The presents

What does a 3 year old want for her birthday? Your guess is as good as mine... Every time I asked "Do you want..." she would just repeat it. Do you want a barbie? "I wanna Barbie." Do you want a coloring book? "I wanna color book." Do you want a swift kick in the pants? "I wanna kick." You get the idea. :) So, we were kinda on our own...

Present #1: A soccer ball. (Please be advised, "honest-ness" approaching) We knew that the girls (and I use that plural term liberally) wanted a ball to kick. With Kaitlyn's birthday coming up, we thought it would be a good way to give them one, without succumbing to the "ask for anything you want and you get it anytime you want" syndrome. In truth, Kari and Dylan play with it more than she does... Oh well.

*No, Pop does not have a super duper orange blanket on. That is present #2 (from Nana and Pop). A blow up swimming pool. We have yet to put it in the yard and fill it with water, but the girls have been practicing their cannonballs in their bedroom, ever since they blew it up yesterday. Complete with a few pool toys.

See. Told ya.

Present #3: Aristocats. They have already watched it 4 times. Ironically, I haven't seen it yet.
Present #4: Tinkerbell costume. This was Kari's present to Kaitlyn. She originally was going to get her a piggy bank, but they were all sold out. She found this instead. She is a bit disappointed because mommy was too cheap to by the shoes (with cute little turned up toes) as well. Kaitlyn has worn it twice. She says it itches :(

Present #5: Her very own Dora spoon and fork set. We have one here, at the house. I have no idea who it was originally given to. Now that I think about it, it could have been given to Kaitlyn also. But, now, both girls have their own set. No more fighting! Yay!!!

Present #6: As holds tradition in our family (at least, it seems to be a tradition now) when our children reach the ripe old age of 3, they ceremoniously throw the pacifier in the trash, and use them no more. Kari's transition went great, and Kaitlyn's has gone much better than I expected (being that I feared she was much more dependent upon it than Kari was). The first night, she was so over tired, she cried herself to sleep (the whole 20.7 seconds it took). She woke up in the middle of the night, and came in asking me to help her find her "nah-night" (<-- this stemming from Kari, who, when we gave her her pacifier,we said "night night"). I told her she was a big girl, and she didn't need it anymore, and away she went. She hasn't asked again, but, whenever anyone asks her how old she is, she holds up 3 fingers and says "I hada cake. An no more nah-nighths". (<-- cute little Kaitlyn lisp) Happy Birthday to me!!! :)

The Cake. (Take two)

Take one being here.

Kaitlyn wanted a rainbow cake. Actually, if I am being completely honest (and I did promise you honesty), I found this recipe online and thought it looked cool. So, I foisted it upon my daugher, who, since she is 3, doesn't really have opinions that matter anyway. :)

Voila!!! I know. From the outside, it is pretty unprepossessing.

*Pay no attention to the fabulous wax paper. I was planning on sliding it off the plate used for transportation into my cake stand*

Speaking of transportation, this is what happens when you take a turn too fast with a cake in the floor board of your car. 2 things about this picture strike me as ironic a) That even though I suppose the turn was technically too fast, it was soooooooo much slower than I usually take turns. Annoyingly slow, in fact. b) This happened less than 10 minutes from my destination... 2.5 hours of a fabulous cake travelling at the speed of light (well, ok, 75 mph, but that's all I'm admitting to). Oh well :p

Happy birthday to Kaitlyn.....
Happy birthday to you! I now have a 1, 3, and 5 year old!!! (Shoot me, please)

Right after blowing out the candle. Please forgive the half closed eyes. That is what happens when you are 3 and you blow... :)

Hello there little fella! :) Next slide, next slide! (Kronk Voice)

Check out that noise maker!

And the disappearing/reappearing sister!

And This! This is what it looked like on the inside. It's a rainbow cake! 6 layers tall (which, I will admit, turned out to be a bit taller than I was thinking) No, the layers weren't flavored. Just colored. But, it turned out rather pretty, if'n I do say so myself. And I do.

Pop had his hands, I mean, lap full. Dylan went over to mooch. And Kaitlyn refused to get up from the table until she had eaten the whole piece.

