Nealy's 2nd Birthday

And the theme was........

Sunshine and Lemonade. Do you love it? I'm determined to come up with a new and different theme for each of Nealy's birthdays for as long as I can, before she decides each year needs to be princess or Dora or Ariel or unicorns. Well, actually, I'd probably really like unicorns. But the French theme from last year was pretty hard to top. I shouldn't have started off so strong. I think I may have made a lovely choice with Sunshine and Lemonade, though. It was original and stylish, and no one else will have a party quite like this one.

Anyway, this year, Nealy had a joint birthday party with her friend Sophie. Sophie's mother, Bethel, and I go way back, and we are blessed to have two beautiful girls who were born within days of each other. Remember those pregnant pictures we took the week before we each gave birth? Sophie and Nealy are in the same class at school, so we decided it would be best to have a party together and invite their class.

(here is the part of the blog where I refrain from making pointed comments about the fact that NO ONE from their class came, even though we invited the entire class and hardly anyone else to keep the attendant numbers down, and we only had 2 regrets. Out of 16.)

We chose to enlist the help of our friend Summer Williams to plan our party. She has started a new business called Peace, Love, and Parties, and we were her first clients. We chose the theme, and she took it from there. We were able to afford her fee since we were splitting it, but now that we've seen the hard work, planning, preparation, shopping, and careful thought she puts into her parties, we strongly feel that her fee is far less than it should be. On top of all of that, we got to have the party at the Jan Dempsey Arts Center, and that means no house clean up (before or after), plenty of parking, and more room than we knew what to do with. It was great.

Since the theme was Sunshine and Lemonade, everything was yellow and pink - the decorations, the food, the activities, and the cupcakes. The favors were canvas bag (which the kids hand painted themselves with lemon slices) with lemon candies and lemonade juices placed inside. There was a sunshine shaped cake and pink lemonade flavored cupcakes decorated to look like little cups of lemonade, thanks to Cakeapotomous, of course. The music was all sunshine themed (a play list was excruciatingly planned - I'm not totally sure that it will fit on one CD, but I need to make copies of this sweet mix VERY SOON. It ranges from The Kinks to Smash Mouth to The Brady Bunch - maybe my best mix tape work to date). Nealy's outfit was carefully planned and handcrafted, and everyone else in our family was instructed to wear yellow (I was too embarrassed with my theme obsession to require the same of Bethel's family. I might have been teased a little.).

Every little thing about this party was a hit. The theme was adorable, and it was carried out beautifully. Nealy and Sophie were celebrated in style this year.

So, see a pictorial review of the party events.

The birthday girls in action.....


The decor.....
This picture was intended to view the banner, but it also managed to get a shot of some decorations which had still not been placed. We'll call this a progress shot.
Here's some detail on that banner.
The food......

The activities......

Cake time.....

General party milling around......

And a couple of amazing pictures of my two babies who are growing up too quickly......

At 2, Nealy is growing faster than I ever imagined.
She loves her paci, her brother, juice drinks, cake, monkeys, batman, swimming, music and dancing, coloring, Dora, talking on the phone, play doh, sand, cuddling under a big blanket with her mom and dad, her new tricycle, and bath time. She says practically everything - much more than I remember Jacks saying at this age - and she's already a smart girl with a big heart. Happy Birthday, Nealy Bug. You are our sunshine, and it seemed appropriate to celebrate you with sunshine!

Busy at dinner

This is how my handsome boy managed to keep himself busy at dinner each night of the trip. It distracted him from complaining about how much the collar and buttons on his shirt are hurting him.

Cooling off

Not the most lady like position, little one.....

Soccer and other ramblings.....

I've spent ages away from the blog, mostly because I was anxiously counting the moments until our fabulous spring break trip and I had little else to talk about (and if you're just now tuning in, scroll down a little for thorough cruise coverage).

However, we had some major events happen in the weeks prior to the break. Well, not so major, but major in the life of our little family.

First: Jacks started soccer.

I've been dying to get Jacks involved in a sport, mostly because he could use the energy release AND he's getting a little doughy. (I know, I know, who am I to talk? But the kid's a natural athlete - he needs an outlet for that!). We made the trip to the Academy Sports to buy cleats and shin guards, we had several full dress rehearsals in the yard with the soccer ball, and we spent many days counting down to the first practice. Then, we had several days of rain and the fields were rained out. CATASTROPHE! The day we were waiting for, the first day of practice, had to be postponed. It was heartbreaking, but luckily our coach hosted a little unofficial practice in the field down the street from our house on the day before we left for our trip, so Jacks got to put on all his gear and get to running and kicking.

