March 19, 2010

My niece, Jessica, is visiting over our spring break. We have been so busy that we haven't been great about remembering the picture of the day. Last night and this night have been quick pictures before bed. My little book worm is getting a little more reading in before she is off to bed after a long day shopping with Jessica, the shopping queen.

March 18, 2010

We have a little fascination with the light switch in the dining room. It is a dimmer switch, so Kate enjoys learning a little cause and effect while playing with it.

My favorite thing is that she pushes her chair over to the light a few times each day.

Her brain is thinking....

What curious eyes...

March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Today Josh stayed home to help me spring clean the house and to go the St. Paddy's Day Parade. We were in a hurry to get out of the door because we knew it would be hard to find a parking spot downtown, and we forgot our camera. I have a few from my cell phone to share. It was so much fun to watch the parade and the thousands of people that show up for the parade! It is probably the best attended parade in Cedar Rapids. We had a great time.

Hanging Out on Dad's Shoulders

Check That Out!!

I was trying to get a picture of the people and the parade, but my camera phone isn't the best.

Kate liked this lady!

Kate taking a break from the parade!

Asleep on the way home!!

March 16, 2010

Today Kate went to back-up daycare, so I could get some hours in at an elementary school for my grad school. When we got home, Josh was already home and had received a "congrats" balloon from work for being done with their "peak" season. Kate wanted to play outside with the balloon. I had a few amazing leaps in the air to save it : )



My camera died right after I took these pictures, so they had to work for our picture of the day...

March 15, 2010

Today Kate and I enjoyed our beautiful day in the sun! We played outside almost all day long, and I even sat outside in the sun and read during nap time. At one point in the day Kate was chasing Shiner around the yard and tripped and fell. The two of them were in my little garden in the backyard, and Kate fell on the stone edging that I have around it. She began to cry, and I came to save the day. She had a few scratches on her arm and her belly. One scratch on her arm drew a little blood.

"Oh no," Kate says, "It has red paint on it!"

I reply, "No Kate, that is blood."

"Blood?" she questions.

"Yep, when we fall sometimes we bleed." I tell her.

"Okay, I'm okay," she says and is off to chase Shiner some more.



Kate also really enjoys hiding from Shiner when she gets a little snack. She is fearful of Shiner stealing her food. She wanted a pbj sandwich this afternoon after running around outside. She hid under my grandma's old table to keep Shiner away!

March 14, 2010

So, there is this family that I went to high school with that lost their mother to cancer a few years ago. I was not good friends with the kids that were close to my age in high school, but we were pretty good acquaintances. One of the girls in this family graduated a year behind me. She has a blog that I found out from being her friend on Facebook. Their family has decided to do a "Grandma Sharon" weekend. It just happens that her birthday and anniversary of her death are very close in date. The famiy all gathers together to teach their children about their grandma and to keep her memory alive. I find inspiration in this.

The first time they had their weekend, I was pretty impressed. It began a lot of thinking for me. And after their second weekend, I decided that I wanted to do something similiar on a little lower scale to begin teaching Kate about my mother.

Well, today is what would be my mother's 63rd birthday. Josh and I celebrated by calling today Grandma Kate day. Now, we didn't plan much for the day since I informed him of my idea laying in bed last night, but we did sketch out some ideas. It also made me realize that I really don't know my mother that well before she got sick, which makes me sad. I also realized that I need to learn how to crochet and quilt : )

So there is what we planned for today to help remember things about my mother:

1. We went to church. Now this is something we would have done anyway, but we know that church was important to my mother thus why it is important to us.
   
2. We cleaned up the yard. My mother was a big gardener. It really isn't garden season yet, but we did spend some time outside cleaning up the yard making it look nice. I will remember my mother a lot more this summer when we spend a Saturday picking weeds.
   
3. I made burgers on the grill for lunch. Most of the meals I remember from my childhood involve ground beef. Mostly burgers and meatloaf.
4. We went to the library. A lot of my memories of my mother before she got sick were at the Alton library where she was the librarian before she become a Spanish teacher.
   
5. We attempted to stop by an antique shop, but each one we stopped at was closed for the day. Perhpas this week on Spring Break Kate and I will take in good antique shopping experience looking for some green depression ware or a gem of buy!
   
6. I baked her amazing dill bread and my Aunt Annie's banana bread.
   
7. We made her famous enchiladas verdes for dinner : )
   
8. In the evening we all sat around the dinner table and had a tea party. We used Kate's tea set, but we used one of mom's tea pots.
9. Last but not least, Josh and I watched West Side Story after Kate went to bed.

I'm looking forward to next year because perhaps Kate will understand a little better what it was all about. I kept trying to explain things to her today, but I'm not sure how far I got. It was a really special day.

Look what I got at the library!

Mom's famous enchiladas verdes

tea party time

: )

Mmmmm...dill bread...

