Baby Ryan turns 2!

Ryan loves the carousel.....loves it! So when it was time to think about where to have her party the obvious choice was Adventure Crossing since they're the only place in town that has one. The party package price wasn't too bad and I was able to get the day I wanted and the time (trying to work around Ryan's nap time). After having the invitations made, addressing them, and sealing them, I got a call that Adventure Crossing was unable to host Ryan's birthday party at the time we had designated (11:00 a.m.). The only available time was going to be 3 p.m. on the same day. Considering that's right in the middle of Ryan's nap time I wasn't a very happy camper, but there was nothing else I could do. They offered to take $50 off the package price in hopes of making me a little happier....I took it but I still wasn't too thrilled.

I've known for a while that I was going to do these Dora the Explorer cupcakes I had seen featured on Nick Jr. They definitely did not look easy, but they were too cute to resist. The day before Ryan's party we were having all the carpets in the house cleaned so I took Ryan and Everett to their great-grandparents house so that they would not be in the way. This gave me time to do the cupcakes. It took me a good 3 1/2 hours to get those little boogers done but I finally finished and was extremely happy with the results. I put them in aluminum containers and left them on the counter so they were ready for the party the next day. Later in the evening after Jarrod and the kids got home I went to the kitchen and glanced at the cupcakes....only to find their faces were melting off!!! I didn't even know what to do....cry? scream? laugh at the sheer thought that I had worked so hard and now they were ruined? Jarrod came in there and being the supportive husband that he is (and knowing how hard I had worked) he busted out laughing, started taking pictures of the now-melted cupcakes, and said 'Dora was committing suicide.' Isn't he the best?

"The good looking Dora's"


"The melted Dora's"


I put them in the fridge and decided I would work on the in the morning....I just couldn't look at them anymore. The next day I took them out and one by one I tried to fix their faces. All the mouths had come off and one Dora had even lost an eye (she became a pirate!). I was able to salvage them but they didn't look quite as good as the night before. Oh well....by this time all I could do was laugh.





Mommy and the Party Girl





Daddy and the Party Girl







That morning we woke Ryan up extra early so that she would go down for her nap a couple hours earlier and it seemed to work pretty well. When we arrived at the party place there were a lot of people hanging around outside...the place looked closed. I got up to the door and there was a sign posted that they were having a "closed event but would reopen at 3 p.m." Okay so why did they tell me to get there 15 minutes early?? We finally were let in and the arcade area just looked really dim. I had not really been there since the place had changed over from Funsville to Adventure Crossing and I can definitely say it looked like they took the "fun" right out of it. All the crazy neon lights had been taken down and it was dark and a bit gloomy. I headed to our designated party room and started setting up the cupcakes (there was no attendent waiting for us). People were starting to trickle in and I wasn't sure what we were suppose to do first so I went to find someone to help. Our attendent finally arrived s-l-o-w-l-y but surely. She didn't seem to really know how to 'guide' a birthday party so I kind of had to take charge. I told her there were going to be 5 extra kids (15 total) and that we would have them eat first, then do cupcakes, then open presents.



After about 10-15 minutes I had all the kids sit at the table and the attendant brought in the pizza and just looked at me. I was thinking to myself 'so, am I suppose to serve this or are you?' I finally asked her what would we serve the pizza with (such as a spatula, etc.) and she said "We got gloves." Okay so we're going to serve this piping hot pizza with gloves? Okay then. Next we needed to cut up the pizza for several of the kids and she had only given us spoons. This attendant was obviously not the brightest crayon in the box. Finally the pizza was eaten, the cupcakes were served and I got Ryan started on open the ginormous pile of presents. She opened 2 presents and then simply told me "I done" and walked off. Okay then....we'll open presents at home!



By this time most of the party was starting to get anxious and wanting the tickets and tokens. I went to search for the attendant (again) and told her we were ready for the tickets and tokens. She looked blankly at me and said "You have to close out your party first." Okay, I take it you mean pay, so I went and got my purse. I finished paying and the girl simply said "I don't know why those tickets ain't comin' out." I stood there for TEN minutes and finally she said they would bring the tickets and tokens to party room as soon as they got them ready. Hmm....wouldn't it be wise to already have all that ready prior to the party?? I went back to the party room and told all the kids we were still 'waiting' (not something easy to do!)

