Last Day As A 1 Year Old!

Kelsey turns 2 tomorrow! Time goes so quickly! To get ready for her piggy party tomorrow, she helped get the house ready!

Vacuuming

Doing the dishes

Out running errands

Taking a nap from all the work


It was a busy and fun day with all of us home chipping in to get things ready. Kelsey was quite the little helper!

Last night as a 1 year old.....

5 Years Together

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to my wonderful husband! It has been such an incredible journey with you so far and I am so blessed to have you as my partner, my confidant, my soulmate, and my best friend. I love the life we have built together! Here's to many more years of laughter and love!

Pulaski Polka Days Weekend

Kelsey and I made our way to Pulaski on Friday for the annual Pulaski Polka Days festival. It was a new adventure for us because Daddy was not able to join us. He was busy running a baseball tournament in Owatonna and was not able to get away. He was pretty bummed about missing out, but his team ended up winning the tournament and are off to state! So, I guess it was worth it ;) As for me, I had never made the trip to Pulaski with just Kelsey and I, so I was a little nervous. Kelsey was a great car rider and watched movies and slept. What a good girl! When we arrived, I instantly got excited! There is something so neat about my town of 3000 people suddenly hosting 25,000 people throughout the course of the weekend! That night we went to the grounds and met up with family and friends. My dad was working in the ice cream stand, and he served up one heck of a root beer float that Aunt Evie, Kelsey and I shared!

I also was able to see my dear friend, Angie. We met going to polka dances when we were little and have stayed friends ever since. Unfortunately, we have not seen each in 2 years, so it was a long overdue reunion!

Of course there was a little dancing thrown in there, too. Poor Katrina could have been out there all night with Kelsey because she did not want to stop!



On Saturday we celebrated Kelsey's birthday. My dad and Chris made her cupcakes and gave her gifts. Aunt Evie and family also were so thoughtful and got her gifts, too. Thank you!!! It is nice that we can celebrate while we are there.





Later that evening we made our way back to the grounds for more music and catching up. I got to see my wonderful friends, the Hickoks from New York. They make the trip every year and are such great people. I am always so happy to get to spend time with them!


Sunday brought the parade and the end of the festivities. I love this parade for a few reasons: #1. I am a homer and love my local parade #2. It has a ton of bands including marching bands, polka bands, and this year there was a rock band as well #3There is a ton of unique entries which makes it very entertaining.



Aunt Evie came to the rescue and brought a pop-up canopy that helped shield us from the sun. THANK YOU! It saved my white dupa from a world of sunburn!

Following the parade we said our goodbyes and headed home. I think the way home felt like a 10 hour car ride! It was all worth it though!

There was a moment in the weekend when I was dancing with my Uncle Dennis that I thought of my mom and how much she absolutely loved polka days and celebrating her Polish heritage. I am proud to be able to carry on that tradition with Kelsey. Let the countdown begin until next year! Who wants to go???

Background

You will notice the blog looks different. This is because the website I usually get my backgrounds from is undergoing some changes right now and I am currently unable to use it. So...I had to use the layouts that the blogger website provides. I am hoping to be able to add a cute birthday background for Kelsey, but time will tell. For now, enjoy one of the things that we love about summer--baseball :)

Water Park

We finally made it to the water park in town. Kelsey was a little timid at first, but then seemed to warm up to it all. She liked the turtle slide, but wanted Daddy to go down with her. The zero depth area is so nice for Kelsey because she is able to walk in and be at her own level. It is such a nice set-up. Kelsey and Daddy practiced some of her moves from swimming lessons, floated down the lazy river, and splashed around like little fish! It was a wonderful family afternoon :)

A Little of Everything

I feel like the past week has gone by in the blink of an eye! Mattey continues to finish up his grant for his master's program. He is so close!!! Kelsey and I have been trying to give him all the time he needs to complete it, although we do like to give him breaks now and then. Let's hope he is done soon!!!

Diane made tye-dyed shirts with all the kids the other day. Thanks Aunt Diane!

As for Kelsey girl, she is doing great! I thought a top ten was due to update you on what she likes to say and do......

10. She likes to play hide and seek. She will count to ten and with her hands on her eyes, and then say "ready or not, here I come." She likes to yell" where are ya?" as she looks. When she is the hider, she thinks she still needs to count and then pops out right away.

