Disney Diaries, Post 2 (Daddy's Birthday)

I'm not sure how many posts it will take me to get through our 9-day trip, but feel free to check out and anytime (but you can never leave...) The second full day of our trip was Saturday, which was also Josh's birthday. We were so excited to be celebrating at Disney World. Josh again had conference obligations in the morning and the boys and I goofed off a bit at the resort. Once Josh snuck away we headed for Downtown Disney, take 2. It was a beautiful, warm day. After walking around for a bit, we had lunch at the TRex restaurant, which the boys thought was pretty cool. The food was okay, and the place is pretty loud, but Jack & Sam loved the huge fish tank and roaring dinosaurs.


The park tickets we had purchased included a free add-on, which could be used at one of the Disney water parks (no, thanks) or Disney Quest, at DD. If you've never heard of Disney Quest, think Chuck E. Cheese on steroids, minus the ball pit and hamster tubes. It's a multiple story arcade, where you play as much and as long as you like with the price of admission. So, we gave it a try. I'd rate it a 5. A few games didn't work properly or were just too hard for preschoolers. If you have an older kid, who is big into video games, they'd probably love it. For us, it was just okay. We were glad we had not paid extra to do it. All that being said, the boys loved playing "Fix It, Felix, Jr.," the video game from Wreck It, Ralph. Sam also enjoyed racing as Mater, and the Star Wars pod racer was a treat for Jack.

There was lots of celebrating going on at DD since it was St. Patrick's Day weekend. There were Irish dancers, street performers and bands. It was a fun afternoon. We again returned to the hotel for a snooze before dinner. Since our bus trip to DD had been so lengthy the night before, we opted for a cab on Saturday. The whole 15-minute ride Sam kept saying, "I never been in a taxi before!" Then, when we took a van cab (rather than a 4-door sedan) back, he changed it up, "I never been in this kind of taxi before!"




Later that evening we headed over to the neighboring Polynesian resort for dinner at Kona to celebrate Josh's birthday. It was a great meal and the boys sure loved the umbrella's served in their drinks. I had called a few days earlier and arranged for a birthday cake to be prepared for our celebration. Our waitress brought it out, and we got to sing to Josh. The boys loved it, and hopefully it was special for their sweet daddy too!

We headed back to our resort to call it a night. Of course, we watched Wishes again first; it was now a nightly tradition. Jack's favorite part of Saturday were the rides at Disney Quest. Sam's favorite were the fireworks (which is probably when I asked him what his favorite thing was that day). Josh's favorite part of the day was the boys singing happy birthday to him and helping him blow out his candles. My favorite was celebrating Josh's birthday; a close second was the silly castmember who gave us a lift on his golf cart over to the Polynesian. He was a riot.

Three Five

We spent the weekend celebrating my incredible hubby and his 35th birthday. Last year, Jack was a little excited about Daddy's birthday and exactly how we would celebrate. So, I'm learning everyone's birthday must be a big deal at our house, and that includes Daddy. So, on Thursday I got to work on Josh's favorite cake, which is a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting. After my recent venture into cake baking for Sam's birthday, I decided I could make my own frosting, which turned out pretty darn tasty. Well, a simple cake won't do as far as Jack's concerned. He's four, so the question for weeks was, "Daddy, what kind of cake are you going to have?" Last year, we made him a cake with the General Lee on it. Lately, Josh and Jack have enjoyed watching Star Wars together so I decided on a Star Wars cake.

I picked out a couple of toys to decorate the cake, that would then be re-purposed as toys afterwards...genius, right? I told Jack which characters I had found to grace the cake, but that we were going to keep it a secret. About 5 minutes after I told him, he said, "Daddy, how would you like a Star Wars party?" Josh said, "That would be great. Was it supposed to be a secret?" Jack said, "Well, I'm not telling you WHO is on the cake!"

We were glad to have Josh's mom and dad join us Friday night to celebrate. Everyone enjoyed the cake, and Jack enjoyed helping blow out the candles and open presents.

On Saturday, we met up with my parents and brother and sister-in-law and Josh's sister and brother-in-law for dinner in Atlanta. Josh had the idea to eat at Fogo de Chao. A Brazillian steak-house, Fogo is a meat-lover's paradise. Of our party of 12, only two people had ever dined there. So, we were all excited about the experience. The little guys did surprisingly well. Sam is a steak guy, so he was golden. It was great fun celebrating all together and in such a fun place.

More Four

On Jack's actual birthday, I asked him to pick his favorite meal that mommy makes for his special birthday dinner. He chose "chicken & crackers," which is also known as Poppyseed Chicken casserole. He chose apples as a side dish. Please tell me he'll always be this easy to please.

Also, he requested this candle special. "Can I have a candle that is a 4, Mommy?" I guess it was too much work blowing out four separate candles at his party the day before.

We squeezed one more celebration in the next day at preschool, when Jack shared cupcakes with his fellow Busy Bees. Ringing in the big number four has been so much fun. Jack's two best buddies Andrew & Hudson seemed to enjoy the cupcakes too!

