Sunday, September 28, 2014

Owen's Trash Bash

Owen loves playing with trucks of any kind but the idea of a trash truck party came to mind when Owen was playing with his garbage truck and singing "trash, trash, I love trash!"  So on to Pinterest I went in search for a trash themed birthday party and let me just tell you - this is apparently a 3 year old boy's dream party because there were tons of ideas.

First came the cake...

I layered 3 9x13 cakes.
I trimmed the edges and the top layer on each cake to make them lay evenly.  Then I cut a slice out of the top two layers to make the cab separate from the truck rear.
After that I iced the cake with a crumb coat, put it in the fridge and iced the second coat.  Here is the final product...


We originally planned for the party to be at Jacobson Park which is walkable from our house and has a ton of space for the kiddos to run around.  The week before the party we just so happened to walk to the park to play and realized that Fright Nights (a haunted house and haunted trail) was set up and the opening night was the night we planned for the party.  Whoops!!  We didn't think it would be appropriate to expose 25 toddlers to zombies and chainsaws right before bedtime so we switched the party to our backyard.
I was a little stressed about moving the party to our house because I was worried it would feel cramped.  However it actually worked out better this way.  The kids had so much fun running around and playing in the enclosed area and the parents were able to relax knowing that the kids were safe and all within eye sight having a blast with one another.
Here are some pictures from the party....

 I set up two kids tables, one with garbage truck coloring pages and the other table had a basket full of cars, trucks and airplanes...
 Grayson had fun helping me set up for the day...

Here is Owen checking out the dessert table....


The party favors...


I made signs to label the food and drinks....
The drink table...


Pictures of all Owen's little buddies...







 Owen's favorite buddy from school came, AJ...
We had a piñata....


 Owen is making sure his lady friends got some candy from the piñata...


Grayson and Caroline having a baby fight over this purple ball - it was so funny...


 Owen loved having all of his friends sing happy birthday to him...



Owen's trash bash was so fun and something I am sure we will talk about for a while to come.  We have one more big birthday to celebrate this month - Grayson turns 1!!  Stay tuned....

Friday, September 12, 2014

10 Month Update


Our littlest man is now 10 months old.  It is hard to believe that at this time last year I was still pregnant with this tiny being.  He has changed so much in the past few months.  He is developing a a funny, strong little personality and is constantly on the go.



 Happy boy!

These stats were taken from Grayon's 9 month appointment.

Weight:  19lbs. 2 oz. 
Height:  29.25 inches 

Diet:  Grayson is quite the eater.  He loves to eat food and devours pretty much anything that we put in front of him.  He does favor sweet fruits such as peaches, grapes,  or mandarin oranges.  If we put any of these things on his plate with other foods, like broccoli or pasta, he will throw the food he doesn't want on the floor and scream until we give him what he wants.  We learned our lesson and wait to give him the sweet fruit until he has eaten all of his vegetables.  Outside of solid food, Grayson is still nursing 3-4 times a day.  

Sleeping:  Grayson still takes a morning nap.  He is starting to have a hard time falling asleep right at 9:00AM which makes me think he is getting closer to giving up that morning nap and only taking an afternoon one.  I hope to keep his morning nap until at least his first birthday.  That is about when Owen stopped taking it.  For now, he wakes up around 6:30 AM, sometimes sleeping in until 7:00AM.  Then goes down for morning nap around 9:00 or 9:30.  I usually wake him up around 10:30 if he isn't already awake.  Then I put him back to sleep when Owen takes a nap around 1:30.  He will sleep until 3:00 or if I'm lucky 4:00.  Then he goes back to bed for the night around 7:30 or 8:00.  

New things:  I mentioned in my vacation post that Grayson started standing up without holding onto anything.  He is still working on this and is so proud of himself when he does.  He now raises both hands in the air when we say "touchdown".  This began on opening day of the NFL, how appropriate.  He waves bye bye and I think he has said it a couple of times, but I'm not 100% positive.  When we are out and people greet him, he gets a huge smile on his face and waves hi.  He is a real people person and loves to be center of attention.  He is becoming a daddy's boy.  I have to admit I am a tad jealous but when he sees Brad, he gets so excited, kicking his legs, squealing with delight and literally diving out of my arms to go see his daddy.  Brad LOVES it!  Grayson is seriously going to walk any day.  He took one step without holding on to anything a few days ago.  I wouldn't doubt if he is on the go by his 11th month.  Aside from pushing his toys around the house, Grayson recently climbed onto his little truck and sat on while moving around the house.


 Yes, he did this all on his own...

Talking:  He says mama, dada, baba, I think he said bye bye.  He nods his head yes when we prompt him to.  He shakes his head no often and is starting to understand what that means.  Yesterday he crawled over to the toilet paper roll and looked at me shaking his head.  I said that's right, Grayson no, no, no.  But it still didn't stop him from attempting to unroll the paper.  

Things he loves:  Grayson still loves his blue bunny blankie.  He hugs it and squeals as soon as he sees it.  He is your typical boy.  He loves balls, cars, and trucks.  He actually pushes his toy cars around the floor and makes sounds as he makes them go.  Grayson also loves music.  As soon as he hears music he stops whatever he is doing to start moving his head to the beat.  We attended Grayson's first music class, he LOVED it....





Here are some of my other favorite pictures of my boy...

 Loves the swings...
 Getting ready for a walk to the park with big brother...
 Cheering on his beloved Wildcats...
Playing with the big boys...



Wednesday, September 10, 2014

First Day of School - 2014

Owen started his second, first day of 2 year old preschool this week.  He is returning to the same classroom because of his birthdate.  The cutoff date for kindergarten is October 1st so we agreed when signing him up last year that he would repeat a year of preschool at some point.  So this was the year.  I am a little sad that he is not moving up with his friends from class last year but Owen still has some neighborhood buddies in his room this year.

Here is a picture of Owen and Molly at orientation....


Owen loves his little friend Molly - after the first day of school I said "Who did you play with today Owen?" He replied with "My pretty friend Molly.  I miss Molly!"  How sweet is that?!

The morning of the first day of school was a little hectic.  Owen stepped on a broken light bulb and while we were checking to make sure there was no glass stuck in his foot, Grayson somehow got past the baby gate and went up the stairs without us knowing.  We really aren't sure how far he made it up before we heard a couple of loud bang noises and crying.  He tumbled down the steps in the midst of all the chaos.  Everyone is okay now but it was a little crazy for a few minutes and I wasn't sure we were going to make it to school on time let alone get the first day of school pictures that are absolutely necessary.   We made it and we got the pictures....

This is the best one we got that morning...
Here are a few of the others...
Not happy...
 still not happy...
 okay I'll smile for M&M's...
 Come here Grayson...

 nooooo....
 okay go away now....



Mommy and her biggest boy...
While posting these pictures I decided to do a comparison from last year's first day photos...
2013



 Here is what Grayson looked like last year....