Another Birthday Party, and a Visit!

Yesterday, September 30th, was Bailey's first birthday...and Kaylee just knew she couldn't miss it. I mean afterall...there would likely be balloons there! And she was right.

I love her expression in this picture. Her quest for the the balloons often lead her to the den of the bigger kids. She held her own though, there were two older boys there, and just as Daddy feared, she showed an intense interest in both of them!

Soon it was time for Bailey's birthday cupcake. Here's the birthday girl in all her frosting glory!

And of course, Kaylee had to sample the cuisine. She opted for chocolate (or more truly, Mommy did: the bigger the mess the cuter the picture)"How do you like the cupcake?" I asked her.
Simple words were not enough, Kaylee thought the cupcakes deserved a round of applause.
After the cupcakes it was time for Bailey to open presents. Kaylee felt it her duty to help Bailey play with her new toys. And as Bailey continued to unwrap Kaylee kept an eye on things, you know she wanted to make sure she got to play with the coolest new thing. Here she is playing with Bailey's new Little People while watching her unwrap something else.
Then we had to scoot home, because "Uncle" Ben was coming over.

And so was "Auntie" Danielle.
We weren't sure if Kaylee was entertaining them or...
...they were entertaining her. Perhaps, it was mutual.
A great time was had by all...and what a busy day! A birthday party and some house guests too! What a popular little girl we have!

Woohoo--now we're caught up with September pictures!

A Few Great Pics

OK--sorry for the lapse in postings. I actually didn't take that many pictures this week. Although I did take a series of bathtime pictures for the scrapbook but I am opting to leave those off the blog. Anyway...here are some really good ones though.
On Friday, Grammy and Grampy came to visit...you'd have thought it had been 5 months as opposed to 2 weeks since my mother had seen her. Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.
Kaylee has been watching Mommy brush out here hair every morning, a skill she is determined to learn herself...
Brushes are fascinating...aren't they?
We caught a few really cute looks on our monkey girl that day.
"Mommy, stop with the camera already," she says.
Kaylee has enjoyed her hippo walking toy Mommy and Daddy gave her for her birthday. But she certainly doesn't need it to stand...she can do that on her own these days.And she is very happy about that, thank you very much!

Emily's First Birthday!

So today, was Kaylee's friend's Emily's 1st birthday. So we all packed up and went to enjoy the festivities. Does the ball pit look familiar? It should, we like to share:)
Kaylee finally got to meet Emily's other friend Nevaeh.
Thick as thieves, Kaylee and Emily pal around in the ball pit (again.)
And soon another friend, Salvator joined in. In one little house, we had 4 September 2006 babies. Go Snugglebugs!
Kaylee and Nevaeh got along just fine. Kaylee was practically forcing the poor girl to play with the red ball.
We thought Emily was pretty mobile, but Salvator put them all to shame, climbing, walking, running etc. He's a cutie.
Then it was time for Emily to have some cake! Just as Kaylee is a ladybug, Emily is a butterfly, so she has a beautiful butterfly cake.

As the paparazzi popped flashbulbs as if it were Lindsay Lohan getting arrested (again), Emily dove into her cake. She was much more aggressive than Kaylee was. Jackie should have some great scrap booking material.
She even double fisted!
By the end she had destroyed the cake, but had a lot of fun while doing it.
She even decorated her balloons...with cake frosting! Hooray.
Kaylee tried on Emily's birthday crown before informing us that it was past her nap time.
Thanks for the great party Emily, Jackie and Phil. And again, happy birthday to Emily!

Humphrey Park

On Friday, since it was Daddy's day off, we went to the park because it was such a nice day.
We started on the swings!
Daddy gave Kaylee a push or 2.
Then it was off to the big slide! Kaylee had a blast going down with Daddy.
And again.
And down she goes with Mommy too.
Then it was back to the swings. I know this pic is back lit (bad bad photographer) but I hope you can see her little smile! She just loves the swing so much. (Note: this is meant to be a major hint to both Grandpas reading this.)

We pushed her a little higher.
And a little higher! "Mommy, this is kid stuff!"
And then so high that she basically went off my photo frame, but she loved that high flying fun. Our little adrenaline junky!
Yay for parks!

Playdough

OK so today, Mommy decided to do something totally new. She made some playdough for the little munchkin to squish her hands around in and experience some new textures etc. (This is a no cook playdough recipe which is edible, although not tasty so safe for the little ones--I am lazy and I don't like the playdough recipe where you have to boil/cook it--anyway if you want the recipe let me know, I learned it from my brief stint working in daycare a few years ago.)
Anyway--Kaylee wanted first to be sure I did it correctly.
"Mommy are you sure you did this right?" she asks.
I told her it was perfect and pink to boot! "Alright." she said, although she still looked a little skeptical.
But she rolled it around a bit. Picked it up. Dropped it back onto the table.
She examined small pieces of it that broke off.
Eventually she even seemed pleased with her new toy.

I think the part she loved the most was the somewhat greasy residue...
Or the goo-i-ness!
She wasn't sure about the taste though...salty!
"How did you playing with the playdough?" I asked her.

"It was great mommy...messy, gooey, salty, sticky...that's my kind of toy!"

Look at that grin!

And clean up is a breeze. Plus it stores for a long time in an air tight container so we can make this part of our daily routine if we want. And maybe I'll make some more colors soon!
Wow, 2 days in a row for posts!

playgroups!

OK, as many of you now know, I joined the Moms club in our area a few months ago. And now every Tuesday Kaylee has a playgroup...we rotate houses each week, so last Tuesday, we packed up and went to Madison's house where Kaylee got to play with all sorts of cool toys.
On Friday we went to a Moms Club Coffee Talk at Julie's house. Kaylee here is sporting her very first haircut which I did myself on Thursday (with much goading from Grammy.)
Still Kaylee enjoys not having her hair in her eyes anymore, it was that annoying length...not long enough for a ponytail, but long enough to be in the way. Here she is with her friend Megan at Julie's house. Megan's birthday is September 10th so they are basically the exact same age, but look how long her hair is!
And then today it was our turn to host playgroup. So we pumped up the ball pit again. You've all seen Miss Emilies before, and the little heart breaker with them now is Henry, another September baby. Kaylee has found a lot of age-appropriate friends through the Moms Club.

Kaylee doesn't mind sharing her ballpit with her friends. Here she's saying to me "Word Mommy, this ballpit is for all my homies!"
This is just a cute shot of Kaylee discovering the new gate system. She is officially climbing stairs now, so we are officially blocking them!
Oh, and just so you know what I go through all the time now. Kaylee is into this fake crying thing...which she basically does constantly. Its completely fake...she scrunches up her face and lets out a ridiculous wail. Believe me...it sounds as good as it looks!
That's all for now!