Happy Birthday, Hubby!

I started mentally planning Jeremy's 40th birthday several years back. He is the first of our friends to turn the big 4-0 and party planning is kind of my thing, so I was really excited for this shindig.

But as life happens -  babies, our jobs, moving, colic, babies, family events and babies - got in the way of me going all out for his 40th. And I think he was a bit relieved for this. I mean, who actually needs a video presentation, a band and surprises every 40 minutes at a party?

We decided to have his party at Cottonwood in Houston, and it was a great venue. We used their front area and it thankfully was not miserably hot.

Cottonwood Houston

My theme for the party was a caricature of him that I carried throughout on the balloons, napkins, menus and custom cookies. For party colors I used black (obviously) with beige. After all, I didn't want it to look like a funeral. I used his favorite font on the menu cards, balloons and napkins. Here are a few details from the party:

My mother-in-law helped me find these amazing cookies. They're from a company called Parker's Crazy Cookies and they do custom cookies of people. They taste like animal crackers. They were a hit!

Custom balloons with his caricature. 

Jeremy Ford - More fun than two 20 year olds. 

I strung pictures around the party with captions describing what he was doing, his age or his grade
year. Guests enjoyed seeing different stages of Jeremy's life (and some were in the pictures, too!).

Photo strand. I had 60 photos strung with mini clothespins along black and beige baker's twine.

At a point in the evening, Jeremy's brothers and I did a toast roast of him, which was pretty hilarious. Or, so I'm told. Jeremy had a great party and felt so loved by his family and friends. Mission accomplished!

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!

Aloha Summer!

We had our first taste of summer last weekend and it was so sweet and sunny. I woke up with a summer hangover on Monday - meaning I wanted to go back in time and redo the weekend it was so good! My friend Julie however, might have experienced a real hangover....but that's another story!

We started Saturday at the Memorial Park Train - Connor's favorite place - to celebrate Emily's 2nd birthday! It was a fun morning. Then we headed down to Galveston for William's 3rd birthday at the beach. It was the first time for Connor and Parker to go to the beach. And, unbeknownst to me, it was also Jeremy's first time at a Galveston beach. I can't believe he's been in Houston 15 years and he hasn't been to the Galveston beach. Anyway...Connor LOVED the beach. We held hands and walked into the waves and he would giggle and jump each time one came. Back on shore, he would jump up and fall onto his bottom in the sand - it was hilarious. Then he spent time scooping up wet sand and dumping it into his bucket, over and over again. We had the best time. I even brought Parker into the water to sit and splash (his latest trick!). We had a blast!

Parker - 7 months old (he got a few bug bites...eek!)

After the beach, we kept the party going and went to Tiki with some of our friends. All of the kiddos enjoyed playing in the pool together! After this day, these kiddos were worn out (and so were the adults!) We spent time in the pool again the next morning and seriously had the best time. Such a fun way to kick off the summer!

Love these girls!

Hey -- it's 8 kids, pretty much the best we could do!

I have realized lately that I make this face in a lot of pictures...hmm...

Connor loved when "Mista Will" threw him up, up, up!

Connor loves to give Parker kisses. "I kiss baby right there!" So sweet!

Excited for a long, hot summer!

Memorial Day at the Ranch

We took our first vacation with my family for Memorial Day and headed out west to a dude ranch resort. Total Texas Move, right? We rented a house at a ranch in Bandera where they had a water park, golf, horseback riding, putt-putt and probably some other amenities I can't recall.

Connor went up a day early with my mom and stepdad so that he could go to the Memorial Day parade in Bandera. He loved it, and has toted around his red, white and blue beach ball they threw him like its a prized possession. On Saturday, we all arrived at the house, along with the crazy storms that hit Texas that day. We spend most of that day inside playing pool, sitting on the back porch and playing games.

On Sunday, we hit the water park! Connor loved the water slides and the bigger kids enjoyed either laying out or floating the lazy river. Alex (10) had the best time with Connor on the slides and swimming. She is so great with the littles! That evening, we had a round of family putt-putt which was fun. 

Parker spending some quality time with Daddy!

Leslie, Mom and Heidi bonding during the rainy day!

After the failed attempt to ride a pony. Remember how much he loved it at the rodeo? Apparently, he forgot.

My birthday cookie cake got a little squished!

We can't wait to go back next year!

Children's Museum

We went to the Tot Spot at the Houston Children's Museum for the first time last week and Connor had a blast! He loved crawling around - and he did so great crawling up and down the steps, tunnels and ramps! He pulled up to his knees to give himself kisses in the mirrors. He loved the spinning wheels of baby pictures, and of course the ball pit! He lasted almost two hours before realizing it was nap time!

Everything goes in this boy's mouth...luckily, the balls in here had just been cleaned! 

I love July and all of my time off with my sweet boy!

Pigeon Ford: Family Vacation

Hey, it's me again! Doing my bi-annual blog post. I was creeping around on some friend's blogs tonight (Sam, Tiffanie, Katie, Sara...I'm looking at you) and then decided I might as well post, too.

This month we celebrated Jeremy's folks 40th wedding anniversary with a family trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Never heard of it? I hadn't either until we started planning. It's in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. We stayed in a beautiful four-story cabin with a breathtaking view. We had a great time.

Before we joined the family for the week, our little family of three spent a few days (including Jeremy's birthday and the 4th) in Nashville. As a lifelong country music fan, I soaked the country music capital in. Literally...since it rained everyday we were there. My favorite thing we did was tour the Country Music Hall of Fame. We had Carrie Underwood/The Band Perry tickets to the Opry, but we didn't last long there because the munchkin was ready for bed.

After Nashville fun, we headed to the smoky mountains and we stayed in Pigeon Forge Ford for the week. We had a really great time with all of the Ford's. We went to Dixie Stampede, drove through the park, had a picnic, and lots of other outdoor things. Connor mostly enjoyed crawling, as he was still pretty new to being so mobile. He also had fun "playing" with his one year old cousin, Dominic, as much as babies actually "play".

Here are a few pics!

Go ahead and swoon over his adorable 4th of July smocked outfit! I had the camera out while we were waiting in line at the Hall of Fame!

We went all the way to Nashville to ride the carousel at the mall. But look at the smile on his face! We were killing some time before the Opry!

With his 91-year old great grandmother, Mimi in Rocky Mountain National Park! What a view!

He loved sticking his hand in the water trough at the picnic and splashing!

Playing in his outdoor playpen his Nana and Pops brought for him. See the orange ball...that's what made him finally start crawling, instead of just rocking back and forth, reaching his arms and belly flopping!

The Ford's. And yes, we are wearing matching t-shirts. Why not? And of course they are purple & gold!

Adore this picture of my boys!