Two Years Old

Friday Amelia turned two years old! She got a few presents from my family on her actual birthday including this new princess kitchen:


We had dinner out with my family at Boca Chica and dessert at Izzy's in St. Paul.

Saturday we had a little birthday party for Amelia at my parent's house and my family and Jason's family came. Both days I had Amelia dressed up in the same birthday dress she wore last year. It was a tad short so I threw some leggings on under it and it was pretty cute!


I was pretty impressed I got two years of use out of the dress since it is size 18-month!

Amelia was so funny opening her presents. She would just empty the bags but throwing everything over her shoulder:


Auntie Lisa (one of my best friends) started to fold tissue paper and after that Amelia brought her every single piece and helped her smooth it out so she could fold it. Kids pick up on every little thing!

Auntie Kimmie got Amelia her first trike and We took turns pushing and pulling her around on it and when I stopped to get her picture on it she made sure I knew she did not like that I stopped pulling her:


She can be so demanding sometimes. We definately are entering the "terrible twos."

Amelia had a big cake and cupcakes. She tried so hard to blow out her candle on her cupcake:


We had to give her a little help. After all the work blowing out the candle she didn't even want to eat it! She picked sprinkles off and that was about it!

Amelia got a lot of great stuff for her birthday including new clothes for this spring/summer that we are anxious to wear! Auntie Liz got her a little suitcase which was perfect to bring home all her new clothes in.

That's really all the pictures I have to share. I didn't get any of her with family members because after presents and lunch she dragged her Nana to her bed and pretty much asked for a nap. So, the guest of honor slept through the last half of her party which meant no pictures really!

Lisa, Kim and I went bowling with Amelia in the evening. We thought we could get Amelia in on the bowling but she pretty much just liked walking out to the lane and then back. We'll take her again and hopefully she'll be more interested in it since it won't be a totally new envoronment for her. That means we'll have go sometime soon!

Online Again!

I haven't been online in nearly two weeks. Wow! We don't have Internet at Grandpa's and I just haven't been able to get on at my parent's house except for banking and bill pay.

We haven't been up to much. We celebrated my dad's 60th birthday with dinner out and cake at home. I tried to get a picture of his cake with all the candles but he blew it out before I got a chance:


That's what it looks like after sixty candles are blown out.

Amelia wore a wild outfit for grandpa's birthday:


Look at those pigtails!

We've been playing around the house a lot. Amelia uses this little stool as a goofy chair all the time:


We have been having a bit of a heat wave (thirties and even forties!) so I took Amelia outside to play yesterday. She thought it was the best!


I haven't taken her out much this winter with the weather we have had the past few months. It was just too cold for her!

Molly

Last week we said goodbye to our friend, Molly.


The night before I went to Wendy's and got the ol' girl a special dinner...a bacon cheeseburger and some fries. She gobbled it up in no time!

Sometimes when I ask Amelia where her dog is (I actually asking about her Slinky dog from Toy Story) she runs around but other than that she has no idea - for that I am thankful. She loved that dog!

For the Love of Cats

Last Saturday we took Amelia to the 'Saintly City Cat Show' which is part of the St. Paul Winter Carnival. Amelia LOVES cats and this was pretty much the coolest thing to her.


She ran from cat to cat and got really upset when she had to leave each cat.


She had two favorites and their owner was very patient with Amelia each time we stopped to see her cats.


As you can see she even opened their cages so Amelia could pet them but she was way more interested in opening and closing their cage doors than anything.

Since we were nearby we stopped in Rice Park to see some of this year's ice sculptures.


This year is the 125th St. Paul Winter Carnival and I liked this sculpture because it has each of the century logos for the event carved.

Mom and I:


Afterwards we had a cozy dinner at Mama's Pizza. By cozy I mean we fit all 5 of us into a little booth that would comfortably hold 3 or 4 people. It was interesting...


Nana and Grandpa had the pleasure of sitting with Amelia...who insisted on eating off of Grandpa's plate instead of her own (even though they had the same thing) and she was close enough to reach on over and help herself!