No, Luke, I AM Your Father

So, last week at preschool, Jack's teacher relayed a funny story to me when I arrived to pick him up. They were talking about Mother's Day coming up and Father's Day would be following soon after. Jack interrupted (in what I can only assume was a some what dejected tone), "I don't have a father."

Jack's teacher said, "what about your daddy?" And he said, "Oh, yeah!"

So, while my sister was staying with us for a couple of days we decided to celebrate Thursday night with a chocolate chip cookie message cake. I won't go into all the details, but this is a very funny joke to the three of us! And Jack certainly didn't mind that we were enjoying cookie after dinner!

Cake, Anyone?

Well, the balloons are no longer flying high. In fact most of them are barely hovering above the ground. It's been a fun, but exhausting day...so, for that reason you'll only get one photo for now. It's safe to say that Sam loved his cake!

One Year Old...Can it Be?

Yes, we are officially parents to a one-year-old. Friday marked the first anniversary of Jack's birth. We spent part of the day putting up Christmas decorations and preparing for Jack's party on Sunday. Friday afternoon we headed to Gwinnett and had dinner. The day also marked a year of mothering and fathering, so we treated ourselves to a tasty meal at one of our favorites, Carraba's. Here's Jack showing off his birthday attire, which I made thanks to some serious encouragement from a great friend ;)

Afterwards, we went to Bass Pro Shops for Jack to have his photo made with Santa. He had his photo made last year, but of course was barely a month old. He didn't really smile for the photo and seemed a little leery of this white-haired dude, but I'm just proud he didn't cry.

Sunday was the big party. Lots of family and special friends joined us to help celebrate Jack's first birthday! It was a hectic day getting everything ready, but it all turned out really well. Jack seemed to have fun, and Josh and I sure felt blessed. It was so neat to have so many people from so many different aspects of our life come to support us and share their love with our little one. Thank you all for being such wonderful grandmothers, grandfathers, great-grandmothers, great-grandfathers, aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles, cousins and friends! Jack has a lot of people that love him, and for that we are blessed.

What a year it has been. Josh and I have been caught up in the "this time last year" game for a few weeks now. "This time last year, we put up decorations wondering when you would go into labor, or this time last year, we were bringing home a brand-new baby!" Mostly I would say it has flown by, but strangely in some ways it has been a long year. Weird, I know.

What a fun kid Jack is, and the excitement grows each day. We have enjoyed our journey into parenthood (just like everyone said we would) Then again, everyone said it would change us. I guess it has, but only for the good. We're much more thankful people; much more patient people (I think); and much more easily entertained people!

You can view many more photos from Jack's big day here.

Wedding Weekend

Our weekend included UGA Homecoming game, a wedding and a birthday party. Here are some photos from all the fun.

One of my bestest and oldest friends (old as in I've known a long time, not old as in years...although it's been more of those then we'd probably like to admit) got married on Saturday evening. Jack was very cute in his dress shirt, slacks and sweater. He was also very well behaved during the ceremony. He enjoyed a little dancing with me and Josh.

Here I am with the beautiful bride. Terri looked fabulous and oh so happy, especially when dancing their first dance. I was so very happy to help celebrate such a special day in her life...I was also very happy to taste all the yummy cake. Her cake had 3 different varieties, then if you throw in the groom's cake, it's a miracle I only ate 3 pieces! I tried the layer with strawberry filling, the lemon layer and the groom's chocolate on chocolate. The only one I bypassed was the apple spice...I had to say no at a certain point. I don't think it makes it any more excusable, but I didn't eat lunch. Just a late breakfast and little snack b/f the 12:30 kickoff of the game...which by the way was perfect weather.

Jack made it up until about an hour past bedtime then he gave up. He enjoyed resting his head on his sweet Aunt Emily. Later he woke up to help wave goodbye to the new bride and groom. After changing into his pajamas he slept most of the hour ride home.

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to the park for Drew's 5th birthday party. It was a chilly afternoon, but as you can see Jack loved the swings as usual. In the words of a sweet kid I know: "It was the best party ever!"

Halfway to One!

It's hard to believe, but our little guy is officially half a year old. As of Wednesday, Jack is six months old. I know everyone told us it would happen so fast, but I think it's something you have to experience yourself. When you are in the moment, it doesn't seem to go that fast. Looking back, however, you think, "wasn't he just born a few weeks ago?"

To celebrate our little milestone, Josh suggested we get half a cake. As silly as it sounded, I had to agree...I do like cake! Anyway, to avoid the ridiculousness of describing what we were planning to a baker, I just threw together a box cake, which turned out pretty well.

We took the half cake (and cupcakes made with the rest of the batter) to church to share with friends after Wednesday night supper. The kids enjoyed the cupcakes and Josh and I along with our dedicated friends the Yorks gobbled up most of the cake. We did it for Jack. The Yorks have a 2-month-old, so we're already looking forward to doing this again in the fall! I like the picture that looks like he's reaching for the cake! Not for 6 more months, buddy!