Cate's 5th Birthday: By the Numbers

Balloons covering Cate's bedroom floor: 75

Clues in Cate's birthday scavenger hunt: 6

Chocolate cupcakes, topped with cookie "dirt" and sour gummy worms, taken to school: 23 (we saved one for Ben to eat at home)

Hours spent at the Family Museum in Bettendorf after we picked Cate up from school: 3

Tickets won at Happy Joe's Pizza: 210

Attempts to take an action shot of Cate leaping into ball pit at Happy Joe's: 6

Times Cate said, "I want to do the exact same thing on my 6th birthday": 4

Getting Old

Me: Wow, my knees hurt today.

Cate: Maybe you have those growing things.

Me: Growing pains? I don't think so. I think I'm done growing.

Cate: Oh, maybe you're just getting old then.

Happy Easter 2011!

A Portrait of the Artist as an (Almost) 5-Year-Old

Eggs!

Ben loved this activity so much that he asked if we could dye eggs again.

Tomorrow.

Lots of eggs.

Hundreds of eggs.

Lately...

Last week we were outside every single day---playing, swinging, biking, drawing, running.

This week we were inside every single day---fighting, whining, sitting in time-out, saying "I'm bored."

Despite the lousy weather and even lousier attitudes (mine included) there were some bright spots:

* Playing with cousins

* Quality time with uncles

* First session of Parks & Rec Soccer

* Lots of arts and crafts

On the Road

Cate, 4 years and 351 days.

Although I love our neighborhood, our street is probably one of the absolute worst streets in Iowa City for learning how to ride a bike. There are no sidewalks and not a flat driveway in sight. There are pot holes, hills, curves, cracks and an ugly stretch that we've come to call "Dead Man's Crossing" due to the fact that all the kids in the neighborhood have wiped out there at one time or another.

My neighbors and I joke that if the kids can learn to ride their bikes on this street, then they can ride a bike anywhere.

Quote of the Day

Ben (very seriously): Mom, I think Maggie has a baby in her tummy.

(Note: Apologies for the poor picture quality. My efforts to get a profile shot were unsuccessful).

And...

To think I used to wonder what stay-at-home moms did all day.