Holiday Fun!

Kate & I have been having a great time getting into the holiday spirit the last couple of days. On Thursday, we went to our Tiny Tots dance class before heading to Olbrich Gardens with a playgroup we recently joined to see the holiday train show. We both loved it! Not only did she enjoy seeing the other kids, but she adored the multiple trains snaking their way through a jungle of poinsettias. Afterward, we spent time wandering through the humid conservatory; a very pleasant experience compared to the cold outside! Kate loved looking at all the plants, flowers, fish and birds. Oh, and climbing the stairs repeatedly was at the top of her list, too; not that I'm complaining! It must have tired her out, because we came home, had lunch, and then she took a three-hour nap, which enabled me to get a big chunk of work done. Win/win for us both!

Saturday night we made popcorn, watched Rudolph, and then tried to make gingerbread houses out of the kit we had. Unfortunately, the kit was a year old, so the gingerbread icing didn't stick very well; all but one of our houses crumpled. Oh well; we still had a great time making them!

And then today there was SNOW! Kate was so excited; we went to the park by our house and played there this morning, building snowmen, making snow angels, and just stomping around in the winter wonderland. Even though I could tell by her red cheeks and nose that she was cold, she didn't want to come back inside!

 Before heading to Olbrich

 I love her candy cane dress!

 

At the train show (the pics are smaller because I took them with my phone)

 Making our gingerbread house

 Oops! Oh well; Kate said this was her house to decorate. Fine by me!

 "Get my coat, please! I want to go outside!"

A note about the background....

I know that this background, while pretty, makes the photos a little hard to see. But if you just click on the photos, it should bring up a slideshow free of any background pattern, so you can see the photos clearly.

Just a heads up!

Our First Christmas Tree!

Our first real Christmas tree, that is. We've always had an artificial one before, but for some reason this year I really wanted a real tree. So we got this beautiful Frasier Fir from Menard's on Sunday, and we had so much fun that evening decorating it while we listened to Christmas music. Kate was so happy; she kept saying, "We need MORE orn'ments!" There was this little patch close to the ground that was just jammed with all of the ornaments Kate put on; Dan & I had to discreetly spread them around when she wasn't looking.

 In the process of getting the lights up

Breakfast with Santa

On Saturday, December 1, we went to the Esquire Club with Tracy and her girls to have breakfast with Santa. Kate was so excited to meet St. Nick, and all the proceeds benefited local food pantries, so it was a win/win for all of us! She wasn't scared of him at all; she just went right up to him and sat on his lap. Quite a change from last year!

 What a little angel!

I Love This Girl!

I'm always happy to stay home with Kate, but there are some days that it just hits me, "I am so blessed to be this little girl's mama, and to spend all day, every day with her." Last Thursday was one of those days. We didn't even necessarily do much, but we had such a blast just being together. We went to her Tiny Tots class at Virginia Davis Dance in the morning, and Kate did such a fantastic job! She was doing really well listening to the teacher, and she really has a knack for all the moves. She's definitely more coordinated than I am! The teacher even commented, "Wow, Kate, I am so impressed with your listening!" (Can you tell that listening is something we're working on with her?)

Then we came home, had lunch, and played with her Little People for awhile before heading up to read books (a LOT of books; Kate loves reading, so I'm not complaining!) and settling down for a nap. Well, Kate napped, I worked. So the day wasn't even anything out of the ordinary, really, but it was just so fun to spend time with my little girl, seeing her so happy and having so much fun. I'm such a lucky mama, and when Kate tells me, "I love you, Mama!" (like she does multiple times a day), it makes my heart melt.

 Happily playing with her Little People

 Her funny "mad" look. We checked out a book called Cleo's Christmas or something like that, and the artist drew Cleo looking really mad (although I doubt it was intentional). So now whenever we read the book, Kate says, "Cleo mad!" and she makes this funny mad face. It always makes me laugh, though, because Kate always looks like she has a hint of a smile, and she doesn't look very mad at all!

 In her new "Santa's Lil' Helper" shirt from Nana

A Trip Down to Milwaukee

On Sunday, November 18, Dan, Kate and I went down to Milwaukee to see the production of Disney Live! It was a show with Aladdin, Jasmine, Ariel, Eric, and then some people from Toy Story, as well as Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, etc. A lot of the classic Disney songs were re-mixed as pop, reggae, etc. Kate really seemed to like it, although she wanted to get up and dance to all the songs, which is fine, except she wanted me to dance in the aisles with her! Since I wasn't willing to block other people's view, we headed up a few rows to an empty area and danced there. Kate loved it! And, as a funny side note, we saw Sam, one of our friends from music class, sitting just a few rows behind us! Small world.

 We went to Benihana's beforehand; Kate loved it! She is the only two year old I know who absolutely devours filet mignon!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween week. Kate got to wear her Cinderella costume to her ballet class on Monday (I don't know if I mentioned in a previous post, but she got bumped up from the two-year-olds class on Tuesdays to the three-and-four-year-olds Monday Fairy Fun class because the teacher felt she was too advanced for the two-year-old class, which was pretty cool), and she was so happy about that. She does a great job in that class; she even remembers the terms of what they learn (like sache--who knows if I'm spelling that right) and shows Dan when she gets home.

Then on Halloween, I woke her up from her nap to get her ready for trick-or-treating at the mall and then trick-or-treating with Rori afterwards, but this silly girl decided she didn't want to be Cinderella anymore. Why? Because I had drawn whiskers and cat eyes on myself in preparation for trick-or-treating, so Kate decided she wanted to be a cat as well. No amount of coaxing or cajoling or "Remember how excited you were to wear your pretty dress trick-or-treating?" worked, and since I'm very much a choose-your-battles type of parent (and this is NOT a battle I think worth fighting), I naturally gave in to her request.

I put whiskers on her face and dressed her in black, and then we were off to Target to look for cat ears. Unfortunately, 4:15 pm on Halloween afternoon is not the time to look for new additions to your costume; all cat ears were out. However, we did find some bat ears in the dollar section, so we figured that would do. After hurriedly purchasing those, we went trick-or-treating at the mall (which Kate absolutely loved!), followed by a stop at the indoor play area there (which she also loved!) and then it was home to pick up Dan and head over to the Hines.

Kate had so much fun trick-or-treating with Rori. She said "thank you" almost every time she got candy, even without me prompting her, and she's so good about asking me if the candy is something she can have. I just love this little pumpkin... er, I mean, cat. :)

 Before ballet class

 Her pained "smile" that she gives me whenever I ask her to smile. 

 The pumpkin coach that Dan made for Kate

 In her "I love my mummy" shirt she wore to Toddler Tales (I should have had her wear her costume, though, since about half of the kids did)

 Claudine Werewolf (from Monster High) and the cutest cat ever; aka Rori and Kate