Where a kid can be a kid!

Saturday we went to Chuck E. Cheese's with my family. We had lots of fun. Once Kate warmed up to the place, she had lots of fun too!

At first, Kate wouldn't ride anything or even let go of whoever was holding her to go look at anything.


But then she decided this place was fun!




And even wanted to give everyone kisses!



Having fun on the merry-go-round...the last "look Mom, no hands!" picture was taken just before she nearly fell to the ground. Lesson here: always hold on to the merry-go-round!

Yesterday was Kate's last day of swim class. Here she is all ready to go. We didn't get any pictures there but she had a really good time. She loves the water.

One of Kate's favorite things to do is to pull everything out of something and then put it all back in...her toy box, her books, her clothes. It amuses her for quite some time.
Taking them all out

Stopping to model her tights

Putting them all back in

Kate loves using her spoon all by herself. She eats her oatmeal by herself every morning. Notice her right hand in these pictures. She must really be concentrating!


Kate and I took a trip to visit an old friend of mine from college. I realized now that I live close to where I went to college, we weren't too far away from each other. It was about an hour or so drive...which felt like at least twice that long with Kate in the backseat! Everything amused her for only about 3-5 miles. But I was prepared with lots of toys. Anyways...here are some pictures of Kate meeting her little boy, Carson.

family, food and fun!

We had a family picnic yesterday at Moraine State Park. The weather hung in there most of the day. It was sunny and beautiful when we left so I didn't think to pack any warmer clothes. Silly, mama! Luckily Dustin's aunt brought me 2 tubs of clothes she was giving me so Kate had a warm jacket to wear when it started raining! I never heard a peep from Kate the entire day. She was such a little angel! She loves to play outside so she was in her glory. Here are some pics of her playing with the kiddos and pappy and grandma.



She definitely tired herself out!

Happy Father's Day

Reasons why Kate loves her Daddy:
* He can always make her laugh.
* He teacher her fun things like how to head bang and make this stinky face.

* He has always shared his love for music with her. She's loved it from the start!


* He was the first one to change her diaper in the hospital and has never complained about doing it since.
* He reads to her. It's so cute to listen to him reading in such a sweet voice to her.

* He loves her SO much!


WE LOVE YOU DADDY!!

Happy Father's Day to Pap and Pappy too!!

Kate loves spaghetti and her mama!!!

Kate loves to eat spaghetti by herself. It's sooo messy!! Notice it all around her face even on her eyebrows!




I guess Kate didn't want to wait for me to finish the dishes...She got so tired of tugging on my legs and saying "uuhh" (up) that she went into the living room, got her elmo chair, put it down as close to me as she could and sat down beside me!

We love our family!!

We had a great weekend home visiting family again. I really love living so close to our families. We spend almost every weekend visiting with them. Friday we went out to dinner with my sister-in-law, Melissa. And my sister and her family ended up meeting us there. It was nice and kid-friendly...99 cents for an entire meal for Kate!! Saturday we went to a wedding all day, Kate-free! Dustin's aunt babysat Kate while we enjoyed the day together. And this was the first time I didn't even call once to check in!! Sunday we visited with our families and had a BBQ at my sister's house. It was another fun weekend! Kate is getting bigger by the second.

Here she is helping Uncle Justin cut the grass.



Her new jammies from her Aunt Deeni. Kate does this when you say "oh no!" She puts her hands to her head!!


My dad can't wait to take Kate on her first motorcycle ride! Well, second...it turns out I actually rode on his motorcycle with him while I was pregnant before we found out!! Here she is with her Pap!


In this picture, it is so painfully obvious that Kate is getting WAY too big!! Look at that big girl!!

Just a few cute pictures to share

I got Kate a new book that came with this tiger mask. She looks so cute as a tiger!

I know Kate looks quite silly in this picture but I think it's too funny not to share! She found a Q-tip on the floor and is demonstrating that she knows just what to do with it.

Kate's 1st time eating messy spaghetti!

A Weekend of Fun

We had a really fun weekend. Despite only being packed for 1 day but deciding to stay 3...the weekend at home was great! We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law. On Friday we went to a car show that my brother's racecar was in. Saturday Melissa, (my sister-in-law) Kate and I went shopping. (since I was only packed for 1 day we needed a few things) Then Kate stayed with Dustin and his parents while I went to the races with my dad, Justin and Melissa. It was fun!


Sunday we went to Meadowcroft village. An excerpt from the website describes it like this: Take a trip back in time with Meadowcroft's carefully recreated 19th century village celebrating rural life. Visitors can experience how our ancestors lived by stirring apple butter, dipping candles and celebrating an old-fashioned Indepedence Day in July. During your visit, stop by the one-room schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, church, covered bridge, or one of two log houses. Then travel back to the dawn of prehistoric people in North America with a visit to the Meadowcroft Rockshelter. They weren't churning butter or dipping candles when we were there but we still had a good time.

Here's Melissa throwing the spear (i can't remember what it was really called) the blacksmith, Melissa and I sporting the latest fashions of the day, the one room schoolhouse, the barber shop and the covered bridge; known as the kissing bridge.

The boys had to wear this bonnet if they were bad in school.


Kate writing on the slate board


Dustin and me in front of the kissing bridge


Kate was exhausted by the end of the day


MEMORIAL DAY

baby's crying

Kate started this crying one day while looking at a book with a crying baby in it. Now she does this every time I ask her...

random

I haven't blogged for soooo long you might think I'd be here blogging something really cool or important. NOPE. I've got nothing. Here is some of the randomness that has been our life lately.

I just thought Kate looked super cute this day :)


Kate with Uncle Justin


Her new surprised face


Kate eating her 1st Popsicle...she loved it (actually it was daddy's popsicle that she stole from him)


Kate looking pretty at church


Kate's 2 favorite things these days...her elmo chair and goldfish. she went out to the kitchen, got these out of the cupboard and brought them in and sat down on her elmo chair to enjoy them.


Kate's crazy hair after a good night's sleep


Kate's growing vocab now includes "hip, hip, hooray", "ribbit", and "duck". Here's duck and hip hip horray!