Tony Stewart wins!!

Happy Halloween!!

Whew! What a whirlwind celebration weekend! I guess this is our future with Kate's birthday and Halloween back-to-back. Anyway, with Halloween on a school day, both kids got to dress up for the fun in their classrooms.

And because I brought her birthday snack to school that day, Kate's job that day was "snack helper" - she was so focused on setting the table for her friends!

Loving having her friends sing her Happy Birthday!

And finally, we were off to trick-or-treat! Our little princess and squirrel had such a fun time walking around the neighborhood. Jack clung to his little pumpkin bucket the entire time, and Kate only chose to eat a granola bar and a fruit roll-up from her loot that night - weird!

Part of the fun of trick-or-treating early is that we can come home and pass out candy to those who stop by our house later, and Kate loves it! She watched excitedly at the window for costumed kids to knock on our door...

Happy 4th Birthday Katelyn Grace!!

Our little princess is 4 years old!! I realize this is old news, but she's still pretty excited about it! In fact, just tonight, she told me that it is not my birthday tomorrow (which it is, yay!) and that it is STILL her birthday and "we are going to skip mommy's birthday" - how rude!

Every birthday morning I would make Kate blueberry pancakes...until this year (*tear*) - she didn't want them! She wanted to share a bagel with Nana instead, and have some Cheerios!

Her stats:

• 38.5 lbs (76%) and 40.5 inches (67%)
• Can write full name Katelyn Judy as well as entire alphabet
• Can write several numbers, though often backwards :o)
• Starting to recognize familiar written words (Mom, Nana, all her friend's names at school, happy...)
• LOVES BOOKS - sleeps with several under her pillow each night; can recite many of her favorites from memory
• Loves games, and can easily play a legitimate game of UNO, Go Fish, Memory, Dominoes
• Still a decent eater, though often she talks about "treats" before she's eaten her meal
• Favorite color is purple
• Still takes long afternoon naps at home most weekends, hit-or-miss at school lately
• Loves playing on our computer, listening to music (ours or hers) / dancing, coloring or working in her activity books, "reading", dramatic play
• Taking first organized class (gymnastics)
• GREAT Big Sister!

On the morning of Kate's birthday she couldn't wait to play with more of her new toys. The princess dress-up game is above, and then both her and Jack took a spin on the new princess scooter!

She was sporting a pretty sweet outfit for her big day....especially the sweet new slipper boots from Amy and the fam - LOVE THEM!!

And thanks to Aunt Fopper, Uncle Tyler, and Cousin Ella for their awesome birthday gift - Disney Princess on Ice tickets!! It was a beautiful day, so we decided to take the Light Rail downtown to watch the show, just Mommy and Kate.

It's pretty fun to hang out with her these days, as she is getting SO grown up. We really enjoyed the show, and Kate enjoyed some special treats while we watched!

A special 4-year-old hug from her Daddy...

Kate's 4th birthday party...

So we were planning on having much of Kate's party outside, at least having the kids do some fun things outside like a p-yata (Kate's word for pinata) and a scavenger hunt...and then the nor'easter hit and dropped some icy rain/snow on us. Thankfully, Calvin's mom offered her services from her "morning melodies" gig that she does at the library for our party. The girls dressed as princesses for the occasion of course and listened attentively...

Evan and Ryan provided a beat in the back of the room...

Miss Leah-Little Mermaid zoning out to the tunes...

And the highlight was letting the kids try plucking the guitar strings...

The singing and dancing worked up small appetites (or maybe it was just a hankering for some Cheetos!) and Kate and Calvin just sat for at least 30 minutes chowing down peacefully in the kitchen. The funny part is that some other party-goers were quite crazy in other rooms in our house. I don't care if it was the Cheetos, my kid was the well-behaved one this time!!

And after they had successfully emptied the bowl, they took in the wintery scene outside the window together (how romantic!)

We were thankful for all the thoughtful gifts for Kate's birthday, especially for a girl who already has more than she knows what to do with... Some highlights were a princess umbrella (she has been wishing for rain ever since!) and a dress-up princess doll kit...

The birthday girl's special request was a pink cake with Cinderella on it, a pearl necklace, and stars/fireworks. I made a makeshift princess castle with my Big Top Cupcake maker, and made small heart cakes around it instead (don't think she didn't notice they weren't stars)...not my best effort

The calm before the storm...

The night before and the day of Kate's birthday party, we tried to relax, as we knew the afternoon would be full of visitors, food, and lots of noise! We woke up and watched the SNOW begin to fall! Eventually, though, the dreary day got the best of us, and we realized we needed some fresh air before the festivities began. We headed to the mall for a Halloween event, where Kate got her face painted, and the kids got their morning wiggles out in the play area...

Cruising!!

A beautiful butterfly for a pretty princess...

Just taking in the activities around him...

...then waiting for the train!

slides are more slippery in tights!

Halloween Parade at school...

Needless to say, Princesses were aplenty in her classroom this year!

Each year, the childcare marches the kids over to the Towson Center where the athletes, coaches, and teachers give them candy. Here, Kate's gymnastics teachers fill 'er up with some goodies...

Post-parade, Nana had quite a following on the carpet for story-time!

Front door folly...

Most mornings I end up going out to my car to load up all our bags before bringing the kids out with me and hitting the road. If I leave the door open, this is what I usually see from my car!

GO RAVENS!!

Catching up... from a few weeks ago

October's been a busy month! A few weeks ago Nana and Papou were visiting and Jack had his first Red Robin experience (although it's not as enjoyable when you are eating the mush in his bowl rather than a nice juicy burger!)...

And right after her grandparents left, Kate waited patiently for her PB&J for dinner while I gave Jack his bath and put him to bed. By 6:20pm she was sacked out on her daddy's lap. We laid her in bed and she didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning! She woke up, gave me a big hug, and said "Mommy, I never had my peanut butter and jelly for dinner!" so guess what she had for breakfast?! This is the effects of fewer and fewer naps at school lately...

A week later we visited UD for mommy's field hockey alumni day. It worked out perfectly, as they were playing Towson that day, so we went up early and spent a beautiful day watching half the game and hanging with friends. Notice Kate's dual-loyalty pom poms (one blue/gold, the other black/gold) for TU and UD, which she loved using during the game. Here she's hysterical after almost falling off this bench while cheering excitedly (and this was just during warm-ups!)

We were happy to visit with mommy's friends/former teammates Juli and Jodi and their 4 little girls. They love Kate and Kate loves them so they always get along really well when we're together.