this kid

This kid will have my heart forever. Love.

egg-citing

It's a tradition each year for Keith and I to color Easter eggs with Andrea and Andrew and now that the kids are old enough to understand the process, we included them plus Andrew's cousin Adam. I always love getting to hang out with some of my fave people {yes, that's you too Andrew} and Easter egg hunting holds a special place in my heart.

See, every year either Andrea of myself forgets to buy the vinegar. And each year we always have a goal to dye one egg black for Andrea's dad, Tom. I'm not even sure why we do that, but it's always funny to see how it ends up.

The kids were super excited; this was a completely new experience for them. We did have some difficulty with the logistics though...

Reagan had a really tough time understanding that she couldn't a.) eat the eggs right away, and b.) drink the "pink" water.

She eventually calmed down and we got to coloring. Reagan lost interest pretty fast because she was too impatient to wait for the color to set, but Luke was a champ.

I'm pretty sure he ate up every.single.second of being the center of attention. He basically ran the show.

He even put Keith to work drawing on the eggs with a white crayon.

Luke and Andrew made a decision to put multiple eggs in the cups to speed up the process.



 

 

Thanks to Andrea, Andrew, and Adam for sticking it out with the two kidlets and us! We had a great time with you guys!

all grown up

School is going so well for Luke. He is loving all of the activities and fun things that he gets to do plus he's learning so much already. I need to take a picture of how he writes his name already. It makes a Momma proud.

Yesterday was Luke's favorite day ever: he was able to ride the bus home for the first time. Ever since we found out he would be attending a public school in our district, he's been asking to ride the bus. When he ran to me with a giant smile on his face after getting off the bus yesterday, I was just as excited as he was.

Here's hoping today goes just as well!

payback

Oh my dear, Reagan. Should you continue to "spice" our lives in ways that we could have never imagined, be prepared for your Daddy and I to save pictures such as this one to share with any and all future boyfriends.

See, when I go to pick you up from preschool and I think that you've had your face painted by your teacher and you've really just colored a fair portion of your exposed skin with "washable" markers, you've brought this on yourself.

Yes, you are cute.  Yes, you have more spunk than I've come across in a long while. Yes, you keep every part of our life entertaining. And yes, I love your sweet little personality more than I could have ever imagined.

But all is fair in love and parenting, sweetheart and hopefully you'll consider that before you head off to complete your next sneaky act of cuteness.

And yes, I did drive her all the way home from school so I could take good pictures before I attempted to scrub it off of her. Who could blame me?

take that

Enough said. :)

cake makes everything better

This past weekend we attended my sweet niece Parker's 2nd birthday party. The kids were in love with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme and the piece de resistance of the shin-dig was the gorgeous Minnie Mouse cake. Both of my kidlets may have stuck their fingers in the back during lunch -- that's how excited they were.

Well, life doesn't always work out in your favor. See, I was sick. And Reagan has this fear of men and there were plenty to go around at the party that she had never met before. And it was crazy windy which didn't help my inability to breathe and Luke's asthma. And then there was the incident with Luke.

My brother Randy was a champ at helping out with the kids. It's tough when they run opposite directions and you are the only parent there. Randy stuck with Luke and was pushing him on the swings as Reagan was having a meltdown near the bounce house. When I looked back a minute or so later, Luke was gone. I carefully checked the playground, the pavilion where everyone was eating, the bounce house, the grassy area. No Luke. At this point, I'm now running around the park trying to find him, shouting his name.

As I pulled my phone out to call the police, I got a phone call from Randy. It turns out Luke had needed to go to the bathroom, so he took him back to Beth's house so he could go. He made sure to call me as soon as they got there and I appreciate that, but at this point, my nerves were shot and I was seconds away from bursting into tears.

Needless to say, we didn't make it much longer.

We high tailed it out of there right before the singing of Happy Birthday and the cutting of the cake. Randy was nice enough to bring us some slices in the car before we left.

We ate our cake at home after nap time. Reagan was excited for the cake, but so sad when she realized that we weren't going back to the party.

At least she had cake.

first day of shool

Now, I know that at this time of year, most kids and teachers are counting down the days until summer. Here at the Waltemeyer home, we don't play that way. :)

Because Luke now qualifies for speech services, he gets to attend the elementary school in our neighborhood. Reagan has also reached the age where she can attend a mini-preschool class once a week through the Gilbert Parks & Rec. Monday was the first day for both of them. And let's be honest: Momma barely held it together.

