Easter Bunnies and Trains

This past week we ventured to a locally-owned toy store that always has bunnies at Easter time!  Of course the bunnies are in a little fenced in area and you can't hold them - if you can reach in and pet them, that is fine, but there is no holding.  I hadn't taken Katie before, but I thought she might really like it this year.  

Here she is before we headed out!  I love her Easter outfit :)

And after going, I am sad to report that she liked the train better than the bunnies!  I think the bunnies were too tame for her and the trains were going around on their tracks - she couldn't get enough of it!  I love her expression in the top left picture!

Of course we had to see the bunnies - here are a couple of them!  There had to be like 15-20 total!

And she did like them for about .23 seconds - then she wanted to run around and go back to the train area! Obviously my mom (Cee Cee) went with us too!  She loves toy stores about as much as Katie does!

And Katie found some other fun things to play with.  She found a neat baby stroller and kept pushing babies around in it and loading other things off random shelves into the stroller.  Then she found a just-her-size grocery cart that she transitioned too. 

Clearly she had a blast - she was OUT on the way home!

I love that the toy store has fun things like that for the kiddos - so neat!  Maybe next year she will be more impressed with the bunnies...and maybe she'll be tall enough to reach in and pet one :)

Foodie Friday: Honey Sesame Chicken

This week I cooked Six Sisters Stuff: Honey Sesame Chicken.  It was amazing and I definitely plan to make it again - it was a little salty, so next time, I may add a splash of orange juice to the mixture.  I certainly didn't hear any complaints though!  I served it with teriyaki rice and a salad - YUM!  

I forgot to take a picture, so this is the picture that is featured on the website with the recipe - YUM!  I didn't get sesame seeds - and it probably would have been fine with regular rice.  In fact, that may have reduced the saltiness.  

All in all, I highly recommend this recipe - so easy and yum!  It will definitely be in our regular rotation!  Happy Friday, folks!

Nursery Wall Progress

First of all, this post had the potential to be ridiculously long.  But thank goodness Picnik is still around so I could make several collages!

A couple weeks ago, we began Project Nursery.  This required a bit of work since that was kind of a crap room and also held all the bins of Katie's outgrown clothes.  I did take some before pictures, but this was actually after a couple rounds of going in there and organizing!!  Here are the before pictures (the bottom right one is actually the closet)...

The next step of this project was painting the walls!  We picked the lighter blue color that was in the bedding.  Here is Brad prepping and taping off to get the painting done!

 He actually painted while I was on my quick girls' trip to Atlanta, so when I returned, this was what the room looked like!  LOVE that blue!  And you will see momentarily that the bottom part of the wall is not staying like that....

That Saturday, we met our friends Cat and Tyler at Home Depot to buy some supplies and then headed home so they could get started on the day's project.  We most certainly could NOT have done this without their expertise (they did 2 rooms of beadboard/chair rail in their house) and their equipment!  Here is the prep - buying the supplies...measuring...cutting...

My job for the day?  Keeping Katie out of the way.  It was St. Patty's Day, so we headed out and ate lunch with my mom and ran some errands!  When we came home, major progress had been made!  The boys put the beadboard up and Cat painted a coat of primer on it.  That picture on the bottom right was right before their last step - putting the baseboards back on! 

I can't believe they finished such a big project in one day!  Everybody was tired by that evening (I think it was around 10 or 10:30 when they finally collapsed on the couch for a bit).  A couple beers (sweet tea for me) and some Cheez-Its were definitely needed at this point...after all, it was St. Patty's Day!

That Sunday afternoon, Brad painted the beadboard and chair rail to match the trim.  It looks so great!

Here are the after pictures - at least for the walls.  I can't wait to see what the room looks like once we have the furniture delivered and bedding set up and all of that!  I really think it will look great!  All but one piece of the furniture is in, so now I just need to set a delivery date so we can get it all set up.  And then I need to buy the letters of his name, the art I found on etsy, etc and it will be ready!

Thanks again to Cat and Tyler - you guys are great (and quite handy)!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! Hope you are having a fabulous week so far!  Here's what I'm loving today...

I'm LOVING this frame!  I love that it is Auburn colors...I love that it has dots...and I love that it would look perfect in Jack's nursery with a newborn picture or family picture in it!  I found it here! 

