The birthday celebration!

Yep, like I said in the previous post, Will is three.  It's true, time has flashed before our eyes and now I have a little boy on my hands, no longer my little toddler, no longer my babe in arms.  A little boy.  A fun, full of life kid.  Here's how we celebrated his birthday......

The Aquarium

Sharks, fish, sea creatures.....

Will's dream come true

touching a star fish and sea cucumber

the best view in the tank.... dad's shoulders

mom and will

showing off his new duds, and his new crab

The Cake

here's the aftermath of the cake, we shared with friends and devoured it

I think Will's favorite part was that the cake was red and he thought it looked like blood

what could be better for a boy who loves sharks than a shark cake?

thanks to Scott and his artistic ability, our shark cake was a success! it was a labor of love, but Will loved it, and it was fun!

The Gifts

gotta love a little bed head!

WE LOVE YOU WILL!!

My baby is THREE!

Seriously, where does the time go.  This morning I woke up remembering the day I had Will, it seems like just yesterday.  Now he is THREE.  He is no longer a baby (though always MY baby) he is all boy, independent, speaks his mind, sweet, sensitive, boy.

Here he is with some of his birthday loot: a bug catcher, and sea creatures. He's also sporting his new b-day clothes:

a hammer head shark polo, his madras shorts, and his new flip flops.

At THREE, Will:

• LOVES sea creatures, SHARKS, bugs, snakes, frogs.... pretty much any sort of slimy reptile/mammal/creepy crawly thing
• Says "thank you" for everything, doesn't always remember to say "please"
• Remembers EVERYTHING, conversations, what we were doing when....., what I was wearing when....., and he'll describe things to me all the time this way.
• Reads, reads, reads,
• loves to snuggle on the couch and read with mom
• is a BIG mamma's boy
• has chores: getting dressed, brushing teeth, picking up room, and one other chore per day (putting his laundry in my basket to wash, wiping off his little table, vacuuming under the table with the dust buster, etc.)
• loves going to Fleet Farm (like Smith & Edwards)
• hardly ever wants to wear anything but his sweats or basketball shorts.... needs "his cozy sweats" day in and day out.

And last but not least, the thing I love most about Will, his tender heart.  He is SO sensitive, he is happy when I'm happy, cries when I cry, laughs when we laugh, and genuinely cares about people and other kids.  We LOVE you Will, you are our most prized possession, our family is complete with you a part of it!

Our little chef

Will loves to help out in the kitchen.  Last night, we had some classmates of Scott's over for dinner.  Our friends the Saeed's are from Pakistan and only eat kosher meat, so Scott was excited to have the chance to cook up some fish.  He made an awesome raspberry vinaigrette dressing/glaze for the salmon and Will, as well as everyone else, really enjoyed it.

Here's Will helping to glaze the salmon before it went into the oven.  He is actually getting pretty good at helping and not flinging food all over the kitchen like he used to.  He never misses an opportunity to push his chair over and watch Mom and Dad in the kitchen, I love having my little helper nipping at my heels!
Do you notice Will's PJ's?  They were a little early birthday present.  They have sharks on them.  For our shark loving boy, they were a dream come true.  He wanted to put them on in the store, but we talked him into waiting until we got home.  Then he didn't want to take them off, he just wanted to wear them all day! They were a great purchase and I love the way they hug his little potbelly.  I wish people thought my potbelly was cute. :)
Sidenote: Scott is ALMOST done with school, I can count the days on my two hands.  His group has been meeting for the whole school year, working on a very large and involved project.  They have done such a great job, when they presented to Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Health East last week, they liked the project ideas so much that they want them to present it to the legislature! I'm very proud of Scott, he has worked so hard and it is paying off!

More for Will's Room

I'm loving the fabric I bought for Will's room.  I think they are really fun colors, and I'm trying to match a rug he already has.  I have a yellow down blanket for his bed and here are some pillows I made to go along with it.  

I had fun making these, each one is different, one just a square with some embroidery, the other oblong with pinking sheared edges, and one gunny-sack.

We are getting excited for our move, and Will likes that I'm making him all this stuff for his new room! I hope he'll continue to be excited through this whole process!

he's done it....

12 hours of sleep, in undies, woke up completely dry.  He wasn't even rushing to the potty when he woke up early at 6am.  I'm so proud of my little man, and I'm even more excited that I can pack away the last of the few remaining diapers!!

Good job Will, you are officially a big boy now.

For Will's new room

I keep seeing these fun fabric pennant banners on craft blogs.  I thought it would be the perfect thing to go in Will's new room.  I bought enough fabric to make the banner as well as some curtains and pillows to match.  

You can't see too well, but I put his name on there with more fabric.  I thought it turned out pretty cute, I was happy about it, and it was fun to make! Now I want to make some more! :)
If you'd like the tutorial, it'll be up the first day of May on the Mommy Diaries blog!

Yesterday was.......

85 DEGREES, sunny, and hot.  It was wonderful, I actually got a little bit of rosy to my cheeks.  Summer is coming and we are so excited.  Will and I spent about 4 hours straight outside the day the before, got filthy head to toe, and loved every minute.

Check out this great idea for a sandbox, in a small space.... I love it! I think I'll do this when we get to our new house, it is just the right size for our little yard.

In all my posting excitement about the house, I seem to have forgotten to post pictures of our kitchen! What was I thinking? I know you were all on pins and needles thinking "where is Kara's kitchen where she's going to cook us that good food when we come to visit?" So, here you go..... 

The stove, and the cute little pantry

The kitchen was updated just a few years ago, I'm pretty stoked about that.