March 13, 2010

Kate really likes M&Ms. She calls them Yum & Yums. Daddy had to run to the store and brought some home for Kate. She enjoyed them as she woke up from her nap. After she ate a few, she stored the rest of the bag in the truck of her tricycle. Every once in awhile, I would see her open the truck and have one.

March 12, 2010

Tonight we wanted to have family movie night. We got the air-popper out and prepared some popcorn then settled on the couch. We put in the movie, and we were hoping for some little munchkin to cuddle with us and watch the movie. Just as I suspected, Kate couldn't sit and watch the movie with us. She was able to put in a few good minutes while she ate her popcorn, but then she was off to run and jump and skip around the house. I'm a little nervous for her school years : )

March 11, 2010

Tonight I had my last set of parent teacher conferences of the year. Before I know it, my kiddos will be leaving for summer break. This year school year is flying by. Anyways while I was at conferences, something important showed up in the mail.

March 10, 2010

Today I was on the look-out for a "no fear" Kate moment to honor my "no fear" brother, Seth, on what would have been his 34th birthday. My sister, Justina, jokes about how Kate reminds her of Seth, but today there was not a "no fear" moment. I was getting worried when the night was slowly coming to an end, and I didn't have a picture to share. Then at bath time, Kate had decided that she wanted to sing as she bathed. It wasn't the "no fear" moment I was looking for, but it sure made me laugh and smile. Making me laugh and smile is what my brother did the best.

March 9, 2010

Tonight while drawing on our whiteboard easel, Josh and I were drawing shapes and letter and quizzing Kate. She would look over at our shape or letter, say it, and turn back to her own drawing. Suddenly she scribbles something and turns to me, "Look Mommy, I make an M!"

March 8, 2010

Brush 'em Brush 'em Brush 'em

March 7, 2010

Yesterday evening, we ran to Target and a few others stores to putz around as a family. We hadn't been in Tuesday Mornings in a long time. We thought it might be fun to look around. We didn't find much, but Kate walked out with a keyboard. We have been wanting to get her a keyboard for quite some time. I think Josh likes it more than she does. She has been playing and singing with it a lot today.

Enjoy the show!

March 6, 2010

Josh had to work today, so Kate and I had a mommy-daughter day. It make me really excited for the summer to be here when we can have mommy-daughter days every day. The sun was also out, but we did not go out since our front and back yard are landmines thanks to Shiner. We have to wait for daddy to clean it up. We did have a learning experience in the bathroom today with a rainbow from the sun and my glass cotton-ball holder. It was fun to move it around and watch Kate's excitement. My favorite was when she would get too close and it would be on her. She would get so confused on where it went.

March 5, 2010

Tonight we had a very relaxing night at home. Josh pulled out the grill and cooked us up some yummy steaks. I still don't know why I would ever order a steak out when I have the grill master living right here in my house. After dinner, we just enjoyed our evening by planning in the toy room having numerous tea parties. Everyone had to have a sip of tea.

March 4, 2010

Tonight I had parent teacher conferences, so Josh and Kate had a daddy-daughter night. When I got home, I was informed that while playing outside Kate said told her snowman, "I'm Kate and this is my friend, daddy." Josh and Kate have a lot of daddy-daughter activities planned in the next few weeks. We've decided from Kate love of water to enroll her in swimming lessons. So, Josh and Kate will be swimming here soon every Tuesday and Thursday evening.

Here are some of the reasons that we think swimming lessons are in order:

March 3, 2010

Tonight we went over to see Izzie Watts (Chris and Erin, too). Kate was such a big girl holding her. We wanted to take her home with us even if she was fussy. We are really excited to be her friend. I wonder what Kate will teach her in the upcoming years....

March 2, 2010

Kate got her foot stuck in the old wipes container that stores her magnetic letters. These letters are by far Kate's favorite toy. We play with them more than we play trains! The sad thing is that these are letters are ones from when I used to tutor and aren't really a toy we bought for her. I just by chance brought the letters home from school thinking she would want to play with them on the fridge. Little did I know that our letters would be our favorite. She also really enjoys "building" words with them like they do on the show WordWorld. It is really quite cute.




Perhaps one of these days we will let her say her letters on a video for the day. She is getting pretty good at them.

March 1, 2010

We spend time a lot of time every night pulling our train set out and playing trains. Kate likes to go out into the dining room and dump the whole set onto the floor. Santa Clause sure got it right this year!!

February 28, 2010

This weekend was the last weekend that I had weekend class this semester. I was really excited for the weekend to be over since I miss spending time with my two favorite people. It will be so nice to be finished with my program in August.

When I got home on Sunday, Josh and Kate were out in the back yard scooping the snow off the patio, building a snowman, and also pushing each other in the sled. I tried to capture their fun in the snow. I'm hoping that most of the snow is gone this weekend (one can dream, right?).