Poolside blogging...and Birthdays

Magical that I can sit by the pool and blog. All from my Ipod. I heart blogpress :)

Anyway...just wanted to catch you all up on Ella's birthday. We had an amazing day and fantastic weather. It couldn't have gone any better!

Our day started at the Clay Chameleon which was so fun. Ella picked a unicorn to paint and it ended up adorable.



Such an adorable shop!!!



Ella with her unicorn :)



I let her paint something for herself, but selfishly I wanted something for myself that she made :) she made me a plate!!



Girls club :)



My finished plate :)



Spray park was stop #2 and it was a hit!!



The kids were drenched and happy when we left here!!




Is there anything more fun than running through frigid water on s hot day??




Risking some splashes. I love it!!




Stop #3 was at a place called YaYa's island. This was my favorite stop of the day. They had indoor climbing tunnels and bounce houses.




It was perfectly age appropriate and awesome!!!!



They had a great time. I would have been find skipping Chuck-E-Cheeses and staying there. Actually I would have preferred that!!



Ella made a boyfriend at Chuck-E-Cheeses. I couldn't stop laughing watching her cuddle on this guy in the car :)




Tyler enjoyed shooting hoops.




And tried to spin the ball in his finger. Adorable



I can not even tell you how cute these two were playing together. They were so polite and happy :)



I could relive that day over and over again!!!

Happy birthday to my beautiful baby girl. I can't believe you are FIVE!!!!!!!!!

Ella's Birthday

We are not much of "planners" here in the Karayiannis house.  We are more the pack up and go type. 
However tomorrow is a BIG day.  It is the day our little girl turns FIVE!!!!!!!!! :)
How can that be?? FIVE years old?? I am fainting right now!
So, since tomorrow is such a big deal we have planned a very special day with Ella and Tyler to celebrate.
First stop...The Clay Chameleon in Paducah, KY.

Anyone who knows Ella knows that she is obsessed with anything ART...drawing, stickers, painting, cutting with scissors.  You name it, she loves it.  So we decided that this would be RIGHT up her alley.  We are hoping her and Tyler can create something special for us.  Maybe something like this...

If Ella and Tyler make us a special platter it will have the PERFECT home above our mantle in the kitchen...just sayin' :)
After the Clay Chameleon our next stop will be a spray park there in town.  There is nothing better than two little kids living it up with water and sun.  Our fingers are crossed for good weather, but there is a 60% chance for rain so we wanted to have back up plans so her day is perfect.
In case the spray park is a fail we have THIS stellar place as a back up.  YaYa's Island looks amazing. 

hello climbing huts...

hello indoor tunnel magic...
We will love you :)
Our last stop is the best place EVER for kids and that is...Chuck E Cheeses!!!!
WOOHOO!!
I don't know who this will be harder on, Mom and Dad or a long day for the kids with no naps...but we will make it happen.
I still can't believe this girl...


will be FIVE tomorrow :( TEARS!!!!!!!

Play time and Mother's Day

It's the time of year where we are seldom inside our house.  We may pop in to use the bathroom, but besides that we are outside.  We have even been cooking out there for the most part!!! 

The kids love being outside and I am the same way.  We even had our first pool party this weekend.

Here are a few snapshots from our outdoor adventures.

Ella is slightly obsessed with climbing trees right now.  We have a couple of awesome climbing trees and she has several scrapes and bruises to make momma proud :)

 Tyler is slightly obsessed with Madagascar and his animals.  They seldom leave his side...they even play outside with him!

 We jump on the trampoline...A LOT!

 Ella does it Michael Jordan style...tongue has to be out when she does a toe touch :)

 Tyler runs around on the trampoline and tries NOT to fall off...it's ridiculous

 These two are getting so cute together though.  I often find them hugging and cuddling...even without me asking them. 

 And every once in a while I see them give a little smooch!! It makes momma's heart melt.

 Speaking of momma...Here is a quick shot from Mother's Day.  We had a nice relaxing day at my parent's house for brunch and then on to our house to host Jimmy's family.  It was a beautiful day.

 Just some of the kiddos posing on Mimo and Grandpa's swing.

I hope all the mothers had wonderful days with their families!!!!

Craziness

We have FOUR days of school left until summer break. I am so excited. I am seriously going to make a summer bucket list. The kids are at such a FUN age. This may be the best summer yet :)

To recap this week...

MONDAY:



Monday was our cougar fun run. My friend and coworker Courtney and I pulled it off and it was great. The kids ran about 1.4 miles and got to stop at stations for snack, drink or hand stamping.