Finally the attendant brought the bags of tickets and tokens. I noticed there were all the tickets, but each bag only had 1 token. I asked her about it and she said that you have to put that token in a machine and it'll then give you your 10 tokens. THAT IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING I HAVE EVER HEARD OF! So basically everytime I handed out a ticket bag I had to explain to the child or parent what to do with the single token.

By this time my sister-in-law had already taken Ryan outside to get on the carousel because I was being held up with party matters. On the way out I went to put my single token in the machine and guess what happened? The MAINTENANCE light came on! Are you serious?? I was pretty much disgusted with that whole place by that point.



Luckily as soon as I walked outside I saw Ryan on the carousel and her whole face was lit up....that moment right there made everything worth it! She was enjoying herself so much!





After the carousel, Ryan and her cousin Claire rode the airplane ride (with Aunt Courtney also since she is almost just as small as they are!).



Right when they got off Ryan wanted to ride the 'horsey' (aka the carousel). I seriously lost count how many times she rode, but she was having the time of her life so I was going to let her ride as many times as she wanted! She tried to ride the hot air balloon ride but immediately had the look of terror/nausea on her face and they stopped the ride to let her off. Back to the good ol' carousel she went!

The next morning Jarrod and I put all of Ryan's gifts in the living room and let her open them....it looked like Christmas had exploded in there! Ryan was excited about every single gift she opened and we're very thankful to have such wonderful people in our lives that love her just as much as we do. Although I did have quite a few cupcake and party headaches, seeing my little girl have fun was worth every single bit of it.

Here are a few pictures of Ryan opening her presents and trying everything out!



With my matching apron and chef's hat, I'm ready to get cooking!














The girl loves dress-up!















New Dora Guitar













Opening her interactive Dora

October Update

I haven't posted anything since Everett was born so I thought I'd give an update on my family and what's been going on.

Everett is now 3 months old and such a happy little boy! He has the cutest smile I've ever seen and I can already tell he's a momma's boy (which I am absolutely loving). He's starting to interact more and likes to 'talk' quite a bit now. He's a very content little man and generally likes to just sit and watch his big sister. He doesn't demand a lot of attention, which is good considering that his big sister does!

Ryan is about to be 2 years old and she's becoming a little girl, not my little baby anymore. I love to listen to her talk, which she usually does non-stop. My favorite things she says are "Hake up!"(wake up), "Hollow" (hello), and "Buh-gah" (booger), lol. We've started putting her in Mother's Day Out to give her more of a social setting and she's loving it. She loves to walk around wearing her backpack and I'm only embarassed to say that I enjoy packing her bookbag and lunch box in the evening to get her ready for school. She's got such a sweet spirit about her and greets everyone she sees with a "hello." She absolutely loves her little brother and so far I have never seen any kind of jealousy between them. Jarrod and I try our best to spend as much time as we can with each of them.

We are still attending Steven Creek Community Church and love it. It is definitely the place God wants us to be. I've been wanting to start doing some volunteer work in a soup kitchen or donation center so I'm going to be looking into that. Recently our church as been discussing how to find you're strengths so that you can use them to serve God and help people and I feel that this is an area I would be good at.

This year Jarrod and I have changed the way we eat and the foods that we eat. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution coupled with the documentary movie "Food Inc." was enough to push us to change. I've struggled with my weight my whole life and I'm tired of it. I'm tired of feeling sluggish and wanting to constantly sit or lay down to rest. As a family we have decided to reduce the amount of meat that we eat and only cook meat that has been humanely raised with no growth hormones administered. Yes it is more expensive, but since this is something very important to us, we will invest in it. Earth Fare is a grocery store that we've been buying from lately and it only sells items that have no artifical ingredients, growth hormones, high fructose corn syrup, or hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils added trans-fats. I cook basically all of our meals so it's easy to control what we eat, however, when we go out to each (which isn't very often) or to our friends houses we will obviously be a lot more lenient....we are still in the beginning stages of this change and we don't expect everyone around us to each exactly as we do.

Ryan's 2nd birthday party is next week and I can't wait to see how excited she gets! We're having it at Adventure Crossing because it have a carousel and that is Ryan's absolute favorite thing! We're also having our first adult halloween costume party, so that should be a lot of fun....I've been preparing for it for weeks. In November we will have our family pictures made at Hopeland Gardens and then Thanksgiving will be here, followed closely behind by Christmas. I love this time of year and all the craziness that comes along with it!