Connor in a box.

Connor has been sitting in a box for the last 15 mintues....maybe a record.

Time to grab the camera.

Got it....and he just got out.

Family Picture

I've been meaning to add this for a month.
This picture was taken on August 21, the day before Connor's first birthday. :)

Klackle Orchard in Greenville, MI

We took Connor to Klackle Orchard in Greenville, Michigan with our friends and neighbors, the Trampers. Their daughter, Paetyn, is about 4 months older than Connor and is his best friend. :)

This place has pretty much everything. We didn't get there until about 4:00 (after a pitstop in Rockford to eat at the Corner Bar), so I wasn't sure how Connor was going to do. He normally goes down for an afternoon nap around 3:30. We could tell he was tired at first and was not sure about the animals....big bunny, very loud sheep, cow, pigs, chickens, llama, turtle, bunnies, camel, etc. He pretty much just clung to us. I think this was the tired talking. Then we went to pick our apples. We got three 1/4 Peck bags to fill with our admission.

Apples were a big hit. We took a little tractor train thing to the orchard part and got to pick and sample. I believe we got Jonquils (sp???), Gala, and McIntosh varieties. They are all so crisp and fresh. We couldn't believe how much the kids liked holding and eating the whole apples! Of course I took a zillion pictures. I'll try to refrain from going absolutely nuts posting.

The last thing we did before picking up our pumpkin doughnuts and cider was check out the little sandbox/truck graveyard area. I'm sure they don't call it the truck graveyard, but some of the trucks were looking a little rough. Talk about a little boy's dream! Brian asked if he'd gotten a tetanus shot recently....thankfully it wasn't needed.



















Fun day with fun friends!

"Sub"division Sales

(I will finish the birthday post soon, with pictures)

I've always known that it is ridiculous to pay full price for most baby items, but I'm not one to drive all over the place, rummaging through strangers' things, and then haggling about the price. Up here in Michigan, "sub sales" are very common. Maybe they are other places too, it is just new to me. Our neighborhood had one back in June that we did not participate in (next year we will), but I was able to get good stuff from neighbors. Yesterday, I went neighborhood shopping again for the first time since June. I went again today, too. :) Connor needed more stuff for fall/winter and I really didn't want to pay $20+ for snow boots. Anyway, I had some very successful trips. I'm not going to list everything I got, put here is a partial list....

1 - snow boots, size 5
2 - snow boots, size 6
3 - lion costume (for the future...too big for now)
4 - sweat shirts
5 - 3 overalls
6 - 2 track suits
7 - board books
8 - Fischer Price body parts bear
9 - Baby SLED! (75¢!)
10 - snow bibs
11 - snow jacket (Michigan State...it matches the black bibs :))
12 - Elephant costume
13 - brown loafers, size 5 1/2
14 - "hiking" boots, size 6
15 - Children's Place pants
16 - burnt orange Polo pullover
17 - 3 sets of pjs
18 - ELMO suit ---
it was $1 and I think it might be the best buck I've ever spent! SO FREAKIN' CUTE!
and other things too.

I think I spent a total of about $60 for everything and Connor is set for a while. The funny thing is, I'll be able to sell it all at our next garage sale and probably make all of that money back!

Yes, it takes time and some patience....and a little boy being very cooperative, but I will definitely be going to sub sales in the future. I still think our neighborhood's was the most impressive (even though didn't participate), but it is a great form of one-stop shopping!

Connor's Hometown Birthday Bash

(sorry the pictures are not embedded within the post...I'm being lazy...more at the end)

Well, it has been well over a week since the festivities and I have fully recovered. ;)

It turned out to be a really fun time. The house survived 19 children under the age of 7 and 27 adults for about 3 hours of birthday fun!

I was so excited that my entire immediate family made great efforts to all be in town for the party and for the Labor Day weekend. I picked up Grant, Carrie, my mom and dad from the airport in Flint, MI on Friday night. Christian, Elisa and Torin were driving from Nashville and arrived at about 4:00 am Saturday morning.

I'd been keyed up for over a week trying to check things off a very long to-do "wish" list. This included things like getting our basement storage area organized so I could convert the "flex room" into an unfinished playroom, painting the living area of the basement (it was pink..), making pennants for all the kiddos as favors for the party, a trip to Menards for lumber (explanation to come), cleaning, making a birthday onesie for Connor (because I waited too long to send all the goods to Kristin...boo, me), making sure all the beds had fresh sheets, etc. I also wanted to try out a few baseball-themed recipes for the party too....the Cracker Jacks never happened, but I did make baseball cake pops that were a lot of fun. Brian was in charge of the outside area (the storage area was a team effort) and he got the landscaping looking good, painted the fire pit, cleaned up the beach, arranged chairs, got the keg, picked up pizzas, and was the hot dog grill-master for the party.

Anyway, I have a tendency to use an event as a personal deadline to get a bunch of things done. I've always thrived on this sort of pressure, despite the sleep deprivation that is usually involved. So, it shouldn't surprise many that my mom and I darted off to the grocery store at 4:30 am on Saturday after we greeted our Tennessee travelers. Why go back to bed and just lay there?? So, we picked up tons of last minute things we needed (or didn't end up needing in some cases). We got back home and started working on the cake...