9. She is completely a daddy's girl these days. If Matt is gone when she wakes up in the morning, the first thing she asks is "where daddy go?" Then she will answer her own question by saying "daddy go baseball game" or "daddy go golfing" When Mattey is home, she attaches to him and has to be right with him doing whatever he is.

8. She loves pretzels. It is her snack of choice. Although, popcorn is slowly creeping up there.

7. Her favorite movie to watch is Finding Nemo. I needed a break from Charlotte's Web, so I tried this and now this is the movie she always picks.

6. She tells Mattey and I "I love you too, Daddy/Mommy forever" It seriously melts our hearts :)

5. She does not want to sit in her booster chair anymore. She likes to sit on a regular chair with no help. I have gotten her to let me put two chair cushions underneath her so she can at least see her food.

4. Every morning she asks for cereal for breakfast. Don't get me wrong, it sure makes an easy breakfast for me! She likes Lucky Charms and Trix.

3. She has currently named her baby doll Emma. I told her we should give the baby a name and I listed a bunch. She picked Emma. She likes to say "baby emma fussy" and then she proceeds to hug her and say "shhhhh" in her ear.

2. When asked how are you going to be, she responds "I be 2, (while holding up 5 fingers). When asked what is your name, she responds "Kelsey Skala" and when asked where she lives, she answers "ooooooowatonna."

1. She is very inquisitive about things. "Why you do that?" "What happened?" " Where are ya?"

1a. I had to add this one because we think it is pretty funny. When it is time for something to be done such as time to go inside, she will bargain with you and say "5 minutes?" Also, if she doesn't want to do something( which happens to be going potty on the toilet right now) she will say "not today" when you ask her to go.

She had her 2 year pictures (yes, I said 2 years--isn't that crazy??) taken on Sunday and we absolutely loved our photographer. We will get the pictures back in about 4 weeks, but I am very hopeful we will have some great shots. She was with us for 1 1/2 hours. She was so good with Kelsey and just went with the flow. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

A Few New Things

Kelsey has cut her two year molars. If you ask to see her new teeth, she opens wide and says "ahhhhh".

We had our first set of scrapes and bumps yesterday. Kelsey was running on the driveway and fell. She skinned up both knees and chipped off part of her toe nail. She was quite the hurting unit last night. We tried to put bandaids on, but she was not having that. Even when she went to sleep, I tried to sneak one on, but she woke up crying until I took it off. She seems to be doing better today, but is still avoiding too much pressure on her big toe if she can avoid it. On a positive note, at least it was not her face since she has pictures soon!

Just for fun, a new swing picture :)

A Day At The Zoo

We took Kelsey to the Minnesota Zoo on Friday. She is kind of goofy with animals because sometimes she is fine with them and wants to get up close, but other times she gets very scared if they get close to her. For the most part I would say she did pretty good. Our tour guide mapped out the day for us and we were ready to see the animals!


She really liked the area where you could get right up to the glass and the fish would swim right by you. She kept saying" ooohhhh, big fish!"



She wasn't too sure about the butterfly garden. We thought she would love it, but she actually seemed nervous. When a butterfly got close to her, she tried hard to dodge it. We were ok getting out of there though because it was extremely hot inside!


Next up we saw the dolphin. She was scared if the dolphin appeared to be swimming toward her, but did watch it make its way around the tank.

Here we are by the sea otter and the bears.


She only asked for a few specific animals to see all day and the tiger was one of them. Unfortunately the area for the tiger was so big that it was hard for her to see it.


She did like the prairie dogs! She has a book that says "prairie dog, prairie dog, what do you see?" and I think she made the connection between the two.

I would say the highlight of the day was the farm area. Kelsey absolutely loves "piggies" as she calls them and it was by far her favorite animal to see. She also brushed the goat while at the farm, too.



Our last stop for the day was the Splash Zone. It is an area where water shoots out and the kids can splash around. We were warned about this and thankfully brought a change of clothes so Kelsey could cool off.


It was a very fun family day! I have looked forward to going since we got off of school since last summer we weren't sure how much she would have gotten out of it. By the time we got home, we were all pretty tired which made for an early night in the Skala house.