The cute little breakfast nook....

We have BIG plans for this little nook, a built in bench maybe?

And the dining room.  Yep, I get a whole separate room just for my table!

Thanks for bearing with me, I'm a little obsessed about moving and our new home.  I'm sure this is not the last of the pictures I've forgotten!

okay folks, I just posted like 5 new posts.  I figured I better do it while I don't have a little 3 year old running around, and while we are just hanging out in our hotel in Cleveland.  Just so you don't miss anything important :) - go all the way to the bottom so you don't miss one!

..... and FINALLY!

Okay, get excited.  Are you excited?  I AM EXCITED, here is our new house!!  I guess technically it is not OUR house yet, until June.  But, we had our inspection today, so as it was getting looked over and inspected, I ran around with my camera and took pictures.  I'm pretty sure the people living there thought I was nuts.... which I am, but I LOVE this home.  

It was built in the 1940's, and has such a strong, solid, comforting feeling to it.  I love the nooks and crannys, the wood floors, the bay windows, the OLD windows, the original door knobs and light fixtures, and the super old basement.  I love the red brick, the shutters, and the original slate roof.  I also love that we will have a little yard for our kids to run around in, and for our friends to come over and have BBQ's! I love that Scott and I get to start a new chapter of our lives in this house, and that we get to love it, treat it tenderly in it's old age, and make memories here!

You are ALL welcome to come visit, we have LOTS of space, and I'm a really good cook! :) Okay, NOW are you ready for some photos?  Here you go, details and all:

The back of the house, don't miss the cute little sun porch!

The front of the house, we told our realtor to stick a HUGE "SOLD" sticker on that sign!

The fireplace, check out that molding.  You can't build houses like this anymore, I'm amazed this stuff still exists! I guess it goes to show things were well built!

This is the other side of the front room, do like the bay window? I do, and I don't plan to have any window treatments there, I love the light it offers.

Okay, this is a horrible picture, I'm dumb and don't do photography.  Can you see me waving?  Well, I had to take a picture of my bathroom sink.  Why? Because look how cute and little it is. This is original, people.  You literally can't find stuff like this anymore.  This sink is bigger than some that we saw, but most houses here, because of there age all have these tiny little sinks in the half baths, I just couldn't get enough of them. There is so much charm to these old homes!

Here's the basement.  Don't get scared, it is going to be a fun place for the kiddos. Scott is headed into the storage/laundry/everything room.

A different view of the basement....

This is one end of the storage room, crazy, huh?  I think so, it is just like a basement from the "old days!" :) But hey, I don't mind one bit, I get a washer, dryer, dishwasher, and STORAGE SPACE in this home!

Now, here's more of that 1940's charm I was talking about.  These door knobs are the best, and the light fixtures are beautiful and vintage.  You really have to appreciate the craftsman style of building houses! Aren't they fun, I might have to take steal them if I ever move.

More of the charm.  Maybe it doesn't look charming to you, but if you saw it in person, it would. Every light fixture is different and unique like this.  Charming, at least I think so.

Once again, more of the charm.  A tiny little built in cupboard, and that little white box below it? Yep, a laundry shoot, that goes down three floors all the way to my spooky basement! Yippeee! I can't wait to see what Will throws down this, and the surprises I'll find while doing wash. Now only if they would make something that shot your clothes into the washer, sorted them correctly, washed, folded and put them away, that would be awesome.  

The newly remodeled upstairs bathroom. Very pretty. That guy looking in my tub was the inspector, he was a nice fellow, he even checked our water pressure for us.  I have a feeling I'm going to learn a lot about a home, since now I know the difference between galvanized pipe vs. copper pipe and why one is better.  Now if I could only remember which is which.

The master bedroom....

The TWO twin closets in the master bedroom, and see that charming little built in shelf hiding behind the door? Love it.

And this is for all my faithful friends and family who have made it to the end of this post! This is the guest bedroom! With your very own private access to the sun porch.  Are you excited to come visit?  Did I mention there is also a hot tub at my new house?  Did I also mention that we LOVE company?  Oh, one more thing, did I mention there is a HUGE mall and a CHEESECAKE factory only blocks from the house?  Well, now I mentioned it, and now you can all come visit!

Thanks for sticking with my through my post.  You can tell I'm just slightly excited to move to Cleveland.  Besides the house, we visited our church and the members are GREAT.  Three nurseries, lots of stay-at-home moms doing what I'll be doing, and the neighborhood is full of kids who are always out and about running around.  We can walk or bike to the rec center, library, Target, and grocery store! Now, what am I going to do with myself for 2 more months?

Our Easter Feast

After church on Sunday, we came home to our hotel room and had our very own little Easter feast.  Our feast consisted of BBQ pork sandwhiches, courtesy of Lloyds microwaveable meats, a spicy mexican salad courtesy of Giant Eagle (our grocery store.... weird name, huh? Scott keeps calling it the Flying Eagle...), mixed up in a pan because we didn't have any big bowls, Dr. Pepper, and jelly beans.  Too bad we didn't have company over to sit on our bed with us and eat it! :) Hahaha, that would have been great! Maybe next year.

Ready to eat our feast.... but not before an easter picture!
MMMMMMM, I think food tastes better when you get to eat it in bed in your hotel room, it is SO fun!
Good job Scott, don't spill!
We had a great Easter and such a fun trip to Cleveland.  We missed spending this special holiday with Will, but knew he was in GREAT hands.  We love him and miss him every moment, but it was nice to have some time away, just the two of us, driving around Cleveland in our fancy schmancy rental car, and eating awesome microwaveable food in bed!