The 4th of July and other things

Our fourth of July was a lot of fun. We spent the morning just hanging out (and Dan wanted to go to the gym, so he took Kate along. She always loves going to the kids' club, and that meant that I had an hour and a half of uninterrupted time to read the absolutely phenomenal book--Through a Glass Darkly--that I'm currently plowing through; yay!) Then we went over to Tracy's for grilling out; we had our usual yummy food (hot dogs, chicken terriyaki, etc.), and I brought along some homemade red velvet cupcakes (minus the red dye) that were pretty good, if I do say so myself! It was so hot out that Kate, Rori & I swam from 8 pm until 9:30 pm, and when we got out of the pool, we weren't even cold! We were able to see the Monona fireworks from Tracy's yard, which was nice; Kate loves fireworks now, but I didn't want to deal with the crowds. So this was perfect.

On Friday, the heat wave continued. Dan had plans to hang out with his friends after work to celebrate the release of some software they had worked on, so I decided to take Kate out for a fun little night, just the two of us. First, we went to Laredo's, because I was in the mood for Mexican food (sadly, it's nowhere near as good as Frida's, which was my absolute favorite restaurant in Madison, but that went out of business at the beginning of the year). But it was still good, and of course it's fun to just be with my little Kater-bug. After dinner, we went to open swim at the Sun Prairie Aquatic Center. She loved it! We had a lot of fun splashing, going down the little kids' slides, and just hanging out. We also saw some of our friends from music class and Toddler Tales, so it was fun to chat with them for a bit.

Saturday morning we went swimming in our pool, which was nice and relaxing. Sunday was still nice and warm (although not oppressively hot) so we drove to Hilldale and had dinner at Pasqual's, which has outdoor seating that we took advantage of.

Then yesterday (Tuesday), I had an all-day meeting at work, so Dan stayed home with Kate. He took her to music class and the park, and from all accounts they had a great day together. I'm glad his work is flexible enough that he can stay home once in awhile to spend this time with Kate. I had a pretty good time; I like my co-workers, and we went out afterward to the Old-Fashioned for dinner, with drinks at Brocach Irish Pub afterward. We had fun, but there were some weird musicians and some not-so-funny comedians there (it was open mic night), so we were laughing awkwardly because we couldn't believe what we were hearing! Kate was asleep when I got home, so I was very happy to see her this morning!

So far, we've just spent the morning playing (interspersed with some cleaning, too, of course, since my mom comes tomorrow!) She loves this tower of alphabet blocks that my aunt Chris gave her, so we have a lot of fun stacking that up and knocking it down. I feel like she knows her alphabet so well, and she even knows what some words start with without looking at a book or the blocks (for example, I'll say, "What letter do Kate and kangaroo start with?" and she knows it's "K". Or I'll say "What do alligator and apple start with?" and she proudly responds, "A!") We also finger-painted together for a bit before lunch; she is such a cute little girl who is so proud of her artwork!

 My "flag" of red velvet cupcakes

 Silly girl; ready to go to Laredo's (complete with purple flip flops!)

 I don't know WHAT kind of smile that was! 

 Enjoying her chips at Laredo's

 I love this girl so much!

 Chomping at the bit, eager to get in the pool at the aquatic center!

 Did I mention I love this cute little face?

 Saturday morning, ready to go swimming in our pool

 Love the sunglasses from the dollar section at Target!

 So serious! 

 "Why are you taking my picture when I'm trying to finger paint?"

So proud of her artwork!

Splash Pad!

It has been hot here. And I meant hot. It's been in the 90s for the past week, and that trend is supposed to continue all this week, too. So, naturally, Kate & I have been spending a lot of time in our pool. And on Thursday, for our playdate with Meghan and Adelaide, we decided we'd go to the Middleton splash pad before going back to Meghan's house for lunch and playtime. The girls loved the splash pad, although then they wanted to play in the park nearby. It was a very nice park, and I'm sure we'll go there in the spring/fall, but when it's 98 degrees at 11 am, it's not exactly slides & swing weather! So we headed back to their house after about a half hour, and the girls had fun eating lunch and playing together. And since the heat didn't let up any, Kate & I went swimming in our pool after her naptime, too. She is such a little water lover (I suppose since she's an Aquarius!); she has no fear. She'll jump right into my arms from the side of the pool, and if her face gets soaked, it doesn't faze her in the least!

Then on Friday, we had our family movie night and watched Mulan. That seems to be Kate's new favorite movie; she's watched it every day since then. On Saturday, I spent the day cleaning up while Dan fixed my car (and Kate watched Mulan, of course) and then Kate and I spent most of the evening in the pool. While we were at the pool, someone asked us if we were going to watch the fireworks (Rhythm and Booms, the largest fireworks show in the midwest, was going on that night). I thought she was asking if we were going to go to the actual show, and I said, no, we didn't want to fight the crowds. She replied that a lot of people just went down to Park Bank (which is literally a 5-minute walk from our house) because you could see them perfectly from there. Since Kate didn't seem too tired, we decided that would be fun to do. She LOVED them! She wasn't scared at all (although she was when the F16s flew over our house; that was loud!) She had fun pointing out all the colors, and when it was all over, she said she wanted to see more. And it was an added bonus that we didn't have to deal with crowds, parking, etc.

