A Birthday Party!

Last week MiniM.E.'s friend turned one.  Of all birthdays, at least for 15 or so years, the first one is pretty much IT.  So I helped to make it a Dinosaur-tastic day for the birthday boy.

Using the handprints of his friends, I made this to commemorate the day:

**This is primarily a blog about my awesome kid... but just as an advertisement for my kid's awesome mom (i.e., me) I recently updated my website, krisdunhamillustration.com.  Check it out.  And let me know if you need custom childrens' illustration!

And made some cupcakes to go along with it.

This is the birthday boy in his new dinosaur chair.

The birthday boy wasn't feeling so hot (hence the lack of smile).  But the other kids had a great time.  Some weren't into eating cupcakes as much as ribbons...

MiniM.E. had a great time playing with toys and eating the sprinkles off a cupcake.  And wearing her "birthday party outfit" complete with tutu.

(we didn't wear the owl hat at the party)

Happy 1st Birthday S.!

Rainbow Boots

A couple weeks ago during a pre-spring thaw we took a walk at SPAC and MiniM.E. discovered her love of jumping in puddles.

And I discovered that having a change of clothes (including socks) is definitely worth the space it takes up.

Since that day, I made it my mission to find rain boots for MiniM.E. that weren't more expensive than shoes I would buy myself.  Easier said than done.  I finally found some online at the Children's Place and they were on clearance.  Plus a 20% coupon and I was only out $12.

MiniM.E. kept asking to jump in the puddles.  I told her I ordered her some rain boots and they were coming in the mail.  So all weekend she kept saying "rainbow boots comin mail!" "jump puddles!".  So cute.

She was more than a little excited when they finally arrived.  Since she hated wearing winter boots, I assumed she would be excited to see them but I'd never get them on her (part of the reason I couldn't see spending more than $15 or so on a pair), but as soon as we got them out of the box she insisted on wearing them around the house.  Even with a few nasty spills (they're a bit big and not very flexible) she was still so "'cited!".  I made her a puddle to jump in the backyard.  Not exactly puddle jumping weather, but she didn't seem to mind.

MiniM.E. said "hearing airplane"

"done puddles"

can't go outside with out a ride on the swing!

Just when I thought we were heading for spring and I put the winter coats away and bought rain boots, we got pelted with a huge snowstorm.  When I woke up on Tuesday to a foot of snow, I was a little upset that it wasn't 50 and sunny.  But at least we got one more day to play in the snow.

yum!

huh, that's pretty tasty

too cold!

Just waiting on spring...

Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's Day!

The week leading up to St. Patrick's Day we spent as much time as possible outside.  MiniM.E. is so excited to be able to go out that she tries to put on her shoes first thing in the morning.

MiniM.E. loves walking.  Everywhere.  

Peek-a-boo!

This swing is a little big.

MiniM.E. did this slide all by herself!

She doesn't really understand that it's not quite spring yet, and not every day is a nice day for playing outside... I don't particularly care to be pushing her in a swing when it's 20 and windy.

So on days when I don't want to play outside, I have to find MiniM.E. things to do that are equally as or more fun that outside.

We went to the Tiny Tots Tea Room again, which MiniM.E. loved.  There were a ton of kids there this time, and most were her age.

Driving around...

And we bought some Dollar Store painting utensils.

We spent St. Patrick's Day weekend putting in an attic pull down ladder (actually Bob and my dad put it in and my mom and I were on MiniM.E.-duty), which I'm SO excited about because we have SO MUCH baby stuff to store already and MiniM.E. is only one-and-a-half.  Needless to say there wasn't much St. Patty's partying.  It was cold anyway, so we probably wouldn't have gone to a parade, and with a one-year-old we probably wouldn't have gone out drinking...  AND now we have a useful attic!  Yay!

Hole in MiniM.E.'s ceiling

 It was a cold weekend, so we had to keep MiniM.E. busy inside.

Playing with Mardi Gras St. Patrick's Day beads

Cleaning up a mess

Trying on some new accessories.  What do you think?

 Overall, a good week and a fairly un-festive but super-productive weekend.

Spring Is On Its Way!

About a week ago we got a glimpse of spring.  It was sunny and the temperature was around 40.  Something in our kids must sense that the weather is nice because we had a belated-birthday brunch with our playgroup and the kids were itching to get outside.

Then, just when I was ready to pack up our winter jackets and break out the sandals, we saw inches of snow at the end of the week.  But with temperatures in the 50s over the weekend, it's all melted and MiniM.E. and I couldn't be happier.  I've never had a worse case of cabin fever than I did this winter with a one-year-old running around the house!

While we waited out the temporary snow on Friday, we played at the Wilton Mall play area and visited the new Rainbow Room at the Saratoga Public Library.

Maybe we shouldn't have gone so close to nap time

The new Rainbow Room is fantastic and will definitely be added to our list of rainy day spots.  It was perfect for MiniM.E. and we could have stayed for hours!

Crawling through a caterpillar

Riding on a snake

In the caterpillar

Firetruck!

Over the weekend I worked on MiniM.E.'s play kitchen while she and Daddy had some quality Daddy-Daughter time.  Which went really well until MiniM.E. realized I was just in the garage... 

Daddy did a quick diversion and took MiniM.E. to her favorite wagon riding spot, the car wash down the street.  (In all fairness, I don't think she knows it's a car wash... she thinks it's just tunnels.)

The rest of the weekend we tried to spend as much time outside as possible.

Stamping snow

Watching water drip into puddles

Swinging!

Puddle jumping (we need to buy rain boots!!)

Yesterday we were hoping for some more springy weather, but with the cloudy skies and wind, it didn't feel very nice out.  Good thing we had a play group to go to!

new toys!

hugs!

 MiniM.E. is finally starting to play with the other kids at play group so I think she's really starting to enjoy it, but the nicest part for me is having other moms to talk to.  Though this photo is probably my favorite thing about play group EVER: