Happy Birthday Kate!

 

It’s been one crazy week! The day after Kate’s bday, I started packing up my entire classroom and moving it into boxes in my basement. Nothing weirder than packing away the last decade of my life; but also, so exciting!  I’m so looking forward to being at home next year with my two babies.  Now that the moving has almost ceased, I finally have a moment to catch up on the rest of life…and the blog.  So…

look who’s 3!

To celebrate, Miss Kate wanted to party Mermaid-style.  The talented, Dave, made these cutest cupcakes,  as well as ordered all sorts of Mermaid decor. 

Then on Sunday, we had my family over for Party #1.  We did a little dinner and presents with them…

and then a few hours later, we hosted party #2 with Dave’s family.  Party Dos, featured cake and icecream, and Brazilian lemonade, and of course, more presents.

Kate came out with a whole lot of loot.  Our family room has been a mess for days with her new toys.  While there were many favorites, her new Cinderella dress and princess scooter probably take the cake.

On Monday, which was her real birthday, we hit Shrek 4. Kate would tell you she loved it; I, on the other hand, would tell you she was very concerned and nervous for most of the movie. Later, Kate received a phone call from the Little Mermaid herself ( a real hit) and then we went out to dinner.  Brick Oven… we heart you.  But, mostly, we heart our little girl.  Happy Birthday, Baby Kate.

Summer Love

With summer approaching, some magical things are taking place. First on the list, the return of the Snow Shack. Kate saw it beckoning from afar last Wednesday and begged me to stop. What's a mom to do? Kate ordered "Pink", while I went with the unbeatable, Tiger's Blood. Of course, when the orders were up, she actually wanted the red one (mine), leaving me to eat her less delicious pink shaved ice. Anyway, it was quenching enough to draw us back for a repeat visit on Thursday, and I'm sure several more times in the months to come.

Also with summer's unveiling comes lessons. Starting the first day of summer...Kate will be trying her hand at dancing. She and I also took a trip to the Glass Slipper last week. We bought a brand new leotard, pink tights, and black ballet slippers. The woman helping us oo'ed and awe'd over Kate and was so cute with her. She even gave her some glitter stamps for her cheek and hand. And, oh, you should see her in her LITTLE leotard...that belly is just to die for! I can't wait to watch her tiptoeing across the dance floor.

Kate is also signed up for swimming lessons this summer. She's pretty brave already when it comes to swimming; we just need work on getting the head under the water (like any kid, I suppose). Weird that I have a kid old enough to do these things now.

On Saturday we renewed the zoo passes and spent the afternoon with animals. With some construction about to take place, there actually wasn't a whole lot of animals to be seen.

Oh, except for this stinkin' cute little baby elephant.

We made the most of it with a carousel and train ride, which is probably the best thing the zoo has to offer anyway.

And last, because I love summer so much, I'd rather not spend all of it indoors and potty training. I've put off the potty training thing all year long until I was done with work. And, although I'm not quite done with work yet, it's time. Here's my worry: who's to say I'm even capable of training a child to use the toilet? I've never done it before...no past experience to triumph over. Furthermore, I'm well aware that some people possess talents that others don't...maybe this is one of those talents I have zero knack for. Truth be told, she's pretty good at it...so long as she's roaming around nakey. But, let's face it, we live in a world where that tends to be frowned upon. The second you put panties on, she gains a false sense of security and it's over. Any last pointers before I dive in?

What Goes On Behind Closed Doors…

Okay, so admittedly, being taken into a dark room in the back of a mall and getting lubricant rubbed on your belly by a Romanian "doctor" may not be the ideal scenario for having an ultrasound. But when you can find out Baby's gender as early as 14 weeks...it makes for a really worthwhile Family Home Evening activity. Thus, we seized the opportunity.

In all fairness, the "doctor" was really nice. He gave us ample viewing time, and made comments like "I love this baby's profile," (shown below) and "this is good baby." So, really…nice guy.

Kate, too, "got to see Baby on T.V.!" for the first time. I think it was fun for her. We saw Baby stretch out its legs completely straight, which is something neither of us had ever seen. Baby also appears to be a right-hand thumb sucker (unlike Big Sister, Kate, who prefers her left). You can see in the pic below the right hand going in for the suck:And the reason for going...

drumroll

please...

We are so happy; would have been excited no matter what Baby's gender was. Even though we have all the baby girl stuff in the world (sigh...for thousands in lost $$$), it's best we're having a boy. This may be the last (so for sure, we'll get one of each now). Plus, after several weeks of looking over baby names of the pink kind, Dave and I were stumped. We do, however, have a few boy names so it all works out. Plus, we're so happy for Kate to have a baby brother! I hope they will be best buds.

