Katelyn = Sporty Spice

The Spice Girls are making a comeback...they are back on tour and Mel B., "Scary Spice", was runner-up in Dancing with the Stars. I was thinking about the Spice Girls (fun music! and Bryan has a crush on Posh) and their whole "Girl Power" stance. Having a girl of my own, I really want her to embrace her inner girl power (although, I doubt she'll have any problems. Good luck to anyone getting in her way). If Katelyn were a spice girl, she'd be "Sporty Spice" (without the gold tooth!). Sporty was all about athletics, not getting sucked into the fashions, make up, boys, etc. She was strong and fit. Our little Katelyn seems to be heading down that road. She can run like the wind, and never seems to tire. Dad taught her how to swing a wiffle bat and she LOVED "playing baseball." We've talked about enrolling her in youth soccer next spring at our local YMCA. It's also an excellent outlet to all this excess energy! So, little Sporty will be busy come spring. I'd love to see her in a ballerina tu-tu and toe shoes, but that just isn't K. We didn't name her Grace for a reason!! We want her to be happy in anything she's doing.

So, what spice girl are you??

Pictures from Thanksgiving

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We didn't take many this year. The little girl with Katelyn is sweet Isabella, Andy's niece visiting from England. Katelyn loved having another little girl to play with, although at one point, K was frustrated and said to her, "Why don't you talk to me????" Little Isabella is only 18 months old!

Thanksgiving

We are back from our Thanksgiving break in Tampa, and slowly getting into the swing of things. The Salos (my brother-in-law's family) hosts Thanksgiving every year at their home. It's a perfect home to have a big dinner...lots of space and the dogs roam free in the back yard, plus lots of outdoor space to work off dinner! Katelyn was excited to have a playmate this year...18 month old Isabella, neice of Andy visiting from England. Poor Isabella might have felt a little smothered by K. They both ate so many crackers as appetizers, that they didn't have much room for dinner. Although, once the plates were cleared and cookies were layed out, K wasn't shy and ate 7 cookies!! Yikes. We enjoyed our afternoon with our family, and watched football, took a walk, just sat back and chit-chatted (and ATE!!). We left there around 5:30 and drove over to Uncle Dan's house to hang out and have dessert (but had no room left). Again, K was lucky to have playmates and raced around the backyard with Emily (4) and Evan (6), family visiting from Ohio.
Next morning, Black Friday, Bryan and I were up very early to shop. Mom and Dad agreed to watch K for the day so we could shop in peace (plus, buy her gifts). Our original plan was to leave around 6:30, but K had us up at 4:30 (the joys of sleeping away from home and eating 7 cookies the day before). I fell back asleep with her, but Bryan stayed up and we left at 5:30...still dark. Our first stop was Kohl's....always good deals and something there for everyone. Parking lot was very full, but inside wasn't bad at all. We had just missed the VERY early, aggressive crowd. We got some good deals and started crossing people off our list. Then we hit Walmart, a little more nuts but had better deals (good DVDs for $2.96). More to cross off our list, then we picked up Jen and Jeff and headed for Citrus Park Mall...our Black Friday Sister desitination for 3 years running. A great mall....very cute with every store you could want. We actually did more browsing than shopping once meeting up with all the sisters and some brothers-in-law in tow. We got some lunch at the Green Iguana (largest Tiki tent in tampa!) and hit Target, then home. In the meantime, mom and dad took K to her first movie, "A Bee Movie." They said she did well, was a little afaid of the dark at first, but enjoyed her popcorn. Dad was really looking forward to taking her to the movie theater. We were able to meet up with my grandfather for dinner at his favorite restaurant, Sam Seltzers. Dinner there was excellent and it was good to see my Grandpa out and relaxed. K held it together through most of the dinner, which was another plus. It was a long day, but a good one!
On Sat, Bryan took Rob to the UF/FL ST game in Gainesville, where they lucked out and had tickets to the suite. Both had an awesome time. Go Gators! I stayed back and had a Creative Memories get together at Michelle's place that afternoon, which was lots of fun....even when K accidently knocked over a glass of red wine (why!!) onto their carpet. Michelle and Andy were VERY forgiving!! I wanted to climb under a rock and stay there. So nice to meet her friends and be with other women (no sports blaring in the background, etc.). Again, Mom graciously offered to take K home while I packed up. Jen and I grabbed a quick dinner then went home.
Sunday we left pretty early and picked up Bacino, who spent her weekend with her son, Floyd (formerly "golden boy"). We've become good friends with the puppy's owners and they took her for the weekend. Bacino is still recovering for a very active weekend! We're also still recovering! Will post pics soon.

Happy Birthday, Jenny!

