Noah's 3rd Birthday

I have been a little behind on my blogging lately but May has been kind of busy. On May 22nd Noah celebrated his third (wow!) birthday. He was so excited to be 3 and even more excited to have another party with another cake and more presents.

My Mom, sister Jessie (Aunt J), Wes' parents, and Uncle Cy and Aunt Carissa all came for dinner on that Friday to celebrate the big day. Noah, being just like his Mommy, insisted that we open presents first.

He only needed to be reminded about ripping the paper once and then he was good to go. He tore into everything and was very excited about all the gifts, especially the Thomas the Train ones!

We saved his big present from Wes and I for last. For two months now he has been asking for a specific Thomas play set. He calls it the "Freight Car One" because it comes with a freight car. There is a commercial for it at the beginning of one of his Thomas videos and every time he sees it he asks for it. I have been telling him that he should wait and see if he got it for his birthday. So....

He ripped into the big package and when he saw what it was he squealed, "Oh! It's the freight car one - the one I wanted!" It was so cute!

After presents we ate dinner, while Noah played with his new toys, and then we had cake.

Noah blew out the candles and then played with the Thomas action figure that came on top of the cake.

After cake, Noah took everyone outside to show them one of his favorite new toys from his birthday party. It is a Nerf rocket launcher. You jump on the pump thingy and the arrows are launched right up into the sky. Noah loves it!

Notice the look of glee.

And, of course, as the night wound to an end.....if there is the combination of wine and a camera you can guess what my sister and I are going to do.

(Actually, the wine is not even necessary for goofiness - we can attain that stone cold sober!)

Last Day of School

The Wednesday before Memorial Day was Noah's last day of school. All the kids - K2 through K4- put on an end of the year program for the parents where each grade sang and recited their Bible verses. They also had a "graduation" ceremony for the four year olds that was really cute. They even played a video where they had interviewed the four year olds and asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. One little boy looked right at the camera and declared that he wanted to be a vampire. That was my favorite part - mostly because I know that two years from now my son will most likely be the one saying crazy things like that.

After the program the parents joined the kids in their classroom for an end of year party. The kids were all sitting nicely eating their party snacks when I got there and I found Noah sitting on the floor chatting happily with his buddies.

Of course, as usual, he was the first one done because he is not big on the food and had to find a way to entertain himself until his friends were done.

A little downward facing dog? Maybe he has been watching my yoga DVDs?

Anyway, then they all just played for awhile. Noah's teacher had told me that he and his friend Julien have made up a classroom ghost and that everyday the ghost chases them. True to form, once they were done eating, one of them spotted the ghost and they immediately started running around the room screaming, "the ghost is coming! it's gettin' us!" Our imagination is on overload these days!

Noah and his buddy Julien, post "ghost chase".

Noah and his teacher, Miss Holloway

I had so much fun getting to see his program and go to his party. It was amazing to watch him in his school environment, acting confident and having a blast. It was a far cry from the first day back in September when I left him screaming with tears running down his face. He has grown up so much since then!

Birthday Bash 2009

Noah's third birthday is this Friday but we went ahead and had his party this weekend. We had planned a pool party for Sunday afternoon. Well, Sunday rolls around and...it is pouring rain. I panicked for a minute but since I seem to be in some sort of feud with mother nature I quickly became resigned to a rainy party.

Although, it was really fine. I found out that kids just want to swim. They don't really care if it is cold and rainy. A pool is fun no matter what.

Noah's buddy Julien even went in with all his clothes on!

Todd, Nick, Noah and Julien go crazy in the rain.

After we finally dragged the kids out of the pool, we headed to the covered (thank goodness) pavilion to have pizza and cake. And let me tell you, I have never seen a child so enamored with his cake. Of course when it looks like this, who can blame him?

In typical Noah fashion we skipped right over the pizza and were pants on fire to cut the cake.

Ants in pants waiting for me to light the candle.

