Star Spangled Sailabration

The east coast states have so much history to them that I don't think we could possibly visit all the sites and museums just in the nearby states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, and even here in Baltimore.  Were able to visit one of them many places this last weekend.  The War of 1812 is having its 200th anniversary and Baltimore played a part in that war.  The city is putting on a "sail" celebration this month and we went downtown for a day of it.

We parked downtown in the inner harbor and there were some sail boats that came from around the world docked there.  They look very majestic and David had a good view of a couple of them from his office when he went in on a Friday.  (His office is right on the harbor, but 90% of the days he goes to work, he goes to the client and he rarely goes into the inner harbor office.)  We walked around the harbor and caught a bus that took us out to Fort McHenry on the other side of the harbor.

Fort McHenry is the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner and all day they had reenactments, an air show, fireworks, and a program of singing and skits.  We spent the day with friends from church and made some new friends too.

We got there that morning at 10 and found our group of ward friends.  We sat around watching the kids run circles around us and ate.  We watched some reenactments from the war and Katelyn slept through the whole thing even though they were pretty loud with all of their "shooting".  We thought it would be really loud so we got ear plugs, but she wouldn't let me put them on her to help with the sound so they just sat in her ear all day.

Everyone on the peninsula fort area joined together and sang The Star Spangled Banner as they raised the flag from the time of the war with 15 stars and stripes.  It was neat to be singing that song at the same place that it originated.

She's so patriotic :)

 She nearly died laughing playing with the blanket as a parachute toy.  She would squeal with excitement and run in and out of it just thrilled with how much fun it was.  I was more than willing to do this for 30 minutes rather than the tiring swinging, throwing, spinning, chasing and similar games that take a lot out of us but get the same reaction.

We watched an air show that showed off a bunch of important air crafts and they showed off the tricks they had.  They also showed us some of the boats that were used in combat and their agility.  They were all okay and neat, but then the Blue Angels part of the air show started and those pilots have some intense skill.  Besides the loud sneak-up-from-behind trick, we were fascinated and oohing and aaahing.  They are so synchronized and they fly so close together sometimes.  I heard that sometimes they get within 18 inches of each other!  It looks like they are close, so if that is true then that is crazy!  It was a fun air show and it made me remember the air shows that Dad and Papa took us kids to when we were little.  

Katelyn was fascinated by the planes and most of the videos I got of the neat Blue Angels either have the glaring sun shining or I am zooming in or out too early or too late to catch the tricks as they flew by or I was filming and not paying attention to the planes through the camera.  Just a few technical difficulties!  Don't hire me to video anything anytime soon!

The second half of the air show Katelyn and her buddy Landon "Nanon" just giggled and chased each other around being cute as can be.




 Most of the group left for dinner and only us and the Weatherbee's stayed for dinner and the fireworks.  We loved chatting with them and getting to know them.  The remind me a lot of my parents in what they do and how they act ...except that they make their own honey...well they have their own bees that make the honey and they scoop it off.  They gave us some to try out, but said we have to finish the honey we have at home before we start the bottle they gave us because we will want to throw the store bought stuff out once we try the fresh honey bee honey!  Katelyn loved them too and was not shy around them like she is around most new people.  She would play hiding games with them and ask for snack or treats they were eating and just be silly.  She especially loved their mini Oreos and those are probably what scared the shyness away :)

 In these pictures she was being funny as she asked him to hold her apple, and then as he offered to give it back, she refused to grab it with her hands and put her hands behind her back.  She then saw that as an opportunity to be fed like a queen and would nibble off the apple as he held it out for her.

His wife was taking notes on Katelyn's technique and wanted to try her tricks out at home to get served like a queen!

It was such a nice day and parts of us got burnt from too much sun even though we had sunscreen on.  Katelyn just tanned and got a nice farmer's tan.  She still has envious skin that is so soft and a beautiful brown too.

All-in-all a beautiful day enjoying a bit of history and an air show topped off with fireworks!  And the fireworks may have been just as good as the ones at Rockaway Beach!  They were just missing my family and all the fun that goes into our sand couch and sandy s'mores!  Can't wait for the rest of this summer when we will all be reunited!!!

Olympic Birthday

For my birthday this year we actually had a little party.  I thought it would be fun do have an Olympics theme to it with the summer Olympics coming up soon in London.  We had four different families there that are some friends of ours and the Bares came to play too!  We started with some trivia to see what we all know about the games.  Did anyone know that there is such a thing as mascots for the olympics?


