Kate's Kids ER and Addison's Birthday

Oh the illness, the injuries! The long wait! The lack of staff. The drama.....yup. That's today's pretend play.

The kids have opened their own ER. They are soooooo creative. I am just amazed at the things they are coming up with.

They have doctors, nurses, a registration clerk, and Gage is the maintence man. He has been going around fixing patient heart monitors. Ha. I walked into the ER patient room(Madden's bedroom), and Madden said, "Mom, I broke my leg." He was lying on a chair, robe on, and leg ace bandaged. He even had a story of how he broke his leg. He said he was at the grocery store and he fell outside on the sidewalk. I played the distraught, crying parent who demanded a second opinion, complained about the wait, and said a nurse was rude. As I was wailing away, I looked out our window and saw our neighbor "Miss Mary" weeding her yard about 5 feet away from Madden's window. I felt the need to open the window and explain the wailing. LOL. Miss Mary is an ICU RN in real life and understood. All of the kids thought it was pretty cool that the real nurse was right outside the window.

They have used all my old Paramedic equipment that I could find around the house. They even used Madden's fake drill tool for orthopedic surgery. Kids are layed out all over the couches, chair, and beds with blankets and pretend they are ill. They have a waiting room where they call the patient's names. It is so amusing to watch.

Today is also Addison's Birthday. She is 4 today. We decorated the house with streamers, balloons, and Birthday signs. She brought us a cupcake cake that we will be eating after lunch. Everyone can hardly wait. Addison asked for macaroni and cheese and cheese hot dogs for lunch. Update: Lunch was great.

The cake was delicious. We all sang to Addison and she put her hands in front of her face.

Madden ended up helping her blow out her candles, without her asking of course.

Shawna is here today helping.

Yesterday was PAJAMA DAY! Everyone wore their pjs and slippers all day. Matt and Charlie brought donuts for everyone which was so thoughtful.  We had breakfast for lunch; bacon, eggs, toast and pineapple.

Blogging by Bridgette:
Today we played docter and i was the docter first also my friend is ababy siter plus it is her litle sisters birthday today and for the rest of the morning i will steal play docter .It is fun.

Blogging by Landon J.
Ummm...I don't know. Hi, today I played with toys. I played with the big kids and I played doctor. I ate cheese crackers for snack. My favorite color is pink.  My favorite number is 2. My best friend is..."you are." (Awww) Later on, I want to go to the Fair. (There is no fair today Landon.) Today at nap, I want to watch "Cars." That is all I want to say now.

We love the park!

So, where is the best place to blog? At the park! We are sitting in the shade right now, eating our morning snack, and blogging on the the lap top. It is perfect outside and nice breeze is keeping us cool.

Bayly is here again today to help with all the kids. She has been amazing for Kate's Kids this month. She enables us to keep our fun big group until school starts. She helps with lunch, diapers, snack time, and she plays with the kids all the time. She always helps watch the kids while we swim. She even swims with the kids in the big pool. Last night she even worked late. She came with Madden, Toby and I to the grocery store. It was a big two week shopping trip and it took almost two hours. I think her eyes became wide open to how stressful it is to take toddlers to the grocery store.

The older kids have also been amazing helping the younger kids. They have learned a lot of responsibility, kindness and maturity this summer. They have learned that helping out people is a good thing, even when you aren't getting anything in return. The big kids help the little kids everyday by doing things like, filling up their juice cups at lunch, applying sunblock before pool time, helping pick up their toys, and holding their hand while on walks. I am so proud of them and I am so thankful for them.

Today, we are having home made bbq sandwhiches, one of their favorites.

But, right now the kids want to ride bikes at the park. So, I must go.

Tuesday, August 23rd-DRESS UP-BEAUTY SALON FUN

So, today we had all big kids, which meant big kid fun! I decided at 9:30 it was time to stop playing school and move onto something more fun. So, what did we do? Beauty Salon!!!

We set up a "station" in the bathroom in front of the mirror. We took a stool and had a table full of hair supplies. The Salon.....It was called Hannah's Hot Topic! We had a waiting room where "clients" waited until their name was called. Morgan became the receptionist who served the customers water and even gave shoulder massages.