After cake we opened presents. It was kind of a free for all with all those kids wanting to see the loot, but Noah opened them all and thanked all his friends and it was so cute.

Despite the bad weather the party turned out okay and Noah had a blast. Here are a few more fun pictures.

The present craze...Clayton (in the pink) helped Noah open all his presents. I think it is because she has a vested interest in what he got, as she will most likely be playing with it all very soon!

Uh oh! Those three look like trouble......

Hannah holds "Baby" Abigail.

Noah at home - cleaned up and in his PJs - and ready to play with his new toys. Please notice the huge red scrape on his cheek from a nasty fall he took while running (ahem) around the pool. Oh well, it's not a good party without a few battle scars, right?

PJ's and Rain Boots

Noah is obviously on the cutting edge of fashion....right? I mean, doesn't everybody wear rain boots with their PJ's?

Happy Mother's Day

So this, my third Mother's Day, has definitely been more interesting than my first two. Why? Well, perhaps it's because my son is almost three and has quite the little personality these days.

This morning Wes made breakfast for me and his intention was to bring it to me in bed as a surprise and have Noah give me his card/present at the same time. However, with Noah, very little ever goes according to plan. Noah barged into my room this morning - I heard Wes yelling,"No, not yet, wait Noah" - and marched over to my bed and handed me my card. He had colored it himself so I made a big deal and thanked him of course. Now, these days Daddy is really Noah's favorite person (Father's Day will be much more anticipated this year) so he didn't really want crappy old Mom to keep his card.

"I'm bringin' this back to Daddy, ok?" I tried to explain that it was for me and how much I loved it but he kept insisting that he had to give it back to Wes. Finally, I grabbed it and said, "No, Noah it is Mommy's"

Well that pissed him off, so he slid off my bed and stomped to the kitchen to find Wes and yelled, "Daddy! Momma says I can't give this card back to you!"

I know, I know, you're really jealous of all the love I got, huh?

No, in all seriousness my husband and my son have been very sweet to me today and despite the card incident, I have received much love today. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Fun With Friends Downtown

Last weekend, while our friends Julie and Devin were in town, we ended up going downtown and just spent a couple hours walking around.

Sometimes I forget how fun it can be to just walk around in downtown Charleston. Plus, it was perfect for us for two reasons, A) Julie and Devin had their dog Maggie and B) we had our son, who I was hoping would get really tired from all the walking and take a good nap! We spent some time on my favorite street (King) and then wandered through Wes' favorite Alma mater (The College of Charleston). Finally, we stopped to eat at Juanita Greenberg's for some yummy Mexican food. I haven't been there since college but they were very good and scored major points in my book for having yummy guacamole and for letting cute little Maggie come through the restaurant to eat out in the courtyard. They even brought her out some water!

She was obviously a little tuckered out from all that walking!

After we ate we headed across the street to a gourmet dog store. They had a whole glass display of doggie treats so I told Noah to help Julie pick one out for Maggie. They only problem with this was that the treats looked like little cupcakes so he looked them over, pointed to some with a huge grin on his face and said,

"Maggie wants this one....and I want that one."

He continues to remain unconvinced that such yummy looking treats could possibly be only for dogs.

Between all the walking, and moving around the furniture on the outside patio at the restaurant (don't ask why, I couldn't tell you), our mission was accomplished and Noah took a nap. Bonus? We had a bunch of fun downtown with friends!

Baby Shower Bonanza

This weekend my friend Julie and I threw a baby shower for our friend Gray. Julie, Gray and I are friends from college and even though we don't get to see each other as often as we would like we still have a blast hanging out together. Julie and I were very excited to be able to have this shower for Gray and get to spend time with her before the baby comes in June!

The shower was at my house and Julie and I did all the cooking. Well, except for the yummy cupcakes. Those came from my favorite dessert place, Cupcake, in downtown Charleston.

Gray and Claire check out the loot for Baby Morgan!

I always love hanging out with these two ladies!