Only in the home with a toddler, or maybe someone who was very absentminded or sleep walks, would you open up your refrigerator to find this:
See that random shirt placed in the fridge? Like I said, only in the house with a toddler! A very cute toddler at that!
When Mikayla turned one I knew I wanted to throw a cupcake themed party. We did and it was fun! This year I was wavering between a Dr. Seuss birthday party and a Candy Themed birthday party. When I gave Ben the options he immediately decided it had to be candy! So candy it was…lots and lots of candy!
All I have to say is: Candy + Lots of friends and family (minus some really special ones who couldn’t make it) + a very special little girl = the best 2 year old birthday party ever! Thanks everyone for making it such fun. I hope we didn’t have too many upset tummies last night! Here are some picture highlights of the day.
The candy bar set up! I was pretty proud of this, minus the bows I did all of this on my own! The pictures are of her at birth, one year and then two years.
Candy sushi made by Ben and myself.
We had everyone write special notes to Mikayla for her third birthday since all our friends and family will be here.
The dip table plus cupcakes (Funfetti of course).
The cupcake smash, similar to last year but funnier!
Here are some very special party guests.
Callie
Carson
Lauren and Crystal
Tracie
Ali and Jeff
Brittany and John David, notice Mikayla sharing her gummy worm
Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Tim plus Baby Taylor
Christi
Dacia and Terry
Jennifer
Uncle Christopher and Aunt Sarah
The Goodmans minus Caleb and Paige
All the kids
The fabulous dress made by Dacia Shoemaker! Everyone should have a dress this beautiful!
The evening ended with a little party in the bathtub!
Thanks again to everyone who came out to celebrate our special little girls 2nd birthday!
Mikayla last year on her birthday and then this year (very excited with crazy bed head!).
I had planned to write a lengthy post of all the accomplishments Mikayla has made in the last year, but to be honest I am too tired tonight. Maybe another night. For tonight I just want to wish the sweetest two year old a very happy birthday! We had a great day of donuts, bubble baths, visitors, a park date, Chick-fil-a and of course rounded out the day with a little Stakz frozen yogurt! Mikayla even woke up to a birthday decorated doorway.
Posing in front of her birthday sign before our donut date!
Just hanging around the park like two year olds do!
Happy birthday sweet baby! I am sad you are growing up so fast, but can’t wait to see what the next year holds for you.
Mikayla had a couple of firsts this week. She got her first official haircut by the amazing Ali Townsend at Bella Me on the square in BG. She did awesome! She sat so still and let Ali cut and play with her hair. I didn’t get very many shots, but here are a few to capture the moment.
She also slept in a big girl bed for the first time (minus those few moments we bring her to bed with us). She took it like a champ in typical Mikayla fashion. After a few bumps and delays she laid down and went right to sleep. Since we started this on Tuesday night, she has yet to climb out of bed even at naptime! Knock on wood! She doesn’t put up any more of a fight than she did when we put her down in the crib. She is however, much more cautious since the first night when she bumped her head a few times. She will even say as she is climbing in the bed, "Be careful"! Too cute. I am so proud of my big girl. Check out the video below to see her first reaction to the big girl bed. I apologize for her not being clothed, she had just gotten out of the shower!
Today we took an impromptu trip to Dinosaur World with my sister, her kids and my mom. Mikayla had a blast and loved saying "Din-O-saur". She even commented that she wanted to "poo poo a dinosaur" when she got home! That kid is hysterical!
Mikayla kept calling these elephants, but they were really wooly mammoths.
Dinoslide as Mikayla called it.
This is my niece who is 10 months old..I think she is going to be tall and pass Mikayla up very quickly!
Mikayla and Tanner loved hanging on the bars!
For Mikayla’s 2nd birthday we opted to take a non-traditional route. Since we will be moving in July and can’t take very much with us we decided to give her a trip somewhere instead of a birthday gift to unwrap (thanks Lara for the idea). My spring break is this week so we had the perfect opportunity. On Monday, we packed the car and headed to Chattanooga, Tennessee for the evening.
Our first stop was the zoo. It wasn’t a very big zoo, but we had a blast anyway. Mikayla loved looking at the monkeys (really chimps, but she doesn’t know any better). At one point one of them was walking right by our viewing window and got either excited or scared. It let out a screech sound banged the window a few times while showing its teeth and then ran off. Mikayla was a little taken back until she realized the monkey was just saying hi! When it happened she actually threw her hands up and said "Whoa"! It was priceless.
Loving on the chimp!
Pretty jaguar pacing in front of the window.
This was just before the peacock got spooked and hit Mikayla in the head with its tail feathers!
Family portrait
The guy at the carousel was so nice, he let Mikayla ride an extra time for free!
A little playground action after our zoo trip.
What Kickert vacation would be complete without a few ice cream stops along the way?
And of course we had to go swimming so, as Mikayla called it, "put my head under water"! Doesn’t she look so grown up in this swim suit?
On Tuesday morning we got up and headed to the Creative Discovery Museum. We have taken Mikayla to several children’s museums, but this one was a hit for sure. It catered very well to toddler aged children where others are geared towards older kids. Mikayla loved the water station the best and kept asking to go back.
