Just BE Plus Three

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Lollipop Love

We've just recently introduced Kate to lollipops. They are her new love! She calls them "pops", and she gets SO EXCITED when she has one!

(Note: Please excuse the blurry/non-blurry moments. Our camera has a mind of its own and auto-focuses randomly while you take a video...)

What a sweetheart!

That is lollipop love!

In other news, Kate's school has been celebrating Earth Day this week! They have been learning about the Earth, doing Earth day art, and making things that are Earth friendly! Today she came home with a hand planted flower and it is the prettiest flower I have ever seen! This is the first time Kate has come home with something like this and it was the sweetest surprise. Seeing her hold that little flower in the milk container nearly melted my heart! My baby is getting SO big!

A lovely way to celebrate the Earth!

Kate helps re-adjust her name stick!

Only Mother Earth creates a yellow so perfect!

These types of things are some of the reasons we love the daycare that Kate attends. It is harder than I have the words to describe to have someone else watch/raise my baby when I am away at work. Trust me, if I had it my way, I'd be doing the watching/raising 24/7! But this is the situation that we are in, I have to work, and having a place like Kate's current daycare makes it a teensy bit easier to let go of the reigns while I fulfill my adult responsibilities.

Perhaps one day things will be different, but, for now they aren't, and I plan to cherish these simple projects that Kate brings home. They are such a nice surprise after a long day at work!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Hoppy Easter!

Happy Easter! We spent our Easter Sunday visiting with family and attending TWO separate Easter Egg hunts in addition to finding our own Easter basket at home!

I made the mistake of asking Kate to help me fill Brian's Easter basket first thing in the morning. I brought Brian's basket into her room when she first woke up and started filling it with sweets. And who is Kate not to perform a little quality control?!

Easter sweets pre-breakfast...

All of Brian's peeps had a bite taken out of them.

...Or two...

We hid his basket in the downstairs bathroom
sink.

The master basket hiding location caused a meltdown. Kate knew what she had just bitten into and didn't want that basket out of her sight! When Brian came downstairs to look for his basket, all he had to do was ask Kate why she was throwing a fit and she pointed to the bathroom...

...like I said, mistake.

We pacified the situation by calming Kate down with the promise of a peep for good behavior. (Bribing is not our normal parenting technique but it was for Easter morning...) I mean, I tried to explain, like, SEVEN times that she has a way cooler basket somewhere in the house that she needed to find. That concept just went over her head this year, so we walked into the living room where all her toys are housed and let her look around!

The little happy dance when she realizes that she gets to dig into that basket cracks me up! And, what, do you ask do we put in an Easter basket for a 1 1/2 year old? Well, over the last month I gathered up lots of on-sale items and put together a splendid basket!

Please ignore the guard dog paws keeping an eye on the loot at
the top right...

There's an Easter cup, a plush bunny, a couple headbands, bead necklaces, bunny stickers, bubbles, wooden animals, a new bath toy, re-freezable ice cubes that we have dubbed our "jewels" when we play with them, a pair of new sunglasses, a pack of six bouncy balls (a HUGE hit!), an Easter rubber ducky, a couple of card games, Easter socks, a floppy wooden bunny, a bracelet, a Koosh ball, and a few lollipops (also a hit!)! Believe it or not, that Easter basket cost me about $18. I was so impressed that I was able to find so many cool Easter-y things that weren't candy. I think we will continue with the non-sweets tradition in the basket!

Our Easter cutie!

And, just for fun, check out last year's Easter basket photo:

My, how much she has grown!

After our own Easter shenanigans at home, we headed over to Brian's step-brother's house for an Easter lunch and hunt with his Dad's side of the family!

Courtney & Gina waiting for Easter lunch!

Mastering her egg huntin' skills!

I think this was the best pic I got of her outfit
which I adored! I just couldn't get her to sit still!

Hunters - Kate and Carter.

The cousins - Audrey, Carter, Gina, Courtney, Kate, and Wyatt!

The sibs - Brian, Kurt, Katy, Brent, and Mike.

The whole crew! Trust me...I'm not going through names!

After Easter with Brian's Dad, we headed to his Aunt's house for an Easter dinner with his Mom's side of the family where Kate's egg hunting skills were truly honed in with the assistance of Aunt Judy!

Kate with her Great Grandpa Jay!

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Easter this year! It was a long day but it was really nice to see both sides of Brian's family and have such a fantastic day for an outdoor gathering!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Easter-palooza

Today was all about Easter in this house! We started the day off in our Easter jammies which we have been donning for the past week now! Once we got the sleepies out, showered, and got ready for our day, we headed on over to Thompson Park for our local Easter Egg hunt where we met Mimi, Papaw, Aunt Jill, and cousins, Audrey and Carter!

We weren't entirely sure what to expect from this Easter Egg hunt but we decided to give it a try! And we were so happy that we did! Not only did we get to collect a basket full of sweets, we also got to see the Easter Bunny! This will definitely be a tradition in our household and we are already looking forward to next year!

When we met up with our group, we found Kate's age group which included all kiddos under age two. (Fortunately, Carter was born two days after Kate, so he was in the same group too. Audrey turned three in April but we let her slide so we could search for sweets together!) The under two group met in a field at the park. There was a HUGE spray painted circle on the grass. All children and parents gathered around the outside of the circle and waited for the ok to go signal. Inside of the circle were scattered sweets, treats, and a few Easter eggs with little surprises in them. Kate, for example, got a little green rubber snake which she promptly went 'ssssssss' too!

Kate absolutely loved picking up the treats and putting them into her Easter basket! There were lots of kids and lots of treats so everybody got to get in on the action! We even let her sample some when everyone was done grabbing their loot!

Game planning with Mimi - pre-game!

Waiting for the GO signal!

On the outskirts of the circle of sweets!

Let the games begin!!

She's a pro!

Searching...searching!

JACKPOT!

Audrey is making a killing with all these slow pokes!

This is Kate's beeline move!

Aunt Jill, Carter, & Audrey!

Sampling sweets this early in the morning is a sure
sign of Easter!

Even after all the treats were picked up, Kate was still interested in
searching for more!

The whole crew at the Thompson Park Easter Egg Hunt - 2014!

When the time came to see the Easter Bunny, Kate was a bit hesitant! She didn't want Brian or I to leave her side, so we got in the photo with her!

Family photo with the Bunny himself!

Positively pooped from all that hunting!

Kate fell asleep on the ride home, so we put her down for a little snooze while Mimi and Papaw made their way over and had lunch with us! The intention was to come over and dye Easter eggs, so we hung out for a little bit while Kate caught up on her zzzz's and decided we would dye eggs when she got up. (I told you today was an Easter-palooza day!)

I only made six hard boiled eggs for dying this year. I didn't want them to go to waste and I didn't expect company for dying, so when Kate did wake up, we all got to dye one egg (including Jack).