So, what could make this game even better? Dressing up! Yup, dressing up. By the way, this was just with the girls. The boys were downstairs doing their video game time. So, each girl lined up at my jewelry stand and I dressed them with "jewels." Hannah had on the biggest hoop earings ever. Then, they each picked out a fancy dress. And then the best part was wearing the high heels. 

Thank goodness for Bayly

Bayly to the rescue! Bayly is here today again to assist with daycare! Today we have 12 kids, plus Madden and Toby. Most of the kids are school aged kids here for the summer, but it's still nice to have Bayly here to help get lunch ready, monitor at park, and swim with the kids. The kids love that she actually gets in the water with them. I never can because I am busy with snacks, lunch, and the younger kids naps, etc.



Adams School playground Thursday, August 18th

 This is from the park on Monday, August 15th.



First day at Kate's Kids for 5 new kids!

Just by the title, you can already tell how busy of a day it will be.

Three siblings start today at Kate's Kids. I have been in contact with their mom throughout the summer, and the day has finally come for them to be here with the rest of the kids.
Morgan is 11.
Gage is 8
Addison is 3, but will be 4 on the 30th.

I met another wonderful family just last week and they have two boys that have signed up for Kate's Kids. They were going to be starting at the end of the month, but circumstances promted an earlier start date; today!
Charlie is 2
Matthew is 7

Kate's Kids has a very busy month of August and we are now welcoming 5 new kids today. I am so thankful for my helper, Bayly who will be helping us out in the next two weeks. Another helper, Shawna, will also be coming and working at Kate's Kids this month. And I must say that one of Kate's acutal Kids, Bridgette, has been a huge help and will continue to be this month. She is earning some extra cash these last two weeks of August helping me out so much. Great to have all these wonderful helpers!

So today:

6:45am:  Gage, Addison, and Morgan arrived early this morning way before their normal wake up time. My house was just starting to wake up as well.
7:30am: Kaelyn and Hannah arrive. Hannah was gone all last week because she was away at camp. Kaelyn is her sister and missed her so much. It is good to have them both back.
7:30am: Landon is here, quiet as usual.
7:45am: Charlie and Matthew are here! What a change for them. They have walked into a house already full and it's not even 8am. They all start to settle in, start checking out toys, and asking to play DS.
8:30am: Luke walks in! This is while Toby is crying, Fletch is whining, and Charlie is looking for Matt. The big kids are out playing in the back yard, exploring! Madden is happy that Luke is here. Luke is Madden's BFF.
9:00am: The final 3 are here..Bridgette, Scott, and Lindsey. They came with a flower and cards for my birthday which was last Saturday. So glad to see them. They know all the rules here and can help get the others accquainted.
9:30am: Ok, everyone has gone to the bathroom, diapers are changed, water bottles are filled, snacks are packed, stress is over. All 15 of us are off to walk to the park!!

10:00am: And here I am, sitting in a camping chair in the shade, watching the 14 kids run, climb, slide, and spin. Snack time! Gotta go!

HERE IS SOME FROM BRIDGETTE:

Hi there every body! We went to the park and some of my new friends came to kates houes and iam the healper today. there is 15 pople here today .It is going to be a awsome day to .we are going to be swimming also.bye

50 CENT Bowling Day at River's Edge...We're There!!!!

FA LITTLE FROM BRIDGETTE:

Hi there. Today we are going bowlling !!!!!!!! .iam going to be great so are the outher kids and kate pluse dane  too.Today is a great day to go bowlling .I am going to have fun a lot with kate .And we are leaving at lunch time . So cool !!!!!!!










A LITTLE FROM KYLER:
Today we"re going bowlling


 












We ended up having a great time bowling. We all ate lunch there. Then, Dan went and got everyone hot fudge sundaes. The toddlers used a ramp and bumpers to help them. The older kids did an amazing job helping the little ones get their ball to the ramp. Everyone did a pretty job being patient and waiting their turn.



  

 








  

Great day outside building Forts and Paintings

What a day!
The kids got very creative today. They decided they wanted to build a fort in the tree line outside. They started out using sticks and play car. I then remembered a turtle tent that Kyler and his Dad donated to the day care. We all put that together and they played in that most of the day.



I promised the kids that we would paint this afternoon with a bunch of paints sets I found at the dollar store. They were quick to remind me as soon as I put Tobin down. Lexie, my little "Why?" girl, of course said, "Why are we painting Kate."
" I don't know Lex. Because we want to."