Date Day

Yesterday afternoon Jason and I dropped Amelia off with my mom and had a little date afternoon/evening. We browsed a few stores and then went to find something to eat. We decided on Cecil's for dinner and each ordered a sandwich and we shared them:


After we left the restaurant we ran into a little movie theatre and decided to park and see what they had and at what time.


We got there just a few minutes before "The King's Speech" started and we knew nothing about it. Nothing but someone on my Facebook saw it recently and loved it so we went on that and saw it as well. Ironically, we saw it at the same theatre she saw it at too since we were in her neighborhood!

Amelia had a good time with her Nana and Jason and I enjoyed some time on our own.

Win or Lose

Win or lose - Jason, Amelia and I enjoy football. Period. Want proof? Here's Amelia and I just after the Bears lost the NFC championship to the Packers (the only team mommy and daddy can't stand - with a passion btw):


BIG smiles :)

Next week we'll enjoy the Pro Bowl and the following week, on my dad's birthday, we will be hoping for a Steelers win (since we have that strong dislike for GB and all.) After that? We'll gear up for some baseball. Maybe we'll even be able to score some Twins/Brewers tickets this season...

What can I say - we like our sports around here...whether our teams win or lose!

Wrap-Up

Now that I am on a computer again, with Internet access, I figured I should wrap up our trip to Indiana! Wednesday morning we had breakfast with dad's side of the family. Amelia took this lovely picture of her grandpa and cousin P.


She had her little finger over the flash!

Amelia must like P because she shared her yogis (Gerber yogurt melts) with her:


Breakfast turned into over two hours and we were eventually on our way back to MN by eleven. Amelia slept in the car a lot:


Much like cousin A slept through breakfast earlier in the day:


We are back now. Back to the frigid temperatures. It was -20 on Thursday before windchill was factored in - which made it -30. I have been working on un-packing and doing laundry as well as staying warm!


This little one doesn't seem to mind the cold. The brief periods she is outside (heading to and from the car) she manages to dig around in the snow and whines when I pull her to her carseat! She is definately a lover of the outdoors!

Tonight I am having dinner with my family and leaving Amelia with them. I wish I could say I had some great plans for my night of freedom but I am merely going to get groceries - sans Amelia. What a wild night!

Visiting Great-Grandpa

This evening, a huge chunk of my dad's side of the family got together to visit grandpa. All of his grandkids and great-grandkids were there with the exception of my sister and my dad's brother's daughters.

It was grandpa's first time meeting his new great-grandson, A.


My mom found "big sister" and "little brother" shirts for little A and his sister P.



Tonight grandpa said he didn't think he'd live to see great-grandchildren and he has four!


Four who are impossible to get a picture of with them all looking at the same time!

It was nice spending the evening visiting with everyone.


It was also nice to see grandpa smile as much as he did tonight.

Cupcakes

After lunch today we stopped by a place called Designer Desserts in Valpo that was recommended by family. It was pretty tasty! Amelia devoured her cupcake faster than lightning.


She wasted no time in letting us know that she wanted another.


We are lucky we don't live here otherwise we'd be in trouble. I split a red velvet with mom and a mocha java with dad. Both were really good! I definately don't need to be eating those things more than once or twice a year - that's for sure!

Amelia Meets "Sue"

Today Amelia had a big day out in Chicago. We went to the Field Museum! Amelia saw her first 3-D movie:


It was only about 20 minutes long so we thought we'd give it a try. She did pretty well in it - except when the T-rex would roar. I was sure that she would be scared of dinosaurs after that but here she is in the gift shop...


...arms loaded up with dinos! She settled on just one:


He roars and his eyes light up. Not exactly the toy I thought she'd be loving after being scared by a 3-D t-rex!


She could have spent all day looking at "Sue" in the lobby I think.

Here are some more pictures from the museum:






We stayed at the museum until they were asking people to leave. Time flew! It was dinner time so we went to get some of our favorite pizza at the original Gino's East.


Amelia even had some pizza :)