Addison's 1 Year Well Child Visit

First let me go back a few weeks...

We have made it our new family tradition to take our kids to Chuck E. Cheese on their birthdays. We celebrated Addison's birthday there on Friday night before her big 1st birthday party. Anyone who knows this little girl well, knows that she likes to eat! Pretty sure eating pizza was her favorite part of the evening. Who cares about the rides or the games, she was the last one eating by the long shot! While Landon, Mommy, and Daddy were busy playing games and checking out the little rides, Miss Addison was eating away with Grandma Susan watching!

And the little bitty pieces that Mommy cut up weren't good enough...she had to steal everyone's big pieces of pizza (cuz she's a BIG girl now)!

She wasn't quite sure what to think of the rides right away!

But LOVED riding the horsie ride with big brother Landon! Can you tell she's excited?

Playing games with Daddy and Landon:

Just like on Landon's 1st birthday trip to Chuck E. Cheese, we hit the jackpot on one of the games! Addison loved watching the tickets keep coming, and coming, and coming out!

Okay, so now on to Miss Addison's well child visit last week! I had forgotten what an awful appointment this would be for her. I quickly remembered Landon's 1 year visit. FIVE vaccinations, yes FIVE. And, a finger prick blood draw that lasted about five excrutiating minutes long! Let me tell you...what a heartbreaker to watch your child look at you as you hold them down to have blood drawn for a LONG time. It was almost as if she was saying to me "Mommy, WHY are you letting this MEAN lady DO this to me???" She is such a trooper and was her happy self just moments afterward. Dr. Fandel is pleased with her physical growth as well as her social and emotional growth. She is meeting and exceeding all of her milestones again! YAY baby girl! So for her stats:

~Weight...22 lbs. 8 oz...83rd percentile

~Height...30.5 inches...87th percentile

~Head circumference...47 cm...91st percentile
Now we just need to work on weaning from the bottle. We've successfully transitioned her from formula to whole milk. The bottle thing is another story. She is down to having a bottle when she wakes up and when she goes down at night, but we've cut out the in betweens. Only sippy cups during the day, which she is NOT happy about. She pushes them away if she knows there's milk in there. Smart girl.

Our Little Lady's Party

On Saturday we celebrated Addison's 1st birthday! I can't believe how fast this past year has gone...seriously! I have to admit that I have been so busy lately that this party came together very last minute. Besides gathering ideas and getting invitations sent out, I started everything last Sunday night when we got back from Fargo. So, here's what I came up with...

*Food: We had make your own deli sandwiches with all the fixings, pasta salad, beans, chips, veggies, fruit kabobs, and ladybug appetizers. I made a dessert table that included cupcakes, red and black licorice, cinnamon candies, almond bark dipped pretzel rods, and of course, birthday cake! For beverages we had personalized water bottles, pop, and lemonade.

The dessert table:

The birthday cake: (This was a cherry chip cake cooked in various sized bowls and then flipped over. Iced with canned frosting tinted and then accessorized with Junior Mints and pipe cleaners. Super easy!)

The "smash cake" for the birthday girl:


Cupcakes:

The ladybug appetizers: (Thank goodness my mother-in-law was here to help out. I made one of these and then passed the task off to her. They turned out great!)

The fruit kabobs:

The lemonade: (I made Schwanns raspberry lemonade and put it in mason jars with some fresh raspberries and lemons! So good!)

Water bottles:

*Party favors for the kids: I found these cute little boxes at Target and filled them with Gushers, stickers, bubbles, candy, and little pet rock ladybugs that I painted.

The ladybugs:

Party favors all ready to go:

*Decor: This part is always the most fun for me! Everything was black, red, and white to match the ladybug theme, but I also decided to throw in a little light pink to make it a bit more girly!

I was able to plan ahead enough to get Addison's 1 year pictures taken ahead of time so that I would have them in time to give out at her party! Here's one that I love:

Her birthday hat and matching high chair bunting: (as you can see I decided to use a lot of tulle rather than ribbon to match the tutu!)

The birthday girl attire: (My neighbor, Marissa, is a very talented and crafty gal so I asked her to make a tutu for the big day...it turned out so cute. The onesie was from etsy.com by a vendor named "To Be Stitched."

I couldn't resist these beautiful gladiolas to use as a centerpiece in the kitchen:

The eating utinsels:

The birthday banner: (Here again, I used a lot more tulle than I usually do for a softer look.)

Sign on the door:

To show how much Addison's changed this past year, I made a display of pictures of each month:

For centerpieces I painted some little pots red and attached some fun whimsical items to some wooden dowels (ladybug picture frame, pinwheel, and #1): (You can also see the invitation in the little frame there as well as the birthday hats again. One for Landon too! In the background I had the laptop set up to show off the video I made of pictures of Addison's first year!)

*The Birthday Girl: How cute is she in her little birthday get-up??? I also made her a little barrett to wear because I knew she wouldn't last long with the sequin lead band on:

Digging in to her smash cake: (She had a great time getting frosting all over everything...and feeding Sammie!)

Mommy and the Birthday Girl:

The only family picture we got all day: (I'm good at remembering to take pictures before the party, but then get too busy to take pictures during the party!)

Off to the tub:

Can we say spoiled...this little girl made quite the haul:

Digging in to the presents: (love the look on her face here)

More presents:

It was such a GREAT day! Thank you to all of our family for making her day SO SPECIAL!

