Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Jackson's Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

 Hopefully this works ok, the pictures got all out of order and so now they're formatted differently!

Jackson woke up the morning of his birthday party and when he went potty, found a surprise on the mirror!  He then came out and admired all the decorations.

 Ben and Elizabeth came over a little bit early and so we took a quick picture before the other guests arrived.

Here come the decoration pictures!  Be prepared, there are a lot! :)

Here's the dessert table.  This was the kids' take home present.  They filled their box with candy.  The parents loved me I'm sure!
 I got these cute printables on etsy, the same place that did the invites.
 Part of the food table.  I really lucked out with the decorations-the canvases on the shelf there were in Ben and Elizabeths' nursery.  Also, between my mom, sister, and I, we have quite a few of the stuffed Very Hungry Caterpillars, and a bunch of the books!
 Ryan had the great idea to put a dohnut hole in the ice cream cone for the "on Saturday he ate through one ice cream cone." I tried to use as much food from the book as possible, but definitely didn't use it all.
 My cute boys!
 I of course found this idea online!









I think Ryan thought I was nuts when I was painting these cups, but it was so easy and cute! :)


 So my idea was to have these look like a bunch of very hungry caterpillars, but it didn't quite work out that way. 
 One year for my classroom I had a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme, so I had already drawn all of the fruit that is attached there on the tablecloth.  It came in very handy!


  Random pictures of him throughout the year.
 One of the games we played was "find the caterpillars."  It was a hit!

 Here's most of the kids from the party. A few still hadn't arrived, but we got the majority of them!
  The next few pictures are the games we played.  "Pin the food on the caterpillar" (I luckily already had the caterpillar made from my classroom), I read a book I made him for his birthday: The Very Hungry Jackson, aloud to the kids, and then we played a version of musical chairs.  The kids stood on papers on which I had written different colors of "3s" and "Js".  When I called their particular number or letter they received a piece of candy.  Lots of the kids were 2 and 3 and they actually were able to play!  The last activity shown is a few kids doing the caterpillar hunt.


  The birthday boy waiting patiently for lunch!
 A bunch of very hungry children!  ha ha!

 I took off his shirt for the food.
 Yes, I did end up making his shirt.  My original intent was to buy one off of etsy, but my plan didn't work out and I waited so long that I didn't have time to order one.  So I saw one online that someone painted and decided to try it.  I just printed everything out in the size I wanted and then put it underneath the shirt so I had a template.  I just traced it all!  I used a sharpie for the letters and just regular paint for everything else.  I don't think it's washable though, which is why there was a shirt change for lunch!
 We ended the party with presents.  A hug for Elise!
 Here's Jackson with his friend Holly.
 Jackson with Nikolas.
 Jackson and Ally.
 with Ashlynn.
 and Henry.
Jackson had a blast which means it was a success! 

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Jackson's Third Birthday!


It's Jackson Ryan's 3rd Birthday today!!!!

I don't know where the time has gone.

We had a really fun party on Saturday.
 It was a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme-you probably can tell by the shirt!

I also took a LOT of pictures of him.
 He's just so funny it's hard not to!
 Today (his actual birthday) we had a birthday lunch at my parents' and I took even more pictures!
 By the end I think this was how he felt about them!  :)
I'll have to post details about his birthday soon.  I need to keep up because we'll have lots of pictures of our kindergartener in just a week.  A WEEK!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Adoption Update

I've had a few people ask me where we are on our adoption and realized I hadn't posted about it in awhile!  A few weeks ago we finally got our 1800-A approval (which is something to do with immigration  and the approval to bring an orphan into the US-I think.) and so we immediately mailed it off to our agency.  They are now certifying it, and once it's certified then they'll mail our entire dossier (which is all of our paperwork) to China.  Once there they will log us into their system.  Then we're considered logged in.  Which means we are eligible to then receive a referral!  Unfortunately it could take as long as a year I think, I'm going to ask our agency once they send off our dossier so I know what to expect.  So far everything is going well so I'll keep you posted as I know more!

My Birthday (and Laura, Aunt Amy's, and Uncle Ross's!)


Laura and I celebrated our birthday at the end of July, along with my Aunt Amy and Uncle Ross.  We didn't see them on it unfortunately but it's fun we all share a birthday! 

The boys wanted to have an army birthday party for me.  They really know the way to my heart! :)  (Please ignore me in my glasses, I had just woken up!)  They made me breakfast in bed and woke me up to have a gun fight.  They bought army hats, army decorations and candles, and bought the boys army whistles.  They got me the lei I have on my neck because they said that was for girls.  They are so funny.  We are showing off our tatoos here.

We have a tradition of meeting my parents for lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  This year our birthday fell on a Sunday so our husbands were able to come too!  Here are the best buds Ben and Cooper.

I just thought it was funny that the boys were playing with army men at the dinner table.  Yes, they got those too for my birthday.

Afterward we went to see the fountain and take some pictures.

I think he's either really excited or dancing, one of the two!

The four cousins!
 Our family.
 The Grands with their grandkids!

This little boy turns three in two days?!?  Where does the time go?  We're having a Very Hungry Caterpillar party here tomorrow, I'll have to post the details soon.  I just got done decorating and I'm ready to go to bed!

I had to end on these two pictures.  Jackson fell asleep in the car WHILE eating animal cookies!  I purposely gave them to him to keep him awake...didn't really work!  Isn't that hilarious?

Aww, and last but not least, my cutie Cooper.  A kindergartener in just 9 days!!!!