A week on the Chesapeake

The weekend after Gray's birthday party we spent a week in Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay with the Hicks family. The drive was really hard on Gray but it was worth it to get to spend a week with family and these beautiful views...

The neighborhood we stayed in came with access to a small private beach. The water was pretty cold but a huge plus to being on a bay is that the water is so calm and we didn't have to worry about big waves knocking Gray down. We had quite a fussy boy most of the week due to FIVE teeth coming in all at the same time. He didn't love the beach but he didn't hate it either. He napped really well every day so Paul and I had some nice relaxing down time.

These eyes.



We usually only give Gray his paci in the car these days but we gave in more since he was so fussy with his teeth.

Be still my beating heart.

Gray got some good quality time with Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Laura.

 

Thanks again Nana and Grandpa for a wonderful vacation!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

One year photo shoot

We took Gray to Lindsey's house for his one year photo shoot just three days after his birthday. We'd had it on the schedule for a long time and I had been so excited about the pictures. We went that afternoon to buy balloons for the shoot and right as we walked out of the party store a big storm came out of nowhere (this storm ended up leaving us without power for three days, which is a whole 'nother story). The power went out everywhere around us, including all of the stoplights on the busiest road in Winston-Salem. Because of lights out and trees down, it took us over an hour to get home and I can't recall a time that I was more scared in a car. Gray was way over due for nap by the time we got home and we were without power which meant it was hot and his noise maker wasn't working. Him not getting a good nap was the least of my concerns at that point because how would we have a photo shoot OUTSIDE in this kind of weather?! Our balloons were only going to last a few hours (not to mention I was going to hate wasting 20 bucks on balloons) and Lindsey was leaving the next day to go out of town so the pictures had to happen. Literally minutes after Gray woke up from his nap, the sky cleared and Lindsey was about to wet her pants when we got to her house because "the lighting couldn't have been more perfect!" It actually worked out better than if it had been a sunny day because Gray's eyes are so sensitive and they water so bad in the sun. Once Gray knew all eyes were on him, it didn't matter that he didn't get a good nap in and he was hamming it up. I'd been telling Lindsey that I didn't think there was any way she could top the Easter pictures but I was sure wrong. I don't think they could have turned out any better. You know how it goes when I try to post a "few" of my favorites, but here is an attempt...



You can't tell by the lighting but the ground was soaking wet. Lindsey's husband had to put layers of trash bags under this basket so it wouldn't get ruined.



This sailor suit has been around for quite some time. My brother wore it when he turned one and both of my nephews did too.

Once again we are so grateful for Lindsey's time and talent. These pictures are such treasures already and will be forever.

Gray's first birthday party

We decided on a tractor theme for Gray's party because for months now, he has been more interested in his tractor books than any other ones. When we decided to go with this theme, I was dead set on not have a John Deere tractor party. I've got nothing against it but I really didn't want everything to be green and yellow. I wanted more of an old school red tractor or tractors of all kinds theme. But after hours of searching online for party supplies, I found nothing like that but tons of John Deere stuff. So we went with it and soon enough I was excited and over all the green and yellow.

We found Gray's birthday shirt and party hat on Etsy. He refused to keep the hat on for the picture Lindsey took for the invitation but we did manage to get a few of it on at the party and for his one year photo shoot (hopefully it won't be another month before I post about that). We also found the invitation template on Etsy and just had them printed at Staple's. The picture quality did not turn out good at all once they were printed (you can't tell that here) but other than that I was very happy with them.

I had a really hard time deciding on a time for the party. We couldn't afford to feed everyone dinner and I knew whatever afternoon time we picked would be during someone's nap time so we decided on 3:00-5:00. My friend Kristen had a great idea of putting the cake cutting time on the invite so people could come then if they couldn't make it to the whole party. Apparently RSVPing is a thing of the past so it was hard to know how much food and cupcakes to have. Some of our closest friends were out of town and couldn't make the party but that's just life and we were thrilled to have been able to celebrate with the number of people we did.

We originally wanted to have the party at our house but we wouldn't have had room for even 10 people so we decided to rent a room at our church (free for members). The only room they allow birthday parties for kids is really old and really ugly. So we did the best with what we had to make it cute. Paul and I decorated the night before and I am so glad we did because it took us a couple of hours and the day of the party still didn't leave one extra second. Kristen made a Happy Birthday banner to match and I made a collage in the shape of a '1', along with a banner of pictures from each month of Gray in his first year. Lindsey's boys happen to have about a hundred John Deere tractors and they were very generous to let us borrow them for decorations and for the kids to play with at the party. My good friend Ashley also had some awesome JD tractors that we borrowed too. Other than that, most everything else was bought online. All of the food and drinks had a tractor or farm theme and Paul actually found all of those ideas online (not Pinterest if you can believe that). I love how involved and excited Paul always is when it comes to this kind of thing! The labels we used for the food were from the same Etsy store that we got his invitations printed. They were flat cards so I just taped a folded index card to the back so they would stand up. I found some cake ideas on Pinterest and Abbie worked her magic. We decided to just do a small smash cake for Gray and cupcakes for everyone else. The birthday boy was in a foul mood on party day. Something outside woke him up from his nap and he was ready for another one about the time we were walking out of the door. But it was his party and he was gonna cry if he wanted to.

I'll let the pictures speak for most of the rest.

 

 

The hay bales were rice krispy treats; the haystacks got gone quick and didn't make it into the picture ;)

We also had Oreo cookies that served as "tractor tires" and the eating utensils were called "pitchforks and shovels" but I didn't manage to get a picture of those.

Chips and salsa, hummus and veggie dip

Fresh farm produce, right out of the back of a John Deere!

A taste of the south-sweet tea!

Water trough

I didn't get a picture of the party favors either but we gave out John Deere balloons and JD stickers.

The room had all different colored chairs and Paul had a good idea to only leave the green ones out to go perfectly with our green and yellow theme. Each table had John Deere confetti and a toy John Deere tractor for decoration-so easy!

 

One great thing about the ugly room was that it opened to a gym so there was plenty of room for tractor riding, basketball and running around.

 

Mommy and Daddy even wore the party colors!

Thanks Lindsey for capturing the few smiles he managed to give us that day :)

And the sweet kisses in between tantrums



Does he have a really cute ticked off face or what?

There were many mixed emotions about the cake...

From "I'm so excited I want to pick the whole thing up and eat it!"...

To... "I'm not real sure about this."

"I'm a sweet boy again."

"Don't you touch my cake. I don't want it but I don't want you to have it either!"
 

"I warned you-don't touch my cake!"

"Seriously guys, what is this? Couldn't you have put black olives on the top instead?"

"Yay! I've decided I'm a sweet boy again and I like cake!"

"And now I'll even share with Mama!"

"And now I'm officially over it and I want down; there are tractors to be played with!"

I think that about sums it up. A big deal was made for Gray's first birthday party but it was all for us since he won't remember a thing. We plan on having pretty small birthday parties from here on out and I can promise you there will be another John Deere party with the same decorations before Gray is old enough to have an opinion about it!