dreaming of you sweet Caribbean

Today we could be leaving a jet plane.

To Miami.

To get on this ship.

 And enjoy our balcony room,

For 7 days in the Caribbean.

For free.

(thanks to Premier).

But instead, all I have is pictures and memories of 2010.

My sister-in-law texted me from the airport this morning.  Trying to not make me feel sad that I wasn't with them.  I texted another friend who was sitting there at the airport in excitement ready to be there already, and I could almost SMELL the Caribbean and feel that excitement we felt a few years ago when we went cruising for the first time.

But when the trip was announed last spring, I was puking and couldn't get off the couch.

We just just recently found out we were expecting baby #3.

And as much as I pretended in my head that we could STILL go and just take our 4 month old along.

I was just kidding myself.

I knew we'd have to miss this trip.

Even if I did earn it for free.

And even if our last cruise with Premier was the best trip in our entire lives.

Good thing, sweet little Gavin is one of the best reasons in the whole world to miss such a spectacular vacation.

There's no way I could leave this cute little thing for 8 days.

There will be another one.

And Dave and I will be on that ship -  you can count on it.

And thanks to Facebook, I'm sure I'll get to be reminded through pictures being posted, of how much fun and sun we're missing.

 

looking back

So we hear that Gavin looks like Mason, pretty much all the time.

I definitely thought that too from the very first day.  But I don't know that I realized how much a like they look as babies, until I was looking through Mason's baby pictures before his birthday.

It was fun to find some of the same pictures (perspective wise) that I had taken of both of them, and around the same age.

So what do you think?  Do you see the resemblence?

our brackets

The kids filled out their first brackets this year, and we got a kick out of some of their rationale in choosing teams.

Mason went for all the Florida schools - because we vacationed to Florida, duh!  The kids are pretty much all about Florida all the time.

He also picked Michigan to go pretty far (beating KU!), because that's where Uncle Jason, Aunt Stacy and Jeremy and Sydney live.

And he was kind of partial to Davidson (because it has Daddy's name in it).

And he thought the name Iona was cool to say.  Too bad they lost already.

And he likes Cincinnati "because there's LegoLand and Aunt Rebekah there".

He even picked Cincinnati to beat K-State, he must really love LegoLand, or Aunt Rebekah maybe?

Overall, it's not surprising the 2 teams he picked in the final game...

Florida vs. Cincinnati (a #6 and #7)

With Taylor, I tried to explain on the #1 and #16 matchup that the #1 team is ranked much higher, because it's a typically a better team. I didn't go into a lot of detail about the seeds.  But she picked up on it quick and for the entire first round, chose the higher ranked seeds every time.  I thought as we went further into the rounds that she wasn't paying attention to the seeds anymore. But somehow she ended up with all #1's in the Final Four.  So, I guess maybe she was. 

She was much more systematic in her selections.

Have you filled out your brackets?  This is the first year I decided to make my selections based off  my head and not my heart.  We'll see how that ends up for me.

a cowboy party

Mason changed his mind about a hundred times on what kind of party he wanted.  I asked him lots of times if he wanted to get on the computer and look at ideas, knowing that once he saw some themes played out, maybe he'd like them.  But he was stuck on a K-State party.  Even though we had that for his 3rd birthday. 

And then for awhile it was Mater.

And then dinosaurs. And Legos.

He was all over the place.

Finally I asked him to choose something and stick with it so Mommy could start planning and getting things ready.  All on his own he chose a cowboy party.

PERFECT.  I knew it would be easy and I had lots of things I could use from his nursery which was vintage cowboy themed.
Oh yeah, and with 4 days to go, he came up with The Wizard of Oz out of no where. HA! Maybe at that point he was just messing with me. But whether he was serious or not,  I got him back on the cowboy track right away (since I had already ordered a few things).

So with one week to go, I threw some things together.  But really, even if he had given me 2 weeks, I wouldn't have used the time.  I work at the last minute. 

A quick order from Oriental Trading Company got me the dessert plates, napkins, cow balloons and bandanas.  I had red and white straws leftover from Taylor's Country Fair party, and we used all of our jars for his party too.  Since they are Mason jars of course.  And then I grabbed several of the decor items that had been in Mason's nursery to use on the table as well.

This is the first time I've used fondant.  I got a mashmallow fondant recipe from a friend, and he even came and helped me decorate it.  He saved me lots of stress in trial and error, and helped make it look fabulous!

Mason was spoiled with gifts from grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles.

He anxiously awaited to find out what Uncle Steve was going to pull out of the bag.

His first pets - 2 dwarf frogs.

One of the parties I used for inspiration had a Marshmallow Shoutout with pvc pipe shooters.  So this was Daddy's job for the party.