I dreamed up the idea for this cake about 6 weeks before the party. Anyone that was at our wedding might remember the Chief Wahoo groom's cake that I made on our wedding day (with the help of my amazing bridesmaids). This was kind of an extension of that concept and involved a cookie cake baseball diamond with cupcake baseballs, and mini-cupcakes as fans on risors in the outfield. These "fans" would have piped hairlines would be holding signs to spell out "H-A-P-P-Y (1) B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y". "Connor" would be written in the outfield grass in an alternating green color (like it had been cut that way). Like I said, I just dreamed this up.....don't ask me where I get these nutty ideas. It was going to be big. That is why it had to be made on the day of the party. It fit on a 24x24 inch board that I bought at Menards and covered with heavy duty aluminum foil. Obviously that wouldn't fit in my freezer.

So, my mom and I got to work baking cookie and cakes...lots. Oh, and to top it all off, stupid Nestlé has recalled all their cookie dough...sweet. So, I got a box of the Ghiradelli stuff at Costco and we made the dough (just add butter and an egg). Too bad I didn't pick up 2 boxes=6 batches. Anyway, while the babies were waking up as well as our house full of people, the kitchen was heating up with constant baking and all counterspace consumed by sweetness.

I still needed to get all the balloons for the party (pre-purchased balloons inflated at Party City and mylar balloons from the Dollar Tree....that is an excellent tip by the way: MUCH CHEAPER!) and I also needed more cookie stuff from as well as tortilla chips from Costco. Elisa wanted to go also to pick up a few things from Costco and since they came in on fumes, we took their CRV. Everything was going just fine until the accident....

There are so many different things that could have happened that would have altered the two seconds that it took us to get into the car accident. We were nearing the entrance to our neighborhood and Elisa didn't see the stop sign. My "STOP, STOP, STOP" (arms to the side) wasn't enough to slow the CRV, and had I not said it at all, maybe we would have made it through. But we didn't. A white, Trailblazer hit us on the left, rear wheel. It was all so fast. We might have run the stop sign, but I know that the Chevy didn't brake at all. There were no skid marks from their car. The force of the crash spun us over 360º and we ended up on the sidewalk next to our neighborhood entrance sign. The entire front end of the Trailblazer looked like an accordion. There were 4 people in that car, they were hitting up garage sales in the area. Praise God that no one was injured and that our babies were not with us. Of course Elisa called Christian immediately and he and Brian were at the entrance within minutes. It all happened at around 1:30. We all waited on the officer to arrive and get everything squared away. Amazingly, the damage to Christian and Elisa's car didn't look that bad. However, when we drove it the short distance to the house, it was obvious that the left rear wheel was totally cocked to the side. Who knew what kind of damage was hiding inside. (The Trailblazer was towed.) To make matters worse, the holiday weekend insured that nothing could be done with the car until Tuesday....at the earliest.

I don't even know what time I got back to the house. In the grand scheme of things, a cake didn't seem too important, but the 5:00 hour was quickly approaching and the kitchen was still covered up in baking frenzy and about 50 people were expecting a cake. Thank goodness for my mom and Carrie for pressing on during the drama. Carrie did an amazing job with tons of amazing "hairstyles" for the fans and they basically did all they could without more direction or the rest of the cookie dough that we had just purchased. To make this story a little bit shorter, it all worked. Of course there wasn't a trial run beforehand so adjustments were made on the fly. Grant helped make a backstop (styrofoam covered in foil) to keep the "fans" from falling forward or backward off the risors. Carrie and Elisa taped all the signs to the toothpicks and my mom was putting icing in bags for me to pipe stuff as fast as she could. Connor's name was the only part that didn't get done, so it was a last minute decision to just cut it out of paper. I did outline it in red icing and it was fine....not ideal, but fine, especially considering the preceeding events of the day. I jumped in the shower and got clothes on just in time for guests to start arriving. Thank goodness Connor is a clutch sleeper! The little champ slept for at least 2 hours right before his party and I woke him up when the first guest arrived. :)

I wasn't sure how this party was all going to go. Would everyone be outside on the beach and in the water? Would they play in the basement? When did we need to eat and open gifts? (I didn't want dirty kids bringing in tons of sand back into the house...?) To sum it up, there were people everywhere. For the most part, the kids played in the basement with a few going in and out, but to my knowledge no one got in the water. The newly decorated, unfinished playroom was named "the ball room" and there were kids EVERYWHERE. Next time we should probably hide the plastic golf clubs and baseball bats, but no one and nothing were damaged. :) I could see the "you are nuts" looks from parents of the kids, but it really was all fine and so much fun to see Connor running around like one of the "big" kids. He was in the middle of everything too.

Everyone just mingled around and munched on chips and cheese dip (thanks, mom) and then we started the main food. Like I said, the Cracker Jacks never got made. There were TONS of hot dogs and lots of pizza for the kids to choose from. Shortly after dinner, we sang to Connor and hit the cake. Having close to 50 people singing at the same time, all within very close range was a bit overwhelming for Connor. Although he didn't boo-hoo cry, he fussed a bit and definitely wanted me and Brian nearby. The "smash cake" experience at his first party on his actual birthday was much more exciting, but he seemed to enjoy his cupcake too.

-----he's waking up.....I'll finish this later----longest post ever.

Bad Blogger

2nd Birthday Party pictures and dialogue to come. Sorry for the delay for our loyal readers. It is on my to do list for tomorrow...hopefully.

I'm finally getting my hair done and B is out of town until tomorrow night, so I hope I can fit it in!