Author Archives: katherine

About katherine

This is where the bio info goes

Please excuse me while I nerd out for a minute.

The story goes a little something like this…

Over the last couple of years I’ve read and followed lots of blogs. Many of which are bloggers right here in the good old Pacific Northwest.

Last year, a few bloggers got together and decided to put together a PNW Blogger meet-up in Seattle in September. I worked up the courage to talk to Andy about wanting to go. After he got done laughing at me, he was all, “hey, go have fun!”. Well, after car pooling and hotel sharing plans fell through with a few ladies, I ended up not being able to go. I was totally bummed out.

{Turns out that’s the same weekend I ended up having the miscarriage, so it was a total blessing I didn’t go}

Anywho, fast forward a few months and there were plans thrown out for another meet-up! This time in Portland! Woo-to-the-hoo! Tickets went on sale. I talked to Andy about it, got things squared away to go, then went to buy my ticket and they had already sold out.

Dude.

So, yesterday, while I’m wishing Mandy a happy birthday, she asks me if she’ll be seeing me at the blogger meet-up. I reply with a sad no…unless Chelsea (the event coordinator) is able to pull a magic ticket out of the air.

No freaking joke, I send that reply and not more than two minutes later, I get an email from Chelsea saying there’s a ticket available if I want it!

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!

Of course, I have to get back to her ASAP because there’s other ladies on the waiting list that want to go. I’m never able to get ahold of Andy during the day, but it’s about lunchtime-ish so I try him on a whim. He answers! I tell him what’s up. He tells me to go! Have fun!

That? Just happened. I’m totally stoked. Practically dancing in my office chair with excitement.

It’s like devine intervetion here people.

Or something like that.

Whatever.

All I know is that I’m leaving work in a couple of hours, headed up to Portland to hang out with a bunch of super awesome ladies I’d been dying to meet for a very long time.

No joke, some of them have even made appearances in my dreams. {And I totally mean that in the least creepy way possible.}

Ok. End nerd out. Have a great weekend!! {I know I will}

Here We Go Again: May Update, Part Deux

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How far along? 32 weeks, 1 day
Total weight gain/loss: +23 {Did you do the math on that one? Let me help you out…I gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks. FIVE POUNDS IN TWO WEEKS! I better tone it the heck down or the answer to my next question will no longer be ‘no’. And, clearly, the obvious thing to do after realizing you’ve gained 5 lbs in 2 weeks is to go to Cold Stone and order some cake batter ice cream with a brownie & fudge mixed in. Clearly.}
Stretch marks? Still none. {And for the record? I’m super happy there’s no question about cellulite because…ew.}
Maternity Clothes: No change since last time.
Sleep: I found that sleeping sitting up helps with keeping the shooting pelvic pains at bay which is great, but then my neck is all jacked up. These last few nights I’ve actually had some decent sleep…it has been glorious!
Best moment this month: Watching Rylee at the “expectant sibling” hospital tour. She is so excited about baby sister.
Movement: She’s on a pretty steady movement schedule these days…and the movements are starting to be more rolls as opposed to kicks & jabs…me thinks she’s starting to run out of room.
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: Not really this week.
Food Cravings: Nothing to really speak of.
Belly Button in or out? Out…and these days Rylee thinks is SUPER FUNNY. Literally, almost every night she will ask to see my belly, I’ll lift up my shirt and she’ll push my belly button and laugh maniacally.
What I miss: Same as last time…Sleeping through the night. Bending over easily.
What I am looking forward to: Finishing up details…we need to get her a new car seat {stupid car seat expirations}, Rylee has told me she wants to be the one to wash up the bottles. I need to figure out where the heck we stored the changing pad covers.
Baby Milestones: Baby weights close to 4 lbs now {or more considering how much mother-trucking weight I’m gaining!} She’s got hair and toenails and fingernails. Eyes are opening and closing. She can see light.
Other Goodness: I’m all pre-registered at the hospital now! Rylee & Andy put the crib together over the weekend. We got Ry’s carseat pulled out of the car, cleaned up and moved to the other side of the vehicle in preparation for Baby Sister’s seat. The sibling tour at the hospital was adorable. The nurse told us that Rylee can help give baby sister her very first bath and help with the footprints if she wants to…Ry is very excited about that!

And hey, if you happen to feel bad about the whole five-pounds-in-two-weeks thing, you could help ease the pain a litle by taking a quick second to vote for le blog on ‘Top Baby Blogs’…they just reset the numbers. {click the badge below, then click the owl on the left to vote…easy peasy}

And hey if not? No big deal.

Ok. Over and Out.

Extended Weekend? Sort of.

