Polka Dot Party!

We had Cassandra's birthday party on Saturday at our house. The theme this year? Polka dots! I picked it mainly because I love how she says it "poky lots"! And she's young enough not to care what her theme is!

A first for me-I tried a 2 tiered cake for the party! I was really nervous about it, but it came out great! I tried a new frosting recipe and a new filling and was so happy with both of them!

Here is the finished product-sorry the pics are turned-I have no idea why they turn when I upload them!

Polka dot favors for the kids....filled with stickers, skittles, swedish fish, and lollipops! Yum!

Polka dot table cloth, plates, napkins and cups courtesy of Party City:

With some polka dot signs to go along with them, also Party City:

To go along with the cake, I did some chocolate covered marshmallows with polka dots (sprinkles) on them:

and chocolate covered pretzels too!

Of course the birthday girl had to be wearing polka dots too!

Avery and Cassandra

Once again (just like our holiday party), the weather was really crappy the day of the party-lots of wind and lots of snow. Unfortunately a few people couldn't make it to the party because of it, so that was a bummer.

Cassandra, my Mom, Dylan

The yummy treat table:

We had some appetizers followed by dinner (subs, green salad, fruit, chips/pretzels, baked pasta). After dinner, we decided to open gifts to let our food digest a bit. Cassandra got a lot of nice gifts...

Cleaning set

Clothes

Warm PJs

And a new car!!

After gifts, we did cake. I didn't get any photos of cake since Gabe video taped instead. Cassandra wouldn't blow out the candles, that little stinker! But she did eat her cake! And it was very, very good! After cake, the kids played some more and then people started heading out. It was a great celebration of our baby girl's birth!

My Girl's Birthday

Thursday was Cassandra's special day, so of course we wanted to try and make it special for her!  I had the day off of work and Gabe also took the day off so that we could all be together for the day.

We asked Cassandra what she wanted to do for her birthday. We suggested a few places for her to choose from-the play museum and 2 indoor play places in the area. She picked one of the play places so we went there shortly after getting them up and ready to go. We had a lot of fun-stayed about 2.5 hours or so. We got them home for lunch and for Cassandra's nap.

After nap, we let her open up presents!

A new game!

And basketball hoop!

We stayed in for dinner-we decided to order take out and just eat at home. Gabe ran out during nap time and picked up some delish cupcakes for the birthday girl! After dinner, it was time to sing!

Blow out the candles!

YUM!

We ended  the day with a birthday bath and then to bed.  I'd say she had a pretty fun day!  I still can't believe my baby is 2 years old-it's just flying by!

Twenty-Four Months (2 Years) Old!

Our baby girl is now a 2 year old! How (and why) does time go by so fast?!

I will say I love the stage she is in-I love hearing her learn to talk and she is seriously so cute! I could just eat her up! Yes she's a challenge at times (hello stubborn!) but I'm really going to miss this age-it's just so fun!

Peanut is still wearing 18 month clothes. She's still in a size 4 diaper for both day and night. She's still in a size 5 shoe.

She is still sleeping pretty well these days. She sleeps through the night and still takes an afternoon nap without a fight. Although at daycare I learned she isn't really napping anymore for whatever reason. Hey, as long as she sleeps for me at home, it's all good! Haha! She's really good about amusing herself in her crib though-even if she's awake, she very rarely cries about it. So I'm not complaining!

Cassandra is still a pretty good eater. Some days are better than others of course. Some of her favorites? Bagels with cream cheese, fruit, yogurt, pasta, dino nuggets, cereal.

Some new things she's saying now...."scissors", "big girl chair", "I want the Fox Song!", "I found it!", "I don't know", "on the edge", "Happy New Year", "cause I said so!", "not good manners", "my eyes are brown", "Aruba", "ragamuffin", "you OK Mommy?", "you blow nose?", "come on", "collar bone", "leave it open".

Cassandra also had her first haircut this month and did a great job! She was so well behaved! 