This is Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots of the London 2012 Olympics. We all had no idea there were even such things as Olympic mascots.  Kind of weird if you ask me.

We had a nacho bar for lunch and had all sorts of toppings that made them more than just cheese and chips...yum!!

We played some "official" games.  We played balloon volleyball and we saw some fancy moves!

 We did the discus with paper plates.  I had no idea I was so good at it!  I might have won this one or possibly tied with David. 

 Chris had good form, but couldn't quite beat his little sister :)  It's about time I start beating my brothers at something!

The kids just loved chasing balloons around and the slightest breeze would send the balloons across the yard.  It made our games a little difficult sometimes, but we all survived.

We had a relay race with our fancy torches, plates and balloons.  The small breeze made for a dramatic ending with Tricia and I.  David took over the filming and then got to excited about the race that he missed Tricia and I fighting the breeze to get to the finish.  Katelyn did well with her leg of the race and Liam wasn't sure if he even wanted to race until he saw Katelyn do it and David and Chris put more effort in guiding their kids to them then they did getting the balloon back to us.  There were lots of laughs and I got lucky that a breeze pulled Tricia's balloon into the bushes so I could pull ahead for the win.  She probably just let me win since it was my birthday :)

I made a yummy lemon cake (is it against the rules to make your own birthday cake?) and decorated the top with the Olympic rings.  I never got a picture of it, but you can see it in the video sort of.

It was a fun, low key yummy party and we only gave out silver medals because we only have silver foil :)

Too much fun!

We have been busy and enjoying the nice weather.  Everyone around here talks about how awful the humidity can be in the summer, so we are having fun outside while it is still tolerable.  We finally got a full rainy day that kept us inside, so I finally decided to catch up on what we’ve been up to.  I am back tracking a bit with posts that were started awhile back and just now getting finished.  It is so fun to look back at old posts and see what we were up to, so I don’t want to leave these out.  Some people have also been getting so angry…not really, but people have been wondering where we’ve been so they need an update.  Blogs are funny that way…sometimes when I see people I haven’t seen in awhile they already know what I have been up to recently but I have no clue about them.  More people need to get into the blogging world or you can come visit us.  We will take whoever we can get! (there are limits as we won’t really let everyone come stay with us because I have a feeling that there are people that I don’t know that have come across this blog for some reason or another)

We have been having fun and hopping around with David's new assignment in Harrisburg.  We are back to the hotel life and then home on the weekends, but then sometimes I will stay home if there is enough fun stuff to do at home.  So we pack and unpack and party on the weekends.  I have a friend from Idaho who lived (maybe grew up) in Harrisburg so she gave me the inside scoop to this town.  David is working the Marriott Hotels working his way to earn points and get us some free nights.  He secretly wants to live in hotels when he racks up enough free nights, but I don't think it will work out as he has planned... sorry ;)

Katelyn can't get enough of "fim-meen" (swimming) and "cha cha" (chocolate) "too-ties" (like cookie, not gas, she says "beep" when she has gas, which is so cute that we don't correct it)  because we pass them (the cookies and the pool) every time we go to or from the car at the hotel and it kills her when we tell her no or not yet.  She will do whatever she can to get her clothes off and get her swim suit on and if the clothes won't come off easy, then the suit goes on top of the clothes, and sometimes it is inside out too.  She gets herself ready if I am too slow she will find my suit and shout, "Let's go!" until I am ready.  She is a determined girl with whatever she puts her mind to and is VERY hard to distract.

She is passed out and sleeping like a queen while I update.  She is so used to having so much space when she sleeps since she just sleeps on the pull out beds in the couch that when we tried to go home and put her in her toddler bed (crib sized mattress) she was a terrible sleeper so we upgraded her to a full sized mattress (it would have been a twin, but we want guests and their spouses to have a nice place to sleep when they visit (c'mon over to this side of the country already friends and family)...and if you don't have a spouse, you can snuggle up with Katelyn, but she is a kicker/cartwheeler in her sleep)  She is the queen of elevators in the hotels and the biggest helper around. She also likes to say bye to everyone and everything as we go places and do everyday things and it always catches people  off guard with her cute little voice.  She is very timid and clingy when we meet new people and stares them down, but as soon as it is time to go, she waves and says bye to everything...especially with nursury she is SO glad when we are there to save her from that "terrible" place!  If she really loved seeing you, then she won't let you go without a hug and a kiss.  She is way too cute and gets away with way too much because of it.  Somebody needs to get her under control :)

Our Dating Life

 We have some good friends here that we have started trading date nights with.  We are too cheap to pay for a babysitter, and Katelyn isn't quite old enough to watch herself :)  We trade off when we can with them and with summer plans it might be a bit more rare that we get out on dates with just the two of us.

