Birthday Extravaganza

I am not going to be the mother who throws a big friend party every year my child's birthday, but I am going to make birthdays a big deal.  Kate's special day started a little early with a little Girls Night Out the night before her birthday.  Aunt Lacie was in town as well, so she came with us!  We went and ate at Sweet Tomatoes, where we stuffed ourselves with salad, soup, and of course, ice cream!

Why yes, Kate IS wearing a Snow White dress.  I thought it was very appropriate the she wanted to wear it because after dinner we went to see Mirror, Mirror.  Which was a very cute retelling of the story of Snow White!

We all loved it!  Kate sat through the whole thing (only a few potty breaks), and entertained everyone with her beautiful dancing during the end credits.  It was so fun to spend some time with just Kate.  I think she's needed some one-on-one time for awhile now.  I will have to make it a point to do this more often with her.

That night when she went to bed, we decorated the house!  Balloons, streamers, everything pink and pretty and fit for a princess.  She's been telling me for months that she wanted a princess party, so I hope I delivered!  She woke up that morning, said excitedly "Is it my birthday today?!?", and she ran downstairs to see.  She was so excited to see all the decorations and presents laid out for her.  It nearly killed her to wait ALL THE WAY until noon for her party.  So I made her a special breakfast.  Pretty pink pancakes.  Colored pancakes seems to be a thing we do on all holidays now.

Noon finally did come, and our guests (Jaron and Beth's family) arrived.  We ate some pizza,

and then did the pinata!  Dustin didn't want to find something for a blindfold, she he just plopped a pillowcase over their heads!



Then Kate insisted it be time for presents, so we did that next.  She waited very patiently.
 

She got bubbles and a little wooden dress-up bear thing from Maddock and Jaylee, a Belle doll, Sleeping Beauty dress, and a very special Rapunzel wedding dress (from the disney store) from Mommy and Daddy, and Grandma Foree sent her some clothes and one of those cool record-your-voice story books.   Which, she has deemed, the "animal book".  So if you watched the interview I posted earlier, this is the book she's referring to as her favorite.  I just figured that out last night :)

Then it was time to play the game we had planned. Pin the Tail on Pascal!  Dustin drew it up.  He's so talented :)  They donned the pillowcase again, and this is how they fared.  Good job Jaylee!

After that the kids got in their swimsuits, and went out to play in Kate's big present, a pool!

Then, after the pool, it was finally time for cake.  Yes, I did make this cake.  I started it friday morning at 9:00 and didn't get finished with it until 3:00.  It so time consuming!   Next time I think I will just have someone else make it.  Or not be so ambitious.

The party was so much fun, and I think the kids had a blast!

That night we went out for one last birthday celebration (mainly because I didn't want to make dinner) to Serranos.  Yum!  We had the waiters sing to Kate, and they even brought her fried ice cream!

 After that, Daddy went and got Kate one last present (Gee, you think this girl is spoiled or what?),   A little lefty baseball mitt so he can teach her to play catch.   I think it's safe to say that Kate had a fantastic birthday this year.

Happy Birthday baby girl!!

Interview with my 3 year old

A while ago I found a questionnaire of things to ask your 3 year old.  The idea is to ask those same questions every year on their birthday and see how they differ from year to year.  I videoed it this year.  I will get around to writing it down later.  Enjoy!



Birthday party post and pictures to come!

On Saturday

We went to the aquarium with Grandma Watson! This is the Sea Life Aquarium that is located in the Mills mall.  Kate loved it!  I did not bring my good camera, so all these pictures are taken with my iphone.

She had no fears about touching the starfish.

There were a bunch of these domes where you could stand "inside" the aquarium.  So fun!

Since it was earth day, they had craft time at the exit of the aquarium. 

After the aquarium we all went to eat at the Rainforest Cafe.  And since Grandma Watson wont be here for Kate's birthday, she got to open her presents from Grandma early!  She got a Snow White dress and doll, a tea set, a singing Cinderella, and some cute outfits.  We also had the waiters there sing happy birthday to both Kate and Jaylee, and they got their own ice cream to eat.