My silly "Why?" girl!

They ended up paining some cool pictures using the paints and glitter. Funny Ella Bean is the only one who managed to paint her arm pits.

Many people have asked where our logo came from......

LOGO DESIGN by: Cayden Williams

Many people have asked where our logo came from.

Kate's Kids logo design was created June of 2011 by the very talented Cayden Williams, 9 years old. This was his first design that he was compensated for. The effort he put into this logo for Kate's Kids is very much appreciated. Many clients comment on his creativeness. Kate's Kids is very proud to have him doing my graphic design work and hope to work with this young man in the future. ;)

Below: Cayden Williams

Friday, August 5th, That was a crazy week!!

Here is a little from Kelsi:

Today is my last day with my sister Addison.  We were here for a week. We had a really fun day. I picked a prize today for Friday prize day. We went swimming today. I met a friend named Landon, Luke, Jilly, Hannah, KK, Lindsey and Bridgette. My mom is picking me up in a few minutes. I will be in first grade. I love all my new friends. I love Toby. I love Madden. I wuv Kate. That's it for now. And I love hot dogs.

Here is a little from Addison:

I really don't want to say anything. I picked up a light up thing for my Friday prize. My favorite thing to eat was the cookie today. I loved the slip and slide.  I'm done.






Today was a good day to end a crazy week. We had a lot of fun this week and kept very busy. We are sad to see Kelsi and Addison go, but hope they will come back and visit again when their school has closure days.

Hannah and Jilly will be gone next week at camp, so we will be missing them too.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Another boring day at Kate's Kids!

How do we do it? How do we get through these boring days at Kate's Kids?
NOT!! That's what the kids all just yelled.

Today is another full house. Everyone just jumped in the pool. Toby is scooting around on the garage floor-eww! And I am sitting in the sun, blogging. Ummm. I am pretty sure this job is way better than working a car accident.

Today we talked about going bowling next week. Every year the bowling alley has a week in August that is .50 day. Food, shoes, and games are 50 cents. Dan says he will come as my helper.

"Kate...Kate" Yup, that is my very own 3 year old son yelling my first name. Since day care opened June 1st, Madden has learned that if I don't answer to Mommy within his 3 second limit, he can surely get my eye brows raised by calling me Kate...since all the other kids do! "I need my orange popsicle." The other kids chime in, "It's 2 o'clock, time for freeze pops." They are right. They never fail to forget a snack time. Especially when I do. "Kate, watch me!" Luke is showing me that he can dump several buckets of water of her his head but not without complaints from Lexie that he is wasting all the water as it falls over the edge. The big kids also remind me that nap time is soon. 4 less kids to share the backyard with, of course.

So of I go to serve freeze pops. It is a very complicated snack and very unique, right? Snip the top off and probably get each kid two. Well, at least they are learning their colors, and learning not to litter as I yell at them to throw their wrappers away, for the 3rd time.

A LITTLE FROM HANNAH:

Today was so awesome! I had so much fun swimming with my friends! I love it here.

No fun at Kate's Kids..right??

Actually, I think that's all we do here at Kate's Kids..have fun! We have been outside today since 11am. The kids have been in the pool swimming in the hot sunny weather. There are 10 of us today including me.

Bridgette(11), Lindsey(6), Scott(7), Hannah(9), KK(5), Jilly(8), Lexie(4), Madden(3), and Toby(1).

We put out the slip and slide today for the first time and the kids seemed to love it. And I was just glad no one hit a rock or stick! Even Madden gave it a try, and then he peed in his swimsuit. Perfect.

Kaelyn(KK) was able to go into the big kids pool today for the first time. She was very proud that she could touch and acted just like the older kids jumping, yelling and splashing.

Now, after 5 hours, I am having them pick up the pool toys and get dried off. It looks like Rockport pool threw up in my backyard. Seriously. And I just remembered that KK and Hannah get picked up at 4:20..ah. The rest of the crew leaves at about 5pm and I always forget those that leave just before that. I have started to set alarms on my phone and the timer on the board. I have to set them so I get the kids dried off, dressed, toys picked up and ready to go.

HERE IS SCOTT:

 To day we wentwsiming.we had lunch wraps. .I wet on the slipinsd.