My 30th Birthday

I pretty much described what we did on my 30th birthday a couple posts ago, so I'll just jump right in with the pictures. We didn't really take any at the restaurants, unfortunately, but we still got some cute ones at home.


The best present ever!


Helping me open my cards




Don't know what's up with the hat, but hey, it's cute!


At the park on Grandma Gail's last day here; she watched Kate while I sat and enjoyed the nice weather and did some of my editing.


All tuckered out after her fun visit with Grandma Gail (but still stubborn enough to insist on sleeping with her purple glasses from Aunt Nancy). The giraffe is from my aunt Janet and cousin Karen; for my birthday they sponsored an animal for us at Henry Vilas Zoo (which is awesome, considering we LOVE the zoo) and the giraffe came in the mail with the card/info about the gift. Kate absolutely loves it!

Our St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Here are some shots of our St. Patrick's Day dinner that we had on Sunday. It was simple, but so good! I thought my cheesy Irish soda bread turned out amazing, if I do say so myself! And of course Dan's corned beef was perfect.


Precious Kate in her beautiful apron from Aunt Janet and Karen

More of Gail's visit

I didn't want that other post to get too long with all the photos I took with my AMAZING new camera, so I thought I'd split it up into a few posts. Here are some more shots of us just hanging out on Saturday morning before heading to the park on our beautiful, sunny and warm St. Patrick's Day:


Silly girl, always putting things on her head


I absolutely LOVE this photo of her. Look at my beautiful daughter!




Silly wild child




Patiently waiting for us to go to the park


She & Daddy love to play Legos together












Such a dare-devil. She wants to keep going higher, but the problem is, I can't reach any higher!

Gail's Visit!

Kate was so happy that Grandma Gail (or Mama Dale, as she calls her) visited this past week! Dan & I were pretty thrilled, too. We had a great visit with her and got lots of fun stuff done. She came in late Tuesday night (over five hours late, due to the plane leaving Seattle almost two hours late, thereby missing her connecting flight in Chicago). But despite a rocky start, the rest of the trip was a blast.

Wednesday was her birthday, so we took her to Ginza of Tokyo. I love that place; the food and the atmosphere is great. Kate was thrilled to watch the hibachi chef, but when he lit stuff on fire, her face got the biggest, "What on earth..." look to it, and she repeated, "Uh-oh!" several times, despite our assurances that what was happening was completely normal. And by the way, that means that in 2012, Kate got to spend both grandmas' birthdays with them, both at Japanese restaurants!

Friday the three of us went to Kate's art class, where we worked on some paper mache projects. Well, Gail & I watched the other kids working on their paper mache, since Kate just wanted to stir the paste. Oh well ;) Then, as usual, we headed to the Laurel for lunch.

Saturday we went to Kate's favorite park in Sun Prairie, and that night, Dan & I went out to my favorite restaurant, the Ocean Grill. It was delicious, as always, and because of this absolutely gorgeous weather we have been having, we got to sit outside. Downtown Madison is so beautiful anyway, and it was extra nice to be sitting outside enjoying it in March in Wisconsin.

Sunday we had our St. Patrick's Day meal (a day late, but that's ok). Dan made the most delicious corned beef and cabbage, and I baked these awesome sharp cheddar Irish soda biscuits with raisins. And of course, we managed to convince Gail (not that it was hard!) to babysit Kate so we could go to a movie (we saw Safe House; it was pretty good, but I almost wish we'd seen 21 Jump Street instead.)

Tuesday was my birthday, so Tracy took us all to lunch at Cafe la Bellaitalia, which was wonderful as always, and that night we went to Outback. Wednesday, Gail had to leave, but luckily not until the afternoon, so she was able to go to Toddler Tales with us. We were laughing so hard; there was this point in the storytime where the kids were shaking their shakers and singing the ABC song. Kate decided that was time to stand in the middle of the circle (it's fine if kids don't sit still during storytime; the teacher even encourages movement/dancing/etc.) and shake and dance wildly as she "sang" along. It was so cute (and so funny; everyone was laughing); the teacher even said, "That was absolutely beautiful, Kate." Ha! I love my little spunky toddler.

Then Gail watched Kate at the park while I finished up some editing (this has been an extremely busy time at work for me, so it was nice to have someone to help with Kate!) and we headed to lunch in Middleton with Dan so he could say goodbye to his mom. Then we dropped Gail off at the airport (poor little Kate had a fit that Grandma Gail was going bye-bye!), which ended a wonderful visit. Hopefully she will be back to visit soon!

Here are some of the pictures I got with my new camera. Dan actually gave it to me on Friday so that I could use it over the weekend. Since I knew what I was getting, it would have been torture to wait until Tuesday! I'm having so much fun playing with it; poor Kate probably thinks Mama's taking even more pictures than normal!


Silly girl (with chalk on her dress; luckily it all came out!)








A close-up of the first bouquet of flowers I got from my mom! They were sent on Friday (so obviously way early) and weren't exactly what she ordered, so I got a replacement bouquet on my birthday. Nice!


Gail & I were laughing as I was playing the "Draw Something" game on my phone. An artist I am not!


Hanging out in her PJs on Saturday morning.


Love those curls!


I love this face so much


"Really, Mama? More pictures?"


"You! Stop taking pictures."


Oops, didn't focus properly! Still a cute pic though...

Art Class & the Zoo

We had such a fun weekend. I know I always waver back and forth on what my favorite season is, but it's been confirmed; it's definitely spring. And this was the perfect spring weekend!

Friday we had art class again. We painted, which Kate absolutely loves (and it's quite messy, but hey, what can you do). Afterward we went to this yummy restaurant called Brocach and met Meghan and Adelaide there. Kate always has so much fun when Adelaide is around!

Sunday we went to the zoo as a family. Kate absolutely loves seeing all the animals; her new favorites seem to be the "mah-mee" (monkey) and "raf" (giraffe). And of course a lot of time was spent in the play area; she absolutely loves the slides there. It's so much easier when there's two of us, too, since Dan can walk her up the stairs and then I can catch her (or vice versa). I love our little zoo; it's not the biggest, but for being free, it's really quite nice! Afterward we ate at the Laurel, always one of my favorite places. All in all, it was the perfect spring weekend. And this week, Grandma Gail will be coming to celebrate her birthday with us, so Kate is very excited about that!

At art class:










At the zoo:





















She saw the ropes and we had to stop and bounce them, just like in Toddler Tales




Admiring the giraffes