Skittles Rainbow

We've been on spring break this week. In honor of spring's arrival, Kaitlyn made a rainbow out of Skittles and glue (with a little help from mom.) She diligently sorted all the colors and was all too happy to snack on the art supplies from time to time.

Other fun excursions this week included meeting Daddy for lunch and visiting his office, going to the mall (and getting ice cream), playing at Chick-Fil-A (and getting ice cream), and playing outside with our next door neighbors. Kaitlyn even got to hold a live earth worm in her hand and was thrilled. Oh the joys of childhood!

A Year in Review

Here's a look at Ethan over the past year, starting with the day of his birth.

Ethan's 1st Birthday Party

Happy 1st Birthday Ethan! It's hard to believe a whole year has gone by since his birth. He is such a joy in so many ways. He loves to smile and is a very laid-back baby. He loves to sit in a big pile of books and flip through all the pages. He will "walk" if you hold on to his hands. He likes a wide variety of food, but he refuses to feed himself yet. He is the sweetest little boy and loves to cuddle up for story time and lullabies before nap.

Today, he had his first birthday party. Gran, Papa Bell and Aunt Lindsey joined us for the fun. Enjoy the pictures!

Kaitlyn was SO excited about his birthday party, mainly because she knew it involved balloons and cake--two of her favorite things. Here she is posing in front of the party table.

Ethan was all smiles too as we sang Happy Birthday. Notice the look of anticipation on Kaitlyn's face. She can't wait to dig into the big cake!

Ethan immediately dug into the icing. Guess he liked the feeling of it on his hands because he kept going back for more.

Since he wouldn't put the icing or cake in his mouth, I decided to feed him a few bites. He didn't actually spit it out, but he was clearly thinking about it for a while. I wouldn't say that he liked the cake, but he didn't hate it either. Not surprising since it was his first taste of pure sugar.

Then I realized that I forgot to put his birthday hat on. So I put the hat on, and he started tugging at the string...with icing all over his hands.

Our messy little birthday boy with icing all over his hands, face, ear and hair.

After a quick bath and outfit change, we opened presents. Of course, he liked the wrapping paper most of all, but he now has some fun books, toys and puzzles to explore later.

Happy Birthday little boy! I look forward to another year of milestones and adventures with you!

Kaitlyn's Spring Program

Today was Kaitlyn's spring program at her preschool. Her class all wore yellow shirts and sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and recited "Little Miss Muffet." Well actually, no one in her class really sang or recited. Rather, they all got a bit of stage fright and squirmed and stared out into the audience while the teachers tried to lead them in song and rhyme. Pretty typical for a bunch of 2 year olds! The older classes were quite entertaining though, and it'll be neat to see Kaitlyn in that environment again next year.

Some pictures for your enjoyment...

For some reason, Kaitlyn decided that she wanted to puff out her cheeks for a good portion of the program today. Not sure where that one came from! Here she is sitting in silence as her teachers valiantly try to get them to sing.

Getting ready to go back up on stage with the whole group. Still puffing out her cheeks.

At this point in the program, Jeff was trying to corral a very restless Ethan, so I manned the camera. As soon as I stood up, she saw me and started smiling excitedly.

Here's a picture of her whole class after the program. So cute in their matching shirts!