Sorry it's been a while since I've "blogged!" The days have just gotten away from me. We've been pretty busy. Last Friday, we met our family at Busch Gardens to celebrate Jenny's birthday (we all have annual passes). After hearing Bryan and I discussing travel plans earlier in the week, Katelyn overheard us mention Busch Gardens and she was so excited all week. Friday seemed so far away! Everyone she saw that week, the first thing she told them was she was going to Busch Gardens to ride a roller coaster. You can see the picture of the "roller coaster"...it's the dragon ride with one tiny hump. Guess it's like a mountain to her! It was a cool and crisp morning, much different from sweating our behinds off in July! The park was dead, no lines for anything! Perfect day! We had a nice lunch together, then hit the real coasters. If you are into them, you have to try out "Sheikra". It's a 90 degree drop, you literally feel like someone is pushing you off the edge of a building. Pretty intense, but a great ride! We all love Busch Gardens, better than Disney....much more to do, a prettier park, and MUCH more reasonably priced. I have to say K was a trooper and did so well for the day without a nap. She did pass out in the car on the way home. Jenny enjoyed her birthday and we were glad to be with her.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Back from Chicago, and what fun trip! Katelyn and I were able to tag along with Bryan while he was attending the Greenbuild Association Conference at McCormick Place all week. After a VERY early flight on Tuesday am (taking off at 6am, leaving here a little after 4am), we arrived to a much cooler city. Katelyn kept saying, "It's cold in Chicago!" We took the L train into the city and K was amazed. Luckily, the Hilton had a room ready for us at 9am, but it was TINY. We had requested 2 double beds, but they had sold out, so we had a full size bed and had a cot added to our room. The room was newly refurbished and the decor was very modern and new, but still the size was v. small. With the cot down, you couldn't walk around the bed. There were a lot of "Excuse me's" and climbing over beds to get to where you needed to go. It really didn't matter too much, as we were rarely in the room. Bryan was busy with the conference (Bill Clinton and Mayor Daley were speakers) and K and I just hit the pavement and walked, walked, walked and shopped. We were able to meet up with some friends of mine and meet their little ones. We also took advantage of a nanny service the hotel provides and left K with an in-room sitter for 4 hours (that was the minimum...at $25 an hour...you do the math) and went to some Greenbuild functions held around the city, including House of Blues and Fado Irish Pub. My friend Debbie and I took Katelyn to American Girl Place on Thursday and I was just overwhelmed. Of course as soon as we step inside, K says "I want that doll...I want this doll...I want...(insert name of overpriced item here). It was a cool store and if you're into the dolls, it would be very cool. I could only imagine a Barbie or Cabbage Patch doll store back in the day. Moms and daughters were dressed up, ready for tea with their dolls. Enter Debbie, K, and myself, in casual jeans and sneakers. The dolls are really cute and the accessories are adorable, but I just can't imagine spending $87 on a doll and $54 on a stroller for the doll, nor $30 to get the doll's hair done. One mom came in, scooped up several boxes for her 19 month old daughter. 19 months!! She doesn't know the difference! Katelyn needs a few years before we go back (and I need to hit the lottery)...we weren't quite ready! It is an amazing place, though and if you have a little girl interested in the dolls, she will LOVE it!

We hit Lincoln Park Zoo with Belch and Denis and their boys (Katelyn loved them, they became fast friends), then walked more around the city. We had to check out of our hotel on Fri. am, so we were homeless for the day. Not too easy when you have a cranky 3 yr. old who just needs a nap, but no place to take one. I thought she might sleep in the stroller if I walked her enough, but no luck. We took the L to my old apt....still looks the exact same. They are doing tons of construction and building fancy condos and starbucks now. I hope they keep most of the neighborhood the same.

It was a very fun visit, but glad to be home, back to the warm weather and a normal routine.

I am so mad at myself...I accidently deleted most of our pictures of my digital camera. We searched the recycle bin, etc. and they are gone. I'm just sick about it. I have a few left. This picture is of "The Bean" in Millenium Park downtown.

Happy Halloween!

Our little witch is tucked into bed, after a fun and tiring day. Her preschool held a halloween party, where all the parents brought in something for the kids to eat and drink for lunch and they trick-or-treated to all the classrooms. The only rule was no costumes that were scary or devilish, so the witch costume stayed home and she sported her Cleveland Browns cheerleader outfit (more comfortable anyway for the whole day). After a fun morning, our first nap without the pacifier was attempted. Lots of crying and screaming for her beloved "paci" but she finally fell asleep. This evening, crying only lasted 10 minutes. Knock on wood, but this is going smoother than I thought. We carved the pumpkin together this afternoon (long story on our pumpkin, but we never made it to a pumpkin patch due to Tropical Storm Neal who has been smashing us since last Thurs., so we had to resort to Publix). K asked "What's inside a pumpkin?" So I took off the top and showed her, then told her to put her hands inside. One tiny touch and she yanked her hands out, "I don't like that!!" She wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin, but did tell me she wanted all diamond shapes, so I carved a diamond eyes, nose, etc. After a quick dinner, she and Bryan headed out to trick or treat in the dark and they were gone for over an hour. Her pumpkin was overflowing with chocolates and after a quick check of the candy, she opted for a tootsie pop to eat before bed. Three licks and she was done....ready for bed. We're ready for bed as well!!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Katelyn!

Barely time to recover from our long (but very fun) day at Disney, and Katelyn's 3rd birthday party started at 11am. She wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party and lots of yellow (currently an obession). Last year, we barely knew a soul here and had a quiet party at home. This year, we invited kids and parents from Katelyn's class, new neighbors and friends and suddenly 45 people were over for the party. The kids had a blast, running from the living room where we set up a teepee and one of those cozy coupe cars to Katelyn's toy room. Most of the kids got along very well...no fighting over toys, etc. We grilled hot dogs for lunch (keeping with the MM Clubhouse theme...hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog for those forced to watch the show), plus some chicken salad for the adults, followed by a very yellow cake for dessert. Katelyn blew out all but one candle on her own and we opened her piles of gifts. She had so many and I had intended to open them later, but everyone kept asking to see K open their gifts. It got a bit overwhelming for her, so after 2 presents, she left the room to play with her friends and then came back to sit and color with DJ's mom. We opened the gifts for her and put them in a pile for her to look at later. So many wonderful new toys and adorable outfits. The party was a success and we had so much fun...so did K! It's been 2 days since the bash and she's been so into her new toys and new tricycle that she hasn't watched a minute of tv...not even mickey.

Tonight, the pacifier fairy is coming to take K's pacifiers to the babies who need them and will be leaving K a special toy. This is going to be a tough transition for all of us, but it's time.