Happy Birthday Little Man!

Wow - what a party for Reid!  Though not 1 yet, his party was this past Saturday and what a memory maker it was!  We were going to have his party at a park in downtown Oswego.  Nice little park, but really pretty location right along the Fox River with a covered pavilion and bridge and lots of room to run and play for the kids while the parents socialized.  Nothing short of rain (and lots and lots of it) would alter our plans...and apparently that's exactly what was in store for us! Two days prior to the party, we had the largest flooding the area has seen in 20+ years.  It was bad - lots of people had damage to their houses, water in their basements, electricity out, etc.  Thankfully we were saved from all of that (one of the bonuses to living in a town home where the "basement" is at ground level), but our venue for Reid's party was not.  The entire park was flooded - to the point that you could only make out the top of the slide - and Christian and I were left to punt... 

In addition to the flooding on Thursday, there was a cold front that swept through the area post rain, causing temps to drop into the 20s - with real feels of 18 and sleeting/snowing/hailing.  Hmph...How are we really going to throw a party at a park?  It's April 20th for goodness sake, it shouldn't be 20 (or even 30 or 40)...but it was, and after pursuing all possible avenues that we could think of, at about 5pm on Friday we resigned ourselves to having it at our place.  With 40-45 people (kids and adults) this was no small task of figuring out how to make it work, but with lots of help from family cleaning/childcare/decorating and friends loaning tables and chairs, it all came together! 

The best part was Reid's happiness and enjoyment of the day, which was the most important part.  He truly enjoyed his party, and that made all the craziness worth it.  I will say though, now that it's over, I'm glad!  It was certainly fun to work on and put together (I might have taken on a bit much this year in the planning area) but there's also a sigh of relief flooding through me post-party. 

Happy Birthday Reid!  We love you so much baby boy.

 

 Party favors for the guests - chocolate bars and chocolate mustache pops.

 

From scratch cupcakes. This kind was a chocolate cake filled with a salted caramel sauce and topped with a salted caramel frosting and a bow tie chocolate mold. (I told you I might have been a bit ambitious on my planning... :) )

 

Reid's Smash Cake!  And just wait for pictures below - he loved it!!

 

The other kind of cupcake was a Vanilla Bean Cake (with real vanilla beans, my first time working with them - yummy!!!) and a vanilla bean buttercream frosting.  Now I happen to be a vanilla fan over chocolate, but I will say both flavors were well received :)

 

The dessert table.

 

 

My friend Alissa made me the shirt you see, which says "If you 'mustache' I'm Mommy's little man"  So adorable and perfectly suited with our theme!!   

 

Reid checking out all the decorations.  

 

My birthday boy - sooo happy!

 

Micah was trying to appease us with a smile, but we had pulled him away from his hot chocolate at his seat, and he was very concerned about it still being there when we were done.

 

Micah's smile getting more and more forced, as he kept looking over Christian's shoulder every 5 seconds (at least!).  Aren't my boys cute though, in their bowties?? :)

 

Daddy and his birthday boy!

 

Reid was loving all the activity that ensues with 20 kids running around our driveway area.  I had placed him next to a heater, so he was nice and warm and happily watching everything around him!

 

Still pretty happy, but not quite as warm.  It was necessary to move him, though, so the cake didn't get all over our garage at least :)

 

"Happy Birthday to you."

 

"Happy Birthday to you."

 

"Happy Birthday Dear Reid"

 

"Happy Birthday to you!"

 

Helping him "blow" out his candle.

And now begins the story from Reid's point of view...

 

Hmmm...what do I do here?

 

Oh, this is quite yummy.

 

So much so that I can't look up for a picture.

 

Seriously, stop trying to make me smile.

 

Okay, I'll give you one picture because big brother came in the picture :)

 

Now, back to my cake.  Get in my Belly!!

 

Oh, this is so good.

 

Seriously, nice job Momma!!

 

Although I really think any kind of cake would have tasted just as good to me :)

 

Oh, what's that over my head?

 

Never mind, back to this delicious goodness right in front of my face!

 

I'm in heaven, Momma! 

 

Don't you have enough pictures of me already??

 

No?  Okay, then here's my next trick: "so big"  And if this is what happens when you become "so big" I can't wait for more!

 

I get presents now, too?  What a great day!!

 

Reid flung cake all over me during the present opening portion...whatever kept him happy, ya know? 

 

Watch out Daddy!  You're not out of my reach either...

 

And you either, Pooh! 

Photo Booth time! This was the one part that we had a hard time replicating from our park venue, as we were going to hang the frame and just have people go over during the party to take pictures with the props, but again, we got creative and made it work!

