Timmy is Three

On September 18th, my little Timmy turned three.  He's not actually little at all, which he is now quick to tell everyone.  He reminds Cate quite often that although she is older, he is bigger.  

We started  Timmy's birthday week with treats at school.  We brought "Kissing Hand" cookies for his five little classmates.  Timmy was so excited to show the cookies to his teacher that when we got to school, he ripped the lid off the container and almost knocked them all on the floor.  Timmy has definitely settled in to the school routine this year.  He is in a class for kids who are not quite three at the beginning of the school year so he goes just twice a week and is home with me when Cate goes a third day.  We enjoy our little date mornings together and try to always do something a little bit fun and special.

Over the weekend, we invited Norah and Eli over for swimming, pizza and ice cream cake.  This is Timmy's second "Cars" cake.  I wonder if he might be into something new by the time he turns four.

After he blew out the candles and opened presents, we went outside for his present from us.  A new bike.  He got a "Cars" bike, of course and we also got Cate a princess bike (of course).  We tried to emphasize that Cate will not usually be getting a present on Timmy's birthday, but it would not be much fun for Timmy to go out and ride his bike if Cate didn't have one.

 We have been going out for early evening bike rides since it is finally starting to cool off a bit at night here.  Cate and Timmy both love riding their bikes and only have a few scraped knees to show for it.

Happy Third Birthday, Timmy!  We love you!

Las Vegas

Two weeks ago, we set off on our first Southwest road trip.  While in Chicago in July, we decided to celebrate Mimi's September birthday by going to see Celine Dion's show in Las Vegas.

Since we had just been in Chicago, it wasn't realistic for us to go back, but since Vegas is a drive for us, it seemed like a good idea.  Plus, we were so excited to see Celine's show.

Las Vegas isn't really a place that I would normally take two little kids, but we figured that we could spend most of the time swimming at the hotel and just hanging out.

Our rooms at the Monte Carlo were not great, but the pools were fantastic.  Cate and Timmy were so excited to try out the wave pool and the lazy river.  The wave pool was a huge hit and they spent a ton of time jumping over those waves.

Cate spent one entire morning reenacting the Little Mermaid's, "Part of that world."  She would swim around with my mom singing the song (...up where they walk, up where they run...up where they stay all day in the sun....) and then would burst out of the water (as pictured above) and belt out, "Part of that world."  Over and over and over.  Mimi was a good sport, as usual, and played the role of the rock to Cate's Ariel.

The hotel lobby had a cupcake bakery which we, of course, visited twice.  Timmy got his standard chocolate and Cate got whatever cupcake was pink and sprinkled.

We did a little bit of walking around at night.  We took the tram from our hotel to the Bellagio to check out the flower and hot air balloon exhibit.  Timmy was fascinated and Cate was not interested at all.

For Mimi's birthday dinner, we went to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant in MGM.  Our food was delicious and Timmy ate his weight in pizza.  Seriously.  He ate slice after slice, long after Cate had gone back to coloring.  It must have been really good pizza.

We got to sing "Happy Birthday" over chocolate beignets and caramel sauce.  Of course, we followed that up with a visit to the frozen yogurt shop in the hotel lobby because we had already promised C&T.

Mimi, Pop and Jenn left early the next morning and Tim had some work to do in Vegas, so Cate, Timmy and I braved the crowded, scary, streets to visit M&M world.  I told them each that they could choose one thing in the store to bring home.  Timmy selected a bat and ball and Cate an M&M tea set.  Since she really needs another tea set.  I thought that maybe  they would pick something with actual candy that we could eat, but no such luck.

It was fun to do something completely different and somewhat last minute for Mimi's birthday and it was a good way to sneak in an extra visit!

Back to School

When we got back from Chicago, we had two weeks with absolutely nothing on the agenda.  In some ways it was a nice slow pace.  We slept late, swam and colored a lot of pictures.

 Cate dressed up in her American Girl dress from Nana to match baby Maggie.

We went to the library and did a million puzzles.

