Wow. What a long few days it has been. Last Thursday, as you know, was Tutti-Frutti's very 1st birthday. To celebrate, we baked a cake just for him. We took him to a lake side park and turned him loose with it. I had my camera ready and we got some fantastic shots (part of why I have been MIA) of him (and Boog) destroying the cake.
After he finished, (
read: after we took it away from him) we cleaned him up nicely with all of the
fresh clean running water baby wipes we had on hand. Not promising he was not sweet smelling and sticky for the rest of the day! We loaded up in the car and headed downtown to the (
newly renovated) Houston Children's Museum and played for a few hours.
We then headed out to Sour Apple's very first Jr High Soccer game, in Baytown!
Yikes, is this what school sports is going to be like?! Wow, I need to prepare myself. After the game, we headed over to Carino's for some fantastic Italian food to celebrate Tutti-Frutti's birthday. It was delicious. Once we got home...well, more cake, of course.
We spent Friday getting some last minute preparations done before the party on Saturday and spent the evening hanging out and visiting with family.
Saturday...oh my...Saturday! What a whirlwind of a day! We got up early, tried to dress the children, feed the children and leave the house in a hurry to pick up the cake.
Did you hear me say hurry? With 4 kids. Hurry is not a word. Anyway, we get out the door and realize that we did not feed the birthday baby. Great, of all of the kids to not have given breakfast to, I pick the smallest, and on his special day no less.
Actually, I should say here that we made him breakfast, just left it at home. That at least sounds a little bit better. We get the cake picked up, oh how cute was the cake! By this time, I had heard from Pap about 4 times, wanting to know when we would be arriving (the party was going to be at their house and a tree had fallen the night before so there were a lot of limbs and debris to pick up) to help with some back yard clean up. My initial plan was to get up, gather our stuff, load everything I needed for the party, pick up the neighbor kids that were going with us, go get the cake, stop and get balloons and then head over to help with clean up then shower and get ready and prepare the food and decorations for the party. You read
MY plan, right? Well, we all know that things
never go as planned,
especially when we need them to.
We get to the cake place, pick up the huge monkey face cake and a small #1 cake for Tutti-Frutti to have his way with. On the road we go, back to the house. I had not had time in the rush of the morning madness to pack up the car or our stuff. We get home, gather what we need, answer a few more calls from Pap, load the car, grab the gifts, grab the babies, grab the cakes and head out. I handed the #1 cake to Lemon Drop to carry, she was also carrying Tutti-Frutti. We get to the car, she asks where to put the cake, I say hold it for a minute so I can get situated. I hear Sour Apple griping at her about not putting the cake there, something might happen to it, I get a strange feeling, ask for the cake and my worst fears are confirmed...we are late AND now we have to find another smash cake!
Are you kidding me? It is almost noon, I have to find another cake or bake another cake, stop and get balloons and then drive 20 or so minutes to get to the house to clean the yard, shower, decorate, bathe kids, dress kids and fix the food. Good greif! We stop at Kroger, the lady there was a real doll, she whipped up a small pre-iced cake to match our colors and slapped a number 1 on it and out the door I went, now...party store for balloons. Oh my great googly moogly! There is no longer a party store!
Are you kidding me?!I call my mom (
again) in a panic (
again) and flip out about the cake (
again) and the fact that there is no longer a party store and I have to get to their house, like hours ago! She assures me she will stop and get balloons on the way home from work, yes, work...she had to work. This is the only Saturday of the month that she has to work and that is when we decide to have a party. Great. We head on in to their house, pick up limbs like our rear was on fire. Man. We. Were. Fast. Thank goodness though.
We finish the limbs, start our showers...meanwhile, I have called an aunt and friend and begged them to come early to help me. My aunt arrives just as I get out of the shower, thankfully she man-handles Tutti-Frutti so I can prepare myself and do Lemon Drop's hair. She makes the cheese dip and helps me get the table all set up. Wheew. I get the fruit tray done and we get the other food ready to go. I cannot believe we are actually going to be ready on time after the day I have had!
Mom gets home as planned, with helium tank in tow (did I mention that I had the mylar party balloons with me? That is why I was freaking, they were sooo cute, could not not use those!) and balloons as well. My friend and her husband had arrived by this time and got the balloons all blown up and tied. By this time, we could start to relax. It was a miracle.
The party started right on time, right down to the mini bounce house and pony.
We rode the pony, jumped in the bouncy, ate hotdogs, had mixed fruit smashed all over our faces and clothes by the birthday boy. He wrestled with his friend
"The Fro" over a sippy cup. Smashed the smash cake, rubbed it all over his body, ate some, wore lots. We had cake, he cat napped, we visited with our family and friends, we opened presents and we stayed way late. All in all it was a fantastic day, bloopers and all.
The point to my story is...I am still alive. But barely. I will have pictures to post soon but in the course of all of this partying, I took over 750 pictures! That is what I have been doing...sorting through and editing pictures. Oh...and did I mention that I am also working on a photography blog to show you all some of my work? Yea, there is that too. I am trying to hurry. I know you are all waiting with baited breath for birthday pictures (
ok, by the time I got to this point in the post, I begain to feel guilty for not sharing any pictures at all so I went back and found a cute one of him opening a present at the park and added it for your viewing pleasure) and I am proofing as fast as my little eyes will let me! But I do have to sleep you know!
By 3, Daddy could do no wrong. He wanted to be with Daddy no matter what. He was Daddy's main helper, his shadow and his best friend. Where has the blonde baby boy gone? This year would change his life forever. This is the year he would become a big brother. I will not lie, I had my doubts. He would talk about the baby when he wanted to. He said no, he did not want to be a big brother and that the baby could live with someone else. I was fearful that my baby would be forever changed, scarred in some way, his childhood ruined. This year, his personality really started to shine through. He became more outspoken, not as shy...more outgoing, funnier, quite the character. He became the life of the party.
My, look how he has changed this year...3 was a big year. He lost his baby of the house status, becoming a big brother, started going into his music classes alone, started going into (and enjoying) kid's church on his own. Daddy is his best friend but over the last month, Mommy has moved back into his favorite person list, not really that I ever left, I think I just had to share the spotlight for a while. He really loves his friends and cannot wait to see them. He loves play dates but still really enjoys playing alone. 
Wow, he has grown up so much this last year. He is the most fantastic big brother ever. We could not have asked for that transition to go more smoothly. He absolutely LOVES his baby brother. 
This child is sweet, loving, caring, gentle and you just would not believe how funny he is. He is super smart too. Do I even need to add that he is absolutely gorgeous to boot?! Yea, I didn't think so...
Without a doubt, I have the sweetest, most wonderful 3 year old to ever exist. Seriously...just tonight we had this conversation.