Lucy's 1st Birthday Party

It's hard to believe that in just 2 days, our Lucy girl will be 1 year old. We had the best weekend celebrating our girl with family and friends, it couldn't have been sweeter. The whole day I just felt relaxed and joyful, knowing how many people love and care for our girl and our family just makes me heart feel so full and happy. I basically started planning her birthday party before she was 6 months old because I love coming up with ideas, crafting, being on the lookout for good deals, etc. The theme was floral/pink/mint/gold which is the decor in her room. A big money saving tip for planning a 1st birthday is just to make it the theme of your kiddos nursery. I didn't really buy much for decor and just stripped things off of her walls and shelves to decorate. I found the daintiest floral napkins at IKEA and bought baby pink plates at the Dollar Tree. The gold Happy Birthday sign was $4.99 at Hobby Lobby and I bought a lot from the Target Dollar Spot. We hosted a brunch and served egg casseroles, kolaches, donuts, fruit, cheese tray, and desserts. It's funny comparing Ford's birthday to Lucy's. Ford's we had a bunch of adults and little babies so I didn't feel the need to plan activities but Lucy's was tons of toddlers and preschoolers so we had a bounce house and painting station for the kiddos. Ford had so much fun! Lucy was such a happy girl the day of her party... she cuddled with anyone who held her, kept her headband on, and scarfed down egg casserole. She loved her cake, opposite of big brother, and got mad when it was gone (I took half of the cupcake away because such a tiny girl doesn't need so much sugar!). We requested no gifts but a few people brought some and she loved tearing through the tissue paper and shaking the bags. My parents and siblings stayed over to help clean up while the kids napped and we had dinner at Lucy's Fried Chicken on Lake Travis... gorgeous views and delicious food! Thank you so much for celebrating our Lucy girl, even through a computer screen. It is so much fun to have so many people cheering for our family whether it be our children's milestones or our upcoming adoption. It brings my heart so much joy to see how much JOY Lucy girl brings to so many.

Now for a picture overload.. and videos at the bottom.

My dress is Comfy and Chic Boutique

Lucy's bubble is Smocked Auctions

Lucy's headband is BellaMoza

Lucy's birthday hat is Dainty Couture 

The Pumpkin Gospel

A few weeks ago the girls in my missional community group (our church's home group/small group) were brainstorming ways we can love on our neighbors and ultimately share the gospel with them. Having kids makes it really easy to get an "in" with your neighbors so creating events for the kiddos is a huge win. We decided to do a pumpkin painting party where we would read The Pumpkin Gospel and teach our children about how God cleans out our insides of sin, gives us a new identity/face, and gives us the light of the Holy Spirit, just like a Jack O Lantern! I really love these sweet teachable moments with my kids, especially during the fun holiday season. It is so easy to use the holidays as a vehicle to point them to Jesus. We each invited a few families and it was so much fun! We pre carved the pumpkin to make it easier and let the kids touch the pumpkin guts and throw them in the trash, just like God throws our sin away. Ford is now at a really impressionable age and although he's not understanding the depth of the Gospel, he knows who Jesus is, learns about him all week at school and Sunday school, and gets excited about lots of things so I really look forward to doing similar stuff with him for Thanksgiving and of course Christmas! After we read the story we let the kids paint pumpkins and use Halloween stickers. Having kids really makes the holidays so much more fun!

I posted a few pictures on Instagram and people commented that the book The Pumpkin Gospel is almost impossible to find online. I did some searching and you can find it right now on Diapers.com for $10.99. We also have the book The Pumpkin Parable that I got on Half.com but it will be better for Ford when he is a bit older. 

Ford's Birthday Celebrations

Well, Ford's birthday has come and gone and now we have a two year old in our house! It has been a funky week... we found out Ford had a double ear infection at his 2 year well check so he's not been feeling awesome but his actual birthday was so special! We took him to a mini golf place by our house (left Lucy with neighbors) and had Sonic corndogs, a fun date with our big boy. He woke up nice and early on his birthday (Tuesday August 11th) and we had blown up a ton of balloons and put them in the family room. We gifted him an easel and a tricycle so we had that set up with some other gifts from family members and friends for him to open. Last year we went all out for his first birthday party so I wanted to keep it low key this year. We had his friends over to swim at Mimi and Papa's pool and I ordered cupcakes from Sams. I stressed that it was NOT a party, just a play date with some extra sugar. Ford took an awesome birthday nap and we took him to a new Mexican food restaurant by our house. He indulged in chips, quesadillas, and a whole piece of flan!!! Jon and I put him to bed together (technically he wasn't 2 year, he was born at 11:46pm and I didn't meet him until the next day) and I cried reading The Night You Were Born to him. I have such sweet and scary memories from Ford's actual birth day, I couldn't have asked for a better TWO years with this happy boy. Thank you so much for all the kind comments, messages, etc. for Ford on his birthday! Cheers to making it 2 years in parenthood.

My aunt gifted him the coolest little "block" connector things (like my description?). They are called Squigz and are right up this little engineers alley!

Ford is obsessed with puzzles right now and he is moving on from the Melissa and Doug block puzzles to "real puzzles". We got this set of two giant floor puzzles from The Learning Journey International and they are going to be such a great learning resource for him! One puzzle is of animals and the other is colors so he and I did them together, talking about the colors, shapes, pictures along the way. The pieces are big enough for his chubby fingers and he had fun shrieking, "Elephant! Tiger! Giraffe!". The pack is only $14.99 and can be purchased here. 

Sweet Deborah, The Cupcake Stylist, gifted us this Ford cake topper, made completely from sugar! I didn't let Ford eat it because it is so darn cute, I have it saved. 

How to get a bunch of 2 year olds to sit together for a picture? Give them cupcakes!

Beautiful little sis enjoyed a dip in the pool 

Sometimes you have to nurse while doing 1000 other things (and socialize at the same time)

Love my babies!

My safe boy went down the waterslide!