Cate dressed up in her Tinkerbell costume.

And had a fit when I wouldn't let her try to "fly" off of the couch.

So when meet the teacher day finally arrived, we were ready for some action.

First we checked out Cate's four year old classroom.  She will have a small class this year which I think will be good for her.

 Meet the teacher day was also an ice cream social which was popular with everyone.

 After we checked out Timmy's little room, he insisted that we investigate the playground.  He channeled Usain Bolt on the slide.

On Wednesday, we were up bright and early to make it to school on time.  Cate and Timmy did great.  Cate said that her favorite part of the day was quiet reading time.  They are allowed to choose a few books and a little spot to sit and just read on their own.  Timmy's favorite part of the day?  Snack time.

Summer in Chicago

We just got back from our long awaited, first trip back to Chicago.  We spent ten days in the Windy City and had a great time.

Cate and Timmy did great in the airport and on the plane.  It was our first trip without a stroller!  Just two kids with their own backpacks.  Although they do like to move from one activity to the next on the plane, both were content for quite awhile doing books, stickers and coloring.

After we settled in for a few days, we decided to go to Santa's Village on Saturday.  This little amusement park was perfect for a four and almost three year old.  They loved the whip, the tilt-a-whirl and the dragon ship.

Cate passed the first time we went on the dragon ship (the one that rocks back and forth until you're perpendicular to the ground) but after getting her feet wet on the other rides, she asked if we could go on it again.

I assumed that she would be screaming and I would be trying to get the ride operator's attention to beg him to stop the ride.  Not quite.  She was a maniac.  She screamed and threw her arms up in the air like a little wild woman.  The girl surprises me sometimes.  Timmy did not love the dragon ship, but after riding the tilt-a-whirl a few times, he exclaimed, "Mama, this is very cool."

The next day, we had a summer birthday party at Mimi and Pop's house with a princess cake for Cate and a Thomas the Train cake for Timmy.  It was so much fun to see everyone and just hang out.

Later that week, we spent some time in the city.  We met Uncle Rusty for lunch near his office and took a water taxi tour on the river.

It was a really nice day to hang out outside.  Of course while we were on the water taxi, there was another passenger who kept telling me that I needed to start working on multiplication tables with Timmy.  I needed to start early for him to be good at math.  Ok sure.  He can barely identify numbers.  I guess she didn't care too much about Cate's math skills.

Before heading back to Mimi and Pop's house, we went for a swim in Uncle Rusty's rooftop pool.  It was empty (being the middle of the day on a Tuesday), so they jumped and jumped and swam across the pool until it was time to go.

Tim and I went back into the city the next night to stay on Michigan Avenue for our anniversary.  We had a great room with a great view of the Hancock Tower.  It was so nice to just shop and poke around a little bit on our own for the day.

We were sad to leave but the goodbye was made easier because we will see Mimi, Pop and Jenn again in just a few weeks in Las Vegas!  We surprised Mimi with the plan to see Celine Dion's concert there for her birthday.  We can't wait!

Flying By

The summer is flying by.  We have made it through eight weeks of city swim lessons.

Then we made it through four weeks of survival swim.  I was so nervous about the survival swim, but I am so glad that we did it.  The progress they made from whining, complaining, yelling and crying to jumping off the diving board and swimming to the wall is amazing.  Of course they both have a lot of swimming skills to learn, but they can swim on their own, a good distance of the pool.

We spent our first Phoenix Fourth of July with Dan and Jamie, Norah and Eli.  It was unseasonably cool (under 100 degrees) and even rained a little bit.  I must be acclimating to my surroundings, because I was happy to see the rain.  A phenomenon I never would have understood in Chicago.

Cate dance class, which she loved, and Timmy's soccer class, which he did not love, are over and school starts for both in early August.  First, though, we leave on Wednesday for our first trip back to Chicago.  We are so looking forward to seeing everyone, to having ten solid days together, to an overnight in the city and, if you ask Tim, to hitting up every famous Chicago eatery.  We can't wait!