She's getting bigger

Though she looks pretty small in the twin bed. She can't wait to turn 5 so she can sleep in the top bunk.

Boo & the blue jays

I was trying to figure out what the blue jays had against the boys. And then Boo showed me.....

Dresses and blue jays

We went dress shopping with Cheryl to find a flower girl dress for Kat. And Cheryl & Jessica tried some dresses on also.....


Kat must have been in the pool for 4 hours on Saturday!!

Pool

This is where we will be spending our summer. I think Kat would have voted to come back to Buffalo, even if the place wasn't crawling with her cousins, friends and family, if she could only play here all summer!!

Blue jays vs Ben

Apparently, and for reasons we do not understand, Ben appears to be enemy number one for a pair of blue jays who must now share our yard.... As always, super Ben is blissfully unaware of any malice or plots toward him.

Face painting

We painted each other's faces today.... I think i was supposed be a tiger. It's an interesting interpretation, I must say... She is a lion, btw, but we didn't have anything for yellow/gold.

Moving up and an amusement park

Kat as a lion
Kat and her best friend Alayah, covered in blue frosting.
The moving up ceremony
The dads take one for their little girls.....in the tilt a whirl. Dan was feeling that all evening!
We had some of Kat's little friends from the Y (and their folks) over for a cookout. Here they are at the kids' table. So cute!

I LOVE the smile after she successfully completes her climb and slide. I'm just sorry I cut off part of her happy dance!

Today's strawberry crop

How much fun can you have in five days?

If you're Kat....you can have TONS of fun. We went to Cleveland over the holiday weekend. Our adoption agency is located there and they have a reunion at the Cleveland Zoo every year. We stayed at Dan's cousins' Jim & Madeline's house and they gave us a quick tour of the town and took us to a Memorial Day Parade. And were fabulous hosts.
Today, as summer apparently appeared with a vengeance.
The new elephant exhibit. The Zoo is beautiful. And huge. We hardly saw any of it.
Today. The girls all had muddy bottoms (and everything else), so I had to encourage them and take their picture.

At the parade. They threw candy and someone really enjoyed that!
The awesome ice cream place Jim & Madeline too us to. They had a kid-sized table and chairs. So cute.
Kat and her cousin. Let's see...Hilda is Kat's grandad's cousin, so that makes them first cousins twice removed.
Someone MAY have been a little sticky after the cotton candy. She went right to the tub when we got back to Jim & Madeline's.
Love this bathing suit. And the adorable kid in it!
Koala bear at the zoo.
Pics by Kat.

At the carnival the night before the picnic. She is rocking those glasses.

Elephant Cupcakes

Kat wanted to celebrate her birthday at preschool (and since it's in August and school ends in 2 weeks, we had to hurry). She wanted elephant cupcakes. I think they eventually came out pretty cute (but there's a LOT of frosting on those things- glad I won't be spending 5 hours with 17 STICKY little munchkins who ate these critters!).

Update

In addition to posting the adorable video and 2 pics below (well, one pic is adorable), we also, at long last, got to vote for our new Congressperson.

After the last one bailed instantly months ago when the media got a whiff of his transsexual perversion, and craigslist, he became the absolutely lamest republican sex scandal of the decade so far. Anyway, so we got to vote for a new representative. I voted for the candidate who I thought (hoped) would be the most perverse, perverted and entertaining in the face of scandal. The last guy was just so lame! We want razzle-dazzle and excitement from our congressional scandals. Hopefully the new member of the house will spice things up for our (my) entertainment!

Interpretive dance

This video kills me..... The dancers are Kat and Emily, and Hannah is the 'musician'.

Talk about fur flying....

So serious

Fwd: The definition of a symbiotic relationship

>
> I missed the best part where he was licking the spilled cereal/milk off her belly and she was giggling.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day. We FINALLY saw the sun. Apparently Mom & Dad brought it back from Florida with them. It was great to see all three of them. Kat was happy to see Grandpa & Grandma.


I was walking the dogs and just loved the light of this shot.
The girls playing Dora bingo at G & G's trailer at the Vikings. Wearing the new hats that Grandma gave them.
Flat Hunter was here from Calgary with us for a few days. He enjoyed Niagara Falls. And then he went AWOL. I assume he will turn up someday in the midst of a new adventure. We will see.

Recent pics, etc

Dan's cousin Barb and 2 of her daughters were in town this weekend for some soccer games. This is Juliette. The games were at Nichols, so we took J and headed across the street to the zoo. Juliette is now Kat's 'best friend'.




A good way to stay warm at a cool and wet soccer game.
Love the shades!
Kat and the Easter Bunny at the Vikings' Easter Egg hunt. It was a really fun event. They did a great job, it was a beautiful sunny day. Kat found lots of eggs, including the golden egg that won her an adorable duckling puppet.

Not a lot happening here. It's still raining and cold (40s-50s). We have had a very few nice days interspersed in with the rain. I got the grass cut on Easter Sunday, but it looks like it's time to do it again. If it stops raining long enough.

I think we are going to build an ark....

Some things never change....

She still loves her puddles!!

Liza's birthday cake

Made with contributions from me, Kat, Gracie, and Derek. Charlie was sick, so was not allowed to participate. They were quite proud of the bunny cake creation.

Today at the zoo

Well, we didn't let the lack of spring stop us. Of course since it's spring break, our class was cancelled, despite it being on my calendar. And there weren't too many animals out, being extended winter and all. It ended badly after about 45 minutes when I said 'if you do that one more time, we're done here'. You can guess what happened next.....then nobody was happy!

You have to love the fake smile. I see it everytime I want to take a pic.

Easter egg hunt in the snow

I think the visual and audio here speak for themselves.. I thought about the hat (for her) but not gloves for either of us. The turnout was not what they expected...there was a 10 egg/kid limit. If they observed that, the organizers would have been picking up a lot of eggs!!

Yesterday's Easter egg hunt

I remember that warm costumes are important for Halloween in this climate. But the horizontal snow on April 17th for an easter egg hunt....that one I don't recall.

Mid-april in Buffalo

I am not complaining. Merely showing that we had snow today. Again.

Easter egg hunt- the craft

Easter egg hunt at the Y

Ready for summer

If only summer was ready for us....

She asked me to put clips in her hair and then said 'i feel like a princess.'. Where did that come from? She may never leave the house again....

At the science museum

I love the iPhone camera!!!

Because I can take pics like this at the Doctor's office (checking on the tubes that were inserted last week. You can guess from her expression of joy that all is well).

Except that it is snowing as I type this. With an expected high of 24 degrees and a low of 13 degrees. On March 25!!! I know I haven't been here for seven springs.....but this seems cruel and unusual based on what I do remember!! I got patio stuff out. Kat's wagon is filling with snow as I write.