A Bit of Then and Now...

Today was the last day of Spirit Week at our school. The dress up day today, was school colors. How sad that my Mom had no idea what the elementary/middle school colors were! Turns out they are royal blue and white. The first color being one that I have absolutely nothing of in my extensive wardrobe. So Mom dug out my old Italy Soccer dress. I could barely fit my big melon through the top. It makes a cute swing top, don't you think? Look how much I've grown, but amazingly, still just as cute.

Zach got a Spidey costume yesterday from a friend. He was scared to try it on, so I modeled it for him first and then he wore it. He spent the afternoon jumping off furniture and shooting us with his webs. He's something else alright. We both have a touch of a cold, but nothing compared to everyone else. Over half the playgroup had to cancel yesterday due to high fevers and bronchitis. So we're happy with just a sniffle.

Hard, so very hard to believe El Bud Bud will be 3 tomorrow. He keeps telling everyone he will be 6. He knows that Monday will be the big day to start wearing underwear, hopefully it goes well.

We're super-stoked for the party tomorrow. Mom just bought a GIANT slab of brisket and is going to cook it for 24 hours to hopefully make some killer sandwiches. The cake is ready to be picked up and with all the decorations, you'd think Thomas the Train came and threw up in our house. Should be fun!

Katherine

It's a Family Festival of FUN!

Howdy, howdy. We have had a pretty quiet week. Other than the huge ice storm on Wed/Thurs, there hasn't been much excitement. Today, we went to the Family Fun Fest. I love that place. Bouncy houses, games, pony rides and treats. We were so proud of Zach. He usually is terrified of blow up slides and bouncy houses, but he jumped right in today and had a blast. He did great on the pony ride, but he is still terrified of the local Batman. We had to sneak him in on the photo! There were a LOT of people so Mom and Dad were pretty frazzled just trying to keep us in sight and make sure no one wandered off with us. Tonight, we're going to a piano concert. Zach is even going to come! Should be really cool and inspiring!

That's about it from us! Zach knows he will be the big 0-3 next week and is asking about it non-stop. His party should be a great time. We should have lots of people popping in and out throughout the day.

Have a gloooorrious weekend!
K.





I like snakes














So serious as always













Got to do an on air "bit" for the radio station

Super Star

We had completely forgotten that today was report card day! Mom was so excited and surprised when I came home. I have worked SO hard this quarter and really have done well to improve on things like capitalization and punctuation that I struggled with last quarter. I got an "E" for exceeds expectations in areas of listening, following rules, resolving conflicts, effort, following directions and being adaptable to change. I got an "M" for meeting expectations in everything else this quarter. No areas that need improvement. My teacher had great comments to say as well. I'm so proud of myself and Mom and Dad are tickled as well. Mom made my favorite lunch, shrimp alfredo and ICE CREAM for dessert! What a great start to the long weekend!

Katherine

Look Mama, I'm a Race Car!

Zach is all of a sudden making it seem very believable that he will really, truly be three this month. All of a sudden, he has an intense fascination with Cars and Spiderman. Two things that he really hasn't been exposed to very much other than being around other little boys who like the same things! So today at the mall, Mom bought him a Cars backpack and Spiderman slippers -- so much for that silent vow to not buy us the commercially-licensed crap! It was on sale and probably should have been saved for a birthday gift, but he was being SUCH a good boy. Sadly, the bookstore in the mall is closing, so Mom stocked up on some fun reads for me. Zach and I play school together almost every day, and I think he will have much more fun with his pint-sized backpack rather than my old, broken, stained pink one.

He's also doing a good job and making sure he lives out his last 16 days as a two year old as terribly as possible. Ok, it's not THAT bad, but he sure has spent a lot of time in time-out lately and really, really doing well at pestering me over everything! The cake topping moment of this 2yr old behavior was yesterday. Mom heard him playing in his room after his nap. She went up to get him, only to find that he had dirtied his diaper and decided to dig some out and get his hands, face, sheets and the carpet dirty. Mom has always heard horror stories of kids who play with their "stuff" and never thought it would happen. It's not like he was doing it mischeiviously, it just really bothered him and he was "trying to get the dirt out, Mama". Gross. Not a fun clean up for him or Mom. Hopefully, it was a first and a last. I'm sure the grandparents and Tara are grateful this did not happen when he was under their care!

I've been having a GREAT week. I went to the gym with a friend, had a sledding play-date with another friend and really loving my piano lessons. So all is good with little old me. Days like the ones of late make Mom very appreciative that I am so easy to please and easy to handle. Good thing she's got me around, that's all I can say!

Notable Quotables

We've been saying/doing some pretty cute things lately. Mom figured we better write them down so they aren't forgotten. Too often the blog is about big events that we'll likely remember, but not these funny small day-to-day things that make us laugh the most.

Zach:
When Mom was laying down for a "rest" the other day, he brought her all of his stuffed animals to sleep with. But then he came back in the room to announce to her he had a booger... twice. He's unfortunately now in that fun-finger-in-the-nose stage all the time.

He's been telling lots of stories -- mostly about how naughty Kackine is and imaginary stories about his tractors and combines.

His favorite line of all "Because I said so, mama, I SAID SO!". Which is funny because Mom doesn't say that much.

He's REALLY into rocking out on Guitar Hero and playing the keyboard whenever he gets a chance. He likes to go around telling everyone they rock and asking them if they want to be a rock star.

Katherine: "Mom, why is our universe so small?"
Mom: "Well, it is small compared to all of outer space, but pretty big to us"
Katherine: "Duh, Mom, there is no ALL of outer space, it goes on forever, that's why we're so small"

Katherine is really digging into chapter books lately and taking off on her Magic Treehouse series.

Hello 2010, Where have you been?

Happy New Year. We had a regular blasty-blast with Tara last night. She has got to be the coolest babysitter evah! She brought silly string, party blowers, a gingerbread house to decorate and balloons to pop (since my Mom is a jumpy spaz and won't let us have balloons) and they're fun too! We had sparkling cider and stayed up to watch the ball drop. It was just great, we're still talking about it.

Mom and Dad had fun, too. Dinner was nice, then Mom channeled her inner Rosemary and won some big bucks on the gambling boat. They got home late, but they were glad to go out and have fun and not have to worry about us. Good thing their friends live next door so they didn't have far to walk home!

Mom got around to uploading some Christmas photos finally, here they are.

Hope your 2010 is off to a great start!
Katherine