Chloe the Ice Skater

Chloe has recently taken up an interest in ice skating... Most likely for two reasons:
1) We live about 5 minutes away from one of the only ice rinks in Portland.
2) Her Daddy plays hockey and she wants to do anything and everything like her daddy.

Needless to say she is not half bad on the ice. She has picked it up fairly quickly and has really enjoyed her lessons. So for her seventh birthday she asked for her own pair of ice skates. As you can expect her Daddy couldn't disappoint... He was actually just as excited to buy them as she was to receive them. So we headed to the pro shop conveniently located next door to the rink, and bought the cutest pair of little white ice skates. Chloe was very specific in requesting the white ones with the brown heel!



So... It only makes sense that for her birthday we finished the day with a family ice skating adventure. Chloe invited her friend that she has lessons with and Mimi and Papa. Everyone was such a great sport! We even had our favorite babysitter, Natasha, stop by and show Chloe some of her tricks! It was a lot of fun. We topped it off with some hot chocolate and a Hannah Montana ice cream cake! Happy 7th Birthday Chloe... Time has flown by!

Cookies... Cookies... and more Cookies....

So some of you may or may not know this about me but when I am down and out... aka depressed... I bake. It started with Christmas cookies... then snowflake cookies for January, Valentines Day, then St. Patrick's Day, and finished with Easter...
Honestly... I should be 400 lbs by now. I have no problem whatsoever with having sugar cookies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I love sugar cookies. It's all about the ratio too... you must have the right amount of frosting to a thinner crispier cookie, no cake-y dry need a glass of milk with your cookie here... So here are some results of the last 5 cookie baking episodes.





So there you have it... At least one cookie baking session per raining month... It has been an unusually rainy May and June and it has taken every fiber of my willpower to not breakout the KitchenAid and get mixing. On the flip side... I do earn points with my kids for allowing them to decorate cookies! It looks like a hurricane of sprinkles made a direct path through my kitchen every time too!

Kate's 3rd Birthday... 5 months later...

So here it is the first week of June and I was kindly reminded by my Mom reading my blog that it was time for an 'update'.... Needless to say that is like the understatement of the last 6 months... So instead of rambling on like and incessant fool, I will do little blog entries and post some pics from the last six months to see if we can get up to speed. We will start with Jan 4, 2010...

Happy Birthday Baby Kate!

So at a certain point in every kid-hood there comes a point in time when you look at your child and think how insanely fast they are growing... At some point in this last year of being two my baby Kate has become just Kate... she is growing up so quickly and wants to be such an independent little person. At this point I am so ready for her to be in preschool and to share the obligation of teaching her something of value with someone else, but preschool here in Sherwood costs a small fortune every month $150 for two days a week for 3 hours per visit... I thought $85 was a lot when I put Chloe in preschool! YIKES! So for now she is stuck with me teaching her colors, shapes, letters and sounds... At this point we have learned up to K... I figured this one would be cake... K-K-Kate... Um... NO... She says, "Mom... It's K-K-Tate!" Awesome! Obviously... I am a phenomenal teacher! It's been a couple months of discussing Kate... and when you ask her what her name is she still is Tate... Oh how I love my baby Tate!

As far as the birthday party went... we kept it pretty small and affordable... She loved that she finally got her own guitar so she can rock out to Hannah Montana with her sister and be the "rock stars" that they really are. She was also given a baby doll that giggles, cries, and says, "Momma" when you squeeze it's tummy... She wasn't quite sure about it at first but now she is loving that she is finally the Mommy for someone...





Happy Birthday Baby Kate... I love you... Even on the tough days... Oh... and I meant no harm by putting you up for sale on Facebook the other day... It was a rough one, but I love you just the same.