Birthday week

Kasen turns 1 this weekend and I should be doing more birthday prep.  I had a terrific birthday role model.  My mom ROCKED birthdays.  I had the party where kids always wanted to get invited (and I was still positive no one would show up).  She had games, prizes and awesome cakes way before any of that stuff was standard issue.  I once had a purple boom box cake.  [Yes it was the eighties and yes you are jealous]  In fact, that was one of the best parts of having your birthday.  Telling mom what kind of cake you wanted.  My younger brother once had a cake that was the EXACT replica of his favorite He-Man character - Buzz-Off. Now, my mother didn't make these cakes herself... she had games to plan after all.  However, she did find a cake artist in Kalamazoo, MI.  Impressive to say the least.

For my first birthday, we went to the High Wheeler.  This is a was a ice cream place in Kalamazoo that was a true ice cream PARLOR.  They had the red stools and everything.  Do I remember this event?  No, I was ONE.  However, I have seen the scratchy seventies photos and it was a party.  There was a huge sundae and some guy with a big horn.  My entire family was there and a bunch of friends.  Everyone looks like they are having a ball... at a one year old's birthday party.  Big shoes.

Sadly, I believe I may be falling down on the job a bit.  I do not have anything spectacular planned for her birthday.  I guess she will need something to talk about with her therapist in her thirties...

We celebrated while in Texas and we had a party with all her PEPS buddies last week (photo above), so we are laying low for the actual birthday, dinner and pints at our favorite local pub (pints for us... milk for Kasen).

Here is Kasen after FULLY enjoying her first cupcake at the PEPS birthday bash.



Kasen would like you to know frosting doubles as hair gel AND is edible.  My kid is a freakin' genius!

 

The Baby Swedish Chef

Since I have been working from home, I am now able to cook more.  It is not that we went out to eat a ton before we had the stinker, it is just "cooking" was a loosely applied term.  I mean boiling water is cooking right?  Anyway, since I have been trying to cook meals with multiple ingredients, I have had to keep Kasen occupied in the kitchen.  Sometimes that is by giving her an ingredient to snack on:



Turns out she is a big fan of red bell peppers... I mean OF COURSE - they are red which means everything they touch turns this lovely shade of pink.



Sometimes, the meal does not lend itself to ingredient tasting.  For these times, I give her some cooking stuff on the floor and hope she doesn't get bored.  Honestly, I don't know if she was pretending to cook or doing a FANTASTIC impersonation of the Swedish Chef. You be the judge.

I can't wait till she and Sterling can actually make us food down there.  Don't know how I'll feel about the dog hair though....

Spring Break PARTY - Part 2

Beach vacations are not usual for us.  Now, we definitely go to warm locations for vacation.  Keeping sane in Seattle long-term requires seeing the sun on vacation in the winter.  But an all beach vacation?  Karl gets bored and trust me - no one wants to see a bored Karl.  It's like a German Shepard with nothing to herd - annoying and even a little sad. [Yes, I just compared him to a dog, but if you know me and my love for German Shepards - totally a compliment] 

Anyway, we took this specific beach vacation to be with family.  It was wonderful how many family members were able to get together in one location.  We had not seen some of these people since our wedding over 5 years ago - far too long.  Kasen is such a social baby - she was in heaven.  She got to touch the ocean for the first time.  Here she is enjoying dipping her toe into the water:



We were actually glad the water was cold.  Dealing with a sand covered baby was not on our list of "fun things to do on vacation".  She enjoyed it any way.  Don't you love the plain white onsie?  She did have an outfit on, but as it got warmer we started pulling clothes off of her.  Trust me, we were just helping her fit in with the locals.

Spring Break PARTY - Part 1

The Picarbockers recently returned from a trip to Padre Island.  It was everything a good spring break trip should be - too much sun, fun and not nearly enough sleep.  The big difference is not ALL the fun revolved around drinking and the lack of sleep was due to an early rising baby - not staying up too late.  In all honesty - I don't think I ever had a crazy spring break trip, but Karl frequently tells a story of his Florida spring break trip in college.  It revolves around a night at Treasure Island, a $100 cab ride and waiting in the cab while the cab driver ate breakfast at his mothers.

I wish I had more pictures of our trip.  I brought my camera, but the first day I took it to the beach and realized it was getting sand & sea covered.  I instantly decided it was too delicate for the beach and didn't get it out much afterward.  My new goal is to work with my camera more, so that I don't feel like it is this fragile piece of equipment.  I'm working on it.

Kasen took to spring break like a duck to water.  One of the nights, we went out to eat freshly caught fish at one of the local restaurants.  My mom has some friends who fish every day - this leads to a WHOLE LOT OF FISH for eating.  They nicely invited us to help them eat it all.  Little did we know this was more a Man vs. Food challenge than a dinner invitation.  I have literally never seen that much fish in my life.  Kasen ate some and then promptly fell asleep.  This was pretty impressive considering the volume of this restaurant.



She didn't wake up until we left.  Turns out this is the baby version of "boot and rally", she stayed up at least 2 more hours back at the condo playing with her cousins.  Spring break is NOT for the weak of heart.

Sometimes the music moves you!

Kasen bobs her head to music. Karl says it is her head banging. However she does this dance to any kind of music. As you can see in the video, she has carried the head bobbing to the rest of her body. When you gotta dance, you gotta dance!

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