We took the wagon to practice since it was so close.


This one was dying to get in on the action....In fact, both of these were dying to get in on the action......


He LOVED it. I was a little worried when he became visibly fatigued in the last 15 minutes of practice. He started wandering off the field, finding big sticks to wave, coming over for one more sip of gatorade, but he managed to get through it. And rather than complain about being tired, he said that he loved it. He can't wait to play again. We have another practice this week, and we are pumped up.

Second: Valentine's Day
Good grief, it's been a while. Jacks and I enjoyed an evening at Storybook Farms for their Cowboy Roundup event. It's kind of the mother/son answer to daddy/daughter date night. We got to pet the horses, learn how to rope, see a roping demonstration, eat dinner, take a hay ride, paint horse shoes, and watch a puppet show. And several of Jacks's school friends came, too. It was a blast! We will definitely do that again.

Here is Jacks with his friends who were in attendance at the Roundup. These boys were beyond thrilled. Jacks loved learning to rope a bull!


Joe and Nealy took a date night to the Chick fil A the same night, and they had a really great time, too. I mean, it's Chick fil A. Who doesn't love that?

On the night before Valentine's Day, we had a special dinner with heart shaped pasta and a theme cake (from Cakeapotomous). Luke came and we had a lovely dinner. I really love heart shaped things, in case you didn't know that about me.Oh, and I made my heart shaped crayons for Valentine's gifts again this year. This time they were multicolored and big. I don't think everyone appreciates these as much as I think they do. A friend of mine asked me if it was a cookie when I proudly presented it to her daughter, and then she looked at me like I was mildly crazy when I told her it was a crayon. I could tell she wanted to throw it in the garbage. People just don't know the blood, sweat, and tears I put into my holiday crafts! I thought they were really cute along with the heart themed mandala I printed out for each child. I'm sure those went equally as unappreciated. Deep exhaustive sigh......


Third: Warm weather

After a pretty brutal winter (for the south), the spring weather arrived quite suddenly at the end of February. The flowers all started blooming almost immediately, well before the time when the lawns start to turn green again. It was a little weird to see all the camellias and magnolias blooming like crazy over brown, crunchy lawns. But as the groundhog predicted, at least I think - who can remember? - spring came early this year and so did days at the park. Nealy is finally old enough to properly enjoy a playground, and Jacks is loving every minute of having a playmate to run around with on weekend afternoons. We've found that we really like the play grounds at the Auburn Early Ed Center, but Wright Mill Road Elementary is pretty great, too.

Other than the fun times we had on Spring Break, that's pretty much it for February and March. We've got 9 weeks till summer, guys. Smooth sailing!

On the way home.....

We broke up our drive to and from Tampa by stopping in Gainesville at my sister's house. We came the night before our trip to spend the night. My parents were there keeping my nieces because my sister and brother in law were in VENICE. Like, the one in ITALY! I'm so jealous, but amazingly proud at the same time because my brother in law got a piece in this great art exhibition there for Arte Laguna at the Venice Arsenal (John Westmark, and piece is called SHUSH). He won a special prize, and they had an amazing time enjoying, from what I understand, the most beautiful city in the world.
I missed Carrie terribly on the way down, and it was hard to be there without her even though it was great to see my nieces and parents. But, on the way home, we stopped in for lunch and Carrie and John had returned from their Italian getaway (and they brought me British tabloids from Heathrow Airport - FUN!). We got to attend my oldest niece's birthday party (she turned 11 on the 11th, and this is 2011 - so cool), which was held on the lawn at the Thomas Center, the local arts center in their neighborhood. The weather was sunny with a breeze, the view from the quilts under the trees was perfect, and the kids got a chance to run and play and chase some bigger kids around. It was an idyllic stop before the long drive home.
It alllllllmost made me want to stay the night, but the party attendants were keeping the celebration going with a sleepover at my sister's, so we had no choice but to run for the hills. I can't be attending any 11 year old girl sleepovers before my time to do that with Nealy comes.
Although, I'm sure Nealy would have made a perfect baby doll for the party girls to play with.
These two are glad we made it home.....

