March 2013 - PARTY!

The month of March was a happy one for us.  It seemed like one endless  PARTY after another, and with Spring in the air we were all feeling upbeat and cheerful.  

The parties began on March 1, when Katelee's school held a Daddy Daughter Dance.  The theme was Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and Gerald (being the adorable dad that he is) asked Katelee to go to the dance by creating a rainbow puzzle for her.  Once she put it together and turned it over it said, "Katelee, will you go to the Somewhere Over the Rainbow Dance with me?  Love, Dad"

She was so excited!

The night of the dance we did her hair fancy and painted her nails.  But when it was time to choose a dress, nothing seemed to please Katelee.  Finally I suggested she wear her Rapunzel dress.  In Katelee's mind, this was the PERFECT thing to wear!  Yes, it is a 'dress-up' and not a real Sunday dress as the other girls all wore, but she was in heaven and I think she looked beautiful.  :)

 While Katelee and Gerald were gone to their dance, Blake and I had a fun night at home, playing with a cardboard box.  Seriously, when you are a toddler boy, there are few things in life better than a cardboard box.

 Before we knew it, Katelee's birthday was here! I can't believe my sweet baby girl is seven years old already!  She is such a joy!

 

 As is tradition, we filled her room with balloons the night before so she woke up to balloons all over her floor on her birthday morning!

Seven years old!

Blake LOVED the balloons, too, of course, and was so funny playing with them!

  After breakfast, Katelee opened her gifts.

She especially loved the Fashion Angels set, and has spent many fun hours designing clothes and drawing people for them. 

For special meal of the day, she chose to go to Chick-Fil-A.

Blake was happy about that choice, too!  We discovered that he loves chicken if you put it in nugget form.  :)

Yum!

As many of you know, I'm a party person.  I LOVE to throw parties.  And most of Katelee's past birthdays have included a theme party with friends.  This year, however, Katelee wanted to go to Build-A-Bear.  We've never taken her there before, and we thought that sounded like fun!  Also, she really wanted to get her ears pierced.  So we made a deal that she could do those two things instead of having a friend party.  This resulted in a lot less work for me - yay! - and a more relaxing and fun day.

So, after lunch we headed off to the mall.  Build-A-Bear came first, where Katelee created her blue rabbit "Cutie."

Next we went to the jewelry store, where Katelee pierced her ears.  She was very brave!

So beautiful!

After all the excitement, Katelee was pooped and wanted to ride along in the stroller.  Blake, on the other hand was full of energy and ready to run!  He had so much fun running up and down the mall hallways - he was cracking us up!

 Some kind friends had recently given us coupons for free donuts at Krispy Kreme, and as we aren't near one a store very often and we were celebrating a birthday, we made a final stop for donuts on our way home.  Those are two happy kiddos!

Later that night, it was time for cake.  Katelee had requested a blue cake, and so this is what I created. 

 

I love how it turned out!

 

 We invited Uncle Jeremy, Aunt LeRita, and the cousins to join us for singing and cake!

 What the cake looked like inside, after it had been cut.

Very yummy!

The next week, Katelee's school held a Dr. Seuss Night, which we attended with Katelee's cute little friend.

The kids had fun decorating cookies,

coloring bookmarks,

playing games, such as this bean bag toss,

and meeting some Dr. Seuss characters.

Blake LOVED this Fox!  He wouldn't stop hugging and kissing and laughing and talking to him - it was so cute and funny!

Blake is such a sweet, loving little boy.  He simply adores other kids, and is constantly giving them hugs and kisses.  Unfortunately, the kids usually feel like they are being attacked, poor things, but Blake doesn't understand that.  He just loves to show affection and love.  He is the biggest sweetheart!

The Willdens came over again this month for a movie night party!  We decorated with our movie decorations, as you can see below, and made a variety of different kinds of popcorn, stuffed in cute popcorn paper bags.  They brought their projector and "Wreck it Ralph" and we watched it up on our wall.  It was a super fun night!  Followed by the girl cousins staying for a sleepover.  We have a cousin sleepover about once a month it seems, and it's always a fun time!

The next morning, while eating pancakes, the girls showed off their musical performing skills!

