Playing!

Now that JJ and the other kiddos in his play group are getting older, they actually are able to play together!  It is really too cute.

Mustang is one of JJ’s oldest buddies – we’ve known them since JJ was a wee 8-week-old baby!  So JJ feels so comfortable around Mustang, and his mama, Cowgirl.  The boys are just horsing around in one of Little A’s wagons – Mustang was sitting in it and JJ wanted to join in!  The more the merrier!

Little L is another one of JJ’s oldest buddies – we met her and Mustang at the same time.  It looks like they are dancing, with Little L taking the lead, but really they are playing “Ring Around the Rosie”.  JJ has just recently been interested in playing “Ring Around the Rosie” – for months earlier his other buddies would play it in the park, and he had no interest.  Now he’ll play with just me, his Auntie Yarbs, other moms, and of course his friends!

[On a somewhat related note, what do the words mean in the “Ring Around the Rosie” song?  I tried to google it, but it seems like it might be something scary, so I am declining to dig any further.]

Here are all 3 of them playing!  So so cute! I really love that JJ has such good friends at such an early age!  I hope that they remain friends for a long, long time.  Especially since JJ got his first kiss from Lina on Friday!  Two kisses, actually!  That was just way too adorable, of course my camera was no where to be found at that point.  But trust me, so so cute!

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1st 2nd Birthday Celebration

This past weekend, we went to Little B’s 2nd birthday party at the park.  She is the oldest of our friends, so this was our first ever 2-year-old birthday party!  It was so much fun!  and so adorable – horsie themed and her mom, JM, worked really hard to make it so great.  JJ didn’t love to cowboy hat – I think it was too small for his grape!  I love how the ball is nearly as big as he is!

All these gorgeous stick horsies were made with love by JM – they are just awesome!  and I know they were a lot of work, and she was really too sweet to make them for all the kiddies!

JJ loved the craft corner – and being with his buddies.

And he really loved the wagon and being pulled in the wagon.  Along with Chik-fil-a – he ate more chicken than he ever has in his entire life!  I guess that is the secret to getting him to eat meat – buy Chik-fil-a nuggets.  He really did eat quite a bit.

And here is the birthday girl herself, with her grandma and wonderful mommy!  I wanted to get a pic of us with them, but forgot to.  Too, too adorable!

I love being part of such a great group of mommies and kids.  It is amazing to watch them grow!  Here is a picture from a birthday party from last August – both Little B and Baby J have grown so much!

Congrats, Little B, on turning 2!  That is a huge milestone and we have been so glad to have been part of your life!  Hugs to you and your wonderful mommy!

 

This is why Baby J’s V-day gift was late…

This Valentine’s Day I decided to nearly kill myself making cute treats for playgroup.  I really wanted to, since those ladies were so kind and sweet to throw me a surprise shower! But it really did nearly put me over the edge.   Literally, last week, every available second of the day (ie when JJ was sleeping) I was crafting for play group.  Here’s what I made:

Personalized treat bags – which consisted of printing and cutting 12 hearts out of freezer paper for the stencil, then stamping the initials, then going back over initials with a paint brush to make sure the fabric paint coverage was good.  and then heatsettting them all, of course.

Girls colorway:

Boys colorway:

Then inside of the bags I put:

Personalized candies – which involved designing the topper, getting topper and wrappers printed, cutting them out, sticking them on the candies, and then assembling into a cute package.

Stickers – of course I could not just put the stickers in the bags loose, I always have to make things harder for myself, so I tried my best to package them up as cute-ly as possible.

Cake pop – these did not turn out as I had hoped, but I did my best. They are kind of hard! I made them over 2 days, and then had to package them all up, of course.

Then a thank you note (on personalized Valentine stationary that I designed), and photos from the shower and our early fall play group photo shoot. Writing each thank you note, of course, took a bit of time.

Here are all the contents:

I was glad I was able to get all the stuff done in time for play group on Friday – which I hosted. and I think everyone was pleased with their Valentines, so that is great.

Here is the final product (I forgot to take a picture of all the bags stuffed):

This will be the last time in a long time that I will have had the time to do so much, so I am glad that I did it now. Once BG arrives, I suspect my free time will really dwindle down to zero.

Boom thinks I am totally cra-cra. He knows that I am so appreciative of the ladies for throwing me the shower, but he was all, they didn’t throw you the shower to create more work for you. And I know he is right. But this is just how I am – 110% in most things that I do.

Anyway, I was really happy how everything turned out. and playgroup, although small, was really fun! Lots of sickies who couldn’t make it (which is, of course, for the best). Cowgirl brought some bubbles, so we got to enjoy the nice weather!

All the babies have gotten soooo big! I sometimes just can’t believe it!

Jack loves bubbles. I need to get a bubble gun and some good bubble solution for the warm months ahead.

Here they go – chasing the bubbles! Fun times!

OMG! Surprise!

I have the sweetest mommy friends here in H-town.  On Saturday morning, they surprised me with a shower for Brady Gaga!  I must have cried no less than 5 times that morning – as it was just too sweet!  It really has been surprising how close we all have become, and I have known most of them for less than a year!  I think I have known Cowgirl and V3 for about a year.  I am so thankful for them, as they help me navigate the wobbly landscape of motherhood. and thankful that we not only have kids in common, but lots of other things, so we really are friends.  Not just friends because of our kids, but rather friends who got introduces because of our kids.