Spring Break Cruise

We decided that this year would be the first year to have a big family vacation. This decision came after a great deal of deliberation. You see, Joe and I will be celebrating 10 years of wedded bliss in a few short days (thank you, thank you), and we were planning to take this spring break to travel somewhere together. As I did more and more research on Caribbean destinations, the option of a cruise kept coming up. The problem with a cruise is that you are basically unreachable, unless you're willing to pay big bucks (which I'm only willing to spend on drinks). And I know for a fact that being unable to reach my kids to make sure everything is okay is completely out of the question. I'm still not ready for that.
Besides, Joe and I will have many, many years in our future to keep each other entertained without the charming company of our two children, so why would we start trying to escape from them now? Stop laughing. Yes, I know they are precocious and a handful and not given to allowing their parents to relax at anytime. But, I'm not able to relax anymore - with or without my children. I'm a mother.
After looking at the children's activity options available on the various cruise ships, departure ports, itinerary dates, prices, and on and on and on, I became overwhelmed and hired a travel agent to take care of it (thanks, Joanna). We settled on a 5 day Royal Caribbean cruise sailing out of Tampa. The distance was manageable, the price was reasonable, and the dates fit within our spring break restrictive guidelines. Plus, the boat had several attractive kid-friendly attractions - splash pool, small water slide, supervised kids' program for Jacks's age group, parent supervised activities for Nealy's age group. We were sold.
Not to mention the cost of the trip covered all the food we could possibly eat. I mean, this week has probably cost me some major setbacks in my year long quest to lose the baby weight (to mild success), but I got to have amazing three course meals every single night of my trip with no regard for how much they cost. I never get to look at a menu and choose items without thinking of the bill coming at the end. It was GREAT.
We had a blast. And what's even better? My fake college son, Luke, and his girlfriend, Amber joined us on our tropical vacation (he's only fake because he's not really my son, he's real AND he is really in college - just to clarify what fake college son means). I could not have chosen a better pair of travel companions. They are fun, relaxed, easy to talk to and get along with, plus the kids love them. Well, Nealy has an irrational crush on Luke, and although she talks about him when he's not around, she is unable to look him directly in the eyes in his presence and she starts crying when he attempts to talk to her. I keep hoping she'll get over it. And so does Luke. I worry it's starting to hurt his feelings.
In addition to enjoying all the fun stuff on the cruise ship, we got to spend 2 fun beach days in Mexico. The first day was in Costa Maya, which was a short day and relatively non-eventful (plus I got a little sick and was unable to join the group), and the second we splurged on an excursion in Cozumel to a family friendly beach at a National Park with lots of fun things to do. We enjoyed a huge lunch buffet, open bar, endless soft serve ice cream cones, sand castle building, splashing around in the water (sea AND kid pool), shopping for touristy junk, lazing around in beach chairs under the umbrella (tans are nice, but come on, folks - this was Mexico and I'm whiter than white. That sun will kill me), and tons of other great beach activities. And there were clean bathrooms. The cost of the excursion alone was worth it for the clean bathrooms.
I would have loved to take a trip to see the ruins in either port, but the kids are still a little too young to enjoy a day like that. Lots of riding in buses, lots of walking, too many hours spent on things they don't care about, yet.
This was a perfect family vacation. I think we'll definitely be planning another one in the future. Let us know if you'd like to join us next time. Cruises are always more fun with lots of friends.
And as always, please enjoy a barrage of pictures from this amazing week that I still can't believe is over.

Here's the little ones enjoying the kids' pool.....

Formal dinner night......

An attempt at a family picture on formal dinner night - Jacks was uncooperative since he was made to wear a collared shirt.

How good looking are these two?


Our stateroom attendant was an expert at "towel art"


Here's the obligatory, "here I am on a Mexican beach with the cruise ship in the background" picture in Costa Maya......


Nealy was not as thrilled with her obligatory shot......


Nor was she so happy to be in a Mexican bar.
Jacks seems to be a natural when he bellies up to the bar.


Here they are on the beach in Cozumel.


Jacks loved playing in the sand.....


While Nealy preferred the pool (she takes after her mama).....
You will see this picture turn up again on someone's senior yearbook page (also known as blackmail material). But look how happy they are - they're just so overwhelmed!


Jacks was thrilled to be in the sand, the pool, or laid up in the chair.....


Nealy found herself to be done with the beach after a while.....
Until she got some ice cream......
They had guys walking around the beach with parrots and iguanas. You could hold them and have your picture made. Jacks just wanted to touch this one's tail. You should have seen him jump when the bird squawked when Jacks had barely put his fingertips on that tail feather.


Seriously, way too good looking.....


This one was just happy to be there.....


A good family picture on the last night.

As you know, this selection of pictures was just a drop in the bucket. If I find some more that are worthy, I'll do another post.

I came home with a miserable cold, so I've spent most of today in bed with a throbbing head and lots of time to think about the great time we had. Work tomorrow will be a mighty rude awakening after this week of fun. I hope I don't spend tonight tossing and turning stressing about it.