We were pleasantly surprised to get a phone call from Blake's birth father Jake one day, letting us know that he was in town.  We really enjoyed getting to spend some time catching up with Jake and letting him see Blake.  We went to dinner and Jake stayed the night.

I caught my kiddos having a reading party together one day.  Ah, I love this! 

We made up a new game that makes Blake laugh hysterically.  It's called "Put all the plastic animals on the drum and then push them off so they fly across the room."

 Grandma and Grandpa Klingler came through town one afternoon and spent some time with us!  It was so nice to see them!  We all went over to my cousin, Aubrey's beautiful home where we visited and the kids had a blast playing together! 

Blake loves to play with his basketball or soccer ball these days.  He is pretty good at throwing and kicking, and just loves to do it.  I had to take some pictures this morning of him in his warm ups playing basketball!  I just LOVE this kid!

We also celebrated St. Patrick's Day this month.  It has become a tradition for Katelee to try to trap a leprechaun every St. Patrick's Day.  She makes plans for days ahead of time.  Here is the plan for the trap she thought up this year:

 And here is the finished creation.

The two trap builders.  The idea is the leprechaun will climb the ladder, tempted by the money we placed on top, and fall through the thin paper into the box.

Unfortunately, the leprechaun did not get caught in the trap this year.  Instead, he did more of his usual mischief, dying the milk green, turning furniture and pictures upside down, mixing up shoes, etc.

At least he left us some little green snacks!

We did some spring cleaning this month, and I had a pile of clothes to donate.  I decided to attempt turning my old navy skirt into a dress for Katelee, and I really like how it turned out!

Katelee had a week of dressing up at school this month, and wore the dress on the day she dressed up as her teacher.  :)

I've been experimenting with making more of our snack foods, and have really enjoyed making our own graham crackers, granola bars, and cheese crackers.  You can find all the recipes here, if interested.

Bath time is a daily party around here!  Our kiddos LOVE their evening bath.  I love how adorable babies are when fresh out of the bath and wrapped up in their towels!

What a happy boy!

Katelee's class had a fun spring party near the end of the month, which we helped out with by creating a big spring-themed concentration game. 

And before we knew it, the end of the month was here and we were celebrating Easter.  We had a lovely Easter weekend this year!

We woke up Saturday morning to discover that the Easter bunny had come.  As usual, the kids' baskets were hidden.  We found Blake's behind the couch cushions and Katelee's in the pantry.  :)  Blake began unpacking his before we got a picture:

 And here is Katelee's:

Blake particularly loved the little stuffed duck he got.

Awww...ducky love.

We organized an Easter egg hunt, rather last minute, as we were really missing our Colorado hunt we had done the past several years.  Even though we threw it together only a few days before, we had a great turn out and lots of fun!

Finding eggs!

Blake was NOT into the hunt.  In fact, when we tried to show him how to walk around and pick up eggs he laid down on the ground and began to sob as if we were torturing him!  He perked up later, however, when he found this ball to play with.

Saturday afternoon we dyed Easter eggs.

Beautiful!

Sunday morning everyone dressed up in their spring church clothes.  We tried to take a picture of Blake looking so handsome, but he was pretty annoyed with that idea.

Even with sister's help, taking pictures was no fun.

Our beautiful girl, Easter morning 2013.

Katelee and Mom

Blake was much happier once dad held him.  This boy is such a daddy's boy!

I know this picture is dark, but I love the expression on Blake's face.  :)

I always love Easter, with the promise of springtime and renewal and the focus on Jesus Christ and the resurrection.  This Easter was particularly powerful for me, as I had the opportunity to talk in sacrament meeting at church on Easter about Jesus Christ.  I had a wonderful week studying and preparing my talk, and feel that I grew even closer to my Savior as I really reflected on the meaning of Easter.

A few days before Easter, we learned that the grandpa of some friends of ours had passed away.  These friends also happened to be Katelee's primary teachers.  As we talked about it, Katelee decided to write them a note and take them some of the eggs she had dyed.  Here is the note she wrote:

Dear teachers,

I am so sorry your Grandpa died.  My grandpa died too.  I know he'll be resurrected some day.  Thank you for being my teachers.  Love Katelee

And that, in the simple words of a child, is the true and miraculous meaning of Easter.