I was getting tired of all the backpacks and shoes being thrown on the floor as soon as the kids walked in the door. I looked for a hall tree I could buy but nothing seemed to fit our space and work for what I wanted. I saw an idea online to turn a cubby shelf into a backpack station and loved it so we decided to go for it! Richard had the good idea to let each girl pick a color for her space and then we got bins for the cubbies underneath for shoes, gloves, hats, etc. I thought it turned out so cute! I don't know if it will help with the mess but at least it's out of my living room.
McKenna's soccer team ended up needing an assistant coach again so I volunteered. It wasn't quite as much fun this time and the team didn't seem to want to learn anything about soccer but I always enjoy whenever I get to play soccer and I love watching my girl play!
Richard was being funny about his bday so even though he was turning the big 4-0, I couldn't seem to get him interested in doing anything. Brooklyn really wanted to make sure he had a great birthday so the Saturday before, she planned a surprise party for him. She decided to make it OSU themed and spend days beforehand making things and thinking up ideas of what to do. I was so impressed with what she came up with! She made a big red O out of Legos with a basketball hoop and football goalposts. She decorated everything with red and gray and got out all of our OSU stuff. She made a poster and we made Buckeye treats ahead of time so we could eat them at the party. She even made a snack-stadium out of cardboard and put all the things for our lunch in it! She was so creative and I think it meant a lot to Richard that she put so much work into it. For the party, she had us decorate Brutus masks, made an OSU sign to hang in our rooms and we played football in the backyard. She really wanted us to go full tailgate so we had a BBQ for dinner and watched a movie while eating popcorn.
Brooklyn got to go to a fun carnival put on by our stake for their Stake Primary Activity. They had little classes set up around the church where the kids could earn tickets. Each class had a different focus like missionary work, Articles of Faith, work outs, learning a song, etc. Then they could go into the gym and use their tickets to do carnival games like fishing or nerf gun shooting, or they could get food (hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones, and cotton candy!), or get their faces painted.
Since she had so much fun at that carnival, she wanted to create her own! I forgot to take pictures until it was too late and only got one of Kaylee bobbing for apples...but she did an amazing job! She spent hours making things, setting up outside, gathering things she could give as prizes, etc. It was very very impressive! She had us play games to earn tickets and then at the end we could turn them in for prizes. She had a bean bag toss where she cut out different sizes of holes in cardboard and the smaller the hole you got the bag in, the more tickets you got. She made a ring toss out of old CDs and a cardboard stand with a Play-Doh roller glued on top. She made a football toss game where she would stack the cups in a pyramid on a table and if we knocked them all down, she would put up one bonus cup so we could try to get a bonus ticket. She created a spin the wheel game from the wheel that comes with our Life game. We did a dart game, an obstacle course and she had us bob for apples! She collected little toys, candies, and stickers to use as prizes and put them into different categories of 5, 10, or 15 ticket prizes. It was super fun and creative and I loved seeing her put so much energy into it.
Another very creative thing we did was get out Brooklyn's paint markers and decorate some Book of Mormons! It was really fun to do with Kaylee and Brooklyn and I thought they all looked great!
Richard took Kaylee to YW while I was at soccer practice with Kenna and then we met up with them at the church. I walked in and saw Kaylee and couldn't believe she was in full 90s gear! It's funny how trends come back. She looked adorable but also really old!
Brooklyn has really caught the creative bug. She wanted to create a game and asked Kaylee and I to play it with her on Conference weekend. She called it Beauty Bash and made a game board out of cardboard with spaces to move and little pictures on each one that told you what to do. When you would land on a space, you would have to put on makeup, jewelry, perfume (that was really just a spray bottle with water in it), extra clothes, or pretend to shower to get ready for the day. Again, I was impressed with her creativity and it was a lot of fun to play!
