Kate Bouncing

When we were at Meghan's for Easter, Kate loved the jump-a-roo thing that Adelaide has. Every time we go over there, she wants to get in there, and this time was no exception! (Ignore my voice; I hate how it sounds on video!)

Easter Dinner

For Easter dinner, Meghan and Drew invited us over along with some of their other friends who have kids, and it was a lot of fun. Kate was the oldest at 14 months, Sabina was 9 months, and Adelaide and Griffin were 6 months. They were all so cute, but it was funny because Kate normally seems so tiny to me, but she looked giant compared to the other kids, haha. They're sitting nicely on their play mats, and Kate is toddling around to get into who knows what!

Meghan & Drew made a ham and some chicken, along with scalloped potatoes and asparagus. Everyone was asked to bring a dish; we brought some tangy fruit salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips (both of which I made from scratch, and it was quite good, if I do say so myself), some white wine, and a lemon poppyseed Easter cake. The food was excellent; we really enjoyed it. And it was fun to chat with some other young parents, too. Everyone was enthralled by Kate; they said she was so cute and well-behaved.


Kate playing with Griffin (on the left) and Adelaide. Addy looks like she wants to give Kate a massage!


Sharing so nicely!


Kate wanted to get in on the action, but she accidentally almost sat on Griffin in the process!








What? I'm not going towards the stairs...


Ok, yes I am.


My cake that I made. Clearly, cake decorating is not going to be my second career any time soon! At least it tasted good...

Easter Brunch

We went to the Hines' on Easter afternoon for an egg hunt, which was fun; Kate got some cute Fisher Price Little People and some socks in her eggs. She had fun finding them; I think she is starting to get the hang of it now. Afterward, we grabbed a quick lunch at the Great Dane, which was delicious, as always!


Looking concerned for some reason...






She got a carrot "necklace" full of bubbles, which she loved, because she likes to put anything and everything around her neck! Wii remotes, cell phone chargers; it doesn't matter. So at least this is meant to be worn as a necklace!






What a good walker!


I love this little face!


Two of my favorite girls ever


The twins at the Great Dane


Silly face!


Mad because her nap wasn't long enough

Kate's Easter

We had a fantastic Easter weekend. On Saturday, Kate went over to Tracy & Dan's for a few hours while Dan & I went to a movie (Hanna) and then to our favorite place, The Ocean Grill, to celebrate the 11th anniversary of our first date. It was delicious (as always); I had the Atlantic salmon with red pepper hollandaise, and it was amazing! Dan had the ahi tuna and the seafood enchiladas. I wouldn't touch the ahi tuna (I'm not into raw fish, thank you very much), but his enchiladas were excellent. (And Tracy & Dan said Kate was very well-behaved; she sat in the play pen and watched them decorate Easter eggs and didn't really fuss at all the whole time. Whew!)

On Easter Sunday, we got up and found our baskets. Dan & I both got some books from Borders (the one on the west side went out of business, and everything there was 70% off, so I think the Easter Bunny got some good deals), and we also got our favorite candy (peanut butter M&Ms for Dan, cadbury eggs for me). Kate got some books (two of which were about how fun it is to go to bed and sleep peacefully; hopefully that will sink in with her!) and a purple stuffed dog.


With her music sticks she got as part of her Musikgarten class. I don't know why she wanted to put that hat on, though!
















Such a beautiful Easter dress! My mom got this for her after last Easter season for a whopping $6.00. Isn't that crazy?


Examining the goods

Kate's Easter Egg Hunt

On the downside, poor little Kate has an ear infection. When she woke up from her nap yesterday afternoon, she had a temperature of almost 103! So I called our clinic and we were seen at urgent care at 7:30. They put her on a stronger antibiotic than she was on last time, since they think that maybe the ear infection she had in February wasn't cleared up all the way, so hopefully the stronger medicine will do the trick.

On the bright side, she was feeling a lot better this morning (after only two doses of the antibiotic; it's amazing how fast those things work!) so I decided to look online and see if there were any toddler-themed Easter activities we could do. We found numerous egg hunts geared toward the younger crowd, so we decided to go to the one in Fitchburg at one o'clock (there was one in Sun Prairie, which would have been closer, but we didn't get going in time).

Kate had so much fun, even though she didn't really understand what was going on. The egg hunt was separated by age, so we were in the 0-3 age group, but like Dan said, there is a huge difference between a three-year-old and a one-year-old! Luckily, Kate didn't seem to mind that all the older kids were snatching up the eggs; she had fun just watching them. Dan & I each grabbed an egg for her, though, and she did manage to pick one up by herself. She looked so happy to be clutching her basket, and she seemed so entertained by looking at all the other kids. After the hunt, we noticed there was a special guest, so Kate got to meet the Easter Bunny! I was worried she would be scared by him, but she was completely fine.


Kate with her basket before the hunt


Pretty purple girl!


She's getting so good at walking now; even when she's holding things!






Waiting patiently for the egg hunt to start






I love this photo; this jacket is just adorable on her! And the little tail is too funny!


Picking up the egg she got herself.





All-in-all, we've had a fun day so far! And, for comparison, let's look at Kate's very first Easter egg hunt ever, which was last year when she was a month and a half old. I'd say she definitely was a more active participant in the one this year, wouldn't you? ;)


Sleeping through the egg hunt

What We've Been Up to Lately

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile; Kate & I have been doing a lot of fun stuff, but I always seem to forget my camera (and I figure posts aren't as much fun without pictures!) Let's see, some of the stuff we've been doing lately:

• We went to the zoo when my mom was here in early April, while waiting for my mom to get done with her hair appointment. Kate loves the zoo, especially the orangutan house. She was fascinated by how they swung from tree to tree.
• We went to "Storytime with a Twist" at the library, where the storyteller uses puppets in the puppet theater. Kate really liked that one, too... except she got mad that I wouldn't let her crawl up to touch the puppets!
• We've gone to lunch with Meghan and Addy a couple of times; Kate & Addy are so cute together. You can tell they're fascinated by one another, even though they're not "playing" together yet.
• We went down to Chicago for the weekend to visit family, and that was a lot of fun. My aunt Chris made a delicious spring Sunday brunch (even though it had SNOWED the day before; not exactly springlike!), and we got to go to our favorite deep-dish pizza place on Saturday night. My cousin Karen was visiting from Phoenix because she had a wedding to attend in Illinois, so it was really nice to see her, since we rarely do.
  
• Music class has started again, so of course Kate loves that! This week we even went to the coffee shop afterward with the other moms and kids, which we didn't normally do last session because I felt she was too little to play with the other kids. This time, though, she had a great tine! She's old enough to play in the play area with everyone else, and she looked so cute and happy playing with the other kids!

Last night, the three of us went to the "Storytime with Strings" program at the library. The middle school fiddle club accompanied the stories, so it was doubly good for Kate, since she loves books AND music. Afterward, we showed Dan the train table that Kate likes to play with whenever we have some extra time at the library.



Mad because she's in the car!








I love this outfit on her; I know you can't see the leggings really well, but they're this adorable navy with pink and green flowers, and then paired with her pink top and jean jacket, she looks like a little fashionista!

And, as a side note, yesterday (4/21) was the 11th anniversary of the day I met Dan. :) Who knew that going to some party in Roy would lead to all this? (Home, marriage, family). I'm so lucky! And, because I like to do comparison photos, here is a shot of Kate last year on this day. Look how much she's changed!