Kaitlyn Turns 3!

Happy happy Birthday to my sweet baby girl, Kaitlyn Rose!  She turned 3 this past weekend, and we had a great weekend celebrating HER!!

On Friday, we brought cupcakes into her classroom for everyone, and she wore her birthday shirt, and of course a tutu.

Cupcakes for her classmates!

One of her teachers even got her a present, awww!  A baby and a stroller.  Kaitlyn named her "muffin".  I'm pretty sure Kaitlyn is the teacher's pet ;)

On Saturday, her actual birthday, I got last minute tickets to go see Disney on Ice, Princess and Heroes. She loved it!  I got us the cheap seats, and they were actually really good!  We weren't close by any means, but we didn't have anyone on either side of us, so we had plenty of room to spread out.  And Kaitlyn needed her room, because she was up and down the whole time, dancing and singing.  The first part was 45 minutes, and then there was a 20 minute intermission. The second part was about 30 minutes.  It was just long enough to keep her attention, but the intermission was great because we got up to run around and have a potty break.

The Little Mermaid

Goofing around

Kaitlyn and her souvenir Ariel snow cone cup

Me and my girl

Sunday we had her birthday party at the park.  It was "Under the Sea" themed with the Little Mermaid.  We had it earlier in the day so it wouldn't be too hot, and so we would miss the normal afternoon Florida storms. Not only was there a playground, but they also had a splash park.  Kaitlyn had a blast, and was tuckered out by the time she got home!

The mermaid cake - my first time using fondant

Top left going clockwise: The cake, her little mermaid vinylmations, Ariel chilling, sand art, presents & cupcakes

Birthday girl opening her presents

Just before singing happy birthday!

Kaitlyn, happy birthday sweetheart.  You are such a joy in our life.  You are kind and so smart, you amaze me daily.  You're very shy when you meet new people, just like your mama.  But boy when you come out of your shell, there's no stopping you :) (Also just like your mama)  You can dance like nobody's business, I can't even do some of the moves you do!  You already have a wonderful, on pitch, singing voice (you definitely DON'T get that from me, but from your daddy) and I love hearing you sing all the time.  I love watching you grow and learn new things.  You just learned how to ride your tricycle ("That's because I'm THREE now!" You told me)

XOXOXOXOXOXO, Mommy

Birthday Weekend Recap - The Big One - Final Part 4

Ok, I think I dragged this birthday weekend out long enough eh?  Well it's my birthday and I'll do want I want!  :)  Here is the final day, Monday, the day we left.  Catch up on part 1, 2, and 3.

It was another beautiful day here on Singer Island.  We were truly lucky with such nice weather this whole weekend!!  We were all sad, none of us wanted to go home.  But we had to get in a little bit more beach time before we left!  So we packed up our bags as much as we could.  And headed on down to the beach for one final hurrah.

Last time to wake up to this view!

So sad

I also took this time to collect a bunch of sand and put it in our cooler.  I was planning on using it for Kaitlyn's birthday party, as a favor.  And since it was FREE, score one for me! :)  Andrew and Kaitlyn enjoyed the water some more, and played "jump over the waves".  It was so cute, Kaitlyn kept missing the jump, would either jump too late or too early.

Jumping!

Zack was not feeling the beach this final time.  He was hot and wanted to go!  So we said goodbye to the beach.  We didn't get a chance to go in the Infinity pool yet, so we all quickly went for a dip in this pool.  It was so refreshing and wasn't busy at all, so it was nice to cool down before heading home.

We got back up to our room, checked out and drove home.  We stopped for lunch and luckily both kids passed out again for most of the ride home.

Someone else didn't want to go home

It was a lovely weekend, a really nice resort, we will definitely be going back if we get the chance!  And maybe next time, we might bring some friends!

Birthday Weekend Recap. The Big One - Part 3

So, here is part 1 and part 2.
It's Sunday, my actual birthday!!!

I wake up to this wonderful view, it's another beautiful day on Singer Island!  The hubs goes down and gets us some Birthday Starbucks, yum yum!

A nice way to start my birthday!

And then Kaitlyn joins me on the patio to give me my presents!  I got two sets of Gator earrings and a new Gator tervis tumbler mug, nice!