He followed the instructions that I found on The Idea Room. And knocked out 10 guns in about 2 hours.  I made the tag on photoshop and we packaged marshmallows up to use as our party favor.

And then it was shootout time! (my basement may be the worst place ever for pictures, but these were just too cute not to share).

Poor birthday boy actually couldn't blow hard enough to get the marshmallows to fly out (oops, should have tested that out before hand).  So he actually had quite the birthday boy meltdown. Until we told him to just start throwing marshmallows at everyone and we stated a mandatory rule that if you got hit by Mason you had to fall down dead. He loved it! WHEW!  We redeemed ourselves.

Uncle Jim wins the prize for most dramatic death by marshmallow.

Our menu included some cowboy style food - Sloppy Joes, KFC coleslaw (our kids' favorite), baked beans, chips and root beer.

Here are a few more links...

If I had done cupcakes, I would have gotten these western cupcake liners  from Sweet Cuppin Cakes Bakery.  But we definitely do cakes more at this house.  In fact, I wouldn't mind as the kids gets older that we phase out of all the decorations and other details and just do a fun cake for each birthday.

Sometimes I do invitations, sometimes I don't.  It's just family usually, so it's easy to just email everyone.  But it is fun to do invitations when I have enough time to get one done.  I loved the invitation that was used for this Rootin Tootin Cowboy Party.  That's where I found most of my inspiration, as well as this Cowboy Party and Western Party at Kara's Party Ideas.

It was such a fun party! And we're pretty sure our birthday boy had a blast - which makes all the work worth it!

mason {four years}

Our big boy turned 4 last week! How did that happen?

He was almost a leap year baby. Luckily, with scheduled c-sections we can work around dates we want to stay away from. So February 28 it was.

To celebrate on his actual birthday, we made our traditional trip to Drubers. This time for lunch instead of breakfast.  And Daddy had a donut cake waiting.

 Daddy was able to meet us there on lunch break, as well as Nana and Papa and some of Mason's friends.

 We were the only people there for most of the time.  Which was a good thing.

What starts out well (you know, quiet, calm children)...only lasts for a certain amount of time.

 A boys only picture.

Later he got to open one present from Mommy and Daddy and then he chose Applebees for dinner.

I begged and begged him to let me take some pictures of him as a brand new 4 year old.  But he begged and begged me not to.  Finally, with some bribing, he agreed to ONE picture.  That was all.

Good thing my shutter can move fast!  I snapped more than one.  But it all happened too fast, that checking my settings was impossible.  So I got what I got, and that's it.

Poor thing got hit in the side of the eye with a plastic bat a few days before.  So he's sporting a pretty good bruise and scrape still.

 He looks like his daddy.  I hear that all the time. But I agree.  So handsome.

We all have blue eyes, but he's the one that got his daddy's eyes.  Exactly.  Same color, same detail, everything. 

 Mason,

At 4 years old there is so much I want to remember about you.  You are your momma's boy, that's for sure! At 4, you still love to cuddle and be held.  And your momma loves that so much. There are so many things about your personality that make us laugh and brings us such joy every day.  And there are things about your personality that challenge us daily too.  But more times than not, your lessons for us are ones that we need - involving learning to slow down, stop what we're doing, and just enjoy you for who you are, with patience and unconditional love.

You're finally starting to become less interested in dolls, dress-up and girly things (which was thanks to your big sister) and more interested in Legos, balls, balls, and more balls.  You love your Shrek ball.  You will play with it for a super duper long time, bouncing it all over the house, shooting it into baskets, playing catch with Dad, and bouncing it off the wall (only the wall that has been designated).  You could also play with a balloon for hours.  Bouncing it back and forth with us, or on your own, keeping it off the ground. 

You love to be with someone and don't really like being alone EVER.  You can write your name and know probably all of your letters.  You are a home-body.  Running errands with mom is okay sometimes, but most of the time, you'd just rather be at home.  Sometimes we have to really talk you into going anywhere - even fun places!  So many times, if I do need to take you with me somewhere, you just beg to go to Nana's instead.

 You are definitely our sweet-tooth.  Pop and chocolate chips are your weakness.  You beg and beg for drinks of our pop any time we have some.  And if I would let you have a small bowl of chocolate chips every afternoon, you'd be in heaven.

You love to watch Sound of Music at Nana's house.  And you are very much getting into watching football and basketball.  You can read the score and you always know when the Wildcats are playing (as long as they are on their home court and you see the big Powercat at center court). You're starting to cheer for OU a bit more too.

I can't believe you'll start preschool this year. I tell you all the time that I'm just not going to let you go because you need to stay home with Mommy forever.  But you explain to me every time that I will be just fine without you (thank goodness for Gavin).

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!  We love you so very much!