David is always hesitant leaving Katelyn with someone/anyone mostly because he is gone all the time with work and hardly gets to see her.  The last two weeks have been TERRIBLE because the audit he is on was crammed into this two week time frame, so this team they have is working all day and all night.  With just the one car, I drive David to the metro station in the morning and he commutes that way, and then I pick him up when he's ready at the metro station again.  This is usually fine, but lately he goes in at 7 and comes home around 10...tonight its 11:30 :(  So Katelyn either goes to bed way too late, or gets woken up and then we have to get her back to sleep after I pick him up.  So David doesn't get to see much of Katelyn lately and he doesn't see much of me either...except for when we fall asleep talking about each other's days and when we roll around in our sleep and stop in the perfect position and breathe heavy sleeping bad-smelling breaths that we wake each other up and tell the other to stop breathing or roll over with a polite pat on the bum.

So I always look forward to these dates and am excited to drop Katelyn off with her friends and sneak out when she's having fun and hopefully doesn't notice I am gone.  I am with her all day every day and while I love that little girly, I also love some alone time with my boy!

David usually drags his feet and tries to convince me to take Katelyn on our date with us, but he puts up with it and tries harder and harder each time to not worry about Katelyn so much and to enjoy our dates.

We have had a lot of temple dates and it has been so refreshing to go!  It is farther away than we are used to, but close enough to go still.

Sorry...this is a picture from the winter!

The temple is really pretty and it isn't crooked in real life :)  I get to sit right next to David during the sessions witch is different, but a nice perk to this temple!  We are glad we have been able to go!

We went to a dance one night and David only went because I wanted to go.  There was ice cream so he thought he could dance to a song and then enjoy the ice cream the rest of the night.  I have seen him dance like nobody's watching even when people are watching.  He can be a fearless dancer, but he just wasn't feeling it that night :)  He said that working the last job he had has made him a less exciting person.  That job took a lot out of him!  He suffered through enough with that job and I am doing my part to get him back to his silly ol' self again.

Another super fun date we had was an Amazing Race.  There were nine different couples that competed for the glory of first place and we all had our own team color and shirts to make it official.  (Some people thought we were on the real show and we had to be sure to tell them that we weren't and that the real show probably would not be using itty bitty cheap cameras to film the show.)  David was convinced that the couple planning the race had too big of an advantage over the rest of us.  I was in it to win it, but David was just there to have fun and take it easy.  His competitiveness wasn't there, and some of you know that sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes it isn't.  David is becoming known as the Rule Nazi with some people and is trying to not be so passionate during games and things so he doesn't hurt people's feelings. He is getting better at not being the murderer of the games and went for the laid back strategy with this game.  We ended up in a tie with the couple that planned it for last and we were okay with that...mostly.  The competitive part of me still wishes we would have done better, but there were no hurt feelings so we were all happy.  We had tasks all around town from dancing with strangers and teaching them the Monkey's song/dance, Geo-caching, speed eating frozen yogurt, counting around 1500 mail boxes at the post office and trying to count while others are counting aloud, washing windows for strangers, chopping wood (we were terrible at this!), finding a book with an author with the same last name, making a pyramid of paint cans and putting them back where they go (why wouldn't Home Depot want 9 pyramids left in their store?), finding, memorizing, and reciting a high school's long mission statement (we did this one wrong), and at the end of all this we made some friends and still loved each other at the end of it!  There were a couple of times where we had different ideas of how to complete  the task and we were sure our idea was better than the others so we would roll our eyes and do it their way, but we made it through.  It took a TON of planning and we appreciated the effort that was put into the event to make it so fun for all of us.

We go out together as a family often when getting a babysitter doesn't work out.  Sometimes out to eat for someone's birthday celebration or we will go explore places we've heard of, but never been.  Sometimes we just head out to be out.  Most of the time we don't do much, but just wander about together. It is still nice.


We have been to two movies this year...at the theater in the last two months.  We went to Hunger Games and we went and saw Avengers.  I think we go to the theater maybe once a year.  We are a Redbox type of family and we almost always wait for them to be super cheap, but we did enjoy these movies.  