Our station was hand stamping. The back of their shirts said, "you deserve a paw on the back." Each Encore teacher left our print on the kids :)

TUESDAY:

Tuesday was our PBIS field trip to the Liberty Theater in Murphysboro. It was so neat. We got to bring our own DVD and played it for the good kids. It was really fun!!

WEDNESDAY:

Wednesday was our school talent show. The boys PE teacher and I hosted it and it was a blast.




The talent was amazing. So neat to see the kids talents that I normally don't get to see. Most of the talent I see is athletic :)

THURSDAY:

Thursday was Awards Day. We handed out athletic and academic awards. We definitely had a ton to hand out, but it was great :)

FRIDAY:

Friday was 8th grade graduation. To say our graduation is a circus would be a complete understatement. The kids were fantastic. So well behaved and polite. The parents and friends crack me up. I guess I just don't get all the hype...it's 8th grade, not high school :) ha ha. But it was fun to watch.

For the weekend...no plans. And I am quite thankful since the back windshield in my car completely shattered last night. It was brutal.

I guess the kids and I will spend all day by the pool

Happy Weekend to all

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Kindergarten...

I can not believe that in THREE months...

THIS girl...

will be in Kindergarten.

It kind of takes my breathe away. 

Today was officially her last day of Pre-School.  It was adorable.  She LOVED Pre-School, and I am certain she will feel the same about Kindergarten.  I snapped a few pictures this morning before she left.  And a few tears formed in my eyes.  NO WAY can she be this old right???

Tyler was so cute hugging her all morning.  He was so excited for her.  So crazy that HE will be in Pre-School next year!!! I think that will REALLY make me hyperventilate!!! Now in 9 days we can start our summer! The final summer before ACTUAL school starts for both of my babies!!!

I need to make a SERIOUS summer bucket list.  What would you put on your summer bucket list??
Leave me some ideas so that we can start a crazy summer adventure!

Obsessed

Ella is truly obsessed with all thing creative and artsy :) she is NOT in any way, shape, or form MY daughter.


And this one will not sit still for ONE minute to ever learn to write his name :)


His face is crusted with dried ice cream sandwich. It is bath time immediately!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Gift Ideas

Every year I get a million requests for what my kids want for their birthdays.  I always try and write a blog post noting all these ideas to make it easier on everyone.  Today is the day I will try and get Ella's done...and if we are really lucky, Tyler's too :)

Ella is ALL girl.  She loves everything princess and pink.  

She is obsessed with anything American Girl Doll, but especially clothes!!!

She has a Bitty Baby AND an American Girl Doll, so she loves any accessories that go with either one!

Like this Booster Seat:

 Her Bitty Baby has ONLY the nightgown that she came with, so some clothes for her would be AMAZING on Ella's dream list.

Like this matching swimming outfit :)

She is also obsessed with anything pool oriented.  She loves finding new games to play outside or by the pool since we LIVE out there all summer long. 

Her American Doll would love to spend an evening outdoors with Ella in this tent...

Ella LOVES to wear dresses and to play dress up! The fancier the better.

I am pretty sure ANYTHING on this entire page at Old Navy would make her swoon.

Ella wears a size 5 in almost everything.  Her shoe size is 10.5 :)

Since Ella is starting Kindergarten in the fall (insert tears here) She will need more than just dresses.  She will have to be prepared for P.E. class to make her momma proud!!!!

She could totally rock one of these skorts...also from Old Navy

Their skirt collection is UNREAL as well.  I heart Old Navy!

 They have the most adorable SHORTS collection as well.  She is definitely going to be in need of clothes for school.  Jeans, Khakis, shorts, shirts, dresses, you name it.  You can't go wrong with clothes of ANY kind!!

Back to some fun stuff.  Ella is SUPER into drawing.  Anything artsy is her absolute favorite thing to do.  She is always looking for new ways to be creative.  She loves markers and is slightly obsessed with stencils right now as well.
I can see Ella sitting and designing clothes with this stencil from Amazon...

If anyone has mad carpentry skills you could make Ella one of these "Happy Helper Towers" because she LOVES cooking and helping in the kitchen.  The project is on Ana White's website.

 I unfortunately have NO carpentry skills.  Or I would have one for each of my kiddos!!!!!

So hopefully this helps.  My kids are NOT picky and love absolutely everything.  I just figured when people ask I have something to show them.  These are her favorite things :)