You Make me Feel like Dancing

Our good friends Mike, Joanna and Bridget gave Kate a farm animal magnet toy when she turned 1. Kate has played with this toy non stop, but has taken a bigger liking to it recently. She brings it with us in the car, walks around the house with it, and even dances in the kitchen to the music it makes. Here's a picture of her dancing to the music. Who said kids grow out of toys?

Getting the music ready

Dancing Queen

Sprinkler

What a gorgeous weekend we had!! I'll post more pics from the weekend, because it was a busy one, but here are a few of Kate playing in her sprinkler. She had a ball. She was hesitant at first, but quickly got the hang out it. Rich showed her how to put her hand on the blow hole and run, and she had a ball!

Just waking up from nap and deciding if she wants to do it or not

Kate feeling the water and Molly getting soaked
Even Rich had a few runs!


Kate tasting the water

Having so much fun!!

Pictures

I posted some pictures from Father's Day- a week behind, but better late than never. Be sure to check out my Father's Day post for updated pics.

Fence!

The fence is done, the pool is open and Rich is getting a well deserved massage on Monday. Rich worked so hard to remove the old fence and put up the new one. Things went pretty smoothly, besides the fact that it rained so much! But, the fence is done and Kate has a lot more room to play now. Awesome job, Rich! Who can say they put up a fence? Rich can :) And, Kate reminds us all the time. She will say, "Daddy finished the fence! It's sooo pretty!"

Before- Rich removing the wire fromt he old fence and starting to take the old fence down.

During- The posts are up. Rich is checking out what he has to do next

Before- old fence wire is down and materials are out and ready!

Picture taken from our driveway of the new fence. I am standing in the driveway, against the house. This is where we normally park.

Picture from inside the pool- ahh!! privacy :)

Photo Shoot

Our friend Vicky, or Mickey as Kate calls her, is taking a photography class and posted on facebook that she was looking for animals to shoot as part of her assignment. I volunteered Molly and she was excited to take pics of Kate and Molly. She came over a few Sundays ago, while Rich worked on our fence, and let them play and took pics. Here are a few of my favorites!

80s Music

Rich & I went to see Poison and Def Leppard last night- it was my birthday present from Rich. Although I don't have too many pictures to post of us, I do have some of the bands. We had a blast! The bands were great and it's hard to believe these guys are still doing their thing! You can tell from the pics how great our seats were too! Thanks Rich for an awesome birthday present!! And, thanks Mom and Dad for taking care of Kate :)

Happy Father's Day!

I don't think many Dad's read my blog, but if you do, and I know 2 very special ones that do, Happy Father's Day! Please pass the message on to your Father, husband or friend. Kate & I are lucky enough to be blessed with wonderful Fathers. I am so glad that Kate gets to experience what I experienced- a loving, caring father who's there for everything you do! Happy Father's Day!

Opening Daddy's Father's Day presents

Kate and Rich

Kate and Pop Pop

Kate and her favorite guys

Italian Festival

This past weekend, we went to one of my favorite events of the year- the Italian Festival. I love going and walking around, eating and seeing friends. I really love the panzarotti they have there that i can't find anywhere else. It's an inside out pizza and it's awesome. I can remember when I was younger, we used to go all the time and sit and listen to a band, Then & Now. They are no longer there, but it's still fun to go and even more fun with Kate! Now, we eat our panzarotti, get a canoli, and go to the rides. Kate went on 3 rides- 2 with Daddy and 1 by herself!

Italian girl- she loves her canoli!
Bumblebee ride with Daddy!

Cars with Daddy!

Motorcycle all by herself!

Playground

Kate LOVES going to the playground. So, yesterday while I ran an errand, Rich took Kate to the park across the street. I'm always paranoid that the slides are too fast, or that the equipment is too high off of the ground, but Rich is calm and lets Kate try, standing right behind her. He sent me little videos of her playing and sent this one that made me realize just how big she is getting. Apparently she made friends at the park and used her Dora classes to tell them "Gracias!"

At the end, she's so excited she's yelling "I did it!" And Daddy, telling her, "You did it all by yourself!" What big girl!!

Swim Lessons

A few people have asked me about how swim lessons are going for Kate. They are going great! She can float on her back, on her front, jump in the pool and flip right over to her back- which is HUGE because this could save her life! She can do the backstroke- she's not Michael Phelps, yet, but she has the basic concept down. It's taken her a little longer to use her "paddles" or arms, but Lindsey, her teacher said that this is normal. But, last week, she FINALLY did it! Here is a little video of Kate using her Paddles!!! I'm thinking she'll be ready for the Olympics in 2020 :)

Watering

Kate loves to water the plants, or water anything for that matter. We had her outside one night and she learned to turn on the hose and filled the watering can.

Can I please fill the watering can?

EWWW.. a spider- eww gross. She is obsessed with bugs and ants and wants to stomp on all of them. No idea where she's getting that from :)

I'll fill the bird bath for you!

Watering the mums for their fall bloom

Definitely empty- all plants have been watered

Our Weekend

I haven't posted in a while...oops. We had a busy weekend. We went to our good friends Mike & Katie's wedding in Lewes, DE. Congrats guys! We had a blast and it was such a great wedding!!

We celebrated my mom's birthday with a dinner at one of our favorite Italian restuarants, Happy Birthday Mom! And, Rich started working on our fence around our pool. It's down. So, hopefully the new one can go up and we can get the pool open! Before and after pics coming.

And, on Sunday, Kate & I played all day and had a little picnic, or "pickmic" as she like to call it. We ended our evening with dinner at our favorite Burger Joint with Lauren (and Brian was not there, as Kate told me all night) and our other friend Paul, who Rich golfed with.

Our picnic set up- Molly checking everything out too

Kate eating her turkey sandwich

Self portrait

Hey- if your hands are full, why not hold your Dora cup with your piggies? Kate cracked up that I was taking this picture. She thought it was hysterical!

Hamming it up for the camera

We decided to take a nap after our lunch. yeah right :)Here is our actor doing her fake sleep- looks pretty real since her thumb is in her mouth and all.

Icepop after her real nap. Molly is always waiting for just a drop- what she doesn't realize is Kate LOVEs icepops and nothing is dropping. Also, if you look closely, you'll see that Kate has 2 different flip flops on. One princess and one with tinkerbell, which she told everyone she saw!