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.....

Saturday brought the best weather we'd seen in months and with Jason working afternoons/nights, I decided Katherine and I could use some outside girl time.  So, after her nap we headed out.  I figured the parks would be crowded with others enjoying the warm weather, so we headed to the outdoor outlet mall.  It seemed like a great idea at the time - outside time and shopping.  The perfect girls' Saturday afternoon.

I decided to go to an outlet mall that I thought wouldn't be as crowded.  Every time I'd ever driven by, it seemed almost deserted.  Unfortunately, on this particular Saturday about half the population of St. Louis must have had the same idea because the parking lot was packed.  Even with a crowd, it would still be nice to walk around the outdoor mall, so we continued with the plan.  Have you ever tried to maneuver a stroller in a very crowded mall or store?  It's a nightmare.  Fifteen minutes in, we were headed back to the car, due to the over populated mall and the over abundance of teens who refused to let me get near any store entrance.  Fail.  

It was now 4:30.  Was it too early for dinner?  Of course not, and since it was just me and Katherine we'd be able to eat before the dinner crowds arrived.  So, we headed over to Chick-fil-A, where the parking lot looked half empty.  I've only eaten out in public alone with Katherine a couple of times before.  Both times were disasters.  I thought this time would be better, but it too went downhill.  Fast.

Even though the parking lot was almost empty, the dining room was not.  It was full of high school aged boys running amok (there must have been a sporting event going on nearby), taking over most of the dining in area.  Katherine kept chanting "Chicken!  Chicken!  Chicken!" so I knew there was no turning back now.

After working our way through the rowdy crowd and ordering, I then had to find a hair chair and a place to sit.  I found the high chairs stacked neatly against the front entrance and located a clean table on the complete opposite side of the restaurant.  With a toddler in one arm, a diaper bag on my shoulder, and two drinks in my hand I wheeled the high chair through the crowd, only slamming it in to two different people until a nice man offered to help me.  After pointing him in the direction I was headed, he helped get my high chair in place, just as they called my name to pick up my order.  I juggled our tray of food back to our table and got everything set up, then had to hunt down some ketchup packets.  Katherine was already seated with her food in front of her, now chanting "Ketchup!  Ketchup!  Ketchup!"  I darted to the condiments counter where there was everything except ketchup.  When I couldn't get the attention of a single Chick-fil-A worker, the family sitting next to us, probably noticing my overwhelmed state, offered up their unused ketchups.

We were in the middle of our dinner when Katherine started having what we call her "poop fit."  When she has to "go," she throws somewhat of a fit, insisting that you hold her and rub her back until she's "finished."  When she wouldn't stop shouting "pooooooooop!" I finally picked her up and held her in my lap while I finished eating, rubbing her back and hoping for her to get her "job" done.   I finally felt her starting to "go" and was wondering how I was going to change her.  It was just the two of us and I'd have to leave our food at the table.  Would someone clean it up while we were in the bathroom?  I obviously couldn't leave everything behind.  I was starting to stress out when I felt it.

No.  No no no no no no no....

She had filled her diaper and then some.  We were having our first "blow out" in over a year.  We were alone in a restaurant.  I didn't have an extra change of clothes for her.  My mind started racing.  I gathered up our belongings and rushed to the bathroom, leaving our food on the table and praying it was still there when we got back.

Sure enough, poop everywhere.  I opened my bag and yep.  Out of wipes.

No.  No no no no no no no.....  

If you've ever gotten poop on you, you know that there's not enough soap in the world to make you feel like you've gotten it all off.  After finally getting both of us cleaned up (and getting Katherine's pants to a semi-wearable state), we headed back out to where our food luckily was still sitting.  Because I was able to clean out Katherine's pants, she was able to sit back down and finisher her dinner.  Obviously I was done eating after that, but Katherine picked right up where she left off.  Dinner fail.

We were back home by 6:00, where a bath was very necessary.  Saturday night isn't what it used to be.

This face pretty much sums up "girls' night."

 

I mentioned earlier in the week that when we're snowed in the house, I tend to make lots of sweet snacks.  Swimsuit season seems so very far away so why not add some extra "insulation" during these cold months?  It's probably just boredom, but I always make more snacks during the winter.

This week I made Monster Cookie Dough Dip, for no other reason than:
a) It required a bunch of random stuff that I already had in the pantry
b) It let me use some left over Christmas candy
c) It sounded good and I was bored....and hungry

On Friday morning, we headed downtown to take Katherine to see Disney's Frozen On Ice.  Dressed in her "Elsa" dress, we told Katherine it was "Coronation Day" and that we were going to see Elsa and Anna.  She was so excited.  We left the house promptly one hour before show time.  This was not enough time.  At all.  We arrived downtown only to be stuck in "Frozen" traffic with only 30 minutes left before showtime.  After taking a few side streets, it became obvious we were not getting any where near the arena where the show was being held.  We ended up having to park four blocks away and literally running to the arena with only 10 minutes left until showtime.  After wandering aimlessly and scaling a wall (yes we climbed over a wall to get to our seats), we finally made it to our seats as the show was starting.  Talk about a close call.

Anyway, Katherine absolutely loved the show.  She couldn't take her eyes off of the ice.  Even when the show went to intermission, Katherine stood at the rail and watched the empty ice, not taking her eyes off for a second.


She was completely worn out on the ride home.

For dinner, we took advantage of Fish Fry season here in St. Louis before hunkering down for yet another snow storm.

Katherine loves the snow and sometimes calls it "icing," at which point she grabs a handful and shoves it in her mouth.  This gave me the idea to make Snow Cream (using this recipe), but unfortunately if the snow isn't coming straight from the ground, Katherine doesn't want to eat it.  Fail.



What else do you do when you're snowed in?  Make as many sweet treats as possible.  So, I decided to make homemade donuts (recipe here).  I had some trouble with the dough, but they still turned out fine.  I even added some chocolate ganache to some of them.  My poor misshapen donuts looked ridiculous, but tasted great.  Fail-ish.



A quick Katherine story before we go:

Katherine loves watching The Voice.  She'll sit and watch it for hours, clapping and cheering on each contestant after their performances.

Katherine (after almost every contestant) : "Yay song!  You did great!"

After a contestant chose a coach:
Me:  "Katherine which team would you pick to be on?"
Katherine:  "Elsa's."
Me:  "You'd pick Elsa's team?"
Katherine:  "Elsa's or Daddy's."