Luke and Reagan were champs. Neither of them took a second look back or had any kind of struggle. Myself, on the other hand, had the tears well up and made the sappy phone call to Keith so he could keep me in check.

My sweet babies are growing up so fast. Too fast.

the girl is two

It seems like it was yesterday that our sweet girl was born. She came out just as sassy as she'd been when I was pregnant and hasn't let it stop her one bit since then.

We've experienced lots of smiles...

...lots and lots of scream filled moments.

The girl is still obsessed with her food. And Luke's food. And everyone else's food.

In fact, she's gone from being in the 20th percentile for her weight at her first birthday to being 28 lbs. and in the 80th percentile at her 2 year check. She's also half an inch shy of being 3 feet tall, which puts her in the 90th percentile for her height.

Each day she surpirses us with new and hilarious things that she does and says, and while on the topic of her speech, it has been improving by leaps and bounds the past few months. The girl who had to have her speech evaluated is now right on track with her speech development. Reagan is attempting new words every day and becoming more fluent with the words that she already uses.

I am more in love with this little ball of spitfire than I ever thought possible. Sometimes I take a moment to thank God for blessing us with such a wonderful, beautiful daughter.

Reagan: Momma and Daddy wish you the happiest of birthdays and we are so eternally grateful to have you in our lives. We love you baby girl!

reagan's birthday party

It's taken me a solid week to recover, but I'm here today sharing the full details of my Reagan's Secret Garden Birthday Party! The moment I saw the Secret Garden collection from Sandi Henderson, it was party at first sight.

I'll warn you now: there are an obscene amount of pictures in this post, but there were so many fun aspects and details, that I just couldn't leave anything out. Seriously. I hope you enjoy everything as much as I did!

I have to start with the second most gorgeous part of the entire party {with my daughter being the obvious first}:

Isn't this cake absolutely fantastic? The ever-amazing Breanna from Sugar Dreams Cakes & Things knocked this beauty out of the park. In keeping with the garden theme, I utilized an overturned galvanized bucket wrapped with burlap and lace trim as a pedestal to help the cake stand out even more.

The dessert table was filled with lots of yummy goodness! Some of my favorites were the Party Oreos that I made {Oreos dipped in candy melts and sprinkles}...

...these sweet mini lemon raspberry cupcakes courtesy of Sugar Dreams...

...the scrumptious red velvet cake pops from Sugar Dreams...

...and floral sugar cookies that I squeaked out last-minute.

My sweet girl was so excited for her party. I spent lots of

crying quality time the week prior to the party designing, cutting, sewing, altering, pinning, and swearing to make her party dress. It turned out about 87% like I had originally imagined, so I consider that a success for my first dress attempt!

I love how her birthday banner turned out and it was pretty simple to put together; that alone makes it a winner in my book! I cut the burlap flags by hand and used by ever-trusty Silhouette to cut the circles and letters out. Using pop up glue spots for the letters and hot glue for everything else, this went together really easily.

I kept the centerpieces of the tables fairly simple. Using tissue poms, glass vases that I already had on hand, and die cuts that coordinated with the theme, I had a great conversation piece that didn't break my bank.

Tissue poms and die-cut shapes also graced the chandeliers.

I have a confession: I did not use printables for this party. Gasp! The only thing I printed out for this shin-dig was the paper to make flags for the straws.

Not only did I use mason jars to hold the straws, but they were also used for the art table that was set up for the kids during the party. The mason jars were wrapped with burlap and tied with fabric from the Secret Garden collection.

The art station was a huge hit with the kidlets. I found tree and flower cardboard cutouts months ago on clearance at Michael's {yes, I did plan this party for a solid 6 months} and knew they would be a great fit. Using art supplies from the local dollar store, the kids went to town making their little masterpieces.

No one walked away empty-handed from the party. I took flower seeds and wrapped them with burlap and fabric and tied it off with colored raffia. Easy-peasy and something that can be used to remember my baby girl.

By the end of the party, the girl of honor was pooped and momma was too. I am so lucky to be able to celebrate my kidlets this way and honestly, I am just so lucky to have these sweet babies.