We also took her and Avery sledding for the first time and she wasn't thrilled with it at all! She went down the hill twice, but whined most of the time we were there. Maybe next time will be better?

Cassandra also started swimming lessons this month and is doing really well at them!  She was a little hesitant at the first class, but as of now she's had 4 classes and it's going really well. She loves getting in the water and splashing around and putting her face in...the total opposite of her sister!!

Here are the big girl's photos!

Hugging the giraffe

My faves:

Smile!

She was saying "little tiny" for some reason

Daddy's favorite face!

No idea what this was, but it's hilarious!

Flashback to Avery at 24 months!

Beef Stew

I have never made beef stew before, but it's something I've been wanting to try. I actually made this awhile ago, but never got to posting it!

This was super easy thanks to this stuff:

All I did was put stew beef, carrots, potatoes and onion in a crockpot with this packet and added some water. Turn that baby on for about 6hrs and voila....

beef stew! (ignore the not-so-glamorous crockpot photo!) YUM!

Weekend of "Firsts"!

We had a big weekend of "firsts" around here!

Avery used my camera to take her first photos....

Not bad right?!

Saturday morning I took Cassandra to get her haircut. I didn't get a "before" shot of her though-but I'm sure you can see plenty of those just by looking through the blog!

She did great-jumped right up in the big chair and let me put the cape on her. The TV was going (she watched Mickey Mouse) and she had her popcorn-life was good!

First to wet the hair....

And the first cut:

Ta da!! All done!

And a shot of the back....I LOVE her haircut! It makes her look very different though, but it's adorable!

After the haircut, we took the girls sledding for the first time since it was above 30 outside! 

Avery and Daddy

They're dead center

Yay!

Avery loved it-she wanted to keep going and going. Cassandra wasn't really into it. I don't know if she was cold or what, but she just whined the entire time "Mommy!" I took her down the hill twice and she really had no desire to go again. I think she was happy when we got home! Haha! Maybe next time!

Sunday we took Cassandra for her first swim lesson. I was a little nervous because as soon as we got in the locker room, she started to cry and whine. I got us both changed and we headed to the pool area. She was distracted by watching people but would cry "Mommy" here and there. Then the lesson started and she did GREAT! I was in the water with her (it's a parent-child class) and I was so happy she loved it. We did some songs, she jumped in the water, did back float, kicking, and learned how to get in/out of the pool. When the lesson was done, she yelled "Again!" so that's a good sign!  Gabe and Avery met us there so we all swam together for awhile and had a good time. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the lesson on my camera. Hopefully she does this well in the weeks to come!

2013-2014

Another year is gone behind us. Goodbye to 2013!

On New Years Eve when I was reflecting on the year about to be behind us, nothing really stood out for me. Nothing huge and monumental occurred which I guess is good in some ways and bad in others.

Here is a brief recap of the year 2013 for us!

-Cassandra turned 1!
-Gabe and I saw Bon Jovi in concert
-Gabe did some traveling to NYC and NC (one for business, one for pleasure)
-Avery turned 4!
-We got a new-to-us car
-We celebrated 5 years of marriage and 10 years together as a couple
-Cassandra started daycare
-I left the girls for 2 nights (for the first time) for a women's weekend in the Adirondacks
-One of my best friends welcomed her first baby
-We got our driveway installed
-Gabe took the leap and left his job to become self-employed
-Lots of wonderful times spent with family and friends
-And most importantly, we all had our good health this year!

And looking ahead to the New Year upon us....hello 2014!! We have a few things we're looking forward to this year....

-Cassandra will start swim lessons this weekend
-Cassandra turns 2 in just 3 weeks!
-Seeing JT in concert
-Hopefully going on our first vacation as a family of 4!
-Avery turns 5 and will start kindergarten in the fall (yikes!)

And I'm sure we have many more wonderful surprises in store for us this coming year.

I hope you all had a great New Year and I hope you are all blessed with happiness and health in the coming year!