Princess for a day, or a couple hours anyway

Katie got invited to a birthday party at Chelsea's Tea Room in south Arlington. Evidently, they put eyeshadow and blush on each girl as well as paint their fingernails. Then, they take the girls to a dressing room where they get to put on a fancy dress and jewelry. Then, they must attend a ceremony where the birthday girl (or queen) dubs them a princess and puts their tiara on their head.

After each girl has been dubbed a princess, they head to a long table for "giggle" tea and tea cakes. Katie had so much fun. Right now, she is all about being a princess. She is focused more on the Disney princesses though. She still had fun!

Big Girl Transformed

Well, the day finally came. We ordered Katie's "big girl" furniture almost 2 months ago, and it was backordered. She went with us when we showed her which one we were buying. She got a twin daybed, nightstand, and dresser. I love this pic because she's winking at me.

She also got new bedding, her room was painted green to match, and she has all new decor (which isn't showing in these photos.) She was so excited that "her baby" was getting all her old furniture, and she would be a big girl. I will post new pics as soon as we get everything finalized. I'll also post photos of the nursery as it's nearly completion too.

Fishing and Boating

The Saturday before Father's Day we headed to Grapevine Lake to go sit on Grandpa's pontoon boat. Katie loves doing this. In fact, her great-grandparents gave her a fancy Barbie fishing pole for Christmas last year, and she's been dying to use it. Since Katie is becoming more of a girly girl each day, we didn't even bother putting bait on a hook. She just sat in her daddy's lap and threw the line out, and then reeled it back in with the "turner" (as she calls it.) When she got bored, she would help Great-Grandpa drive the boat, and she LOVES pushing the horn on the boat.

Hold me closer, tiny dancer

We enrolled Katie for a short 2-week tap/ballet session at Miss Persis' Studio. Katie had a blast. There are times I think I may have a future performer on my hands. This child just continues to amaze me. She loves singing (and making up her own songs.) She loves dancing in front of people. "Hey, look at me!" she says. Of course, she fell in love with it. We may need to wait a year to fit it into our budget (since 2 kids in daycare is like a mortgage payment), but I don't have to worry about her having stage fright.

Katie's first swimming lesson

My parents have a pool, and this was inevitable. I tried to teach Katie how to swim at the end of last summer to no avail. She is just too stubborn to learn from her mommy. So, after much consideration, we paid the City of Arlington to teach her. We were so fortunate. She had the best instructor, Sam (about a 17-year-old girl) who taught 4 girls 3-4 years old.

Katie was a superstar. After the first class we saw massive improvement. After 2 weeks, we no longer had a child afraid of water, but a true fish. Now, I can't get her out of the water. No more floaties, no more fear....just swimming, which is good. Now, Katie can teach her sister when she gets here. She learned how to push off the wall and glide, swim distances with her face submerged, stroke and kick simultaneously, back float and roll over to front float. She loves going underwater now. Oh, and they had to retrieve toys that had sunk to the bottom of the 4-foot deep area. Dave is thinking Olympics, but I'm personally glad that she has more confidence in the pool now.