Love my presents!!

And then Kaitlyn picked out her gift for me, a little stuffed monkey, which she named "Coozy".  She told me she picked him out because he has purple eyes and ears, and purple is my favorite color! Awww! :)  I didn't see much of Coozy the birthday monkey after that.  I think he became Kaitlyn's birthday monkey, teehee.

Kaitlyn and Coozy!

Today was going to be pool day!  So we all got dressed!

Ready for the pool - with someone photobombing ;-)

Someone was having their own play time

Had to get in on the action of the picture in front of the mirror.

We got to the pool and thankfully, no rain clouds today!  I found a spot in the shade for Zackary and I, and Kaitlyn and Andrew hit the pool.

Hanging on the lounger with mommy.

Soon though, the shade started leaving our spot (darn you sun!) and it was getting pretty crowded.  I knew Zack was going to want to eat soon, so I moved us to a row of lounger chairs all the way in the back, that was shaded, and their was nobody their.

While Zack was feeding, Kaitlyn was finally brave enough to go down the water slide with Daddy!!  And soon after, Zack fell asleep, and I got to go down the slide with Kaitlyn too!  I don't remember the last time I was on a water slide, it was fun!  And Kaitlyn was having a ball!  

Getting ready to slide down!

And here is the video of her first slide!  Listen for right at the end, she says "I got something in my mouth!" Poor girl, now she knows to close her mouth when sliding, she swallowed a bug, whoops!

Soon it was getting to be lunch time.  We checked out the pool food, but nothing really sounded good, so we opted to head back to our room.  I want to say we had the rest of our pizza for lunch?  Maybe? I do know we had an early dinner, Andrew made spaghetti, it was delicious!  Then we went off property to find some ice cream.  There was a shop just down the street, and we all got some ice cream.  Kailtyn got vanilla in a cup, Andrew got cookies and cream in a cone, and I wanted to try something different and got dulce de leche in a cone.  It was good, but was a little too sweet for my liking.  That always happens to me when I decide to step out of the box with my ice cream.  I need to stick with my tried and true flavors that I love! 

After our ice cream, we took a little walk by the other shoppes their and went into a big beach supply store. They had all the nick knacks like t-shirts, mugs, shot glasses, etc.  We were looking for some new swimmies for Kaitlyn because her broke right before we got out of the pool earlier in the day.  But they only had boring plain ones and were WAY expensive.  

We left the store and went back to the resort.  Got the kids in bed and Andrew and I were able to watch Big Brother together!  It was a wonderful birthday!!!

Birthday Weekend Recap, the Big One - Part 2

Playing catch up from last weekend. (One of these days I will actually catch up!!)Read part 1 here.

Saturday we woke up bright and early, well the kids woke us up.  The plan for the day was to hit the beach in the morning, and then the pool in the afternoon after naps.

We had breakfast in our room, bagels and cream cheese.  We ate, got dressed and packed our bajillion things.  Seriously, we had our umbrella, one beach chair, towels, my diaper bag, Kaitlyn's bucket and us. And I had to hold Zack, since we didn't bring the stroller, since it is so hard to maneuver a stroller in the sand.

We got all situated and I fed Zack and he soon fell asleep.

Must be the waves....

I attempted to get a little bit of reading in, but Kaitlyn quickly saw that I was not attached to a baby, and she wanted to go in the water with me.

Almost got to read......

The water was pretty warm, I think they said it was 83 degrees.  Kaitlyn and I enjoyed jumping the waves and making sand castles.  I held her a few times and we went deeper in the water.  But then I saw a school of fish, and started thinking of sharks.....so we didn't go much further then.  I tried to show her the fish in the water, it was pretty clear, but I don't think she saw them.  Andrew and I switched places, and soon after I was back to our umbrella, Zack started to wake up.  I tried feeding him again, but either he didn't like the heat or the saltiness, he started throwing a little fit.  It was getting close to lunch time anyway, so I figured we should head back up to the room.

We had our leftover pizza for lunch, and Kaitlyn and Zack went down for their naps.  Andrew graciously offered to stay in the room to watch the kids so I could head back down to the beach.  I got changed and out that door so quickly, he barely had time to say bye! Hee hee hee.

