2nd birthday...

2nd birthday party...MUCH different than the first birthday party.

 

Instead of a small family gathering at our house, we partied it UP at a nearby park in Surf City with lots of friends and wind.

 

Yes, lots of wind.  Brrrr.  The party was from 10am-12pm on Nov 3.  Hello, fall!

 

Yeah, I took a risk.  You never know how it's going to be around here.  Had the party been a little later in the day, we would've been fine, but the cold didn't seem to bother the kiddos.  Just the adults.

 

Go figure.

 

 

 

Anyway, we still had lots of sunshine in attendance so that did wonders to ward off the chill.  The kiddos played on the playground for the beginning of the party and then when they started getting hungry, they wandered over to our shelter to grab some party snacks.  We had:

 

chocolate chip pumpkin bread

cheeseballs

goldfish

white cheddar popcorn

cupcakes

(cute little) mini water bottles

 

I did make most of the decorations again this year (it was a train theme), but couldn't do as much as last year since we had to set up outside.  Most of them were on the food table, but I did make a banner than no one could read cuz it was so flippin' windy. 

 

Nice. 

 

It said, "Choo-Choo, Deacon's 2!"  I hung it in our house for a couple weeks after his party, just to get some more mileage out of it.  :)

 

After everyone ate their fill, we spread out a big mat on the ground and let Deacon open his presents.  He did pretty good.  He never wanted to stop opening presents, though he did like to look at each present after it was out of the wrap.  You know, instead of just tearing into the next one. 

 

He gets that from his mama.  ;)

 

 

 

Once again, we had our awesome photographer Larry there to take photos for us.  Best idea I ever had.  He gets all the credit for these fantastic shots of such an important day in the life of our family...

 

 

 

Happy birthday, doodle bug!  We can't believe you're already a happy little toddler!  You bring such joy and laughter to our lives -- we're so blessed that God gave you to us.  We can't wait to see what the next year holds for you.  Love you with as much love as our hearts can hold!

Happy 4th!

We had a nice, relaxing day off yesterday for the 4th.  Jeff worked on (and finished up) a project in the shop in the morning.  I did a little crafting (and cleaning).  Deacon played and napped, as always.  :)  And then we went to a party in downtown Wilmington to watch the fireworks.

We were right on the water (the river) to watch the fireworks later on, but before that we hung out with lots of friends, the kids played, we ate gobs of yummy food and got a few games of volleyball going.  It was a good time, despite the ridiculous heat.

The fireworks were good; we were kind of curious about how Deacon would react since he was only 8 months old for his 1st fireworks display.  He did okay, but was kind of fidgety.  And it was late and he had played hard so he was tired, too.  Thankfully, the fireworks didn't last longer than 20 min or so. 

I took my camera but didn't get the first photo taken.  Deacon is just so busy, and being in a place with lots of stairs (decks) to climb, piers to wander out on (read: edges to fall over), I didn't have time to grab my camera, let alone carry it around with me.

I did snag this photo of him yesterday morning while we were playing, and even though it's kind of blurry in parts, I kinda like how it turned out:

[20 months]

1st birthday...

We had a small family get-together for Deacon's first birthday party, a few days after his actual birthday.  My parents were able to come, along with my brother and his family, and some friends who came to take photos for us so that I might actually end up in some of the photos.

Mommies, you know what I'm talking about.

I already regret how few photos there are of me with Deacon (or of our family of 3) throughout this first year so it was important to me to have someone take photos so I could enjoy the day with my son and family, but also so I could have those photos of me with him and our family to look back on.

Mad props and photo cred goes to my man, Larry Thacker!  Thanks so much for documenting this momentous occasion in the life of our family.

Okay, so back to the par-tay.  :)

I made most all of the decorations so it was pretty low-key but I'm super-proud of how everything came out.  They basically consisted of something to hang on the front door, announcing this milestone, a birthday banner to hang across our living room/kitchen area, a photo mobile hanging from our ceiling fan in the living room, and miscellaneous decorations for the food table, including cupcake toppers.

We served pizza for lunch along with cheese curls and rainbow-colored goldfish, sugar wafer cookies and cupcakes, of course.  Adults had sodas or water to drink, kiddos had caprisuns.

The party began at 12pm but Deacon was napping so we let him sleep until 1pm while everyone ate.  My poor baby was the sickest he's ever been in his short life...unbeknownst to us until AFTER the party was over and done with, he had strep throat, of all things.  He had been battling a rather high fever for 4 days prior to the party, and had also developed a runny nose with a little cough.

He really did well, considering, and participated for the most part during his party, but we just didn't get as many smiles as we would've had he been more like my happy baby boy.  :(

You can tell that in the photos, but he's still the cutest thing ever.  See for yourself:

His cake...funniest thing.  He didn't bother with using his hands at first.  He just went "no hands" on that thing!

Presents...he wasn't too into it, but he did like it when I "rrrrripped!" the paper.  That got him giggling a little bit.

Happy birthday, baby boy!  We have so enjoyed this first year with you and look forward to so many more, watching you change and grow and learn, and hopefully becoming a better mama and daddy in the process.  :)

We love you, doodle, with all that our hearts can contain.