Saturday, February 28, 2009

Family Birthday Party

Saturday we had Katherine's family birthday party. It was smaller and more laid back than the friend party. All of the kids dressed up. Of course the girls were princesses. The boys were knights and they enjoyed a sword fight.
Sam cooked burgers on the grill and then we had cake.I did not make another castle cake because we would have had way too much. Instead I used build-a-cake cupcakes to make a crown. Actually Sam put the pieces together because I was too tired to think. So the cake is actually made of 20 cupcakes that are iced as one cake.
Katherine was so excited for her second cake.

Next it was time for presents. Nana crocheted a hat for both girls.
She received a Fancy Nancy dress and a tutu,
A huge stack of gifts from Grammy and Grandad,

and a scooter from Sophia.After the party she put on fer Fancy Nancy ensemble and read books with Pops.

Princess Party


Finally, the day of the long awaited birthday party arrived. Katherine has been ready and excited for a long time. She hated that it did not start until 11. Since Katherine is obsessed with anything related to princesses, we had a princess party. Well, she has a lot of boy friends so it was a bit challenging to incorporate a princess theme. Over half of the girls dressed up but none of the boys did.
Before the party Katherine posed with her cake. It is in the shape of a castle, iced pink with pink sprinkles and 4 of the princess are standing around the outside. So, she had her pink, sprinkles and princess. I had the castle.
I invited 18 kids. So much for the rule that you are supposed to invite the number of kids that the kid is turning to a party. Katherine has more than 3 friends so how could I do that. Well, I was surprised that of the 18 I invited, only 1 could not come. So, we had 17 friends. But wait...of those friends 6 had siblings between the age of 1-2 and 4 had siblings under the age of 1. So, we had a total of 28 kids and 19 adults. It was a pretty full house.
Luckily it was a beautiful day (in the 70's) so we had kids outside and inside. I borrowed a bounce house from a friend and that was a lifesaver.
Inside there were crafts. I had foam pieces for the girls to use to make necklaces and foam stickers for the boys to use. They all had princess themes to them.

Katherine has been excited about her party and her cake for a few weeks. Finally it was time to eat it. She was pretty cute singing Happy Birthday to herself.




Finally it was time for her to open presents. Having a princess themed party she received a lot of princess books, dress up clothes and accessories. She also received 2 barbies and some Fancy Nancy stuff, a child's cooking set, a DVD and some clothes.

I made felt crowns for the party favors. They were a lot of fun to make and the kids enjoyed them. I am into giving party favors that will last and be used for awhile. These should be fun to play dress up. The girls' crowns were pastel colors and the boys' were primary colors.

Though we had a very full house and it was a bit hectic at times, both Katherine and I had a great time celebrating her birthday with friends.

Let's bake a cake!

I am going to try to catch up on posting about Katherine's birthday. Here is the first of several posts of the weekend.

On Wednesday I started making her cake. She loves to cook and so she stood in her tower to help me. She enjoys pouring things into the mixer and of course licking the beater, bowl and spoon. It can be quite a challenge keeping her fingers out of the bowl and she amazes me in that she says she likes each of the ingredients before they are mixed together. Who likes straight flour?
I made the cake on Wednesday and then iced it on Thursday after she went to bed. She said she wanted a pink strawberry cake with Cinderella and sprinkles. I had in mind a castle cake. Stay tuned to see the final creation.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

7 months

Caroline, you are now 7 months old. What a big girl. You continue to be such a happy baby. You smile very easily and we laugh at your smile that always peeks out from under your paci.

I had a lot of fun with your monthly chair photo shoot. You did not want to sit still and you were so curious about that piece of paper.






This has been another big month for you. You started to eat solid foods. It took a few days for you to really get it but you are a very good eater. So far you have had sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, green beans, avocado, banana and rice cereal. I made a huge amount of baby food the week before we started feeding you. It has been so helpful to have a freezer full of food cubes. It is a lot cheaper and healthier than buying jars of baby food. I am sure I will do that some too but for now you have only had homemade baby food.
You continue to nurse about 6 times a day. You are getting more easily distracted so it is getting harder to nurse you around other people, even when you are under the cover. You have had your first two teeth pop through this week. They are the bottom ones. They are hard to see so I have not tried to take a picture. You can feel them though. You are very good at sitting up. you rarely fall over anymore unless you are sitting on the bed or couch. You will strain to try to sit yourself back up but you cannot do it yet. You have started to pull up on things a little. So far you are only pulling to your knees. You are able to reach for things and work your way up.
You are so proud of yourself when you pull up. You are not sure how to get down though and many times I hear you fussing because you are stuck with your arms holding onto something but your body has slid down.
You are not really trying to crawl yet but you are starting to get on all fours. I was wondering if you would ever crawl because every time I put you on your tummy you would flip over to your back. You get onto all fours from the sitting position instead of from your tummy. You are pretty good at going from sitting to all fours and back sitting again. When on all fours you are not yet trying to go anywhere.
You are finally rolling from your back onto your tummy and I expect you to be rolling around the room any day now. Honestly, I think the thing that is slowing you down from learning to be mobile is that w are on the go so much. We are rarely home during the day except when w are napping.
You are getting more interested in everything around you. You have developed a lot of curiosity. Your little fingers are getting more precise as you work to pick things up, move them around and examine them. Of course everything also goes into your mouth these days. Katherine is always telling you, "baby sister, don't eat my book".
Your favorite toys are the dishes from Katherine's kitchen. Lucky for me you are content almost every evening for about 30 minutes just playing on the floor with the toy dishes and food.
You are content, that it, until I walk out of sight. I don't think you really have separation anxiety as much as you are very social (like your mom and your sister). You are not too picky about who is with you, you just don't want to be alone. It is funny because as social as you are, you are often very bashful. If I am holding you and someone comes up to you, usually you will bury your head in my shoulder and hide your face. This is even with people you know very well like your grandparents.
This month you have started sitting in high chairs at restaurants, sitting in your stroller all buckled in like a big girl instead of always being in your infant sat, and you have started enjoying the playground. Katherine insists that you go down the slide with her and you have been on the swing in our yard.
You are getting more vocal. Babies always make such cute noises. Now I can tell that you are trying to imitate language. You are making all kinds of new sounds.
You are a pretty good sleeper. You go to bed between 7-8 which is early for our house. You sleep 12-13 hours and usually wake up once during the early morning. Usually if you wake up after about 5 I just bring you into our bed and we snuggle as you go back to sleep. If I nurse you in your room and put you in your crib I have a hard time going back to sleep at that hour.
You usually take a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap. Our nap schedule is still pretty random and I often let you fall asleep on my bed after I nurse you. I know that will have to stop soon when you start to crawl because I don't want you to fall off the bed.
Caroline, you are such a sweet girl. We love you so much.