Fun with the Finger's

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Happy Birthday Kate Daniels!!

I am still trying to take it in that my baby girl is 2 years old! Why does time have to fly by so fast?! I still remember the day I had her so vividly! This little girl has brought so much joy to our lives and I don't know what I did without her. She is so amazing to watch and her personality is so cute. She is now talking so much and will repeat almost anything you say. She is still so happy almost all the time and while she can be a handful for sure, she is just too precious. She can tear a room up in a matter of seconds and I laugh at her all the time because she is into EVERYTHING! I love every minute of it though. One thing about a second child or at least for me, you have seen how quick things go by with that first one so I try to soak up and enjoy every second.
We decided to make her birthday a special day for sure! We started our day by heading to Rebekah's house to get ready to head to the water park. Cohen has been asking when we could go back to the water park because she enjoyed it so much last summer. We love going and it is perfect for young kids so we made it our first (of many I hope) visit this summer. Amanda and Erica were with us too...field trip #2 so far! We made our Chic-Fil-A run for breakfast and headed on. When we got there we got everyone lathered up and changed and let them play. Cohen had been slow to go down the little water slide last year, but not this year. She went with Rylee and went down right away. I was so proud of her! She loves Rylee and stuck with her most of the day. Kate, who usually loves the water, was a little hesitant about getting in. I think the people overwhelmed her. She did warm up slowly and had fun playing in the little water fountains. Maybe she will play more and more each time we go. The kids are such a good group of kids. Everyone plays so well together and they make it easy on us! The only bad thing about it was a large summer camp came while we were there with about 300 kids! We made the best of it but we are ready to go back when no camp is there! The kids enjoyed it regardless though. We let them go in the indoor pool, play in the lazy river and just swim. I know they were worn out when we left. We grabbed a quick lunch to eat in the car on the way home. We had to go get ready for Kate's birthday cookout!! We love to party in this house for sure!

Kate & Nolan playing in the water

Birthday Girl!

Heading down the ramp in the indoor pool

Cohen wanted me to take her picture swimming to me. I love how she is actually smiling underwater!

When we got home it was time to get everything ready for Kate's birthday cookout. We were having our family over to celebrate her birthday. We celebrate birthdays several times in our house! Any excuse to party! We stuck with the Minnie Mouse theme as well. I had used the same invitation for both days :) They were too precious not to. Gina did an awesome job on Kate's cake. I loved it and so did she. This time when everyone sang she loved it and kept smiling! She even tried blowing out the candles. I'm so glad the weather was nice, we just enjoyed being outside and being with our family. Its still soaking in that Kate is now 2 years old!

Kate's invitation...this is Saturday's but I kept them the same

How cute is this cake?!

I wanted to take Kate's picture with her cake and this was the series of pics I got. She started out looking upset because I got on to her for eating the icing in one spot, but then I made her laugh and got a good one.

Did I mention Kate's new pouty face...she's becoming an expert at it when she doesn't get her way!

Had to have the cute cake pops too!

We are hot and sweaty looking rough but we had to get one with our birthday girl

Singing to Kate...she loved it today!

I married into a "special" family

Bebe and Kate

Kate was giving Bebe some "love"

Nanny & Taylor

All I had to do was ask if she wanted to open presents and she squealed and came running. I think she is getting the hang of this birthday thing!

A new sandbox from Pop & Sug! She had her purse and cake pop in one hand and petted the "turdle" in the other

Happy Birthday Kate Daniels! We love you!!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Cohen's New Bling