We went home after that, Dustin wanted to nap and I needed to get ready for some photoshoots I had later that day.  We had lots of fun playing with Kate's new presents!  Thank you Grandma!

hahaha!  I love this picture!  Happy early birthday Kate!  Only 3 more days until you actually turn 3!

9 months

I wrote a lot about Max yesterday, but I had to keep up my tradition of taking a picture every month on the 19th!  Happy 9 months buddy!  Mommy loves you so much!

Lately...

Untitled from Erin Watson on Vimeo.

Kate and Max have been playing really well together.  It's so funny to see them interact with each other.  She loves him so much.

Max is crawling all over the place!  In the last week he's gone from my super snuggly baby, to my super busy baby.  He'll always on the move exploring the house and finding anything to eat off of the floor.

He is also getting weaned.  It's been 9 months, and I'm done with it this time around.  Yesterday I only nursed him at bedtime, and that's what I'll do for the next little while until he's completely done.  Giving him bottles and baby food during the day has opened my eyes to just how much this little guy eats!  No wonder I was starving all the time!  He's also been much happier with it too.  I think I just wasn't producing enough milk to keep up with his appetite.  It's better for both of us at this point.  Plus he'd only been favoring one side for a couple months now, and I'm so over being lopsided.  Haha, sorry to the male readers of my blog, if there are any.

And this next picture just makes me laugh. Kate fell asleep on the couch the other day, and Max had decided he was done waiting for her to wake up.  He grabbed a pencil off of the floor, pulled himself up to the couch, and started stabbing her hand with it! She did not wake up.



I also love that she's sleeping in her towel.  This dumb hooded towel is her favorite thing to play with!  It's a riding cloak, it's hair, it's a "getting married".  She was actually in tears yesterday when she saw that I was about to fold it up and put it away. I love Kate and her imagination.  Yesterday I was a dragon, a princess, a pirate, a monster, Mother Gothel, and Mr. Smee. 

Everyday is an adventure at our house!

A few stories...

I posted a lot of these pictures and stories to facebook already, but I feel like they need to go on my blog as well.

The other night, I told Kate it was time for bed and she started crying uncontrollalbly. When I asked her what was wrong she replied through sobs, "I just wanna dance!" So Dustin and Kate danced before she went to bed.

Me:  Kate, why is the laundry all over the floor??!?
Kate:  It's just my hair.  I was just wonderin' and wonderin'.

She's gotten in trouble for this multiple times.  I can't believe she's strong enough to lift up the couch like this!  It's her "tower".  Obviously.

And my favorite.  This happens every single day.  Max will wake up from his nap, Kate will hear him, declare "Max awake!" and run up to his room to get him.  She will climb in his crib and play with him.  After a little while, I will come in to get them and Kate will say, "Lets all go play in my room!"  and we do.  It's a simple thing, but something I always want to remember.

Crawling!

Max has crawled a little bit here and there, but today he did it a lot!  I kept catching him at it so many times today!  He still prefers his army crawl, but it'll only be a few days before he only uses this mode of transportation.

Easter Sunday

We had a rough night Saturday night, so I actually had to wake up my family on Easter Sunday.  They slept in until 9:00!  So we rounded up all the grandkids, and started our Easter with seeing what the Easter Bunny brought!

The anticipation...

 Kate was so excited that she got the "long long long hair" she had been asking for!

 Max was very excited for his yogurt bites!

We had a delicious breakfast and then all got dressed up for church!  We had a little photo shoot (of course!).

The girls were nice and smiley,

 Maddock was not :)

I guess I'm just letting the pictures do the talking for this weekend, because I'm having writers block.  haha.  It was fabulous!  We love our families!

Easter Saturday

We went up to the White Mountains for Easter this year.  We had lots of fun, as we always do, and had a very jam packed weekend!    On Saturday morning we drove out to Greer.  We collected pine cones, went fishing, had a picnic, an egg hunt, and even caught a glimpse of the Easter Bunny!

That afternoon we headed over to Snowflake to see Grandpa and Grandma Watson!  We dyed eggs...

And then hunted them!

(and I had fun taking pictures of dandelions)

We had a lot of fun!  More pictures to come!