Snow White and Mulan - more pics from the party

My ballin boy

It's so wonderful to have a son. I loved getting cars, blocks, and BOY toys for his birthday! I really love his basketball hoop. The whole family does. I think my brother Kevin had one when he was a young lad. I come from a basketball family. My dad played all through highschool and when I was younger I watched many of my dad's church league games. My brother played all in junior high and in highschool. My dad coached our school team and I cheered. for 6 years Fun times. I even used to play with the boys in the neighborhood and break a few nails here and there. I wasn't good, but it was fun! So it wasn't until I met Travis that I found a love for the other sport... football. Now I love football Sundays. But my first love was basketball.

Kourtney helped put it together

2 Parties

Juju's (James and Luci's daughter across the street) turned 4. They asked guest to dress up, had a clown and lots of cool games. Travis and I were not feeling good so we dropped the girls off and didn't stay to spread our germs. Don't look for McKenna (Snow White) in any of the party pictures. She wasn't a huge fan of the clown so she asked Luci if she could just play upstairs. So stinkin' funny. Kourtney dressed up as Mulan. Tyler and Katie's (Jeremy and Tessie's children) had a joint party with Spiderman/Princess as the theme. In fact, Spidy, Snow White, and Pochahantis showed up. The princesses had story time with the girls while Spiderman played with the boys outside. McKenna was NOT a fan of Spiderman. At one point she was trapped in the house while Spiderman was playing around it outside. I didn't hear her, but she was crying hysterically. Poor thing. Blake really loved the little play house and went in and out of it.

Blake also NOT a fan of Spidy

56 degrees

Chris broke the good news on his blog earlier this week that we would have a good run of cold weather. I woke up this morning to exactly that. Weather.com says it is 56 right now. The only reason I am on my computer and not sitting outside right now is that I am eating breakfast and about to lay Blake down. As soon as I can I will be out there. In fact, we told our life group that we are skipping our lesson tonight to sit around a fire and roast marshmallows. I can't let these little cold gifts from God slip by - I have to enjoy every second of them!

It is amazing how a temperature change can bring up so many feelings and memories. I feel like a kid again back in my school days... I remember the crisp cool fall when I fell in love with Travis... I see leaves changing colors... I smell fall... I am back at MacQueens Apple Orchard for the apple butter festival (I read Cyrstals blog about going there last week) ... I miss it. I miss the cold. The first winter we were here was very deceptive. It was so cool all the time. I can only hope and pray for winters like that more often!

Star Cake

This is my latest masterpiece in my new found hobby of cake baking. It didn't turn out exactly as I hoped for, but it was good nonetheless. I used the wilton star cake pan and did a two layer cake. The frosting was a mix of a bunch of different things to come up with the blue I wanted. I learned my lesson and next time I will just buy the wilton color. I wanted to use a dark blue piping on some things but I didn't have it so I just scratched it.
Singing to Blake...


Feeding Daddy cake...

Blake's birthday party (way too many pictures!)

I love 1st birthdays. We have done them simple with family all three times and they have been my favorite parties. Blake had a blast. I made chicken, potato casserole, rolls, salsa, and cake (of course). Our guests were Daddy, Mommy, Kourtney, McKenna, Papa, Nana, Aunt Marcela (poor Uncle Phil had to work), Max (my furry nephew), "Aunt" Tammy, and Chris. Blake got awesome gifts from everyone including a chair with his name engraved and a bathtub toy from Nana and Papa, a plane that zooms from Phil and Marcela, more cars and race tracks than he knows what to do with from Tammy, a squishy noisy bus from Chris, overalls, blocks, a little people train, and a storage container from Grammy and Grandpa (who were greatly missed), and a basketball hoop and sun glasses from Mommy and Daddy. I will do a separate post for cake and basketball pictures.

Hmmm... I could get used to all this!