On Sunday, we met Tracy and her girls, Chris, Katrina, and my grandparents for lunch at Outback. It was fun to see them, especially since Katrina is moving to Orlando soon, so I'm glad we got to see her before she left! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures at Outback; oh well.

 At the splash pad

 Waiting not-so-patiently for lunch

 "Hmmm... what's Adelaide eating?"

Little A-merrick-a and the beach!

On Sunday, Dan & I took Kate to Little A-merrick-a, a fun, old-style amusement park in Marshall, about 20 minutes from our house. It of course brought back tons of memories from my childhood, since my grandpa took Austin and me there every summer. Kate absolutely loved it! It was La Movida Day, which meant there was all this live Mexican music, so Kate was of course dancing up a storm as we waited in line for the rides. She loved the rides, too; we did the ferris wheel, the carousel, the bumper boats, the train (and the round-trip ride is over two miles long, which is pretty neat, and she loved seeing all the animals. There were horses, ducks, geese, an emu, and even zebras--which she thought was just amazing!) and then of course all the little kid rides (a roller coaster, cars, boats, planes, helicopters, etc.) We had so much fun on our little family outing; such a fun Sunday afternoon!

Then yesterday, it was very warm, so I took Kate to Olbrich Beach. She has a book called "Corduroy Goes to the Beach" so I was telling her, "We're going to go to the beach like Corduroy!" and of course she got so excited for that. The beach was pretty fun; I don't know if we'll go to that same one again, because the water seemed very congested with plants, etc. but we sure had fun playing in the sand and trying to build sand castles! It was so cute; as soon as I mentioned the beach, she knew to bring her wagon with sand toys that my aunt Chris got her for her first birthday. We had a blast! And luckily there are tons of other beaches in this area, too, so even though this one wasn't the best, we have plenty of others to try!

 Ready for the rides!

 Have you ever seen such a beautiful baby?

 Ready for the beach!

 Giving me her silly smile

 Taking a break from sand castle building to eat some pretzels

Such a big girl to pull her toys back to the car!

More Summer Fun

Do you ever have one of those days that just is a really, really perfect day? It might not even be that you do anything exciting or out of the ordinary, but it's just one of those days where you feel happy. We had one of those last Thursday. It was a beautiful day; sunny and warm, but not oppressively hot. We decided to meet Meghan and Adelaide downtown to walk along the lakeshore path and get ice cream at Babcock. So Kate and I drove downtown, and as we were driving to the Lake Street parking ramp, I pointed out various buildings.

• "That's where Daddy and I lived when we first moved in together, before you were born."
• "That's the dorm where Mama lived when she first came to college, and Daddy would come visit. So that was many years before you were born!"
• "That's where Daddy and I used to go see hockey games before you were born."

After several of those narratives, I looked in the rearview mirror, and I could see Kate was looking very serious. After a moment, as if to expel any doubt that things were different now, she said, "But I born now." Ha! Yes you are, and we couldn't be more thrilled!

After meeting up with Meghan and Adelaide on State Street, we walked along the lakeshore path, which brought back so many amazing college memories (I always say that sophomore year was, hands down, my favorite year of college. Dan had moved up to Madison, which was awesome, I had a beautiful dorm right on the lake, I loved my classes, and I was starting to make friends. All of college was fun, but sophomore year was the best).

We then went to lunch at Babcock Hall, and of course the girls loved getting ice cream there! Afterward, we walked back along the lake and then sat and talked on Library Mall for a bit. We thought the girls were sleeping (well, Adelaide actually was; Kate was apparently just pretending!) so we thought we'd let them sleep for a bit. That didn't last long, though, and pretty soon they were up and playing together. They really get along so well, which is nice.

Then that night, we went to the family music night at Sun Prairie Music Academy, and Kate was thrilled that Daddy could come to "mik class" too, and Dan of course loved seeing Kate play the instruments, dance, etc. since he obviously isn't usually with us.  Afterward we took advantage of the nice weather by sitting outside and eating dinner at the nearby Cannery Grill. All in all, it was one of those absolutely perfect summer days.

 Silly girls trying on each others' hats

Summer Fun

When we got back to Madison, Kate & I both had bad food poisoning/stomach flu/something that caused us to be sick for a few days; not fun! So we spent Monday & Tuesday pretty much lounging around and recovering. On Wednesday I took her to the zoo, and we had a lot of fun, but we could only stay a couple hours because we still weren't feeling 100%. But we still had a good time; the bears were so active, I was thinking to myself, "I hope they really can't jump across this ravine, because it looks like they want to!" So that was fun to see.

On Thursday Meghan and Adelaide came over; it was so fun to see them again; it'd been almost a month! We went to the park by our house, and the girls really enjoyed that. On Saturday, we went to an early Father's Day breakfast with the Hines and my grandparents, and then we saw Rori march in the parade with the Monona Grove dance team.

Sunday we had a fun Father's Day; we went to Outback with the Hines and then went to the park in Sun Prairie as a family. All in all we've just been enjoying our summer, and with the hot weather, Kate and I have been spending a lot of time in our pool. She's such a little fish; she always jumps at the chance to go swimming.

 Just relaxing at the zoo!

 One of Kate's favorite animals; the tiger

 On the edge of her seat

 Achoo!

 At the parade

 "Here mom, I got this candy for you"