 

I thought it was hilarious that Micah chose the pipe here :)

 

 

The Smith Family

 

The Lacy Family

 

The Sjogren Family

 

The Isaak Family

 

The Koss Family (they really embraced the theme, and I love it!!)

 

The Cunnington Family

 

The Villarreal Family

 

Uncle Andy, Aunt Katie and Lilly

 

Nana Kay and Papa C

 

Grandpa and Grandma

 

And one last family attempt

 

Nana Kay wanted one more picture with both boys, so we had to do one more the next day.  And of course, if he was using the frame, Micah had to include a prop with it :)

Happy Birthday Little Man.  You are such a joy to our lives, and can't believe it's already been (almost) a year!!  What a great year it's been, and we look forward to what the next year holds in our lives.

Active Boy!!

It's been awhile since I've posted, and I am working tirelessly putting together details for Reid's upcoming birthday party (I can't believe he's almost one...sniff, sniff...)  But, I wanted to make note of how extremely active this little boy is and how tiring he is making his mama :)  He is always on the go, super quick, and although not walking yet, I almost feel like he's been walking for at least a month now!  A run down of what I'm talking about:

• constantly touching TV center, causing me to get back the gate we borrowed from my friend at Christmas for the tree
• up the stairs the second a gate has become free and throwing a minor fit when I pull him back down and put up the gate
• into any bathroom that has been left open and lifting up the lid of the toilet to start playing with the water...making me try and be consistent to just shut bathroom doors versus only putting the lid down
• climbing up the dishwasher door and hanging on the top shelf, not only from the door when it's down, but also on the side (like he's hanging on for dear life)
• hanging on to any gate that is put up, or climbing up the gate as far as he can
• getting his hands inside the 1-2 inch opening that occurs with childproof locks and pulling out whatever he can get his hands on (spices from the spice rack, the bottle cleaning brush, our dishwasher detergent!)
• lightening quick to the fridge if opened or dishwasher when down, or pantry as the door opens
• crawling underneath Micah's bed to get to the sound machine and then crying because he keeps hitting his head on the bed rails...until he figured out how to army crawl and now enjoys crawling under the bed even more
• pulling out every heating vent he can get his hands on, and moving things away that I try and anchor on top of the vent to prevent him from doing this
• pulling down the fan evey moment you get
• pushing down your heater every moment you get
• opening up the cabinets under the sinks no matter how many times I pull you away

While the list could probably go on, I think this is the majority of what Reid can do in a single days time!  I seriously do not remember Micah being this active, though my memory might be failing me.  I do know Micah was walking by this point, but Reid must think he's so quick crawling everywhere that there's no need to figure out how to walk :)

His "Little Man" party is this weekend, and I received a call today from the Park District informing me that there's a high probability that the shelter we reserved would be closed due to flooding of the Fox Valley River that is within 15 feet of the park.  Joy.  I am super excited about his birthday and have really worked on a number of minute details to make it unique, I just pray we are able to have it as originally planned (although it's not looking promising on location or weather:( )  We will have a great time, regardless though, celebrating the joy Reid has brought to our life this year...active boy and all!

Parenting with 4

Kids, two of which we were babysitting for (obviously :)).  This was last weekend - and while it was just shy of 24 hours, I was definitely tired the following evening.  Thankfully Kate and Alex are well behaved, and it was nice to have another girl in the house for me, haha.  Alex and Micah get along quite well, we have vacationed to Glen Arbor with them before, and it's fun to watch a friendship budding.  Kate is about 7 months older than Reid, so they were a little more on par with each other...and for once, Reid was the instigator!  Usually it's Christian or I telling Micah to stop taking things away from Reid, but this time we were telling Reid to stop taking things away from Katers, haha.

My friend Laura and her husband had an adult evening planned in the city and asked if we would mind watching their kids, which worked out well, especially since they are taking Reid for us for about 36 hours this upcoming weekend!  Christian and I are headed to Louisville to run (me a marathon, him a half) and taking Micah with us.  Seeing that it was such a short trip with a bit of driving, I didn't want to subject Reid to that craziness and Laura kindly offered to watch Reid for us.  While I'm a bit sad about leaving him, I know he'll be in good hands.

Anyways - we had a good time with Alex and Kate and hope that they had the same!

 Kate would keep saying "no" when Reid would get close to her :)  She was definitely protective of her toys!

 

Food is a time when all can be happy, that's for sure!

