Tyler's 6th Birthday

Like most celebrities, Tyler's 6th birthday included a full weekend of partying.  Saturday we made a trip down to Zoo Miami.  If you like in South Florida and are looking for something to do with the kids, this zoo is worth the drive!  We met Diego, fed some giraffes and rode a camel.  What more could a 6 year old and his 3 year old brother want???

Later Saturday night, we went for a kid-friendly dinner at Steak n Shake, the boys got to have milk shakes and then we went home to watch "Bee Movie" as a family.  The boys love movie night!

Sunday was Tyler's birthday party.  We had a morning visit with Papaw and Gramma Dee.  They brought Tyler the new Hess truck with the jet carrier.  Pretty cool I must admit.

The party guests included the usual attendees, LOTS of family and some friends that just like family.  I don't do a good job of getting pictures of anything other than the cake and presents because I'm usually pretty busy at these events!


Let's start with the birthday decor.  Tyler asked for a "Handy Manny" birthday since Carter's party in May.  Apparently Handy Manny is not a popular guy because the only place I could find his birthday line was on the internet.

Handy Manny is so unpopular that I couldn't find a cake.  So Scooby Doo it was!
  I swear Publix cakes are the best birthday cakes ever!!!

Then it was present time.  Of course Carter had to get in on the fun!  Poor little guy had a rough time having all the attention on his big brother!  We gave Ty a Leapster Explorer so he got lots of games for it, some clothes (including the PJ's we can always count on Aunt Mar' for!), Operation (remember this game?) and lots of books.

Tyler and Me (Mommy).

 Tyler and Dan (Daddy).

Each birthday, I do a little "photo shoot" of the birthday boy in the backyard.  I love doing this right before their party, the kids are so excited I can always get a real smile from them.  You can see their excitement.  Here's one of my favorite shots.

So, you would think that was the end of the celebrating, right??? Nope.  On Monday, Tyler's class celebrated his birthday AND he received an award for perfect attendance (that's my boy)!

Thanksgiving is Coming

Wow, it was just Halloween and now Thanksgiving is only a week away!  I thought this would be a good time to post a Thanksgiving layout.  I just scrapped this page using the November kit from scrapbook circle BUT it uses pictures from 2001.  Dan, myself, Dan's brother, Mark, and sister, Adrienne, had just moved to Florida.  Just us "kids" were around for the holiday, no adults.  Woohoo, I finally got to sit at the kids table!  Dan cooked the turkey while wearing his bathing suit and an ugly shirt, we all took turns basting the turkey (makes for great pics) and drank some Wild Turkey.  Sounds sophisticated, huh?  We may not have had all the fixin's we were used to but we made the best of it.  And looking back on these photos, I remember us having a great time.

This year we will again be hosting Turkey Day, but things have changed since this first Thanksgiving.  We are in a house now (instead of the apartment these pictures were taken at) and have 2 little turkeys of our own.  Oh, and the Thanksgiving of 4 is now going to be a Thanksgiving of 20 plus people.

How are your Thanksgiving preparation going?

Play Date

This past Sunday we had a nice play date with the Foster and Stevenson families.  The men enjoyed some football and the ladies enjoyed the beautiful weather in our backyard with the 7 kids (1 - 6 years old).  The kids all played together and gave us gals some time to chat.  Boy, it makes me realize that I need some "Girl Time" every now and then!

The kids enjoyed painting a large mural.  Thank God for washable paints!

Isn't is a beautiful work of art?  This was the cutest group of artists I've ever seen!

They also had some good old fashioned fun playing in the sandbox (we made sure the sand was "fresh" just for the occasion!)  We had no shovels or pails, so we gave the kids plastic cups, spoons and forks.  They didn't care and had fun filling the cups with sand and then dumping them on the lawn (that may have been done by my boys exclusively)...

We also got the kids into the Thanksgiving spirit by making some foam turkeys that they could take home with them.  Peel and stick craft foam is truly one of the best inventions ever!

One of the kids is missing from the pics, since he is a little guy and too small to hang with the big kids.  But he is too cute to not share a picture of!

So, all in all we had a wonderful day together.  We are surely going to do this more often!

Little Pirates Searching for Treasure at Daycare

Today was the parade at the boys' daycare.  Regular school was closed today, so Tyler got to participate in the Halloween festivities as well.  This was special because Tyler was in the hospital last Halloween and missed out on the parades and other fun.  I was with Ty, so I missed out on seeing Carter in his parade.  It always amazes me how important these things are to me.  Having kids can really open your eyes to what's important in life!

The boys dressed as pirates.  Carter wore the costume Tyler wore 2 years ago and Tyler wore a different pirate costume the was given to him as a gift.  Here they are this morning before daycare.  I'm sure the neighbors loved me yelling at the boys "pirates aren't afraid of wet grass!" at 7 am.

Here are some pictures from the parade.  They were soooo excited!

Then it was time for the party!  I didn't stay long since I had to get back to work, but here are a few shots.

Next up, the big day!  Stay tuned for more pictures!!!!