Friday, July 2, 2010

cutie pie

Here's a professional picture taken at Alicia's daycare school the other day. They did such a good job, and since I felt guilty for not taking her somewhere for her 4-year old shots, I decided this would fit the bill. :)
Plus, Alicia looked sooo darn cute and older in the picture, I had to buy one.
Doesn't she look sweet. :)



Plus, why can't I ever get her to wear hats and pose so darling when I try taking her pictures??! oh well..


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Saturday, June 26, 2010

Fredbird comparison check

Fun photo comparison...
Alicia & Fredbird

Day 1



Day 1,461

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day!



Happy Father's Day, daddy Drew!


and

Happy Father's Day, Papa Mike!




So Alicia's class the other day, had like a fill in the blank type of father's day card which was cute, my favorite line from it was how "I really love it when my Daddy.... and Alicia answered "plays catch" - so it inspired me to write a little poem with Alicia's help to include some of her favorite things about her "Daddy Drew." I asked her a few things the other day and these were some of the phrases/words that came up... "Daddy is Drew," "I wanna play catch with daddy," "going swimming," "daddy's silly too," "go fish game," "go run with daddy," "he's the best," and of course, the "I love daddy"
so here's our remix:

You are the best daddy and thanks for being there for me.
Even if that means spoiling me rotten as can be.
I like it when we go swimming in the pool,
And act silly like fools.
I love it when we play catch,
and when we play go fish and memory match.
Little things are the world to me, daddy, even if you don't know,
as I am just a little one and you help show me the way to go.
Following in your footsteps is what I do and see,
I'm a lot like you, too; plus I'm as cute as can be.
I like it when we go running and can be free.
Thank you for everything you do,
daddy, I love you.



Tuesday, June 15, 2010

few more birthday pics

I forgot to post a few more pictures from Alicia's actual birthday when Grandma Kloss was in to visit. Alicia got her favorite McDonald's breakfast that morning, then a playdate at the park with Grandma, mommy, and daddy. Later that evening the Suttmann family came over for a cookout as well, where the kids entertained Grandma quite a bit! It was a treat for her to finally meet some of Alicia's friends that she has heard about and only seen in pictures. Also, Alicia really liked the fact that Grandma had a sleepover at her house; I think they read so many books the one night that they put each other to sleep that night. haha... Then the next day, Alicia got to play hooky from school the day after her birthday and stayed home with Grandma Kloss all day, while mommy and daddy went to work. I think they both had a good time. :) Thanks for the fun visit, Grandma Kloss.


Here's a few pictures from Alicia's special day at daycare. She was "princess Alicia" that afternoon at snack time with her crown on, she didn't want to take it off for the entire ride home that night, it was pretty cute. We took in special birthday snacks and treats for her friends to share. All of the kids really seemed to like their glo-bracelets and of course, they did one of Alicia's favorite things after snack which was listening to music and having a dance party!







Saturday, June 12, 2010

art time

Alicia loves her crayons and markers. We do a fair share of crafty activities when we have free time at the house. It is "usually" a nice and relaxing activity for her as she really focuses on her artwork. Sometimes she gets kinda crazy, but for the most of the time, she's using her creative energy into her coloring. I just love how intense she has been lately, and really concentrates on her work. Loving the longer attention span to this type of stuff! We can get an activity to last longer than a few minutes at a time now! Granted its not great yet, but progress :)








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Monday, June 7, 2010

green thumbs

When I was younger, we always seemed to have a garden in our backyard at home. We helped plant seeds, water, pull weeds, and harvested the vegetables when ready. I still remember picking peas out of the garden for supper, and I think by the time I headed back into the house, I ended up eating about half of the peas out of the pods before we could prepare them! I really enjoyed the freshness of the vegetables from the garden, and how fun it was to watch them grow. So I thought since we can't really have a garden where we currently live, I might as well do something fun with what we have, so we started some garden and flower boxes on our deck. Alicia and I planted some seeds early this spring and kept them inside the house for a few weeks to grow. Sure enough, in just a few days, we started to see some small sprouts coming up. Then a few weeks later, we got little starter plants to plant in the bigger box. We planted some cilantro, parsley, lettuce, peas, and sunflower seeds. Oh, yes we can't forget that we planted some cat grass seeds for Tanner to enjoy, too! We also recently acquired some strawberry plants, so we are pretty excited about that too. We also "prettied" up the small deck flower pots with some marigolds, petunias, and a few other misc. colorful flowers. Alicia really enjoyed the planting of the seeds more than the flowers I think. She told me the flowers were pretty, but kinda messy and dirtier.She wasn't too fond of filing the dirt into the pots and all, "too messy" she said. But she has been doing a nice job of tending to the plants by helping me water them and occasionally talking to them :) Since we've planted our seeds, we've been able to harvest some cilantro and parsley, and Tanner has been able to nibble on some cat grass. So its been a decent success for far, but we are hoping for some strawberries next!





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Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Alicia's birthday party

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Alicia's 4th birthday with a party at the Kohl Children's Museum in Glenview! We had a nice attendance by many friends and some family! Alicia was very excited to explore all of the cool exhibits at the museum. We have been there several times in the past, so she knew exactly the places she wanted to go first! I think the favorites by all of the kids was the shopping center area, the vet clinic, and the pizza making area also seemed to be a hit. The kids had a nice time designing, and using markers on their treat bags and flower pots to take their goodies home in. Alicia's party theme included sunflowers this year, where each child got to take home their very own little flower pot with soil pellet and a packet of sunflower seeds to plant. I hope some of you have have some success in growing your flowers/plants.





After the museum, a few friends came over to our house to enjoy the weather outside. The kids got some good playing time in, including some games of croquet, Frisbee, t-ball, watching caterpillars on the ground, bubble blowing, and how could we forget, rolling down the hill. :) The kids even managed to get a little race in. However, the birthday girl took a tumble, and had to be sidelined for a few minutes, while she iced her big fat lip and scratched up nose. Carl was nice enough to help hold Alicia's "ice" aka Popsicle while she iced her mouth/lip. I think both of them enjoyed that, too cute... Alicia being all girlie girl and not wanting to hold the cold icy pop, while Carl was being his protective big brother boyfriend to Alicia. How sweet... (I think there was a cute picture of this on the gallery here. http://www.kluesner.net/gallery2/v/Alicia4Bday/IMG_1143.JPG.html)
Overall, we had such a nice day, even though the actual party time in the room at the museum felt a bit rushed, so sorry about that, but I think the kids really did enjoy it! :) Thanks all for coming to Alicia's party that day and making it fun!
Please click here for some more photos of the birthday girl and her friends playing from the party, May 15. http://www.kluesner.net/gallery2/v/Alicia4Bday/