Teddy Bear Race Car Party for Graham!!!

Party Day!

We had Graham's birthday party on Saturday with a Teddy Bear Race Car theme!  I had a really good time deciding what to decorate with and I am SO pleased with how it turned out!

I'm TWO! 

 We borrowed as many ride-on toys as we could and lined them all up.  The rest of the yard was a whole Car Care Arena!

 Teddy Bear Graham Garage, where all parking is $2!

 The repair shop, complete with a bucket of pretend tools!

 Car Wash!

 Gas Station!

 I had a "road" going down this wall and one other one.  I just used a black tablecloth from Dollar Tree, added yellow duct tape, printed out bear prints and bears driving race cars, and taped it all on!

 Party favors!

 You can't see all the way around the cup, but each cup had a picture of a teddy bear, some "Cars" stickers, and a name.  There was a Hot Wheels car in each cup :)

 We had a little estimating station for how many colored bears were in the pitcher.  The gummy bears in the vase were just for munching!

 Festive cupcake area, minus a good picture of the cake or the dessert treat that inspired the whole party theme!!!  :(

I was really pleased with this cupcake arrangement!  I just wish the picture wasn't so blurry--I don't know how I ended up with only one picture of the cake!

Ok, this is a Pinterest picture, but I swear mine looked pretty darn similar!!!  There were some of these along the road on the cupcake cake, and then there was just a platter of them lined up to accompany cupcakes.

 True to real life, there was always a line at the repair shop! 

 Singing to the birthday boy!

 Blowing out the candles!

 He did a much better job enjoying his cupcake than last year!  LOL  

 Face first...

 Delicious!

 We taped open markers to cars, and the kids were welcome to drive them around big sheets of paper leaving marker behind.  The pictures came out really cool!

 I could not be happier with my little family :)

One happy birthday boy ready to check out his presents!  Not pictured: one big brother sad to realize his little brother doesn't need any "help" to open presents anymore! LOL  

We had a beautiful day, a super fun time, and happy hearts to have so many friends who came to celebrate our sweet boy :)

Summer!

Well!  What a start to summer so far!  We started with a follow-up visit for Jackson with the ENT from the bad ear infection he had right after Mother's Day (That was immediately followed by a bout of Fifth's Disease!), and they determined there was still fluid and started him on another round of antibiotics as well as nasal spray :/ 

My plans for the rest of the week included getting ready for Graham's party, but I started to feel REALLY crummy right ON Grahammer's birthday!  My throat was hurting, and by the evening I was just feeling so achy.  I woke up feeling pretty rough Thursday morning, but I was in denial and then started to feel a bit better.  I got some party things accomplished, but then felt awful again.  Luckily, Josh was teleworking, so I ran over to urgent care, and after a not too unpleasant wait, was definitely diagnosed with strep :(  Luckily, those antibiotics work FAST!  I felt amazing by Friday!

Unfortunately, Graham was going downhill while I was, but I felt so yucky, I couldn't really assess that.  His nose was really junky and his eyes were looking swollen.  I had a thought that maybe he had a sinus infection, so we ran him over to the pediatrician Friday morning to get him looked at.  That way, antibiotics would be on board for more than 24-hours before his party!  He ended up having a positive strep test, which neither the pediatrician or I thought made 100% sense, so she put him on a touch stronger antibiotic to combat whatever was really making him feverish and feel bad.  

We are all on the mend and feeling better!  I stayed up crazy late, but I got everything done for the party, and I was SO pleased with how it went!  We are ready to enjoy our beach trip and then time with Mimi and Bampa!!!

Yesterday was Jackson's last soccer game for this Spring season!  Last soccer huddle!

Season #2 with the same families and coach!  Hooray!  Unfortunately, we can't all stay together forever since Coach Jon has a daughter, and eventually the league splits the genders :(  Hopefully, most of us will be back next season!

Silly Dragons!

Pre-School Graduation!!!

Last Day of Pre-School at end of May: Graham (one week shy of turning 2) and Jackson (5 1/2)

First Day of Pre-School in September: Graham (15 months) and Jackson (one month shy of turning 5)

What a difference a school year makes!

LOVE this boy and his love of school!

These two...  :)

We had a crazy rainy week, and the lovely outdoor picnic program was cancelled, and our ceremony was moved to the sanctuary of the church.  It was a really nice presentation, but meeting at the local park with a playground and a picnic shelter for a couple of hours is MUCH better.  Oh, well...  This is most of Jackson's class.  Again, the end of year ceremony was split into two days to accommodate all of the families.

Jackson receiving his certificate and cool bug catcher from Mrs. MacHenry!

Jackson and Mrs. McCarty.  We will miss seeing her smiling face each morning for sure!

We had a WONDERFUL year with Mrs. MacHenry!  I truly wish we could take her to Kindergarten with us, because she really "gets" Jackson.  She set clear boundaries and expectations, was firm when needed, and pushed him to think one step further during various activities.

Since we got rained out from the picnic and playing portion of the morning, several families met up at Chick-fil-a to get lunch, play and chat :)  

I cannot believe two years of pre-school are in the books, and we are getting ready for Kindergarten in a couple short months!

A Little of This, A Little of That...

Graham has one flashing bunny ring for each finger, of course!

Farmers' Market Buddies :)

Trying on Reagan's shoes

Brother hugs :)

Brother tickles :)

This blur of little boys running is a daily occurrence!

Banana splits with friends!  HOORAY!

I don't know HOW this happened?

Grocery shopping with just one child means he gets the whole car area to himself.  Clearly, this pleased him :)

Obsessed with these enormous yellow Croc boots!

A little monster chair for a snuggle buggle!

Josh applied fresh black top to the driveway.  He did a great job, and let's just say we got a little creative as to how we protected it.  Nothing a basketball hoop and an enormous orange extension cord can't cordon off!

Hiking with Daddy :)

$3 fun from Dollar Tree in the form of jeeps and Army guys!