Water Station – her favorite station of the day!
She has become quite the "hoarder", hopefully we don’t see her on one of the hoarding reality TV shows in the future!
Camping out!
Hanging around in a kayak.
They had the coolest music exhibit with different instruments and recording devices throughout. It even had a recording studio!
Face painting…a beard just like daddy!
Trying to figure out the dinosaur dig…she wasn’t quite sure about the sand.
Being eaten by a T-Rex!
Hanging out at the top of the arch!
The kitchen area was her second favorite exhibit!
All tuckered out after some birthday fun! Happy second birthday sweet baby!
I have posted about my friends Catherine and Dave before and how very special they are to us. This is why, with our upcoming move, we are trying to make the most of every opportunity we can to spend with special people like them! When Ben mentioned he was asked to spend two weeks in Swaziland, I jumped at the chance to spend some time with Catherine and Molly. We decided to meet in the middle for a long weekend in Atlanta, GA. It was a great trip filled with laughter, late night gab sessions, shopping and some fun for the girls. I would have liked a few more days with them, but I will take what I can get!
We stayed at the coziest little Bed and Breakfast called Hello B & B. It was within 15-20 minutes driving distance from all our destinations (except for the outlet malls which were outside of town). It was quiet and the perfect set up for traveling with toddlers. The room we stayed in was split room with two queen size beds. We could put Molly in one room and MIkayla in the other and they couldn’t see each other to distract from sleeping. Then we could sneak out into the living room area to talk while they snoozed. Perfect!
We completed a lot in just a few days, and I was definitely exhausted when we got back. We went to IKEA (someday when we return I want to complete my house with IKEA furniture), the Children’s Museum, Outlet malls, Trader Joe’s and the Aquarium!
I wasn’t a very good photographer while we were gone, I got too caught up in everything. I did manage to get a couple of good shots though, and Catherine took a bunch of great ones so I will just steal her copies!
The Children’s Museum – We were joined by a couple of school groups on this day. The girls didn’t seem to mind, but it made for a very noisy and crowded museum. Eventually they went to eat and watch a performance so it quieted down a bit. Mikayla of course loved bouncing from station to station. Only staying at one long enough to look around before venturing to the next. She really enjoyed the ball station and water station. She actually got really made when I had to make her leave the water station because there were too many kids!
Ball Station – she did not want to let go of the balls!
Sand station
Water Station – she definitely has her "cheese" down!
There was a special exhibit for Africa set up while we were there. Here she is examining African fruit and veggies.
Just hanging out in the a fishing boat!
A little camel ride!
In the African set up there was a small room filled with bongos. It projected you on the screen playing with some African musicians. She loved banging on on them and watching herself. Uncle Christopher would be proud at her rhythm.
Attempting a picture of the girls.
Milking a cow!
Painting…this kid loves to paint!
Kitchen station – she was in heaven with all the food and kitchen equipment!
Shopping
Outlet Malls – One night we hit up some outlet malls about thirty minutes outside of the city. We ran into some traffic issues so it took us much longer than that, but no worries we found some great deals. And the girls loved playing in the rides outside of the stores, even if they weren’t on!
What flavor would you like?
Cat in the Hat ride! Can you sense her excitement!
Georgia Aquarium – The day we chose to go to the aquarium just so happened to be "Dress like a princess or prince day and get in free"! So the place was filled with lots of royalty. To say it was crowded was an understatement. We did not take strollers, thinking they would have some to rent. We were wrong! So we ended up packing the girls around for several hours looking at the fish. We couldn’t let them walk much because there were so many people! My arms were so tired after the aquarium. I think they had fun, despite the crowds. These are probably some of the worst pictures from the whole trip! Sorry about their bad quality!
Loving the "fishies"! We signed fish more times than I can count this day!
Cool overhead tank. Notice the princess crowns and dresses.
She loved the mermaid so much…
…she wanted to kiss it!
In a penguin crawl tunnel. You crawled through to see the penguins up close. Mikayla loved it the first five feet and then got scared so I had to carry her while crawling to the middle where she could see the penguins.
This is towards the end of the aquarium, notice how tired we both are!
Attempting to touch a stingray. Unfortunately she was just too short and I couldn’t hold her over the tank enough.
All in all, we had a great weekend. The drive home seemed to take forever (partly because I was so tired, and partly because Mikayla refused to sleep)! Thanks Catherine and Molly for making the drive and hanging out with us for a bit!
March 2 was officially Dr. Seuss’s birthday, but we had a pretty crazy week so we didn’t get to complete all of our Dr. Seuss fun. We continued some of the fun while Ben as away in Africa (you can read all about his trip here, here, here and here). However, I am a sad to say that we did not get everything completed that I was hoping too. Here are some of the fun activities we did get completed.
Hop On Pop – We read the book and then hopped on the bed. She loved this and has asked to jump on the bed several more times since then. She is almost lifting herself off the ground, but not quite!
Dr. Seuss Flash Cards – I got some at the Parent teacher store with a birthday gift card. She isn’t really into looking at the numbers or letters yet, but she loves throwing them around and studying them! I also have a Dr. Seuss letter puzzle (two actually) that we attempted to work. Still a little young for this!
