Kate's Party

Today we celebrated Kate's birthday pARTy. She had her two best friends over and we had a morning full of art & fun!

Posing before the party started. 

 6 years old...she needs two hands for her age now!!

 After her friends arrived we started with project #1: decorating wooden letters with paint. 

 Next up: pin the paint on the pallet. This was reported as her favorite part of the day because of how silly it was.

 

The girls then colored at the table Kate had set up. Yesterday she laid out all of the coloring books on the table in a line. After she was done she came back with Jason's measuring tape, and when I asked her what she was doing she said, "making sure they are right in the middle". 

 After coloring, the girls decorated picture frames with glitter stickers. 

 They turned out great!

 Opening gifts. 

 Mia got Kate a box full of art supplies and decorated with monkeys...what a perfect gift for this little girl!

 And Willow gave Kate a kite and a monkey Lego kit...her friends know her well!

 We then sang happy birthday and ate the rainbow cake that we made yesterday. 

What a perfect day to celebrate this sweet, creative, sassy little girl who we love so much!

Cake Baking

We have had SUCH a good spring break. Though the weather wasn't as warmed as I hoped, we managed to get outside each day, visited a good friend in Cedar Rapids, spent time hanging out at home, AND...undertook the most complicated cake I have ever baked (which isn't saying a whole lot, but there were way more steps than I am used to!)

In keeping with her art themed party, Kate spotted a rainbow cake at the store and insisted we make it. 

Adding the mix. 

Beating.

Then the fun part: making each part of batter a different color and then dumping it into the pan.

Okay, let's be honest: the REAL fun part...eating the batter!

 The finished result before baking. 

 Love my little chefs!

Lately

I finally downloaded photos from my phone. Here's what we have been up to lately...

We had quite the winter with snow days, late starts, and early outs. Luckily, most of the calls matched up between Kate and my districts, but there were a few that were different. One day my school was canceled and she just had a late start, so I got to meet her for lunch!

 Andrew's first haircut! ( I won't lie: I got a little teary when the curls were cut)

 Breakfast on Kate's 100th day of school!

Celebrating Jason's birthday with friends at a Japanese steakhouse.  

 And with the weather (FINALLY) warming up, we have been outside on our bikes. Here is Andrew helping his good friend Zoe up a large hill. 

 And riding a PR of over a mile. Kate was way too fast for me to take a photo. She got a new bike late last year and she is very speedy on it...she got about a quarter of a mile ahead of us on the trial before I ran to catch up and made her wait for the rest of us. 

Metting Cousin Knoxley

Last weekend we made the trip to see Knoxley...our first cousin & nephew. He is the sweetest little thing, and the kids fell completely in love. 

 Andrew did a fantastic job feeding Knoxley his bottle. 

I have a feeling this is only the beginning of adventures with these three. Welcome to the family Knoxley!

Fun Night

Kate's school had a fun night a couple of weeks ago. The weather was quite snowy, so there were no lines which was nice, and the kids had a great time playing all of the games. 

Andrew throwing a chicken into a can. He nailed it and was really excited to collect his prize!

 Next up: mini-golfing. 

 Toss the ring on the pop bottle. 

 Andrew won. A bottle of pop. We let them "hold" it for us and (oops) forgot to come back and pick it up. 

 Face painting...a monkey, of course. 

And a minute to win it game of balancing dice on a Popsicle stick. Kate did really well with this one!