She Shoots... She Scores!

Pop sent Kate a wonderful surprise...

you guessed it!

A basketball hoop!

Kate was SUPER stoked!

She shoots!
She scores!

We turned on Kate's amazing bubble sheet

to create create Kate's dream environment...

When it was time to go inside for dinner,

Kate gave her new basketball hoop a big hug!

And just in case the soccer goal was starting to feel left out...

Reston Zoo

We enjoyed a beautiful spring afternoon at the Reston Zoo!

It's a tiny place but had plenty of animals to entertain us for a couple of hours.

Kate especially loved the turtles and the monkeys!

Fun Weekend with Friends!

We had a blast with Jennie, Marco and Toby last weekend!

Jennie and Marco are good friends from law school and our Atlanta days...

and we had never had a chance to meet their son, Toby,

who is just 1 day older than Kate!

(Of course, Kate would be older

if she had been born two weeks earlier

on her due date...

or after fewer than 26 hours labor...

but I digress!)

So, we jumped at the chance to have them up for a weekend visit!

The kids were fantastic playmates and

we couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous weekend

to hang out with the kids outside!

We hope you guys come back to visit soon!

Love of Basketball

Kate loves basketball!

It's kinda funny...

especially because Tim and I aren't really fans.

Kate loves to watch basketball on TV.

She doesn't understand the whole bit about two teams competing...

but she knows enough to cheer when a player makes a basket

and to groan when a player misses or the ball ends up out of bounds.

Kate sometimes begs to for walks around the neighborhood

with the primarily purpose of seeing all of the basketball hoops.

And, if we happen to drive by a basketball court,

Kate morphs into a broken record.

"Basketball hoop!

Basketball hoop!

Mommy, Mommy!

Basketball hoop!"

So, we figured that the basketball hoop at Uncle Chris and Aunt Ingrid's

would be a huge hit when we went over there for Easter dinner.

We were right.

Being lifted up by Daddy to drop the basketball through the hoop

really sealed the deal!

She's obsessed!

Busy, Busy Bee!

Easter Morning

Here we are all dressed up for church Easter morning.

Our church had a special service for families and Kate really enjoyed

being in the "big church"... especially the singing!

Here's a series of pictures to show you just how busy our little Kate is these days:

(According to our camera, all of these photos were taken in less than 2 minutes)

Easter Basket

Easter Basket

I had so much fun making Kate's Easter basket this year...

and she had a blast checking out her little presents!

Digging in...

She really liked the little toy camera...
and spent a good part of the next week with the camera held up to her eyes...
facing the wrong way.
Oh well.

Mommy's little helper!
(Note to Self: Should've forked out the big bucks
for the kid-sized vaccuum that actually works!)

Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Egg Hunt!

We hosted an Easter Egg Hunt at our house the Saturday morning before Easter!

We hope it was the first of many, many opportunties

for all of our friends to play in our new backyard.

Good Friday

Our church had a wonderful Good Friday service for kids this morning.

Kate really enjoyed going to the "big church",

listening to the "big kids" sing in the choir,

and generally participating in the service.

It was great to kick off the Easter weekend with a reminder

of what the holiday is all about.

Before we left for church, I snapped a few pictures of Kate

in one of her new spring outfits!

Hanging Out with Cousins

We had a really fun visit with Aunt Annie and cousins, Abby & Barrett, last weekend!

Kate idolizes her older cousin, Abby,

and loves playing with Barrett (who is almost her same age), too!

Here are some of the highlights...

Cuddling with Uncle Tim...
Jumping on Papa...

Coloring...

Blowing bubbles...

And riding tricyles!

Horses!

Tim's cousin, Luke, competed in a penning contest in western Virginia last weekend.

So, Tim and Kate took a day trip out there to cheer him on

and to hang out with Aunt Colleen and Luke's wife and son, Lindsay & Nolan.

Sadly, I wasn't able to join them...

so I missed out on the fun

AND

didn't get to supervise the picture taking!

But, here are a couple evidencing Kate's general fear of the horse she met.