Ahh, no kids, just me and my book and the beach

I probably got a good hour in, before the hubs texted me that Zack was waking up.  Not too shabby.  I took my time packing up and headed back up to our room.  Once everyone was awake, we got ready to hit the pool.  Kaitlyn loves swimming in Grandma and Nana's pools at home, so she was excited.  Plus, this one had a water slide!   Once we got to the pool though....we saw some storm clouds heading our way.

It does not look good behind me!

Zack could care less, in fact it wasn't so humid, so he was happy.

We knew we didn't have much time left, so we Andrew and Kaitlyn quickly got in the pool.  

See those two bobbing heads? They belong to me! :)

They checked out the water slide, and Kaitlyn was excited to go on it.  They walked up the steps to the slide, but then she chickened out.  She wasn't quite ready for it yet.

Pretty soon after that, the lightening and thunder was coming, so they were closing the pool, which meant it was time to head back to our room for some dinner! We still had pizza left, so we finished that off.  The storm clouds rolled on out, and we headed back down to the beach for some more shell searching.

Our resort from the ocean

Showing off their shells!

It was a wonderful evening out, and I brought my ergo, so I carried Zack that way.  Such a nice ending to a nice day.  Up next, my actual BIRTHDAY! :)

Birthday Weekend Recap-The Big One - Part 1

Last weekend I turned the big three - oh!  To celebrate, I told hubby all I wanted to do was go to the beach. I preferred the west coast of Florida, but didn't care either way.  My only requirements were:

1.) A resort, with a fun pool, so Kaitlyn would enjoy some pool time.

2.) A resort on the beach, not across the street, with a beach view from our room, preferably with a balcony.  I wanted to hear the waves!

3.) A separate living space and bedroom.  That way once the kids go to bed, Andrew and I can still have our time and not have to whisper.

4.) Not spend too much money, since I am still on maternity leave!

5.) No more than 3 hours away, didn't want to be in the car for too long.

Not a lot right?  :) Well, unfortunately, we had to pretty much nix the west coast pretty quickly, since it was much more expensive than the east coast.  But fortunately, one of my co-workers got us a voucher for the Marriott friends and family rate, so we booked a 1 BR suite at the Palm Beach Marriott on Singer Island, FL.

Image from their website

We left on Friday, the 6th.  Andrew took the day off, so we packed the car up and left around noon. After a quick stop at subway for lunch, we were on our way!

Me with my Gator snuggie, I'm always FREEZING in the car

Andrew is ready to go!

Kaitlyn has got her movie on and a snack, she is ready!

No picture of the Zack attack, but he was great in the car.  He played for a bit and then fell asleep and slept the whole way until we got off the highway.  Kaitlyn also took a nap after her lunch, they both did great.  We got to the resort at about 3:15pm.  Our room wasn't ready yet, but we only had to wait in the lobby for about 15 minutes.

So we booked a 1br suite, with a full kitchen, living area and king sized bedroom.  When we walked into our room, it was actually a 2 bedroom suite!  Way bigger than we needed, but we didn't mind the upgrade!!!

Full kitchen (there was no oven though)

Living Room with Walk out balcony

Master Bedroom-King Bed

2nd Bedroom-I think these were full beds

Master bath was HUGE!  Nice big tub and you can't see it, but a really big shower to the left.

Our beach view on the balcony.....let's all take a moment  and just relax.....ahhh

Once we were all unpacked and settled, it was beach time!  

Why hello there!

Photo op with the boy

My new bathing suit from Target!

We didn't stay too long at the beach. We just brought ourselves and Andrew and Kaitlyn did some shell searching while Zack and I sat on the beach.  There was a really close reef that people were swimming to and walking on.  Some were even snorkeling.  Zack started to get a bit fussy, and I knew he was getting hungry, so we walked back up to our room.

I fed Zack, and then we ordered pizza for ourselves.  We knew the on property resort was super expensive, so we called concierge for the local delivery pizza joint and ordered two pizzas.  They were very good!  It was getting late, and we had a big day the next day, so we got the kids to bed, and I enjoyed this view for a bit!!

It was a great start to my birthday weekend!