Birthday Garland

This is perhaps the easiest (and cutest!) craft idea EVER!  I've been looking for inexpensive but stylish decorating ideas for Kate's upcoming 2nd birthday party, and I have found it!  I first saw the idea on Sweet and Lovely Crafts where the author designed and decorated for a rainbow party.  What a fun idea!  I will be making this garland for many parties to come!

Step 1:  Gather supplies
- 2 inch scallop circle paper punch (scrapbook supply section of JoAnn's)
- rainbow colored cardstock

Step 2:  Punch circles  All of the circles came from a single sheet of paper each.

Step 3:  Put them in rainbow order

Step 4:  Sew them in a row, one after the other.  This went really fast once I got the hang of it.  I lined one of the scallops with the needle guide on my basic foot.  I didn't even have to stop the needle once I got going.  I sewed a 20 foot banner in about 5 minutes.

Voila!  You have a fun, colorful birthday banner!  I got the colored cardstock at JoAnn's for about $3.99.    The paper punch was $14.99, but I'm going to pretend I already had that (like a good crafter should) and not count that toward the budget!

My camera ham!

Kate is OBSESSED with Snow White!  Had I known it would be this intense, I would have waited to pick a theme for her 2nd birthday party.  She wants to watch the movie all the time, and she loves all things that have the image of Snow White on them.  She has memorized some of the song lyrics from the movie, and her favorite is "I'm Wishing" from the wishing well scene.  What makes us laugh is she uses the high pitched voice that Snow White does!

Sidewalk Chalk and Outdoor Fun!

Kate is obsessed with the outdoors.  Sidewalk chalk has become a new favorite!  She doesn't really draw a whole lot, but she does enjoy watching Mommy and Daddy draw!

Pure joy!

Look at me, Mommy!  I love chalk!

Working really hard on her "rainbow".

Not sure what she's holding...

So much fun!

We also visited the Lumberton Primary School playground recently.  There isn't a park in Lumberton, so they use the school's playground equipment as a community park.  It's really nice!  Kate was more interested in just walking around that actually doing anything.  Here she is trying to climb up the slide.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

There's nothing her size at this park, but that didn't stop her from trying to do everything herself.

New Carpet!

Lance and I finally ordered new carpet for the two spares rooms in our house.  When we moved into this house back in July of 2007, the owners pretty much let their dogs have the run of the house.  They were moving to Baytown and while away to their new house, they would lock the dogs in the spare rooms.  Get a good mental image and imagine what the carpet looked like...MANY MANY stains. :(  We steamed cleaned it when we moved in, but it wasn't in the budget to replace right away.  With Kate getting bigger, we wanted to put new carpet down for when she moves into her new big girl room (possibly this Christmas).  She's still sleeping in her room off of our master bedroom. 

The carpet man has now been here for 6 hours.  My house is a wreck, and I am itching to put these two rooms back in order.  Now that they are both at blank slate status, I really want to rearrange furniture placement and redo the decor!  Probably not going to happen, but I can at least rearrange the furniture in a new way.  Plus, it will be much more organized!

We sent Kate to Nanna and Pop's house for the day, and the were all too happy to oblige!  Any excuse to keep Kate!  We miss her, but our house is a danger zone for a newly walking toddler at every turn.

Here's Kate, catching up on some light reading while new carpet is being put in her future bedroom.

VOTE FOR KATE!

http://www.gerber.com/photo/?entryid=19262&/#/detail/

I entered Kate in the Gerber Baby of the Month Contest for July...yes, she's on of 36,000.  Will she win, probably not, but it is something fun to do!

Vote with every available e-mail address you have and vote daily!  We could really use the $25,000 scholarship!

15 Months Old

Kate won't be 15 months old until Sunday, but she is talking so much that I thought I would keep a record of all the words she can say at this age.

Mama
Dada (mostly becoming daddy now)
Nanna
Pop
Nannie
PawPaw
LaRue
Granddad (pronounced DaDad)
B for Brian
Dog
Bird
Buck
Doe
Duck
Quack
Octopus
Fish
Shark
Outside
Yogurt
Applesauce
Ice
Puff
Eye
Two
Gentle
Hi
Bye-Bye
Hello
Thank You
Please
Smart
More
Up (my favorite right now)
Out
On
Off
House
High Chair
Shoe
Bow
Hat
Brush
Toe
Knee
Lulu (a.k.a. Lulu's Shoes, Kate's favorite book)
Girl
Boy
Pat
Oh boy
Door
Bob
Snoopy
Charlie
Grover, Ernie, Bert, Big Bird, Zoe, Elmo, Abby, Cookie Monster, Oscar, Count
Blue's Clues
Jello
Jesus
Amen
Amy
Happy Birthday
Yes
Yeah
No
Baby
Water
Milk
Juice
Turtle
Bee
Egg
Ba (bottle)
Book
Key
Toy
Rye-Rye (Ryan)
Slide, usually accompanied by "Weeeeeee"
All done (after finishing a meal, a book, or a drink)
Burp
Mail
Light
Love You
Eebee (children's tv character)
Larry
Barry
Green
Yellow
Mall

I feel like I'm missing some, which I probably am, but I'll update if I think of more.  She's growing up so fast.  Losing the dada that is now becoming Daddy is sort of sad.  Since I'm off this summer, I've been trying to ween her off some things I know she doesn't need anymore.  We've been bottle free since Saturday night...HUGE accomplishment.  The pacifier will be the next to go, but I'm not quite ready for it yet.  With each of these milestones, a small part of her baby-ness is leaving.  However, the new milestones she's hitting are just as exciting as when she smiled for the first time.

Now, if only the walking part would come.  I'm ready, Lance is ready, she's not.  She'll take several steps walking back and forth between us, but won't do it on her own.  She's very content with crawling.  I know it will come with time, but at times it would be easier if she could run around outside in the backyard and just play.  I know she would love it!

Summer fun in the pool ( x 2)!

We had a VERY fun filled weekend in the pool.  Kate swam in Grandmother and Granddad's pool for the first time this year, and it was a much better experience that last summer.  She just cried last year.  This year (after a little warm-up), she LOVED the water.  Sunday, since we don't have a big pool, we set up Kate's turtle pool in the front yard and let her play in the water.  She was fascinated by the man mowing the lawn across the street and kept saying "Hi guy!".  She was getting frustrated that he wasn't paying her any attention.  I think we have an attention hoarder on our hands!

Last year...not feeling the swimming pool.

This year, much better!

Serious about the pool float.

Her favorite part of swimming was floating to Grandmother for a piece of ice.  

Here's the turtle pool we put in our front yard.  

Mmmmm, sucking on a squirt toy and drinking water hose water....yum!

She LOVED playing with her stacking cups in the water.

It was a wonderful weekend.  I see many more swimming dates in the future!