March Catch up

I take a lot of photos with my phone and then forget about them. Here are a few pictures that capture some of the things we've been up to this month so far!

Andrew celebrated his birthday at preschool. They saved the celebration for the day when I was volunteering. He got sung to and got to bring the "birthday bear" home. He loved getting to snuggle with it at nighttime and Catie loved it too!

My neighbor Sahar wrote a children's book called Lili's Strawberry House. She did an author reading at Studio Grow on March 2nd for Read Across America Day, so we went and participated! The kids made a little craft and learned about the book.

Andrew also celebrated Dr. Seuss's Birthday at preschool. After this picture was taken, Caitlin confiscated the hat and wore it for days afterwards. She really wishes she could go to preschool!

One of the kids at preschool had a gymnastic birthday party. Andrew was excited because two of his best buds were there. They had a blast and so did the moms (who just sat in the lobby and chatted the whole party).

He said it was the best birthday in the whole world!

Catie is done taking morning naps, so we have lots of time to spend together while Andrew is at preschool now. We run errands, work out, and do lots of playing. She is also awesome at helping me with chores.

She loves to pull all the clothes out of the drawers after I put them away :)

Catie also spends a lot of time in this position (both at preschool and Andrew's sports skills class). She waits and watches and actually is a really good sport just hanging out while we drive Andrew from place to place.

When he's at sports skills class she'll run around the lobby when they play music and loves to watch the kids work out. She also just sits in the chair next to me and watches Sesame Street on my phone. She is my favorite little buddy.

Last Friday during the pouring rain my friend invited me to venture up to Berkeley with her to go to Habitot, a children's discovery museum. It was psychotically crowded, but the kids had a lot of fun.

Catie had a little buddy her age and Andrew had a buddy his age and their favorite spot was pretending to work at the space station and drive the rocket.

They also loved drawing on their faces with water/crayons to do face painting. I made Catie into a kitty and she loved it... and tried to draw more on her face.

Andrew and his buddy Jed just drew whatever they wanted on their faces and it was really funny.

This week we had a family date to Baskin & Robbins. Shari gave Andrew gift certificates to ice cream for his birthday... so it was about time we used them!

Both kids kept us thoroughly entertained the whole time... especially Catie who wanted everyone's ice cream and wanted to feed herself! Andrew was awesome at sharing and she loved having him feed her too (though he dropped a lot in her lap!)

It has been a busy and very fun month so far! 

Kevin's Birthday!

Today was Kevin's birthday. I believe in the concept of a "birth month," so we just got started with the celebrating today... there is more to come!

First, the kids and I trekked down to Mountain View to pick Kevin up at Google and head over to one of our favorite Indian restaurants- Shivas. They have a delicious lunch buffet and we went to town. I loved that they just kept bringing baskets and baskets of naan. Jessie also joined us for lunch and helped us keep the kids entertained while all three of us scarfed down our food and chatted a bit.

Next, the kids and I ventured up to Sibby's cupcakery in San Mateo to grab Kevin a birthday surprise on our way home. I have been hearing about these cupcakes from Kevin for years, but have never had a moment to go up  there. 

They gave me a variety of flavors and they were delish! I especially loved the red velvet ones.

We grabbed some balloons for Kevin at the store (another birthday sacrifice since Catie decided to scream at super high frequencies all afternoon- especially in stores- even though we actually managed to get her home in time for a nap).... and Andrew also made Kevin a b-day card (I did not do that stellar of a job with the letter writing... but oh well)

I put Catie to bed at her usual 5:30pm time, but somehow we managed to disturb her around 6:30 (she must've known she was going to miss the b-day party), so we let her come down and join us for some cupcakes before we put her back to bed.

We have got one enormous messy chocoholic over here

Andrew was so excited about the cupcakes that he tried to give me the biggest smile ever... all that concentration = closed eyes :)

Kevin's birthday was awesome. His favorite present was his new car that he bought himself a month or so ago... it will also make a great Father's Day and Christmas present next year too :) One of these days I will manage to snap a photo of it. 

Happy Birthday to my favorite friend and our favorite dad on the planet!

