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!

Kate on the Phone

Kate is fascinated by phones; she loves to hold them to her ear and have a "conversation." It's so funny to watch her!

Kate Walking

I wanted to get a quick video of Kate walking, since they're so cute at this age when they truly are still "toddling." Here she is!

More Milwaukee

On Monday night, my mom, Kate and I went to Karl Ratzch's, which is this great German restaurant downtown. Their sauerbraten and spaetzle is amazing (not quite as good as my dad's, but still very good). Kate was very well-behaved, which is nice (it probably helped that we went right at 5:30, so she wasn't too tired!) and it was fun to hang out just the three of us. I'm so glad my mom gets to see her granddaughter so much, even though she lives in another state.




Silly girl!


Kate "cooking"




Kate being silly




At Karl Ratzch's


Kate & the Mozart Mouse Nana bought for her at the convention


It looks like Mozart Mouse is being used as a phone, which isn't surprising; everything is a phone to Kate these days!




Kate practicing her new skill--walking!







The view from our room


Kate & I working on our respective laptops

My mom's visit

We've been having a great time with my mom here. We went down to Milwaukee on Saturday night, so she should go to her music conference that started on Sunday, and the hotel we were staying in was absolutely gorgeous. It was the Hilton right downtown, and it was stunning. Very opulent and ritzy without being gaudy. The first night there (Saturday) we ate at the Miller Time Pub right in the hotel, and it was pretty good. Overpriced, like all hotel food, but still good.

Then on Sunday, Dan, Kate and I went to Discovery World while my mom was at her conference. We had a blast! There was so much there to see. Kate loved the aquarium; every fish she saw, she was enthralled. We also went to the electronics exhibit (you can guess who loved that the most!), the Les Paul guitar exhibit and this recreation of a 19th century cargo schooner. That was very interesting, although I definitely got claustrophobic when I went down into the crew's quarters; talk about cramped!

Sunday night, we ate at Benihana's, which was delicious as always, but the service was incredibly slow. We were there over two hours! At least it was fun to hang out together and enjoy some good food, but still. Then Dan took the Badger Bus back to Madison so he could go to work the next day, and my mom and I just hung out at the hotel.


At lunch at the hotel restaurant before we headed to Discovery World




Kate enthralled with the aquarium. You can see she's pointing, which is her new favorite thing to do





Cutie pie in her new stroller! Well, it's not "new"; we got it for my baby shower, but this was the first time we could use it, because before this she was too little and needed to stay in her stroller that we could set her car seat in.




Kate & Mama looking at the jelly fish


Learning about levers and screws or something scientific like that