After the party I joked about the fact that we just may need to add on to our house to accomodate for all the new toys...Here's what our playarea looks like now! Ahhhhhhh!

Summer Update (finally!)

First off, I have to apologize for my lack of blog posts this summer. To say that we have been busy would be an understatement. To say that I've been busy would be a huge understatement. Still, we have had fun and are truly enjoying our time together. I contemplated putting all of these updates into separate blog posts, but ended up doing the big long one. I hope you don't mind. Just be prepared for the massive amounts of pictures you are about to see. Here goes:

**************Buffalo Days***************

The weekend of June 18th was Buffalo Days. We hit up the carnival and let me tell you, it is the epitome of everything "carny." I'll just leave it at that...you get the picture. Landon's truly loves the rides. No fear for this dude!

Fishing pond:

This little lady got her first taste of mommy's favorite carnival food: mini donuts!

***************ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education)***************

Let me just say that Buffalo has a fabulous ECFE program. This summer has been no exception. The kids and I registered for a Wednesday morning "Mixed Ages" class. It's so fun! We have free play/craft time, followed by circle time (singing, dancing), and then snack time. During snack time the parents sneak out to have "parent education discussion" time while the kids stay with three ECFE teachers for more free play. It's been so fun to see how well Landon and Addison do when I leave the room. There's a one way glass window/mirror for the parents to watch through. They barely even notice that I leave while many of the other children scream for the whole 40 minutes that we are gone. I will attribute that to daycare and that my kids are used to being around other adults.
On most Tuesdays, ECFE sponsors Music In the Park at Sturges Park. They have had some really great musical acts perform this summer. We have packed our lunch and had a picnic after the music. What a great way to spend a morning! Auntie Jess and Auntie Ashley and the cousins have a joined us a few times too!

************Father's Day*************

We had fun celebrating Father's Day with Daddy! He wore a "King for the Day" crown and we got him a fun card with stickers to wear. We went to my mom and dad's house for tacos and then grilled for dinner. Daddy got his new I Phone for his gift this year. I just have to tell you that almost every day since Landon has said to Darren, "Happy Father's Day Daddy!" Darren loves it!

***************Kretschmar Christmas******************

The weekend of June 25th we made our first of many trips this summer up to Darren's family cabin up in Detroit Lakes. We celebrated Darren's extended family Christmas! For the past few years we started doing "Christmas in July" as everyone's schedules are always too busy in December. We had a great weekend! Landon tubed for the very first time and was super brave! By the end of his ride he was even bouncing up and down in the tube. Won't be long and he'll be up on skis.

Yes, Santa did make a stop with presents for the little ones:

Overnight on Saturday, we had storms with downpours. This is Landon playing in the big "puddle" in the back yard! Notice how close this is to Darren's aunt and uncle's tent! Who needs a lake when you've got a puddle to play in?

********4th of July*******

Now, onto July and my favorite month of the year! We celebrated the 4th weekend with LOTS of time at the cabin (Bass Lake just north of Annandale). We stayed there Saturday through Monday. So much fun!!! We got lots of quality time with the Hegle family.

Landon caught his very first fish...with Uncle Chad's help! I think Uncle Chad has a new fishing buddy.

There's nothing better than evenings at the lake...

...or nice calm mornings when everyone is ready for another day! (Notice the new table Landon is sitting at? My Uncle Jerry made that for the grandkids to sit on...it has all five of their names on it. Neat!)

Love the carnival!!! (Grandpa Eddie met up with us for some rides and carnival food!)

A weekend at the lake just wouldn't be complete without some pontoon rides:

The parade was fun as always! Addison looked super cute in her red, white, and blue with matching tutu.

Soaking up some more water and sun before heading home from a loooonnnng weekend of fun. Pretty sure it took us a week to recuperate!

**********Other updates**********

Addison turned 11 months on June 23rd and coming up this Saturday will be ONE YEAR OLD! I serioulsy can't believe how fast this past year went by. Last year at this time Landon and I were hanging out in the a/c waiting for my induction that Friday morning. WOW! I will write a full update about Addi and all her milestones and growth stats after her doctor appointment on August 3rd. She's walking, talking, and quite the little comedian these days. We can't get enough of her little mischevious grin.

On June 15th I finally started my new "Thirty One Gifts" journey. It has been going strong ever since and it's kept me VERY busy. I've had quite a few parties so far and quite a few more on my calendar. The extra commission checks and perks that the company provides are more than I could have ever asked for. As I write this, I am waiting for five packages to be shipped. Two FREE $300 kits, some add-on kits of new fall items that I purchased, and catalogs and business supplies for the fall season. I will probably from time to time post specials and new products on this blog. Please let me know if you are interested in a catalog or more information about "Thirty One." I'm in love. Here's Addi modeling her new 31 Large Utility Tote!

We've started the potty training with Landon and it's going well so far. I ordered him a "potty watch" that you can set to go off every 30, 60, or 90 minutes. He loves it and sprints to the bathroom every time it goes off. After he saw Jackson go potty standing up last week, he has wanted to do the same. It's quite the chuckle every time I watch him get up on his tippy toes to do his business. So proud!!!

Well, I think I'll leave you with that and one last picture from last night's steamy weather...two babies swimming in a bucket!

This weekend we have Addison's big ladybug birthday party...stay tuned for pictures next week. I've been working my tail off late nights and nap times trying to get ready for it. Anything for my kids!!!