We have been enjoying our dating life and are glad we can swap with friends so we don't have to pay.  Katelyn can be a handful with her separation issues and tears, but luckily she goes to sleep for them ok and then they get a break!  Poor little girl just likes us too much!  We like her too, but I need my time with just David sometimes.  It takes a lot to make us all happy!

All grown up...

We always think our own kids are cute, but Katelyn has been putting in some extra effort lately and we just can't get enough of her.  She is talking more and more and her little voice is so sweet.  She has a few phrases that she says now that make us smile like, "I dot (got) it." and "I'm ready." and "Dis (this) is funny." or "silly" or "towt (cold)" and "see (she/he) saa (sad)"

We are enjoying her talking and she likes to keep our attention.  She enjoys reading and lately her favorites have been Duck on a Bike and Alice the Fairy.  She likes to read those with us, but the rest she likes to "read" on her own.  I have been trying to catch this on video for a while and she would always stop once she realized I had the camera out, but she cooperated this time and it was perfect.



Isn't her voice cute?!  She is very expressive when she talks and tells stories and laughs and uses her hands to help me understand her story or whatever she is talking about. 

She is getting very independent and I am trying to learn how to give up some of my control so she can learn how to do things.  This power struggle has been such a learning game for David and I with eating, getting dressed, opening doors, checking the mail, buckling up, and nearly everything else.  Some things aren't negotiable (like her seat belt) and have to be done right for safety's sake, but most things just take patience and we enjoy watching her try things when we aren't in rushed situations.

Here's how she puts her shirts on when she does it on her own.  Sometimes she gets her arms in the arm holes, but hasn't figured out how to get her head in there so this is good enough for her.

She accomplished something pretty big this week and got BOTH feet off the ground when she jumped.  It is one of those things that I never thought of as being hard, but jumping really is a talent!  She usually just flung her arms up and only got to her tip toes, then she learned to get one foot up, and with a lot of demonstration from David and I, she finally got both feet.  Big accomplishments going on around here...watch out for us!

Speaking of big accomplishments...I mentioned how David is very eager to get Katelyn reading and writing and doing geometry and calculus and he has been going at it!  He got the Leap Frog videos that teach the letters and sounds and they aren't bad.  They are entertaining compared to most kids learning videos I have seen, and Katelyn likes them too.  In the last month she has learned about half of her letter sounds, and the other half are close but still need work.  She watches the video here and there, but she likes the flash cards with the letters on them and brings them to me to do them with her every other day or so.  She usually lasts for 5 minutes and then is done and loses interest and goes off to do something else.  I am excited she likes them and is enjoying the learning, but David is about to wet his pants and already has the sight words DVDs because he is so proud and excited for her.  I am trying to hold him down a little and keep his eagerness under control so he doesn't over-do it.  I am excited for her to learn and I don't want her to be behind and I feel like I am on track for most "parents with their first born" excitement but David is ready to blow everyone out of the water and would start prepping her for the SAT and ACT's if I would let him :)

Katelyn pronounces her "C" and "K" with the "T" sound and I love that she says her name as "tay-ta" as she hasn't figured out how to get her mouth to say her "L" and "N" either.

Katelyn loves to wrestle us and anytime we are down on her level she can't resist and pounces on us.  I can never get it on video because I can't video myself, and David is never dressed appropriately for everyone else to see when he's home :)  But she loves to tickle, jump, steamroll, sit on, and nuzzle in for hugs and kisses while she wrestles.  She faked me out yesterday when I thought she was going for a hug or kiss and then she head-butted me in the eyebrow for a nice feeling bruise.  She loves having our full attention and puts on a show with her singing, dancing, jabbering, reading, peek-a-boo-ing, and playing tag.  She is our sweet little girl!

 

Putting us to Work

Our ward that we moved into when we came out here has been so good to us!  I have raved about them plenty and they really have been great!  As time went on we were getting nervous because we hadn't been called to do anything and we were hoping they weren't planning anything too huge for us.

Finally, David got a calling and now teaches once a month in the Elder's Quorum.  Not bad at all!  We both had visiting teaching and home teaching responsibilities as well, but I still didn't have a calling.  I was very suspicious especially when people announce they were moving or things like that.  I don't mind having a calling, but I just wanted to know what they had in mind.

Finally this last week they asked me in to chat and I was excited to hear that they wanted me in Young Women's as a teacher.  I am really excited about it and the girls in there are great, I've heard.  The leaders are fun too and I am excited to work with them.  It makes me feel really old being in there since I am the leader now.  I still remember the Young Women's theme and I feel like I was just there myself.  I am excited for it!

