The BIG 2!

We celebrated Catie's 2nd birthday on Saturday, July 24th. She had a wonderful Birthday BBQ filled with family, friends, Barney and Baby Bop. It is hard to believe that Miss O is now 2 years old. Where has the time gone?

Catie's new playhouse (we spend a lot of time in it)

After Catie's birthday, Gigi (my mom) stayed for a few days to watch Catie for a few days and then we headed up to meet the rest of the O'Connell family in Tahoe. Not a bad birthday week for a 2 year old. Happy birthday Catie. We love you!

Girls Weekend

This past weekend Colin took a road trip to LA with some friends for a guys weekend and my dad flew back East to play some golf for the weekend. This meant that Catie and I were going to be home alone and so was my mom. We decided that it would be fun if we had a girls weekend so Gigi (my mom) flew up to Northern California and my sister came to the burbs. Before Catie and I headed to to pick up Gigi up, we stopped at Starbucks and I got a coffee and Catie had a mini doughnut. As you can see she LOVED the doughnut.

Getting ready to go shopping...such a lady.


At the outdoor mall...playing in the water and eating a hot dog (summer is officially here)

Playing with her new summer toy (her water table). Thank you Bampa and Gigi. Catie LOVES her water table and has played with everyday.

When the water shoots up she tries to drink it like it's a water fountain.

After Gigi left....Catie was beat.

We had a wonderful weekend filled with shopping, chatting, sipping cosmos, eating, laughing, watching chick flicks- it was perfect. Come back soon Gigi...and I guess you can bring Bampa too! We love you.

Birthday Craziness

The month of May is always busy in our household....Mother’s Day, my sister’s birthday, and then my birthday. This year was a big birthday for my sister Susie. She turned 30!!! We started the birthday festivities off by flying to Pasadena and dropping Catie off with my parents. My mom and dad took care of Catie for 4 straight days! Now that doesn’t really seem like a long time until you realize that they were taking care of an almost 2 year old that is incredibly active, loves to run, and gets into EVERYTHING! They seemed to have a blast and Catie was kept super busy while we were away. She had a couple of play dates, got her haircut, went shopping, had lunch with the ladies, went to the Huntington gardens, and got tons of hugs and kisses. My parents said that it was great but I am sure that they were exhausted. They did an amazing job and my mom even thanked me for the best mother’s day gift ever…taking care of Catie. If that’s the case, what are you doing for your birthday mom?

Well, we dropped Catie off and then Susie and I went to Palm Springs and 13 of our close friends, including Colin, flew in for the weekend. We had a wonderful time hanging out in the pool, playing golf, eating, talking, laughing and maybe having a few cocktails. We think that it might have to be an annual trip. Here are two pictures from the weekend (I haven't downloaded mine yet).

After a week of getting things back to normal once again we geared up for another birthday celebration…mine (I choose not to disclose my age). I started the day with a massage while Colin dropped Catie off at his parents for the night. ***On a side note…. I promise that we don’t normally pawn Catie off to people as much as we have done this month. The massage was wonderful and the sun started to shine just as all of the fest ivies began. A bunch of my friends and I went to the Tiburon Wine Festival and had wonderful time sipping (or gulping in some cases) wine and sampling yummy food. After the festival we headed back to our house for a BBQ and several “non- festival attendees” joined us. We had a great time and it meant so much to me that so many people came. The night ended with a few drinks at the Silver Peso in Larkspur. A perfect way to celebrate my $# birthday. A big thank you to everyone!

We have busy summer coming up: a few trips to Tahoe, Catie’s 2nd birthday, a couple of trips to LA, and maybe Hawaii in the fall. However, the biggest summer festivity is happening next month. Auntie E (Colin’s sister) and Ken are getting married in Seattle and Catie is going to be the flower girl. We can’t wait for June 26th!

Backyard Antics

Things have been busy in the O’Connell household. Last weekend Colin’s sister (Auntie E) and her fiancé Ken came into town to celebrate Barbara’s birthday. On Saturday night we all went to dinner to celebrate and Tom surprised her with a 3 week trip to Europe in September!! What an amazing gift (Colin take note…someday). It was a wonderful weekend and Catie is sure going to miss B and Da when they are gone (but she is pretty sure that they will bring her back a few things).

Now that Spring is officially here, we have been trying to get our backyard ready since we know that we will being spending a lot of time in it. I really wanted to plant vegetables so we had to weed and fertilize the soil first. Colin and his dad worked really hard on getting everything ready and then I went to work on planting veggies and flowers. We have named our vegetable garden “Catie’s Garden” and it consists of watermelon, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers (red, green and yellow), basil, mint, cilantro, garlic and tomatoes and carrots are being planted on Sunday. Keep your fingers crossed that everything grows!

Not only did Colin and I spend time working in the yard but so did Catie.

First she helped mow the lawn with her new lawnmower

Then she found some mud puddles and tried to clear out the water for us

The end result is one dirty toddler

She cleans up well though and is ready for Spring

This weekend we are walking in the Bay Area Brain Tumor 5k walk. In June 2008 one of best friends from college, Jackie Oswold, was diagnosed with Anaplastic Astrocytoma (a grade 3 glioma) in June of 2008. She went through a treatment program of surgery, radiation, and chemo that was completed in May of 2009. Now, in order to avoid developing a chemo resistance, Jackie is not currently being treated. Instead, she waits and hopes every day that her tumor (which she named Turk) isn't growing undetected in her brain. Living with cancer isn't easy. But, she holds out hope that someone finds a cure before it's too late. Jackie needs a cure NOW. To donate to the National Brain Tumor Society please visit my Bay Area Brain Tumor Walk page.

The Gymnast

On Friday mornings Catie and I go to Tumblebugs at San Francisco Gymnastics. She loves running around using all of the equipment, jumping on the trampoline, crawling through tunnels, and climbing all over the mats. Mom loves the extra long nap that Catie always takes on Friday afternoon! After class she gets stamps on each of her hands and she goes bananas over them. Every time we drive past the building (it is next to her swim lessons in the Presidio) she points to her hands and gets really excited.

We are headed to Pasadena tomorrow for Easter. It should be a great weekend and Catie is going to an Easter egg hunt (with a petting zoo) on Sunday. It should be a blast!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Love The O'Connell's little leprechaun

SOLD!!!!

I know that it has been over a month since I lasted updated our blog, but I promise that I have a valid reason why.

Well after 276 and 5 offers our house finally SOLD!!!!

We only had a 30 day escrow and the buyers were not really flexible on us renting back so that meant that we not only did we have to move quickly, but we had 30 days to find a new home! YIKES!!!! We decided to rent a place so we can take our time in purchasing our new home and let me tell you folks…we love our new home. It is in a great neighborhood (shopping and parks are all within walking distance) and it has a huge front and back yard which we really wanted. The most important things is that Catie loves it.

Here is the front of our new house. Sorry it is so gloomy but it hasn't stopped raining long enough for me to take a better one.

And here is Catie's new slide set

Her new car (she spends all day opening and closing the door and getting in and out)

She is doing some gardening

Her new playroom
So now that our life has settled down again I will be back updating our blog regularly.

Here is a quick video clip of Catie getting the giggles.

Oh and Happy Birthday (one day late) Erin/ Auntie E. We hope that you had a great birthday!