It’s funny, our parenting styles go from one extreme to another, but there is always things I learn from everyone, even the moms that have completely different mothering styles than me.  I like that we are all so different.  and it is great for the kiddies – as Baby J loves to see his friends.

It was so nice on Saturday – the babies were not there, so we actually got to visit and finish sentences!  And they thought of everything  – they all wrote down thoughts and wishes in a midnight changing basket – so when I change Brady Gaga in the middle of the night, I will have a little light reading to keep me company!  and they got Boom to write 5 (or 6) things he loves about me as a mom – which were all so sweet and funny!  That would have totally been enough, but they also got me a very generous GC to a fav place of mine to get smocked ensembles!  Can’t wait to get Brady Gaga and Baby J in matching (or Jack and Jill) outfits!

I really am so, so thankful for each and everyone of them – as well as for my amazing sister and mother!  So glad they could both be there as well.

I do feel a little weird – as I usually would have gotten thank you notes out the door on Monday, but I am hosting play group on Friday and have a little something for everyone (including thank you notes) that I can just give out then.  But I am really worried that they will all think I am so ungrateful and impolite!  I discussed with Boom, wondering if I should let them know that I know my thank you cards are going to be a smidge late, but he was all, Don’t worry about it.  Most people wouldn’t have thank you notes out by Friday anyway.

Here is one of the “thoughts” Boom submitted to the gals:

I love that you already cry when you think about JJ and Brady Gaga going away to college.

It’s true – I am a freak.  Maybe they can go to Rice!

Not Skeert

As you know, Little Bubs did great with Santa this year (check him out here and here).  So I wasn’t surprised when we attended an Elmo party at the end of December that he didn’t mind taking a picture with the red monster:

(Yes, that is a very unfortunate photo of me – the gray sweater looks like a tent on me – and thus I look huge!)  Lots of the moms were apprehensive that their little ones would run screaming and crying from Elmo, but not me.  I was pretty sure JJ would be alright, and he was!  Like one of the moms said, J is 2 for 2 (taking pictures with somewhat frightening characters – Santa and Elmo), now we just have to see how he does with the Easter Bunny!

It was a fun party – mainly because I got to spend time with lot of my mommy friends:

Love this last picture with Bubs pointing at the camera – he is all, I have my eye on you!

And the icing on the proverbial cake were the party favors – sugar cookies of Elmo’s head, as big as your (if you are a baby) head!  Really!

And it was delicious – I love sugar cookies with icing on them!  Yum!  The birthday party circuit has calmed down, now that all of playgroup is in the single digits!  I think it will start back up again, as some of the small folks will be turning 2 in the next few months!

First 1st Birthday Party!

Sorry I have been so MIA – last week everyone was sick and I was furiously getting ready for Baby J’s 1st bday party (and this week we’ve had out of town guests until yesterday)!  Luckily, everyone got healthy for the big day, and everything went off without a hitch!

Here we are with our adorable little boy – I can’t believe it has been nearly a year since he was born!  and what a year it has been!  J – you truly are an amazing baby!

We are so blessed to have so many friends celebrate Baby J’s milestone!  And we’ve only been in H-town for less than 3 years.  There were about 60 adults and kids / babies at the party.

Here is the little guy enjoying his little smash cake.  He is like his dad in his methodical ways – he absolutely pulverized his little cake row by imaginary row to the exact same consistency.  It was pretty amazing to watch.

His proud maternal grandparents!  I didn’t know it, but mom and dad talk about JJ every night!  So adorable!

Many, many thanks to Yarbs for taking all the beautiful pictures!  There are so many details I want to show – but I will save those for a later post.

Next week when we are up at my parents’ house, mom is throwing Baby J a second 1st birthday party, on his actual birthday!  What a lucky boy!

Recent Craftiness

The days leading up to My Pal Al’s shower were filled with my sewing machine whirling about – more action than it has seen in a while!  I think that all babies should have lots (or at least some) handmade items.  I made a ton of stuff for Baby J, but since my friends aren’t so crafty, he didn’t get too much handmade stuff for gifts.  Thus, I always like to make baby gifts, if at all possible.

So here is the stash that Little S (still in utero) recieved:

Two adorable bibs!  Of different weight, as it is nice to figure out what you like for what – a thinner bib for before solids, and then the really absorbent one for when food goes everywhere!

Two burpies – again in different weights for different applications.  I like the thinner one for when we are at story time and the thicker one could double for a changing pad, if need be.

A flannel blanket.  Little S is due just a month before Baby J was born, and we went through a million blankets.  He didn’t like to be swaddled with his arms down, so I found it easiest to swaddle him (arms out!) in just a simple flannel blanket.  The fancy ones with velcro and straps didn’t work for us.

A bucket to hold everything – it has been a while since I made a bucket!  But it all came back to me 🙂

Here is everything in the bucket. Are you sensing a color theme?  I didn’t want everything too matchy-matchy, but I did want everything to coordinate.

And as you know, presentation is everything!  So I knew I wanted to make Al a HUGE flower for the wrapping.  I even made the card, but I didn’t take a pic of it.

I know that Al and B really appreciate all my hard work and all the love that went into these gifts for Little S.  I can’t wait to meet her!