We're in full Easter prep mode over here, and with a week still left to go we've already dyed our eggs, made Easter treats, and bought our Easter dresses.  On the subject of dresses, I'll have to admit I don't shop very often and so I was a little surprised when I went to the mall the other day.  Can anyone tell me what has happened to fashion?  I'll admit that since leaving the workforce and having a child, I'm not up on the latest trends as I was before.  Every cute dress I found had the back completely cut out of it for some reason, shorts come in two styles:  middle-aged woman golfer or street walker, and I saw overalls for sale.  Overalls.  Overalls.  I dread what monstrosities will be popular when Katherine reaches the age to pick out her own clothes.

Anyway.

We made Rice Krispies Treats (using this recipe) the other night and I let Katherine help stir and add the the sprinkles.  She really thought she was something helping out in the kitchen.  She did a great job stirring and an amazing job pouring the sprinkles.  One half of the treats had plenty of sprinkles.




A few days later, we dyed Easter eggs.  I hadn't dyed eggs in probably 12 years, so I forgot how much those little color tablets reminded me of the chew-able Children's Tylenol tables my mom used to give me when I was sick.  Katherine wasn't impressed with the actual dying of the eggs, but give her some stickers and she'll go to town.  We were a little under the weather that day so Mimi helped out.



I always get excited to get our Easter decorations out each year, because that means we can finally add some color to the house.  I found these awesome candle holders for $3 in the Target dollar spot.


One of my favorite ways to decorate for Easter is to put some colorful plastic eggs in random glass containers.  It's easy and very inexpensive.

Speaking of spring things, I've added some new cute spring scarves to the Etsy shop, so "hop" on over and check them out!

I'm so excited for Easter!  It's one of my favorite holidays, and I'm excited for Katherine to enjoy it this year.

What's your favorite part about spring?

It's no secret around our house that Katherine loves music.  We played our favorite musicians for her pretty much as soon as she was born.  She took to some music, while completely rejecting others.  Some voices would calm her right down when she was upset,  and one of those voices that seemed to soothe her was David Nail.  This pleased her father because David is one of his favorites, and needless to say Jason would always play his music for Katherine.  When Katherine was still very small, David performed on the David Letterman Show, which we DVR'ed to watch later.  We played the performance for Katherine on the TV, and were surprised to find her mesmerized.  She was now able to visually recognize David (Nail not Letterman), and know his voice.

We tried showing Katherine other artists, but she would always be uninterested.  So, she grew up listening to "Whatever She's Got," and will come running from what ever room she's in to see or hear David (pronounced "Debit" in Katherine language).  Soon she learned the lyrics, which we thought was super cute until she started referring to the song as "blue jeans painted on tight" (the chorus from the song).  One day I found her in her playroom alone, with her wooden microphone belting out "blue jeans painted on yight.....I won I won I won whatever she's caught."  She loves to sing it, so I'm sure the church nursery workers have heard her rendition of this song and wondered what on Earth she's been listening to.  Oops.  I guess it could be so much worse.  I remember singing along with Garth Brooks as a six year old singing, "I'm much too young to feel this damn old."

If you were to ask her what singers she liked, she'd tell you Taylor Swift ("Tayer"), David Nail ("Debit"), and Anna and Elsa from Frozen ("Anna Elsa First Time in Forever Frozen" can you guess what her favorite Frozen song is?).  It was slightly less embarrassing when she learned the words to Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."  I started letting her listen to Taylor because of her peppy, catchy songs, and the fact that I didn't see Taylor going off the deep end like other young song birds.  (Taylor, I'm watching you.  Don't screw this up for me.)

So at any given time, you may hear my child belt out "haters gonna hate hate hate," "blue jeans painted on tight," or any one of the Frozen songs.  I quickly learned my lesson by the time she showed interest in "All About That Bass," and promptly put an end to listening to that song.  And, after watching the Super Bowl halftime show, Katherine had a new interest in Katy Perry.  Being a fan myself, I embraced it with ever so much caution.  We only listen to a couple of her songs just to appease the audience, but omitting the songs with questionable lyrics (which are most of her songs but I digress).

I just mentioned to Jason the other day, how I almost dread the day Katherine joins the preschool choir because I'm afraid she'll think she's entitled to all solos, even when there aren't any solos to be distributed.  She'll insist on hogging the microphone, and maybe even start her own verse of "blue jeans painted on tight" in the middle of Jesus Loves Me.  

I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  In the meantime, Katherine's Mimi has offered to give her piano lessons as soon as they get their new house in order.  Good luck Mimi.