Yummy!

Even Pa enjoyed it :)

Nana didn't think I was really going to take this picture. Ha! Fooled you Nana!

I have no idea, but the face was kinda priceless...

I think it turned out rather pretty :) No comments from the peanut gallery on the unevenness of the layers. I could have cut them off, and made them all exactly the same, but that seems like such a waste of cake, and who am I to waste cake?!?!

Happy Fourth!

With one child afraid of loud noises (namely fireworks) and another child in bed before dark, this Independence day was pretty low key. What did we do, to celebrate this great country? Why, go fishing, of course! What is more American than that?!?!

With Pop close behind, and a cane pole to hand, we were on our way.

She looks so happy :) (In truth, it was her idea. This is her first time fishing, although she has been asking for a SpongeBob Fishing pole for more than 4 months now...)
Daddy and Dylan.

Kaitlyn, hanging out, waiting for her own pole to be baited (which I thoroughly refused to do, even though we were using hot dogs as well as worms/wasp maggots...)

Whatcha lookin' at?

I got one! I got one!!!

There he is. On deck.

"It's the biggest fish I ever saw!" (A true fisherman/fish story at heart)

You want me to what?

Now what?

Quick! Take the Picture!

Waiting for something to bite.

Yes, those are crutches. *Sigh* Alas, another story for another day.

Kaitlyn caught one too. She wouldn't touch it though. And, hers was even bigger than Kari's (At least when she got home and told the story it was :)

At this point he had had enough. He was hot. And, being the horrible parents we were, we wouldn't let him crawl off the deck into the pond, eat bait, play with hooks, play in the tall (possibly snake infested) marsh grass, or eat the cat fish food. I know, I know. We are such horrible parents. ;) But, check out his cute shirt :)

Kari took this picture of daddy's first fish.

Pop was quite the busy beaver. He didn't actually get to fish. But, he baited a lot of hooks, and helped 2 cute girls quite a bit :)

After deciding she didn't want to throw the fish back into the pond after all.

Cheese!

Happy (Late) Independence Day! Many thanks to all those who have worked so hard to keep it that way! God Bless America!

Burfday

I figure I should put this up before it is time to put up someone elses. This year is the first year I turned 28. Yup. One year older, and maybe a teeny, tiny bit wiser. Hubby had to be out of town for the actual day (he had the opportunity to go on the company jet, with the company president, to a closing for a project in the double digit millions.... I thought it was a decent enough opportunity for him to go :). And, once again, I am on a diet (this being of my own choice, since I am doing P90X). However, Hubby was very sweet. When he got home (the next day) he came in with party hats, noise makers, and (albeit small) a chocolate cake. Hubby tells me diets are meant to be cheated on. In my current state, I believe him :)

Happy Birthday to me!!! :)

I know he's washed out, but again with the smile and the hat. I just can't resist sometimes.
Holding onto sister to aid his channel crossing :)

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Wait a minute. It was my birthday. Why do I have so many pictures of a cute, chubby, smiling, hat wearing, 15 month boy? Oh. Guess I answered my own question.

Enjoying the chocolate cake. I would have posted the similar picture of myself, after devouring my first chocolate in almost a month, but, I have too much dignity for that.

I love that my children loved my cake, as much, if not more than I did :)

Yum. Frosting.

Cute story: Kari had been counting down for my birthday on her calendar for several days. The day before my birthday (and the night before hubby left) we told the girls hubby was going out of town. Kari said "What time are you leaving daddy?" We said "In the morning, like he normally goes to work." To which Kari replied "Oh no! Who is going to make your cake? You can't. Daddy can't. And Me and Kaitlyn (yes, I realize that isn't proper grammar, but I am quoting here, OK?!?) are too small!!!" She was seriously worried. Cute girl :)

Watch out Hollywood!

Here we come! Don't ask me where my children get these ideas... I know not. But, one day the girls came downstairs with something to show me. (Don't mind their clothes. Occasionally I do dress them. The rest of the time, well, the rest of the time we aren't going out in public, so it really doesn't matter) This is what they wanted to show me. See if you can follow along.

*I love the tongue....*

And, for those of you who don't like slo-mo: