Easter in the Capitol - Part 1

We were excited to be invited to the White House for the Annual Presidential Easter Egg Roll. It was a once in a lifetime type of opportunity, so we bought our plane tickets for Washington DC! This would be Brianne's first plane ride, so we were a little nervous on how she would act. We packed toys, snacks, the iPad and DVD player so we'd have something to distract her in case she got antsy.

We made it through security and onto the plane without a problem.  When it was time to board, Brianne went right onto the plane and sat in her seat without issue.  Even though it was early in the morning, we gave her a lollipop to help with the pressure change. She didn't seem to have a problem with the pressure but still enjoyed her lollipop.

Watching Ice Age after take off.  I even got her her own little ear phones, which she thought was really cool. She was a perfect angel through the whole flight, even when we had to turn the movie off for landing.

We were in DC for two days only, so we wanted to make the most of our time there.  As soon as we dropped our stuff off at the hotel, we hopped on a double decker tour bus to see the monuments.  Brianne promptly fell asleep and missed most of the sites.  She did see a few, and thought every monument was a princess castle. Each monument belonged to a different princess - ex. The Washington Monument was Rapunzel's castle, the Capitol was Cinderella's Castle, etc.

Marty was in his glory seeing all the sites.

After the bus ride, we went to Museum of Natural History. It was super cool!  Brianne loved the dinosaurs.

A Fairy Tale Afternoon

Brianne LOVES Disney Princesses, so when the Disney Princess show came to West Palm Beach, we had to go!  Since West Palm Beach is a bit of a drive for us, we drove up a little early to have lunch and enjoy walking around City Place (the theater was right across the street).

City Place had a little train, so Brianne wanted to take a spin.

Enjoying a mini water fountain show.

Pretty girl in her princess dress.  I should have brought one of her real Princess dresses, but they were all worn out from being worn so much at home, so I thought this would be nicer.

Marty met us up there for the show. He couldn't pass up an opportunity to take his princess to see the Princesses!

The cotton candy man came around and was selling cotton candy with a crown attached. At $10, it was the most expensive cotton candy I have ever bought, but we still have the crown, so it was worth it!

All the Princesses as well as Mickey and Minnie for the grand finale!  The show is great and would definitely recommend for anyone who loves the Disney Princesses!

Big Girl Bed

With the new baby coming in a few short months, we decided it was time to get Brianne her own big girl bed.  We actually had a day bed and dresser in our guest room (what would become the baby's room), so we opted to just switch the furniture between rooms. Since Brianne was giving up her crib, we didn't have the heart to make her give up her room, though it definitely would have been easier on us in terms of moving furniture.

Brianne and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and she got to pick out her new bedroom set.  So after Marty muscled the furniture into the right rooms, we set up Brianne's "princess bed".  Brianne loved her new bed, but we were a bit nervous that she would give us a hard time about going to sleep. But she surprised us again and went right to sleep! 

Here is the princess in her new princess bed!

Just like mommy and daddy, she wanted to read a book before bed time. What a big girl :o)

A Beachy Good Time

Here are some photos from a beach day we had back in April. Marty was on the campaign trail, but we still had fun with our friends, the DiPaolos! 

Brianne waiting patiently as we pay the parking meter. She is loving her princess sun glasses!

She was finally big enough to not be scared by the breaking waves on the shore. She wanted to jump right in! I had to keep a hand on her so she wouldn't get knocked over, but she did great holding her own.

Practicing her surfing skills.  She'll be ready to ride the barrel soon enough!  And you can see the baby bump in this photo  :o)

Mommy and water baby.

Monkeying around in the water with Bradley.  The great thing about this beach (in North Ft. Lauderdale, off Commercial Blvd - for any locals reading this) is that it is really shallow right at the edge, which is great for little ones who like to run around but aren't quite big enough to swim.

Someone thought it would be a good idea to take turns burying each other in the sand (I gracefully declined).   Here is Brianne burying Frank.

Bradley was a champ and got buried up to his neck!

Brianne didn't want to be buried all the way, but I was impressed she did it at all!

Relaxing in her Brianne-size beach chair before heading home.

Playing Catch Up

Soooo.... It's been awhile since I have updated the blog, so I am going to attempt to catch up and post as much as I can between April and August.  It has been a busy few months! Here we are horsing around at our local park back in April. Wow that seems like so long ago! This is also the start of Brianne's love of Hello Kitty. I think she would wear Hello Kitty every single day if we let her.

At this point, I was already 6 months pregnant with baby #2, but luckily, miss Independent Brianne was able to do most things on the playground unassisted, including making monkey faces.

Catching some air on the bouncy bridge.

Swinging all by herself on the big swings.  No more baby swings for this kid!

The Kiar Family is Growing!

We are thrilled to be expecting our second child in early August! We are having another little girl. Marty is super excited, though is feeling a little outnumbered. Brianne and Kiar #2 will be almost exactly 3 years apart. If Kiar #2 is early, they may just have the same birthday!

We told Brianne about the new addition, and if you ask her where the baby is, she points at my stomach. But I don't think she quite gets that there will be another person living with us, taking up some of our attention and touching her toys. This is also putting more pressure on us to get Brianne potty trained, and moved out of her crib.

I have been feeling great, and have fortunately had a relatively easy time with this pregnancy. I was lucky the first time around as well, so hopefully this means Kiar #2 will be just as awesome as Brianne. Time is flying and August 7 will be here before we know it!

Brianne seeing the first pictures of her baby sister. She is excited to teach her sister all about being a princess!

Carnival Fun

Brianne is just now big enough to fully appreciate carnivals, so when the St. David Carnival rolled around, we were eager to have a great evening full of fun! The very first ride Brianne wanted to try was the mega slide. This slide is easily 2 stories tall. Also, per the nice carnie working the ride, Brianne couldn't sit in Marty's lap - she had to slide alone on her own little mat. Marty escorted her to the top and set up her mat. As he was sitting down next to her, she took off without him! She flew down to the bottom and landed with the biggest smile on her face. I nearly had a heart attack watching her, but felt better when she jumped upped and asked to do it again.

Brianne at the top of the mega slide, getting ready to take off.

Brianne's favorite ride that night was the cars. She picked out her favorite car, put her seat belt on and was ready to go. She rode the cars at least 5 times that night. Side note - yes, we did let her go to the carnival in her princess dress.

After 5 times around on the cars, Brianne wanted to try out the dragons, which is a ride similar to the Dumbo ride at Disney. Since this ride left the ground, super dad Marty wedged himself into the dragon with Brianne to make sure she didn't get scared. Big smiles all around!

We capped off the night with a spin on the ferris wheel. We had a great time, and are looking forward to the next carnival!