After the backroom appointment, we had dinner and let Kate ride the merry-go-round. A perfect evening, thanks to Dave's brilliant mind and fun idea #1,908,674.

I Lub You

Okay, so I must be the girl that Mother's Day was made for...because I absolutely love the day. But what's new? I love any holiday.

Saturday morning I slept in an extra hour and when I woke up I came downstairs to kiss my Baby Kate. She quickly leapt from the couch saying, "We got a surprise for you, Mom! Come here! I show you." She led me into the front room and opened a drawer revealing a colorful Mother's Day card that her daddy had helped her make. Just then Dave walked in saying, "Hey, that was supposed to be a surprise!!! It's not Mother's Day yet!" Of course, I was happy to get an early surprise.

So her card had stenciled drawings of flowers, sunshine, and butterflies, and then on the inside...this, along with the absolute cutest voice recording of Kate saying, "Happy Mo'ers Day, Mom. I lub you."

OH! I could listen to it over and over; she is so darling.

Dave, too, has been full of fun surprises. Flowers, cards, chocolates, window cleanings, extra help with Kate, etc.---but then he's pretty good at doing stuff like that on the non-holidays too. Church and our dinners with our moms on Sunday were lovely, full of lots of delicious treats. We even got to talk to "Uncle Mike on a Mission!"

I didn't always love this day, but since becoming a mom, I really do love it. So much of the day to day stuff can make motherhood hard so it's nice to have a day to remind me of just how lucky I am to be a mom; as well as having a wonderful mom, mother-in-law, and grandmas too.

Restaurant Reviews, Pixie Dust, My Swiss Heritage, etc.

Last week Ashley and I needed a quick break away from our bossy little two year old so we decided to try a new restaurant. We had read about Pizzeria 712 in a magazine last year and had been wanting to try it for some time. It’s a little hard to notice and we even thought it had gone out of business. It’s in that half-built eyesore apartment building just south of Center St in Orem. I’m sure you’ve seen the thing…

Anyhow after a short wait we were seated in a very small but modern dining room. The food was great, we each tried different starters and for entrees they only offer pizzas. The selection was fairly limited but the food was great.

I borrowed these pics from their website. I’m sure they won’t mind since I’m giving them a good review.

For dessert we headed up State Street about a block to The Chocolate (dessert cafe).

It’s a bakery in an old renovated home serving cakes, cookies, pie, you name it they’ve got it, kind of stuff. The place was packed so we got our cake to go. I highly recommend this place for sugar-addicts like myself. But eat it quick, my lemon curd cupcake was stale by the next day.

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Last Monday for FHE we were invited to the local Lone Peak HS production of Peter Pan! Our neighbor was in the play and her parents needed to liquidate a few overstocked tickets. So we were happy to oblige them and the whole fam-damily packed up and went to the play. Leave it to Lone Peak “A World Class High School” (Just ask them yourselves, they’ve written it on the side of the building) to put on a world class production of J M Barrie’s classic children’s tale. The play was great, complete with girl-playing-boy in some sort of creepy confusing awkward Peter/Wendy romance. But why mess with a classic, right? Kate and I were completely amazed with the flying effects, so much so, that Kate is quite convinced she should be able to really fly now. Overall, the talent was really great for high school kids and bravo to anyone that can keep a 2 year old captivated through the second act of anything!

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Ashley already posted about our nice visit to the folks over at Maternal Fetal Medicine (Perinatology) at AF Hospital. Here’s a scanned image of our little bean just for posterity…

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This whole “Winter in May” weather scenario has been making me kind of restless and I really wanted to go to St George for the weekend. We priced it out and there was obviously something going on down there because rooms were booked solid! While at work on Friday I decided to see if I could get any last minute deals closer by. I contacted the Zermatt in Midway and they hooked us up with a package deal that include a dining credit for pretty cheap and they upgraded our room for free.

When we checked in they gave us a coupon for buy one get one free spa treatments and 20% off dinner. So we took them up on both offers and had a great weekend complete with relaxation time and the seafood buffet at Schneitter’s. If you haven’t made the drive up the canyon to try this seafood buffet I highly recommend it. The dessert bar alone is reason to go. Actually the dessert bar is the best part.

Kate’s one true love is staying at ‘heltels’; she was in heaven just being there. She loved riding the carousel, they started it up just for her.

The next morning, breakfast was included in the package, and after letting the food digest a bit, we hit the swimming pool. After check-out, Grandma Sherrie and Grandpa Lyle called us and wanted to meet at the zoo. On the way down the canyon the snowy weather change our minds so we settled for meeting up at the Living Planet Aquarium to see the new penguin exhibit. Yikes! Avoid that place for a few months, the crowds were pretty crazy, I’m sure they were violating the fire code.

So that’s pretty much it! When you start noticing I’m packing on the sympathy pounds, you’ll know why.