The Monster’s Monster Party

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I have been scheming and planning this Monster Party for months now! {Thank you Pinterest for planning my 4 year old’s birthday party!}

We’ve called Rylee “Monster” since before she could crawl. It’s a nickname that’s always fit and it’s always stuck. When we decided to throw her her very first “friends” party this year, I knew immediately I wanted it to be Monster themed.

It was nearly all DIY and my overall budget, including food was less that $100. The color scheme for the party was Blue, Green, Yellow and Red.

The Invite:

I bought some different Monster illustrations online that I used throughout all the decorations. They were “fun” monsters, not scary ones…that was key for me. All of the paper used is scrapbook paper I’ve had on hand for years…it was nice to see it go to some use!

Welcome Signs: {I mounted these to a red background and posted them on our fence posts along our driveway leading up to the house.}

Birthday Banner:

Pin the Eyeball on the Monster Game:

Based of the Monster guys I was using, my mom painted that guy for us for the game. When kids arrived, I had them color their own “monster eyeball” while they were eating snacks and getting temporary monster tattoos! {FYI: tattoos were a HUGE hit!}

The Food:

The party was at 3 PM so I kept is simple for food. I did a fruit salad, a veggie platter, had string cheese handy, chips & salsa and also made mini hot-dog crescent roll ups. To drink I had a big bowl of Capri-Suns for the kiddos and lemonade, iced tea and soda for the parents.

I made the “Monster Eyes” for guests to take with them.

The cupcakes were all mini-monsters as well. I simply frosted them and dipped them in bowls of sprinkles. For the eyeballs, I used the rest of the dipping chocolate to affix M&Ms to marshmallows for eyes. The marshmallows were a huge hit!

The Pinata:

Rylee has been requesting a pinata for her party for about as long as I’ve been planning one. She always sees them lining the aisle at the grocery store. Since that was her one request for the entire party, we figured, why not!?

I snagged these little mini bags at the dollar store, they came in 3 packs. I made different faces on all of them. This way the kiddos had something to put their pinata loot in!

I searched and searched for a monster pinata and couldn’t really find anything I liked, or anything that fit in the budget. I found this egg pinata online and figured I could DIY it into a monster. Didn’t turn out too bad, eh!?

The Party Favors:

Ry’s school has been saving me tissue boxes for the last month or so. It worked out perfectly! I decorated them all as different monsters and filled them with “Monster Bubbles” {aka: bubbles found in a 3-pack from the dollar store wrapped with a DIY label}, a “Make your own monster” dough kit {aka: play-dough tubs filled with a few different colors of play-dough, again wrapped with a DIY label} and a mini monster beach ball.

The Thank You:

Overall, I’d say the party was a success…Rylee had fun and so did the other kids. Including her, there were 8 kiddos that participated ranging from almost 2 to almost 4 1/2. It was a fun group.

If you have any questions about what I did for the party, feel free to ask! It was super fun and all really easy to put together!

Inspiration and Resources:

Monster Fruit Salad
Monster Cupcakes
Monster Eye Balls (chocolate dipped oreos)

Monster Party Favor Boxes
Pin the Eyeball on the Monster Game

Monster (egg) Pinata

Mini Monster Beach Balls

Monster Tattoos

And, a huge, HUGE thank you to my B, AKA Auntie Julia, for coming out and helping me get set up, keep things running smoothly, playing photographer and helping keep me sane! You’re the best, B!! xoxo

My Girl. She’s 4.

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In case you missed it {not sure how you could have}…Rylee turned four years old last Friday.

I took the day off to hang out with her. Not something I’ve ever done, and not something I’ll get in the habit of, but we had a good time.

First on her agenda was to watch “all of the cartoons”…which really meant, not leaving after the “first George” like we do on typical days.

Next up was breakfast. A pancake, a scrambled egg and some yogurt.

For lunch, we headed to a local park and had a PB&J picnic lunch. And the entire park to ourselves.

Upon leaving the park, homegirl thought it’d be super fun to throw a HUGE tantrum…complete with “get your hands off of me!“… “I don’t like you” and… “you’re mean“, followed by… “I want Daddy“.

{for the record? I’ve never been happier we had the park to ourselves!}

Said huge tantrum? Followed by an epic almost 4 hour nap. So…yea…

That evening we kept it simple and had family over for lemon cupcakes {per Ry’s request} & ice cream.

Someone got a little embarrassed during the happy birthday song…

All in all though? Great Day.

And seriously? My baby is four.

*****

P.S. I’m never sure how family and/or friends feel about having photos of them end up on my blog, so I don’t typically post them, but I just love-love-love this one so much, I couldn’t resist. These are Rylee’s “extra grandparents” and mine & Andy’s “extra parents”. They’re the best. And clearly Rylee thinks so too.

Somewhere In The Middle

Mostly Average Accounts of the World's Okayest Mom.