I'm LOVING this cute birthday reminder clipboard!  The tutorial can be found on eighteen25's site - think I may have to make one of these (in all my spare time...ha)!

 I'm LOVING how easy this little craft looks!  First of all, I have never heard of Washi Tape.  But it looks cute!  I found a link to this on one of the blogs that I follow - I think Katie would love this!  The key will be finding out where to buy this washi tape though!  If you wanna learn more, visit here!

I'm LOVING these new sticky notes I got.  Yes.  I admit it.  I am an office supply junkie.  I love new pens.  Especially when they have pink ink.  And I love fun notepads and gadgets.  The colors of these sticky notes were just too great to pass up :)

I'm LOVING my diva-licious daughter...she was a hoot here!  She had the shades on, a trendy looking outfit on, and her makeup bag/purse in hand.  And she refused to smile!  What a mess :)  *note: yes, I was driving while I took this picture - but I was stopped at a red light during the actual snapping of the photo :)

What are you loving today? Hopefully lots of things!  Feel free to link up {here}!

Party Animal: Sunday

On Sunday, I co-hosted a baby shower for my neighbor!  I am so excited that she and I are both having boys as second kiddos - and they will be roughly 8 weeks apart!  Our girls are good buddies and they are about 7 months apart....should definitely be an adventure!

The shower was at one of her sister's condo in a trendy area - so neat!  She did most of the work and everything was adorable!  The food was delicious and the decor was just right!  Here are some pics of the fun...

 The spread of food

 A closer up view...

 I got the petit fors...they were so yummy - and I loved that they had baby rattles on them!

 A view of the gifts and food area!

 The guest of honor! I think every pregnant woman hopes to look as good as she does - especially at 35 weeks!

 The sisters!

 All of the guests filled out the wishes for baby - aren't those adorable!? I think her sister ordered them on etsy...SO cute!  And great activity for a shower (and great keepsakes)!

 Present time!

 And of course I had to get a pic with her!  Here we are just normal...

And then the belly shots!  

Party Animal: Saturday

Yesterday's post was just a little sneak peek into what our Saturday was like!  We ate breakfast in downtown Franklin - love that!  And then we ventured to TWO birthday parties.  Since when did Katie's social agenda become so jam-packed?!

The first party was for my friend Amy's little boy - he was turning 3!  Here he is blowing out the candle!

 And here is one of me and Amy...and her almost 3 month old!

 After Katie ate pizza and cake at this party and played some more, we jumped in the car for party #2.  It was for some of our friends' little girl who was also turning 3!  The birthday kiddos were actually born 1 day apart, so I have a feeling we may run into this issue for a while :)  Katie loved playing!  And I think she really liked that Brad met us for this one - she is used to being at these indoor play places with me, but she loves to show Brad around!

 Think they are having fun?! Brad was pushing her on the indoor track at about 85 mph!

 The birthday girl!  So sweet!

 Me with my little Tinkerbell fairy - she loved dressing up!

 And she loved playing with her balloon too!

 Needless to say, we were all exhausted!  When we got home, Katie had quiet time but ended up falling asleep! So we had family naptime! I was certainly not complaining - especially since she went right to sleep that night too! 

We had so much fun!  Tomorrow I will post about Sunday's shindig!

Social Butterfly...Or Fairy

Yesterday Katie had quite the social agenda - she had TWO birthday parties to go to! 

Here she is playing at the second birthday party...

 ...and then she transformed into a FAIRY!  Isn't this adorable?!  Maybe we even have this year's Halloween costume - Tinkerbell, anybody?? :)

Mommy Date

Thursday, Katie woke up and was bound and determined that we were going to Target that day.  And of course I wasn't complaining!  What is the draw to Target for her you ask? Why, smelling candles, of course!  She has loved that ever since she could sit in the cart.  Too funny.  I did have some things I needed to pick up, so I had no problem with the request...and of course we did some candle smelling too!

 Yesterday, before gymnastics class, we headed on a Mommy Date!  That ritual consists of breakfast at Krispy Kreme - YUM!  Katie loves it and I love the special time together - and donuts of course!

 And KK had some beautiful flowers outside that Katie wanted her picture with.  You know I wasn't complaining about a picture request!

I love my special time with my sweet girl!