Monday was a big day for Cohen...she got her ears pierced! I had told her that once she turned 5 she could get them pierced. She backed out around her birthday because she was too afraid of how it would hurt. Recently she's had a few friends get theirs pierced and she has some that have had theirs pierced so I think that helped her decide to do it. When she told me she wanted to I knew I better go for it before she changed her mind so after we got up and got going on Monday we headed to Commerce to get them done. I had hoped they could pierce them both at the same time but there was only one girl working when we got there so it would have to be done separately. Cohen was so caught up in looking at all the cute earrings! The ones she chose for herself were little multi-colored flowers. She told me they would match so many things :) She told me she was a little nervous and I had told her it was ok that it would be real quick. She was so brave!! She told her which ear to do first and I had her hold my hand. She jumped just a little and when I asked her if she was ok she nodded yes. I did ask her if it had hurt and I thought she might cry but she barely nodded yes and just sat still. I told her it was almost over and she handled the second ear just as well as the first. I was so proud of her for doing so well. I think I was nervous for her. She was so excited to show off her new earrings. She had hoped Auntie P would be at work at Ann Taylor but she wasn't there yet so we had to go but she was excited to get to see people and show them off. Now I know I'll get the question on when she can change them out every day!

Showing off her new earrings

Kate's Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Saturday we celebrated Kate's birthday with her friends! Her party was Minnie Mouse but we really had just a fun outdoor theme going on which all the kids loved! Between the baby pool and sprinklers, trampoline, and jump house I think it was a fun night. The kids also had fun with the water balloons and we actually had an adult water balloon toss. It was so nice to sit back and enjoy a fun night with our friends and family. Kate has always loved singing "Happy Birthday" and really didn't know what to think now that it was her turn to be sang to. I had made a grocery run that afternoon to get balloons and last minute groceries and in the bakery was the cutest little Minnie Mouse cake...just her size. I had to get it! Her actual birthday cake I ordered was for Tuesday, her actual birthday, so this was perfect to go along with the Minnie Mouse cake pops. When we sang to Kate she got a little overwhelmed and just started to cry! She has this new "pout" face she likes to do and Caron got the best picture of her making it at her cake. She reminded me so much of Cohen because Cohen did the same thing at her 3rd birthday. I don't know if the singing is that bad or what it is :) Kate had Cohen blow out her candles and then she was fine because she enjoyed eating her cake or icing actually. Then it was back out to play. I can't thank

everyone enough for coming and celebrating with us!! It was a perfect way to celebrate!

The kids had fun in the jump house

Eating with her friends!

This picture cracks me up! The girls were having fun showing me the animals so when I got my camera and asked them to hold up their animals Carolina and Kate held theirs up and Autumn just laughed and held up her hot dog.

The cutest cake pops thanks to Angie McCauley!

Kate's personal Minnie Mouse cake

Caron was so sweet to take pictures while we sang to Kate. You can see she was tore up when the singing started :)

Singing to the "not-so-happy" birthday girl

How precious is that sweet face

Since Kate wouldn't blow out the candles, Cohen was happy to help

Everything was ok once she got a taste of icing

Carolina enjoying her cake pop

Kate was sharing with "sissy"

Waiting on water balloons

Autumn was loving the kiddie pool even if it was chilly

The adult water balloon toss...Caron & Jason were the winners!!

Autumn was giving Kate love

We got so caught up in the party that we forgot about opening her gifts. We did it later that night and she loved everything! Everyone was too sweet!

Presents!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Zoo Day

Thursday we had a fun day with friends at the Greenville Zoo. This zoo is such a good one to take kids to and boy did we have the kids! The more the merrier! We actually were able to get a group rate. Rebekah and I left the house Thursday morning (after we wrestled with car seats) and headed to Chic-Fil-A to meet up with Amanda and Erica for breakfast. We let the kids eat then play so we could eat!

After breakfast we headed on to the zoo. The kids had a blast and we enjoyed ourselves too! I think they all enjoyed the lion the best and we had to try our trick again to see if we could get the lions stirred up like last time and it did work. He didn't get quite as crazy as he did the last visit but the kids got a kick out of laying down to get them off the rock and at the window. I even got a picture of the lion getting close to the glass to check out Macy :) She was our brave volunteer. It is crazy to see them act up like that! The great part about this zoo is that it is pretty small but caters to kids so much. They ran through the misters, played on the playground, climbed trees and took in all the animals. They even cooperated for all our pictures! We had a great time and I'm looking forward to more "field trips" together this summer. We're off to a good start.
On our way home we grabbed lunch and Rebekah and I got smart and let them eat in the car. It was much easier than loading and unloading 6 kids and getting everyone buckled. Such a fun day and even better because it was with fun friends!