanted to put on here was too big to upload. I guess we need some video editing software. Oh well. So here is a short clip of the girls learning how to do the Hula Dance.

Spring Break and Easter and Kids- Oh my!

Well the fun of last week has now subsided and life is back to normal. We decided to stay around here for Spring Break this year. We started off the fun Saturday with taking the girls out to lunch at the Texas Roadhouse. They are all at an age where going out to eat at a public place is actually fun and not an embarrasing, crying, food throwing mess it once was. Monday night the girls enjoyed sleeping over at a friends house, Tuesday our family and a couple of the girls friends went roller skating- and I forgot the camera. The older two are getting the hang of it, "C" didn't care for it much and went around twice in skates, and walked around more in shoes. Wednesday we went to Holliday park in Indianapolis. They have a Nature Center there and also some very fun parks.

"C" is a child after her own mother's heart. The girl loves puzzles.

The other two enjoyed what they love doing also-putting on plays with the animal puppets there.

The nature center has these keys that the kids can put into different exhibits and then the key turns on things. They call it "keying into nature." I thought it was a fun idea for kids.

The day was so beautiful. I welcome spring with open arms.

After our picnic lunch, the kids had a blast at the many different playgrounds they have there.

On Friday the church's playgroup did an Easter egg hunt along with some games and other fun stuff. We brought our bunnies for the other kids to pet and watch- and I forgot to take pictures of them before going to hide Easter eggs. "C" found some eggs that were burried under the mulch of one of the trees. She actually found many under there and we were thinking that was probably not the best place to hide eggs, since most of the mulch is made of compost. We later found out that she found the secret stash of eggs that the boys who were helping hide the eggs were hoping to go get after the egg hunt was done. So she dissapointed some boys, but she did FIND them, and I think she thought she was lucky to find so many hidden in one spot.

"C" had to wear her bunny ears that day too.The girls dyed eggs on Saturday. I am glad they like eggs, because you can only do so much with two dozen hard boiled eggs.

Preschool fun

The unit we have been learning about in preschool is community helpers. I taught about firefighters. At snack time, the kids made their own fire trucks out of graham crackers, red frosting, oreos, and pretzels. I think the frosting was on about everything, but nothing is fun unless it is messy right?

My friend let me borrow her son's firefighter costume, and my grand plan was to draw flames on our driveway and have the kids dress up as a firefighter and put the flames out with our hose. But, alas, it was forecasted to rain that day, so I had to change plans. Instead they got to climb up the ladder (foot stool) and put out the candle with a spray bottle.

I took some time to talk about fire safety. These are the kids practicing to Stop, Drop, and Roll. I attached a paper flame to them, and they had to Stop, Drop, and Roll around until it fell off.

Every firefighter needs a fire dog companion right? Here the kids are putting on the spots for their dalmation fire fighten dogs.

Here is my little firefighter with her trusty dalmation friend at her side. Kids are so great to teach and have fun with.