Tonight at dinner as usual Kirk started telling jokes. This one strikes me as really cute. "Knock, Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Darth Maul"
"Darth Maul who?"
"Darth Maul wearing a diaper on his head"!

Mountain walks, and Zhu Zhu pets

Kate and Kirk both went for a walk in the mountains on Sunday. I love fall, it's by far my very favorite time of year. Kate collected some flowers on her walk, and Kirk added to is rock collection which he keeps on top of his dresser (I'm wondering if he'll notice if a few of them disappear, their beginning to take over the dresser space). Here are a couple of pictures. Benjamin just discovered Kate's Zhu, Zhu pet this morning. He played with at all morning long. I wish I could have filmed his reaction when it started crawling on the wood floors. Once he discovered how to make it go he'd yell, yaaaaah, as it was crawling along. I think I have a Christmas present idea for him. You have to admit they are cute little toys. And since Dan and I have agreed that we aren't pet people, this is the next best thing!

I un-posted the previous post. I thought it was a little bit to much complaining to stay up. Everything with our rentals is actually going to work out just fine. I think I just needed a forum to vent too. I think Dan really appreciates my blogging, because after I had written about my frustrations I was a much happier Mom, and Wife.

Kate is Six!

Kate turned six this year. She wanted a mermaid themed party, cake, and cupcakes! It was a really fun party theme to plan around.

I made a mermaid cake for grandparents to eat on her actual birthday which landed on a Thursday. I already had a dome shaped cake pan, so I was glad to be able to use it again, (when she turned four I bought the pan for a princess cake). Luckily we already had the mermaid barbie too!

This cake was actually pretty simple. I had a lot of fun making it this year!

September 2nd is her actual birthday which landed on a Thursday this year. That day she opened her present from Mom and Dad first thing in the morning and ate breakfast on our "you are special" plate. (I always ate on a similar plate growing up and it was a fun tradition. I came across one at walmart and had to get it). After school we took her out to dinner. She chose Applebees and ordered chicken strips and fries (her favorite). Afterwards we headed back home to have cake and ice cream with the grandparents. She was very lucky this year and got some accessories to go with her American Girl doll, a beautiful picture of ballet dancers for her bedroom, and some new clothes for school. Friday we were able to score some free tickets to see Pirates of Pensance at Hale center theater. Kate had been asking us to take her to see a play, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. We also took Kirk since he is obsessed with pirates. The play was very well done. Kirk loved watching the pirates, and Kate enjoyed the Victorian ladies dressed up in their beautiful gowns and umbrellas. It had just enough comedy to keep the kid's attention. Then Saturday was the long awaited mermaid birthday party. Kate has been planning this since Kirk had his Birthday back in March. She really wanted a swim party and I thought a luau would be a logical and easy theme for a swim party. She vetoed that idea. She really wanted to do a mermaid dress up party. I knew that this idea would be alot of work for me, but she could not be swayed. So I ended up making 10 mermaid costumes. They really were not hard at all, but when you have to do it ten times, it does become time consuming. Luckily I started back in June. I found the fabric for super cheap, and also found some Luau decorations on line for 75% off. They had these really cute flower head bands that worked as mermaid flower crowns. We did the party in the back yard by our deck. It was perfect because right now we have a big pile of sand back there. We are in the process of making a sand box beneath out deck. It looked like a beach. I made a fish sea mural on our deck out of butcher paper. I also decided to hire a company who does character appearances for birthday parties. Ariel came to the party, and entertained the kids for the first part. We took pictures with her in front of our waterfall.

(Here's a picture with all of the girls, sorry Jennie, I didn't realize Izzy was in the back. I'll e-mail you an individual shot I got. Kirk just made my day when he said "you look pretty in that picture mommy", I'm thinking it's because of the hair.

I thought Kate would be a little more excited about it, but she was being very shy. She didn't want to sit by her, and didn't really look at her alot of the time.. It was kind of expensive so I was hoping Kate would have been a little more excited about it. She probably was inside, she just doesn't show her emotions alot. I would still totally recommend them. The girl did an amazing job, her costume was beautiful, and she sang, and told the girls her little mermaid story. Most of the girls loved it! Then we had cup cakes, opened gifts and went swimming in Kate's grandparents pool. It was convenient since our home is right behind theirs. The girls just walked right back. It was a wonderful day for her, but I do think it's time to just start doing birthday's every other year now. I'm glad I did this one for her since this is probably the last year she'll enjoy dressing up, and all of the little girl stuff. She is growing up so fast now, that I feel like I need to really savor the next couple of years before she becomes a tween. Not that the tween stage is bad, I'm just trying to savor every stage she goes through. I hope that as she grows, we can become really good friends.

Week of many firsts!

Well two weeks ago Kate started Kindergarten. I know I know two weeks is forever ago, and I'm such a slacker. But this was a big milestone in her life. She enjoys her class. There are a few boys in our neighborhood that are in her class with her. We have decided to try the new french immersion program at her elementary school. This is definitely something I really mulled over. I didn't like the idea of her getting behind in her other subjects just to learn french. But after reading alot about the program I decided that in the long run after she's completed all of her elementary grades she'll be better off. Kate only let me take one picture of her. The first day was only an hour long, and then they do kindergarten testing the rest of the week, so it was a little anticlimactic for Kate. She was expecting a little more from her first week of school.

I think the most exciting part of Kindergarten for Kate was riding the bus to school. After all kindergarten is still only half of the day. I still get to have lunch with her. But riding the bus was a totally new experience for Kate. She jumped right on and didn't look back! I'm so proud of how well Kate is doing. She loves school, and is always excited to learn. We love you sweetie. Kirk will be starting his preschool class in the afternoon on Tuesday. I'll post some pictures of him then.