Mother's Day weekend...

I had such a good weekend with my boy last weekend for Mother's Day.  On Saturday, Jeff went golfing with some of his friends so Deacon and I went to play in the park up the road...

 

[it startled me how big/grown he looks in this one...]

 

And then we went up to a new strawberry farm (close to home!) to pick strawberries!

Deacon did really good finding strawberries to pick.  He liked carrying the bucket and he lasted for probably a good 20 min or so.  Everyone at the farm thought he was adorable and kept giving him these ginormous, outrageously shaped berries to eat.  He was loving that!

 

[instagram photo -- so in love with that app!]

 

When all was said and done, we picked almost 4 lbs of beautiful, yummy strawberries!

Saturday evening, my boys took me out to eat for dinner, my choice.  I chose Blue Water for the outside dining and yummy menu.  We don't eat there often because it's all the way down at Wrightsville Beach, but it was so pretty out, I thought it would be a nice night for it.  And it was.  :)

Deacon enjoyed seeing all the big boats on the water, listening to the seagulls, etc.  And he charmed anyone who would look at him, of course.  He's a show-stealer, that one. :: wink ::

 

[another instagram photo -- it's how I capture my life in real time]

On Sunday, we went to church, of course, and then went home for naps.  Around 4:30 or so, we decided to head to the beach -- our first official trip (with bathing suits and everything!) of the season.  It was absolutely perfect out there.  The water was a little chilly but the air temperature with the sunshine was so nice.  Even the wind was minimal which kept us comfortable.
 

 

[instagram again :)]

 

[here's another one that makes him look so grown... :: sniff ::]

I love being this precious boy's mama.

playing at the park...

A couple weekends ago it was so nice outside, we decided to take Deacon to the park.  We grabbed lunch at McDonald's and went down to Soundside Park in Surf City for a picnic and playing on the playground.

 

Deacon loves being outside and every time we take him to this park, I'm amazed at how much more he can (and will) do than the last time we were here.  This is the same park we had his 2nd birthday party at, and he tackled more this time than he did only 5 months before.

 

He seriously is growing up before my very camera lens eyes.

 

I got so many great shots of him this day at the park that I had a hard time narrowing down what I was going to post here so just prepare yourself for a massive (adorable) photo explosion...

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!

My kid? He's busy.

I hope ya'll have memorized my kid's face by now because THIS is mostly all I get now:

This kid is Mr. On-The-Go.  Busy, busy, busy.  Running everywhere he goes.

Did I mention he's fearless, too?

Yeah.

Oh, THERE'S that sweet face.  :)

1st trip to IL...

In my last post, I mentioned that we took a trip up to IL to visit with Jeff's family over the 4th of July weekend.  It was a great opportunity to introduce Deacon to a lot of his side of the family that hadn't met him yet.  Everyone fell in love with him, of course.

What's not to love about this??

We were up there for about 5 days so Grandpa Duane and Grandma Sherry got to spend some good quality time with him...

Grandma Sherry had some little toys and books pulled out for Deacon -- so sweet.  :)  He enjoyed playing and exploring those toys that he didn't have anything like at home...

Grandpa Duane & Great Grandpa Wenzel worked together to add a swing just for Deacon onto the swingset they have in their backyard -- he loved swinging!

[photo credit goes to my husband -- LOVE this shot!]

The main reason we took this trip is so we could be there to help celebrate Jeff's mom & dad's 40th wedding anniversary -- most definitely something to celebrate!  They had an open house of sorts to celebrate.  We had lots of yummy food and a great turnout of family & friends.  It was good to see a lot of Jeff's family there.  We took advantage of that to get some recent photos of the fam...

[Duane & Sherry with their grandkids]

[The Wenzels with their boys]

We had a lot going on that day, and Deacon met a lot of folks -- it eventually got the best of him...

One other thing we got to do is take Deacon to this AWESOME park they have up there, Krape Park.  I'm in love with this park, ya'll.  Everytime we go up to IL we try to fit a trip to the park in somewhere.  It's great in the winter because there is usually snow and there are lots of beautiful photo opps to take advantage of.  It's also great in the spring & summer because there are lots of playgrounds, trails to walk/hike, a pond with paddleboats and even a merry-go round!

So guess what we did?

Despite the intense expressions in some of these, I think he did like the carousel and swing.  :)  He got on the teeter-totter with Grandma Sherry and cousin Brittany and he also got to "drive" the old fashioned fire truck they have in the middle of the park for kids to play on.

I told you -- this park is awesome!

The rest of our time there was spent just relaxing at the house -- playing, eating, reading, sleeping.  Deacon didn't last long enough to go see fireworks with us -- he was sound asleep at home with Grandma Sherry while Jeff, Duane, Brittany and I went to find some locally.  He'll enjoy them much more in future years, I'm sure.  :)

We had a nice visit with everyone and we're glad that Jeff's family got to spend some time with our little guy.