The only minor issue we ran into was bedtime, as Alex was sleeping on the floor in Micah's room.  Micah has NEVER slept with anyone before, so we were a little bit anxious about how it would pan out.  Well, Alex ended up falling asleep in mine and Christian's bed and then I moved him back in to Micah's room when we went to bed.  He was completely happy with this plan, just wanting to ensure that Micah would indeed be asleep when we went to move him back :)

The next morning, all four kids were happy, we ended up getting out the door and early to church!  That is a minor miracle in and of itself considering we are rarely early with our own two.  I guess a 5:40 awakening time might have helped that...

Ready for church and back at the puzzles!  

Small Group Easter Hunt

These are clearly a little overdue, but since it's become a tradition in our small group and I have a post the last two years with this time, I wanted to make sure to include some pictures from it this year as well.  We were a bit rushed to the event, as Christian and I both had runs in the morning, but we made it right after Reid's morning nap, so it wasn't really too bad. 

The boys, though Micah more than Reid of course, had a great time hunting eggs and I know it's an event they will continue to love as long as we do it!

 

Reid was enthralled with the grass.  It's really the first time he's been able to experience it, and he was really checking it out.

 

Lots and lots of kids...and it doesn't even include our entire group!  They just keep getting older :)

 

Reid was ready to steal Gabe's stash, haha.

 

The girls that were there.  We are missing a boy picture...

 

Super hero Micah! 

We had a good day, and Micah continues to talk about wanting to find Easter eggs in his bucket...I feel that I should make this more than a once a year activity.   :)

Brookfield Zoo

I must admit, the weather this spring has been quite perplexing.  It's been much colder than normal, with snow days in March, and I'm currently still wearing my winter running gear mid-April (which I'm not super excited about, considering I have a marathon in about 2 weeks in Louisville and am afraid it's going to kick my butt because of the warm weather I might get...).  The point of this post, however, it not my running :).  It's the weather, and the fact that we have had a few glimpses of warmer days.  One of those was last week, so we decided to join my friend Katie and two of her three kiddos for a fun morning at the zoo.  This was actually Reid's first time to go to the zoo, so I wanted to make sure I was able to get documentation of it.

 

 

Watching the giraffes, holding his own.

 

We were literally this close to these beautiful animals.  And there was also a baby giraffe, which was fun to see. 

 

Sam and Reid - yes he's wearing a hat and gloves and it's April...but the day did get warmer!

 

Sweet picture of Ellie, Micah and Sam checking out the polar bears.

 

Reid is going to be a challenge, I'm afraid, at parks this summer unless he's able to conquer that walking thing (which I do think he's close - just not sure how close!) but I love this sweet picture of him and Micah sliding.

 

Although blurry, it's clear that he's having a great time riding down with big brother!

 

Reid in the Ergo - and it's been awhile! - but the only other way to carry him if not in the stroller.  He wasn't a huge fan, just wanted to get out and explore himself...in time, little man!

It was a really fun day - and the boys even made it home before falling asleep, therefore getting in naps in their own beds (actually, I think Micah didn't nap, but that's becoming more of a regular occurrence at least a couple times a week).  I'm so grateful to be so close in proximity to one of my best college roomies, and to be able to participate in each others lives on a regular basis.  It's a blessing I try not to take for granted! 

Praise the Lord!

I love, love, love listening to my sweet boy singing praise songs to Jesus!  Melts my heart :)

And a second one, just for fun, even though the two are pretty much the same.

Park!!

It's getting warmer!!  Ok, only slightly, as you see my boys below still dressed super warm for the outside.  BUT, they are outside!  I am running with them, and they are playing at a park.  That is progress for sure, even if they are still wearing winter coats and hats :).  We had a great day last Saturday, enjoying the time together.  I left the house first for part of my run, and then Christian met me after Reid woke from his nap and we ran a little together.  I then turned around and headed to the park while Christian finished up the rest of his run...truly a great day and one I'm hoping we're able to repeat more and more as the winter weather starts to leave us. 

 

Both boys look like such goobers here, haha.

Reid in the swing for the first time!!  Micah did not want to be left out, so he too wanted to swing in the baby swing.  Worked for me, because then I could push them both!

 

Micah loves this slide, head first and all.  And Reid enjoyed going down it too, I just couldn't get a picture with him on it.  This is actually the same park we are having Reid's birthday party at in just a little over two weeks (sniff, sniff...how is he almost 1??), and I know the kids will enjoy it!

 

Sweet boy happy after nap, in his "ITALIA" shirt.  Uncle Jeff and Aunt Liza had given this to Micah and it was the first time Reid had worn it, so I wanted to take a picture of him in it.  

"So Big!"