It's finally spring, and that means a plethora of crazy weather here in St. Louis.  We had 70 degree weather over the weekend, we'll have 40 degree weather later this week, and don't forget about those crazy spring storms.  March is now one of my favorite months because it's Katherine's birthday month, not to mention it signals the start of spring.  Here are some other things I'm loving this month:  
After seeing the new spring fabrics from Better Life Bags, I'm seriously contemplating ordering a new bag!  I love love this company and what they stand for.  I ordered my first BLB bag back in July and I still carry it every. single. day.  It has held up fabulously considering it is a handmade bag.

I was browsing the Easter aisle at Target the other day, when I noticed this little gem: Boom Chicka Pop Frosted Sugar Cookie Flavored Kettle Corn.  Oh my goodness.  So good.  The entire bag is already gone.  

I'd been reading excellent reviews online about Redken Pillow Proof Blow Dry Two Day Extender, so I was super excited when it went on sale recently.  It works great with my hair since I don't wash it every day and it adds tons of volume and texture.  I received CK One Color Mascara with my birthday purchase (which was a while back and I'm still using it) at Ulta with my rewards card.  It's an expensive mascara, but it's awesome.  I use it sparingly so it will last longer.

I'm super excited about the new Cinderella movie.  I wish I could take Katherine to see it since she's a big Cinderella fan these days, but I doubt she will sit through the whole movie.  She barely sits through the animated Cinderella movie.  It's also too bad that she can't go and see the new Frozen Fever short.  I guess I'll have to go and just tell her about it....

Obviously, I'm loving that spring started last week.  As Katherine and I were in the yard, I noticed this little flower trying to grow through the dry dirt in the back of the house.  Welcome Spring!

Since the weather has warmed up, Jason put our backyard swing back up.  Katherine's new favorite outdoor activity is sitting on the swing with me and listening to the Frozen soundtrack.  Over and over.  And over.  As soon as we go outside she immediately points to the swing.  "We go swing with Mom-Mom and listen to 'First Time In Forever' Frozen!" she says.  That's a direct quote.

Back in January I asked Katherine what kind of birthday party she wanted.  She said, "cake."  I asked, "So you want a 'cake' party?"  She said, "yes, cake."  I thought about how I could make a "cake" birthday party happen.  So, the Sprinkle Birthday Party idea was born.  I reused all of our DIY cake stands from last year and added some new fresh decorations, like DIY colorful paper garlands and confetti.

On Saturday, we hosted Katherine's 2nd birthday party.  There were lots of family and friends in attendance and I'm grateful for all who came.  I'll probably be picking up stray sprinkles off of the floor for months, but overall it was a great party.

I won't bore you with a wordy play-by-play of the day, so here's a ton of pictures to look at:



















If there was a way to add sprinkles to any food, I did it.  We had sprinkled strawberries, sprinkled popcorn, sprinkled pretzels, cupcakes, cake pops.....you get the idea.  Everything on the menu for this party was homemade, including the popular Funfetti Cake Cheese Ball (recipe here).

I made Katherine's "2" shirt by tracing a 2 onto gold glitter iron-on material, then cutting it out and ironing it on a shirt that I bought at Target.  The party straws we used came from here.

We ended the day with some outside time, enjoying one of our new toys.


We were so blessed by the turnout for Katherine's party and would like to thank everyone who came to help celebrate.

A quick Katherine-ism before we go:
Before her party started I was trying to get a good photo of Katherine in her "party" outfit.  I kept asking her to smile, but she refused.  Instead she marched straight towards the camera and said, "close up."  So we took a close up.  After which I noticed ketchup still stuck to the corners of her mouth.  

Katherine turned 2 on Thursday, and we had a fun filled, busy day to celebrate our little princess that ended with a much needed bath and early bedtime.

We started the day with our traditional doughnut birthday breakfast and the opening of some presents.  I got Katherine a gigantic Frozen balloon.  It actually looked a lot smaller hanging up on the wall at the party store, but once I got it home I realized it was going to be bigger than Katherine.  It pretty much was, but her squeals of joy when she saw it was all worth it.




The next part of the day consisted of a visit to The Magic House, where Katherine ran and played for the rest of the morning.






After The Magic House we headed to lunch at Dewey's Pizza, one of Katherine's favorites.

When we got home, we had another birthday tradition:  Jilly's Cupcakes.


The rest of the afternoon was spent getting acquainted with our new toys and playing outside in the gorgeous spring-like weather.


Toddler birthdays are no joke.  I'm still exhausted.  I'll have the birthday party details up on the blog later this week!  Stay tuned.....