I have been staying in Nursery the whole time with Katelyn and she is on her own now that I am teaching.  She did okay last Sunday, but was still the cry baby in there during transitions or when she didn't get to keep playing with the babies.  She'll get the hang of it.

I gave my talk on Easter and it went really well.  I had read so many talks on the Resurrection and had so much prepared that I didn't have much to be nervous about.  I was still nervous about the large group setting, but it went really well.  Funny story...well it is funnier now than at the time...but I purposely left my make up bag in the car on Saturday night and David ran a last minute errand to the grocery store and brought my make up bag in with the groceries.  The next morning on our way to church we were about half way there (it takes about 30 minutes) when I went to do my make up and I couldn't find it.  We would be late if we went back home to get it and so I whined about it and how I looked like I just woke up without make up.  David said all the right things a husband should say, but I was still irritated he wasn't thinking on the same page as me.  I was about to stand in front of the whole ward and I wanted to look my best!  I don't wear much make up, but enough to where it is noticeable!  I think I was more nervous about not wearing make up in front of everyone than if I was prepared and ready to say the things I felt the ward needed to hear on Easter.  In the end, of course nobody said anything about my make up and if they did say something it was to thank me for the talk.  But is was a big deal at the time!

I was asked to fill in for a sunday school lesson for the 12-13 year old boys and girls and after giving my talk, the lesson with 5 people was a breeze!  And they didn't care that I didn't have make up on either :)

This last Sunday was David's turn for a talk and a lesson.  They just happened to fall on the same day for him as well.  He talked on "Getting through Trials with Faith" and he definitely had experience with this topic.  He shared this of his youth in his talk and had everyone in awe not realizing he had this background. 

"When I was 8 years old my parents got divorced I lived with my mother along with one older brother and my two sisters. My mother extremely upset with my dad and maintains that anger even today. My oldest brother was in and out of jail during his teen years and eventually was court ordered to complete his GED. My other brother went to jail when he was 16ish through his 18^th birthday. I was also told not to return home when I was 16 after having an argument with my mom.  I remember attending youth conference that summer and my testimony was taking its first strides at that moment in my life. I often thought why is this happening to me?  I was improving as a human being: I no longer cussed, I stopped watching R-rated movies and in general a much more pleasant person to be around in our home. After work that day one of my young men’s leaders picked me up from work and told me that I was going to go home with him. I was effectively adopted by the ward through the end of high school. I lived normally on couches, and my possessions were normally stored in spare closest. Through that time I realized how blessed I was to live these people’s homes. I learned how different families’ operated and develop a testimony of the Book of Mormon and its truth. I also learned how to live with practically no possessions other than my clothes. When I graduated from high school I was asked to find a place of my own. Which I did, I knew by my older sister’s example and the example of those around me the need to attend college. I knew college would be expensive and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to afford it, so I ask a couple of friends if I could stay with them, and most friends allowed me to for a time and when my welcome wore out I would at time live in my car with all my possession in the trunk, I showered at the college I attended and wash my close at laundry mats. My brother eventually allowed me to live on his couch for most of my second year of college. He was often smoking or drinking, but he knew that was not the life style I lived and he did not involve me in these outings. I went to school for two years at my local college before leaving Texas to attend BYU-Idaho. I had never been more than four hours away from home and was nervous and excited. I graduated from college, got married in the temple, had a baby, then moved to Baltimore and that brings us up to today."

He used some of Joseph B. Wirthlin's talk, "Come What May, and Love it" 

"Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.

Because Jesus Christ suffered greatly, He understands our suffering. He understands our grief. We experience hard things so that we too may have increased compassion and understanding for others."

"The way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life."

It was such a sweet talk and people from the ward were very proud of what a good man he has become and kept mentioning that they never would have guessed that such a man as nice and calm as David would have had the trials he did...and also congratulated him on being so faithful to turn out the way he did.  David knows that there are plenty of people out there that have much harder trials than his and didn't want to offend people.  He did a nice job with it and knows that if he didn't have the church with leaders and his sister to guide him and literally take him into their homes then he probably didn't have a good chance of turning out as well as he did.  I am definitely grateful for those people he had to help him and show him what his family can be like someday.

