Ladybug Party Time!

Pretty soon after everything was set up, all the party guests started showing up.  

Ace's outfit definitely won best dressed: beloved camo shirt, swim trunks, and boots!

Aunt Erin fed Maci her snow cone.

Aunt Ju-wee (Julie) pushed Ian around.  Ian had a blast getting a ride!

Aunt Erin and Cousin Hannah!

Sweet birthday girl and her pretty Momma!

Love this!

Big smiles!

More sweet Maci!

Love that little grin.

After a bit, it was time for smash cake!  Maci started off by putting the perfect little handprint in it!

Ace was happy to help lick the icing!

Maci started making the cutest little faces and wiggling her head back and forth!

Sweet kisses from Mommy and Daddy.

While I was busy snapping photos, Gramma K helped Ian with his cupcake.  Ian decided Gramma K needed a few bites!

A couple of cute little ladybugs crashed the party!

Aww...Aunt Julie and Hannah.

Opening presents!  Ian kept trying to hand Kirk (Tray's Dad) the pinwheels.  He was so nice and humored Ian!

Birthday girl digging into her presents.

Happy Birthday, Maci Marie!  We are so glad we got to help celebrate your special day!  You are such a precious little girl and we love you so much!

Maci's Party Prep

The next day, party preparations were in full swing!  Uncle Tray set up the huge inflatable water slide and Ian and Ace took it for a test run.

This QA team determined that the slide passed muster and could indeed be used for the party.

They left no side unchecked and made sure to add some roughhousing to make sure the slide could stand up to it!

Then they took their wet little hands and made some mud patties!

Then it was time for a snack.

Maci came out and joined the boys.  She is getting so big and knows how to help herself!

Ian kept pointing to Maci.  He was so excited to see her!

More cousin play time.  They are such good buddies!

While the kiddos were playing, Aunt Kt, Uncle Tray, Gramma K, and I were busy setting up for the party.  Aunt Kt had found lots of fun decorations.

Pinwheels for the walkway.

Tissue paper balls for the trees.  Grammy (Tray's Mom) redid all of the outdoor cushions in a fabric that was perfect for the ladybug party.

A perfect little ladybug by the rose Gramma K planted.

Beautiful rose!

Uncle Tray and Aunt Kt hard at work.

Pretty tissue paper balls.

The yummy and pretty food table!

Yummo!  Watermelon and blueberry "ladybug".

And, of course, the cupcakes and Maci's smash cake.

The lady who did the cupcakes and smash cakes did a phenomenal job!

Pretty little ladybug!

And the best little ladybug smash cake ever!

Aunt Kt always has the best favor boxes!

The ladybug party was starting to come together.  All we needed was the little ladybug herself and all her friends and family!

Road Trip!

This weekend, Ian and I took a road trip to visit Aunt Kt, Uncle Tray, Ace, & Maci for Maci's first birthday party.  Daddy had a concert Friday night, a competition/drum clinic Saturday, and a band banquet Saturday night so he couldn't come. :(

Aunt Kt had asked us to bring our cupcake stand for Maci's cupcakes, and Ian took it as his personal duty to be the cupcake stand carrier!  He wouldn't let it go!  He "walked" it from the kitchen to the car, climbed up in the car with it, and used it as a drink holder.

We left early afternoon and planned to take our time.  Ian has a propensity to get car sick on long trips, and this time was no different.  We were in the middle of downtown Dallas heavy traffic when he started turning green and fussing.  Pretty soon he was frantically saying, "hold-you-hold-you-hold-you-hold-you-hold-you!"  However, there was no place to get off.  The hot, muggy, exhaust filled air wasn't helpful, so rolling the windows down didn't really do much.  So I gave him a couple of gummy worms to see if that would help. They did the trick for about five minutes and I was able to get to a spot that had a wide enough shoulder I could pull over on.  Poor little baby cuddled up against me with the AC on full blast for about twenty minutes until he felt better.

About twenty minutes into our drive, Ian was feeling car sick again.  So we stopped at a McDonald's so he could get out and play and eat a few french fries.  He also had to go potty.  However, this McDonald's had black potties!  Ian was so freaked out by them he wouldn't go near one.  He kept saying, "I'm sorry!  I'm sorry!  I'm sorry!"  It was really funny, but I felt bad for him.  So I told him they were Spiderman potties (he has decided that anything black and/or red is Spiderman) and that he could have a gummy worm (the ultimate prize!) if he used that potty.  That did the trick and after a bit of playing, he was ready to brave the black potty.

Back in the car, he watched a movie and ate a snack.  Aunt Kt suggested Benadryl for the car sickness and that really seemed to help too.  I also gave him his weighted starfish for his lap and I think that helped.  We were finally able to start making some good time!

After a bit, Ian fell asleep.  Bad for bedtime (since it was 5:30pm at this point), but great for a smooth trip!

We finally made it to Aunt Kt's and Ian was so happy to see everyone!  (And so was I!)

Ian is 3!

Ian is officially three years old today!  We said good-bye to two and hello to three.  We'll see how well three sticks. :-)  We've been practicing for a few weeks now, but he just got two down, so who knows!

We saved a few presents for Ian to open tonight.

The first was a bunch of Sesame Street books and stickers.  Ian loved the first book he pulled out.

He started reading it to himself.  It was so cute, I had to go get the video camera!

He was happy to see other books too, but really liked the first one best.

This whole writing pad is for me?!  Cool!

More presents!  (This one had a kids Sonicare brush.  He loves to start and stop Mommy and Daddy's toothbrushes, so we figured it was time for him to have one of his own.  It will be interesting to see if he actually likes it!)  

"C'mon, Daddy.  Let's play!"  Ian and Daddy played with the rhyming cards for a good twenty minutes!  Ian  didn't quite get the hang of rhyming, but he did figure out that certain rhymes were color coded.  Smart cookie!  

Happy 3rd Birthday, baby boy!  You mean the world to us!  We love you so much and look forward to everything this next year brings!