Foot Book – After reading the book (like five thousand times – she loves this one and Hop on Pop the best) we tried on different shoes. She loves putting on mommy and daddy’s shoes. She is even getting pretty good at putting on her rain boots all by herself.
Thing 1 and 2 – I totally stole this idea from my friend Lara (she completed with her kindergarten students and daughter). You paint your fingers blue and the base of your hand skin toned, smoosh it on the paper and you magically have a Thing 1 and 2 from The Cat in the Hat. This is the only project I managed to get a picture of though!
Mikayla chose to paint while her Thing 1 and 2 picture dried. Here she is cheesing it up! And yes she is not wearing a shirt, but it is easier to wash paint off of skin than it is clothes!
Admiring her work, so proud of herself!
Up close view of painting. I was very pleased with how they turned out!
I am pleased to announce that Mikayla is now in love with Dr. Seuss! She even requests her Dr. Seuss shirt over her Elmo shirt. Every time she sees Cat in the Hat she smiles with delight. She will even sometimes start singing Happy Birthday! And every Dr. Seuss book is a Cat in the Hat book, not Dr. Seuss! I love that she has inherited my love for all things Seuss!
We had such a busy week, that we hardly got to do any fun Dr. Seuss activities at home last week. So, I plan on continuing Dr. Seuss into our afternoons and evenings this week! We did manage to squeeze in a few fun activities.
On Tuesday evening we went to the public library for story time. They had a special guest reader, the Cat in the Hat. Mikayla was in love. She kept going up to him and pulling his (but really her) leg and interrupting the story! Then we made cat in the hat headbands and bowties. We finished the evening off by singing Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss. Mikayla surprisingly knows the words and started singing before everyone was ready. Unfortunately I did not remember my camera, so I don’t have any pictures from the evening.
On Friday night Mikayla helped me make green eggs and ham and cat in the hat pancake stacks. Mikayla and Ben also enjoyed some green egg ice cream for dessert. We ended the evening by reading this fabulous board book version of Green Eggs and Ham. We plan on doing some crafty stuff with Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, but we just ran out of time!
Mikayla helping stir the pancake mix. Notice her serious face and pudgy belly!
Green eggs and ham and cat in the hat pancake stack!
Cheese!
Green egg dessert treat (lime sherbet with whipped topping)!
Enjoying some green eggs with daddy!
On Saturday we read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and had a fish themed lunch. I was also planning on some other fun "fish" activities, but several things came up during the day and we just ran out of time! Maybe next week we will be able to squeeze them in.
Fish shaped sandwich, sand (crumbled crackers), seaweed (celery), goldfish crackers, and bubbles (blueberries). Mikayla loved it!
Such a little cheeser!
I hope to complete some of the other Dr. Seuss activities I had planned this week, but if not we will get to them eventually! We may just call March, Dr. Seuss Month!
For February I chose to do a red themed sensory tub. It has lots of heart goodies in it, so it also doubles as a Valentine’s tub! Mikayla loves to pull out the little heart shaped games and shake until her heart is content! She is also a fan of stirring the items with the large rose. Check it out.
This is just a sampling of the items in the tub. Obviously there are more of each item shown. From top left and around clockwise you have foil heart garland, silicone heart shaped baking cups, heart maze game, heart bracelets, red roses that smell like flowers, red foil/filler pieces, red beads (leftover from our Christmas tree) and a large red rose given to me from Ben when we were in high school.
She couldn’t hardly keep her hands out long enough for me to take a picture!
Stay tuned for our march tub, the theme is green (in honor of St. Patrick’s day and the hopes of Spring)!
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On February 2, we also had a little groundhogs celebration. I found a cute little cupcake here. I thought it might be fun to make at school with my kiddos. They had such a blast I brought the supplies home to let Mikayla join in on the action. Thanks to the kindergarten classes, we also got a cute little groundhog headband. We ended the evening playing a groundhog game on Starfall.
Digging in!
This kid loves her some candy…wonder where she gets that?
I love Groundhog’s Day mommy!
I promise the ones I made at school looked cuter! Between Mikayla and Ben helping out, ours at home got a little messy!
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We have had a ton of snow here in BG this winter! I am loving it, besides having to drive home in it! We got so much yesterday that school dismissed early and we had another snow day today. That hardly ever happens for us! Mikayla has become quite the little snow bunny. When she hears the word snow or sees the white stuff in the sky she immediately grabs her snowsuit and boots and demands to be taken outside. The other day Ben told her it was supposed to snow before it actually started. In typical Mikayla fashion she ran and grabbed her snowsuit and boots and demanded they be put on. When she was all bundled up he took her outside and she was a little disappointed to find that there was no snow on the ground. Needless to say she was a little happier the next morning when there was snow to play with. She even cried yesterday when we told her it was time to come inside.
Snow angel
Night night sledding with daddy.
Notice her gloves. Somewhere in the along the way we have lost the second mitten that goes with her snow suit, so we have to double up on gloves/mittens on her second hand.
Cheesing in the snow!
