October 27, 2011

Maybe Next Year...

I so desperately wanted to have a family fun day at the pumpkin patch this year.  I was so excited that I took Owen ahead of time just to scope out the best place.  I even bought matching personalized pumpkin shirts for the boys to wear in anticipation.  Unfortunately, there was just never a good time to go.  Between football, family, traveling, sickness and birthdays....our weekends just weren't being accommodating.

Finally, in a desperate move, I made the decision that we were going to go despite the fact we were all feeling a bit under the weather that day.  Bad move.  The hay ride is what finally put us all at our breaking points.  Owen refused to be held down, Austin whined that he wanted off the entire time, and what fun can the parents have when their kids are miserable?  After about 30 minutes of whining and complaining and crying....we just had to leave.  I managed to get a few pictures, mostly of the backs of heads though because it was just not one of those smiley and cooperative days if you know what I mean.






 This picture kind of sums up the mood of the day...




Fast forward two weeks later and once again we make plans to attempt the pumpkin patch.  Matching shirts washed and folded, camera battery charged, just had to wait for the boys to wake up from naps and we would be off.  Well, not so fast.  Owen woke up from his nap in a terrible mood, whining and crying for no reason.  Ryan took him outside to walk around a little bit but it wasn't working.  He brought him back in and right as he handed him back over to me...throw up...and lots of it.  I was devastated.  Not only because my baby was sick and we were both standing there covered in vomit, but also because it looked like another pumpkin patch trip ruined.  Luckily, daddy swooped in and decided to take Austin while Owen and I recovered at home.  Apparently it was like night and day.  Austin loved the pumpkin patch this time and even begged to go on the hay ride.  He was smiling in every picture taken and had a blast.

So, maybe my dreams of a fun family trip to the pumpkin patch won't be fulfilled this year, but at least both boys got to go individually and have some fun!

 Watching the pigs eat a pumpkin!


 This is a picture of Austin stomping on multi-colored popcorn.  Why did I include it?  Because according to Ryan, Austin really wanted a bag of popcorn while they were there and just HAD to have the $3 bag of "Tutti Frutti" popcorn instead of the $1 bag of regular popcorn that Ryan was trying to convince him would be better.  Apparently he took one bite and spit it out and decided it was so bad that he needed to physically stomp on every piece to show just how much he disliked it.



 Proudly showing off his ticket for the hay ride


My sweet boy even picked a sunflower just for me!!  :)

Brusha Brusha

Owen loves to brush his teeth.  We usually brush teeth right after bathtime but lately Owen will barely stay in the bath because all he wants to do is get out and "buush teef."  He lets me brush his teeth for as long as I want and then he finishes up.  After about 5-10 minutes of teeth brushing I usually have to pry his toothbrush out of his hands.  Hopefully this love for brushing will continue into adulthood.  Is it possible I have a future dentist on my hands??


Monster Truck Party!!

For Austin's 3rd birthday party I decided to do a monster truck theme since he's really into monster trucks right now.  Not a ton of monster truck party ideas out there, but I managed to find some inspiration from the world of google, etsy and pinterest!!  I wanted to make it classy and simple but manage to keep it fun and boyish at the same time.  The party was at our home with just a few guests, mainly family, so we didn't go ALL out...but it was a fun and very special party to say the least!

This was the super cute party invitation that I ordered from this awesome seller on etsy!

I ordered some awesome Monster Jam themed paper products and favors from Birthday Express and Birthday Direct.

These cute (and delicious) monster truck cookies were made by a local NC woman who specializes in adorable hand baked goodies!  You can find her etsy shop here

I found the inspiration for this cake online and absolutely loved how it turned out!! 

And you just can't have enough monster truck sweets!
The delicious cupcakes were made by a local bakery here in Harrisburg.
I bought the toppers and wrappers from...you guessed it...etsy!


 One of my favorite decorations from the party was Austin's personalized monster truck banner!
I ordered it from Birthday Express and not only was it very reasonable priced, but awesome quality, too!

The rest of the kitchen I did in red, yellow and checkered flags.

And finally, the birthday boy's t-shirt!
Unfortunately this is about the only decent picture I have of Austin modeling the entire thing.  It seems a hand, toy, party guest or piece of food had to interfere in almost every other picture I took.  The shirt was made by a really sweet and helpful etsy seller whose shop you can find her shop here.

And of course no monster truck party can be complete without a monster truck of your very own!!!

Party Time!

We had Austin's monster truck birthday party on Sunday here at the house.  It was a small event, mainly family and a few close friends, but it was loads of fun and Austin's been asking for another party ever since!!  I'll let the pictures do the talking...

 Happy Birthday dear Austin, Happy Birthday to you!

Blowing out the candles is seriously one of his favorite things about birthdays!

A rare family shot!

That's Austin piece...

Cake and cookies for lunch...don't mind if I do!

How is it that a child of mine would rather drive cars over a cupcake rather than eat it??

Playing with his little buddy, Salem!

Salem supervising Austin as he opened her gift.

Uncle Nick showing Austin how to use his new remote control car!

Playing with his gift from Aunt Catherine and Uncle Nick

Owen and Duck-Duck

Salem and Jeff

Austin and Aunt G

Guess who loves his Aunt Ca Ca?!

Owen playing with Papa!

October 25, 2011

Austin's 3rd Birthday!

My big boy turned 3 years old on October 15th!  We had a big weekend of fun planned and it all started on the Friday before his birthday.  Am Ma was in town visiting and so we all enjoyed a birthday "eve" dinner at Outback.  Austin ate half a loaf of bread and a small bowl of croutons.  Hey, it was his birthday dinner so I let it ride.  After our meal a huge party of servers came over to our table singing "Happy Birthday" to Austin.  I just knew that at least one of the boys was going to start crying, but they actually got really excited about it!  Austin topped off his bread and crouton dinner with half a bowl of ice cream and we all came home to prepare for the big day.



Saturday morning Austin woke us up in his usual fashion and took all of .5 seconds to notice the huge pile of presents sitting on the kitchen counter.  After a small birthday doughnut (which is all he told us he wanted for his birthday for weeks), we gathered around to watch Austin open his gifts.  This took much longer than expected because instead of tearing through each gift to hurriedly see what was in the next, Austin wanted to open and play with each thing one at a time.  I'm pretty sure now that I could have given him just a doughnut and a toy train and it would have still gone down as the best birthday ever.






Austin got a new Thomas the Train layout for his train table and Owen even got a couple of things to unwrap as well...just like my parents did for me and my sister when we were kids.  I made some apple spice waffles for breakfast and we spent the rest of the morning playing with the new trains and working on the new layout.


After naps, Ryan and I took Austin to do one of his most favorite activities....play mini golf!  Am Ma stayed home with Owen so Austin could have us all to himself for at least a few hours on his special day.  We golfed and played video games and then picked up some treats and headed to the park for a snack and to play on the playground.  It was a perfect afternoon!!




Once we got back home, we got busy making Austin a special birthday dinner.  At his request we had cheeseburgers on the grill with extra pickles, mac & cheese and potato salad.  I brought Austin his plate and he sent it back to the kitchen requesting one last thing...a candle in his burger!  So we sang Happy Birthday for the 26th time and Austin blew out his candle for the 15th time that day.  The big birthday bash was topped off with a big come from behind win from our Clemson Tigers!  It was quite a day!

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