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Charlie's Two.

Charlie's favorite phrases this week "I'll be two" and "Let's Party!".  Charlie had a great weekend with family and friends in Iowa City/Cedar Rapids/Cedar Falls.  We started our weekend on Friday in Iowa City at Oasis and Dirty John's.  We went to visit Hayley and her baby Ingrid.   Paul and I decided that we miss Iowa City.  It was great to be back and drive by Kinnick.

Friday night we spent the night at Molly and Neil's house in Cedar Rapids.  My mom and dad came for supper and to hang out.  Charlie is not used to a friendly and large dog like Guinness around but by Saturday they were doing pretty well together.  Molly, Paul, and I took Charlie to Disney on Ice Saturday morning. She sat the whole show, clapping and pointing at all the characters.  We got popcorn, cotton candy (which came with her new favorite hat), and lemonade in a new Mickey cup. I am so glad we went because she really seemed to enjoy it.

We spent Saturday night at my mom and dad's house.  Great aunt Barb came over for dinner.  Charlie got  more presents and had cupcakes and ice cream.  We found out that she really isn't interested in opening presents so most of them were opened by someone else.  We skyped with Shannon, Olivia, Emma, and Dayle.

Sunday we had pictures taken of Charlie and our family.  We went to Mulligans with the Boeke's and Roberts' for lunch before going to the Sportsplex for her birthday party.  The kids got to run around in a climbing gym.  The Humpals came to play too.  The older girls had fun helping Charlie and really wanted to go down the slide with her.  Charlie got lots of fun presents: stickers, markers, a new swimsuit, souvenirs from Hawaii, and a new toy tractor.  Paul went to Beers to You with Steve and the girls hung out at home.   We opened presents and Charlie got new books, Ladybug Girl wings, and a new chalkboard.

We got home Monday night in time to take out all of her toys and play.  Tuesday morning she woke up to more balloons and streamers.  After work we went to the mall and got bagels at Panera, played Legos at Barnes and Noble, and went on the carousel.  Paul and I took her to McDonalds for ice cream.  It was a lowkey day after our busy weekend.

I can't believe our little girl is 2!  She is very sweet, polite, active, smart, and fun.  She is talking and singing all the time.  We are really enjoying this age and all of the fun things we can do together.

Valentine's Day.

Paul and I had our Valentine's Day a week early because he is on call this weekend.  It was the first time we got a babysitter for Charlie.  We went to Addison's for dinner and the International Tap House for dessert.  I got chocolate cupcakes from Velvet and chocolate covered strawberries from the Candy Factory.  It was really nice to be out together and go to places we hadn't been to in a long time.

I bought beer for Paul and Charlie got new Minnie puzzles and stickers.  Charlie and I had a great day.  We went to Flipz for 2 hours and then I went to my cycling class.  We had burrito bowls for supper and chocolate graham cracker sandwiches with peanut butter and cool whip for dessert.

Iced in.

I was supposed to go to Iowa City/Cedar Rapids this weekend, but we got some bad weather Friday night.  We were stuck inside the house all day Saturday.

Here is how we spent our day:
We watched as our neighbors pulled each other behind their cars, skating down the street.
I tried 3 new Pinterest recipes, and all three were gross.
Charlie spent most of the time in Chloe's cage, eating markers, or jumping on the bed.