Weekend Playtime

We had a lot of playtime outside this weekend. The weather was gorgeous! I managed to snap a few photos when the kids were running around outside after church.

Playing peekaboo with me

Concentrating to look for birdies

Still wondering where the birdies were

An accident waiting to happen... but so cute

Finally found the birdies

Our gorgeous trees... if only the petals would just stay there

Stuck!

Always running somewhere

Daddy's helper

A little scowl... since she's not getting her way

Always trying to catch up

First time playing basketball...

and she scores! :)

Love these guys!

Kevin and I also managed to have fun and get a few things done.

Andrew and I did these projects (below) and posted about them on a few blogs and I managed to go on a nice long Saturday run...

Rainbow Board Game
St. Patrick's Day Yarn Art
Lego Rainbow

and Kevin got some good things done on his car. Hooray for weekends!

We also got to sneak off for a date night with two other couples to a yummy restaurant. I am still dreaming about the chocolate cream pie I ate.

We had too many late nights and early mornings though... so I'm hoping we get a break during the week!

More creative fun

Here's another thing that Etta and I made this weekend to brighten Andrew's day.

You can find the tutorial and templates on my Toddler Approved blog. This was so easy. I need to make felt board projects more often.


I love to draw and finally found some scissors that don't make cutting felt miserable.

I also wrote an article about Dealing with Anger as a Parent this past weekend. We had a rough time last week because Cate was hard core teething and trying to get back used to me being home. I have been amazed at the response I have gotten to the blog post.

Any parents that struggle with this should totally read the comments below the article. There are so many great pieces of advice.

In addition to playing with our Angry Birds today, we went on a color hunt around the house. Andrew hunted for the objects and then Caitlin took them and hid them somewhere else. It was quite entertaining.

And now, following my own advice from the post, it is time for me to hit the sack early so that I won't be such a grump in the morning!

Sewing Creations

We started simple. I liked this idea on Pinterest, so Etta helped me realize that I wouldn't be hard to make... so I did it.

I think these turned out so cute! They are little travel kits made from towels. One is for toothbrush, toothpaste, ? and the other is for my hair straightener (so I can throw it in my suitcase if it isn't totally cooled down). I am making a little one for Cate that will be her on-the-go snack kit with a cute girly towel.

Etta helped me with the pinning, but I did 100% of the sewing. Good thing all these required were straight lines.

I feel so domestic now.

Girls Weekend!

One of my best friends from college flew into town this past weekend and we had our own little crafty and creative girls weekend! Etta and I played BYU women's lacrosse together for several years and now work together on my Toddler Approved blog, so we talk a lot and have a lot of fun together. She lives across the country, so we don't see each other nearly enough!

We were so busy that we only managed to snap one picture of the two of us together when we were pulling into the airport to drop Etta off on Sunday. The weekend flew by way too fast!

I think we need to make this trip an annual one!

We went to see The Vow, walked the Lafayette Reservoir, played with my crazy kids (Andrew is in love with Etta and has been asking me when she is coming back for the past two days), went out to eat, took the kids to Studio Grow, visited with friends at the park, hung out with the ladies of the neighborhood in the cul-de-sac, shopped (who knew JoAnns could be so nice without screaming children?), and then worked our little fingers to death creating a few crafty items for the kiddos.

Andrew loved helping out.

He was really excited about the special creation we made for him. I'll share it on my Toddler Approved blog later this week. 

Etta coached me through making a few things. :) I learned that I can actual sew straight and 30 times the charm with threading needles and putting the bobbin in. I also learned that I like actually sewing better than cutting fabric. It is torture!

Etta gave Andrew the special job of putting the pins back in the pin cushion as we sewed. He loved it!

We made a few kid-related projects and then worked on a few projects for me. I'll post them when I manage to get pictures (and/or finish them). Mostly we had fun chatting while we were creating.

We ended the night by making a bunch of these candles to give as gifts to some ladies at church. We were exhausted by the time we finally made it to bed!

 We woke up bright and early the next day to take Etta to the airport a 7am! I was so sad to see her go and am hoping that we can get together again soon!