Thursday, November 3, 2011

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time on our first Halloween! It sure is a different experience being down on the street versus in the house handing out candy. We called on cousin Angela again to be our candy distributor and we took off around the block for a brief taste of trick-or-treating. So far, the concept is a bit lost but it was funny to see Katy's reaction to seeing the other kids do it. 

First we previewed the costume at nana & papa's house...
Then we officially headed out for our first trick-or-treating experience! Angela helped us get ready and took care of Riley as she always goes nuts with all the bell ringing and street traffic.
Afterwards, we enjoyed the animal crackers we got from our neighbor Lisa and sat outside until it was too cold to sit anymore.
It sure was fun but I'll be glad when she's walking more so I don't have to carry the little strawberry from house to house. Man she gets heavy! I figure I got paid in candy at least :-)

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Catching up, again

We've had a few milestones in the last month. First, we turned two! Katy woke up cheery as usual, sporting an interesting look with her shirt (which has since been retired as sleepwear)...
Shortly after her birthday we had an open house to celebrate with friends and neighbors. (not sure if I can make the invite graphic work but I'll give it a try)

Menu was hopefully both grown up and kid friendly:
BBQ meatballs
Cocktail weenies (old family favorite-at least of mine!)
Prosciutto & Gruyere pastry pinwheels
Cheese pastry sticks
PB&J cutout sandwiches
Red pepper feta spread with pita
Herbed goat cheese with crackers
Spiced nuts
Ranch oyster crackers
Veggies & dip
Cupcakes (fancy butterfly cupcakes in place of cake)
Salted caramel brownies

The dahlias were in full bloom for the party.
Thanks to our good friend 'cousin' Angela, we have a few pictures from the actual party. It was too busy for me to remember the camera. Special shout out to Kathee, without whom I would have collapsed and not enjoyed any of the party. She was such a rockstar coming over early to help clean and prepare food and cleaned a bunch before she left. Amazing. So thankful for good friends like her!
I think we had some fun! It was great to see everyone.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the cupcakes. They were very cute with pink frosting and butterflies on top made of M&Ms and pretzels. I thought for sure I had a picture of the tray before we handed them out. hmm. We all enjoyed them anyway!
We had the 24 month checkup too. We found out that in addition to getting taller (from 1% to 18% for her age) Katy moved from 5% to 25% in weight! Oddly, her 50% head is still the same. Current tooth total is still 4, but there are two more broken through and coming soon. Feels like she's growing before my eyes. We went from the pediatrician to the ear doc and she'll be getting tubes next week. Her hearing has gone down since we arrived home due to fluid but I'm a little skeptical that she might just be more distracted. In any case, the tubes procedure is very quick and if it helps her with her talking, I'm game to try it.

And as we pass through the four month home mark, winter is decending. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep her hair from getting dry with all the hat wearing. She loves her mittens so that's good anyway.
Next post is halloween, I thought I'd let that one live on it's own...