Early in the year I made a goal for myself hoping that I would be more consistent in reading the scriptures.  I want to read the entire scriptures.  I was hoping to do it in a year, but I also don't want to rush through it just to get it done, so I think in two years I will have it completed.  I want to get something more out of it than just finishing it to say that I did it in however much time.  But, I want to finish it! I have been more consistent, but it still hasn't become easy and routine.  I have never enjoyed reading and I hardly spend any time reading for fun unless it is reading with Katelyn or the occasional children's novel like Charlotte's Web or The Phantom Tollbooth.  I still forget and get in and out of grooves, but overall it is going well, much better than before.

I know that in seeing my parents read them helped me to know of their importance and I loved reading my dad's conversion book story and the role that the Bible played in it.  I know that all of the scriptures are important, but I think I have shied away from the Bible (mostly the Old Testament and the end of the New Testament) because I knew I would get confused or lost in the reading.  I am going for the whole thing and someday I will finish it all.

I have been diving in to all things teaching and Young Women's and have been refreshing myself with the Personal Progress, For Strength of Youth, and Teaching, No Greater Call.  When I was set apart, my bishop mentioned that I need to be sure to keep my priorities in line and not get too caught up with Young Women's and forget about my family....Something that caught my attention. I don't teach for a couple more weeks, but this new calling is exciting and am excited to have this new challenge.  That's what we've been up to at church and what we will be up to.

Another Year

David asked for a very low key birthday this year.  His birthday is at a terrible time of year for him since he is an accountant.  He doesn't do taxes, but even with his auditing, it seems he will still be in busy season mode for his birthday each year.   And even in college, finals week was always during his birthday, poor guy!  He chose the wrong career if he ever wanted to celebrate his birthday :)

David has a wish list that he updates here and there which is handy for gift ideas for him.  When I went to see what he had added recently to get him something for his birthday, I noticed he added a lot of educational stuff for Katelyn.  He really wanted me to get these learning videos and I just couldn't do it.  I thought his birthday was supposed to be about fun things for him!  And I have teased him a bit lately about it because some of the books and videos he has on his wish list are geometry, calculus, biology, grammar, astronomy, and a few others that are WAY down the road in Katelyn's education.  They weren't on the urgent list, but I still had to tease him about those. 

Here's what he got...wrapped with Katelyn's help.  She is quite the artist lately and helped me color the wrapping paper...she is also getting fluent coloring on walls and in her favorite books :( which makes me sad, but we are trying to emphasize that only paper from mom and dad are okay to write on.  She enjoys helping to clean it off too much so we aren't sure how to get the point across other than just keeping the crayons and markers out of reach unless we are around to supervise. 

 David really wanted an upgrade on our simple iron and loves it.  He must be an old guy now if he is thrilled with a new iron for his birthday.

He was a little bummed about the book I got him.  I took a motivational management class in college that spent the whole semester going over various methods to discipline and motivate children in the classroom and also at home.  Of all the styles we brushed over that semester, the one that really stood out to me was the Love and Logic philosophy by Jim Fay and Foster Cline.  I had mentioned bits and pieces here and there to David and he read up on the basics of it and then added the book to his amazon wishlist thinking that I would like it.  I saw it on there and of course I liked it, but I thought that was his wishlist so I grabbed a copy of it thinking we both wanted it!  He teased me back since I made such a big deal about not getting him things for Katelyn for his birthday, but instead I got something for myself for his birthday...I promise it wasn't on purpose...whoops!

 He requested an all chocolate cake and to no surprise, cookies 'n cream ice cream.  Katelyn and I decorated with Easter candies...sixlets and Hershey kisses.  The candle came from our emergency kit because I usually save candles from birthday to birthday, but must have tossed them from the last one or in the move so that was all we had.  Katelyn had a bit of practice blowing out David's candle.

I know David completely cheated, but Katelyn is getting there!

She absolutely loves 'cha-ca' and we have to hide it all away when we want her to eat real food.  Ice cream and other sweets are okay, but chocolate wins her over instantly every time.  I sometimes stash some away in a secret pocket in my purse for "emergencies" and it has never failed!

Katelyn liked the cupcake but couldn't keep her hands clean enough while she ate.  She can't stand her hands getting dirty and if we don't have a napkin or rag nearby while she eats then she will shake her hands furiously until she flings it off.  Her face is fine as long as there isn't anything huge hanging off.  She cleans off her lips with her teeth after every bite though.  She hasn't figured out the power of her tounge yet :)

We played some card games that night and David got a free sandwich from Firehouse Subs for his birthday dinner and he was a happy camper!  We had a fun date that weekend with a group of friends doing the Amazing Race.  We were hoping for some birthday luck, but we came in tied for last.  We had fun and still loved each other by the end of it so David was happy.