Birthday Theme

Trevor's 1st birthday is coming up fast! I have been thinking about it for about 2 months now. I want it to be great, as this miracle deserves a celebration! (I think I used that same excuse for his baptism party, oops!) I don't plan on having a large party every year. I'm thinking 1, 5, 10, and 13! Its hard to keep things "low-key" when my immediate family is 15 people. So, it will be big and it will be great!

My first decision was to split the list into two. I was overwhelmed just writing the names down for the invites and couldn't imagine trying to entertain all the friends and family while documenting the occasion and enjoying my son. We have a handful of friends without kids, mainly unmarried. I decided we would do something separate for them. I think they will like it better, as I would have about 2 years ago! We will talk about that party later..

For his main/kids/big party, I wanted a cute theme. My first thought was a Bee-day party. Ya know, keep it simple with black and yellow, I found a super cute invite, etc. As I researched it more, a lot of the decor was girly and this boy does not need that. I moved on to finding a cute animal theme. It was hard to pick one..do you go with a safari? Or zoo? Or just giraffes? I didn't want to obsess over everything matching, so I threw that idea out the window.

We went to Party City one day and came across some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse items. It hit me-a Mickey party! I went home, googled for hours and decided on it! The main reason I fell in love was this invitation:

I'm going to stick with the bright colors..orange, red, blue and green!

Trevor's invite wording is below, I ADORE it!

I just love the color scheme on the invite and am using it as my focus for the rest of the party. I am not doing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse..just Mickey. Trevor has a personalized shirt to wear, along with his ears. I bought the plain Mickey pinata. Plus, candy will be on clearance after Halloween. ;) I bought a bday book for everyone to sign as a keepsake. I ordered Mickey return address labels for the invites/thank yous.

The party is from 1-4 at the clubhouse in our condo complex. Its a huge room that accommodates up to 150 people. I may borrow a jump house from a friend. Ill have coloring pages and possibly make-your-own-ears at a table. At 2 pm, I have the Tot Rock woman coming. Tot Rock is a local Mommy and me music class you can sign up for. Its the typical music, finger plays, dancing for kids of all ages. They will entertain the youngins for 45 minutes and each child will go home with an instrument. See how that ties in with the invite wording? Seriously, those little things make me SMILE!

I'm not sure what Ill do for food yet. I'm sure it will be the usual..beef, pasta, salad, fruit. I need to go to the bakery and talk cake, cupcakes and smash cake! I may price cookies for people to go home with. Of course, Ill have goodie bags for the kiddos.

I have the invites ready to go out, I'm just waiting until the beginning of October to come. They do have matching Thank you notes, but I really like giving/getting picture thank yous. Its cheap, quick and easy! I found postcards you can make, which makes the postage even less expensive. Ill be sure to get the perfect picture on the big day.

Any other Mickey/1st bday suggestions would be appreciated!!

Lazy Sunday

Our Sunday was particularly lazy, thanks to such a late night before. We walked the Alzheimer's 5K with some family and friends. It was nice to be a part of. Trevor lasted in the stroller for a few minutes until he realized how many people were around to hold him!!

We had lunch at Portillos-YUM!-and went back for a nap. Tom ran to Walmart to buy more County stuff and we slept. Then, we went to Bass Pro Shop to buy a gun case. Tom bought his Glock about 2 weeks ago and is spending this week and next at the range! Trevor liked the decor in BPS, especially the fish!

We crossed the street to IKEA and browsed for a while. I cant wait until we have a house and Trevor has a playroom. It will be so organized! He played with the toys and we left with the bead roller coaster.

Trevor perfected his cheese face. Now, as soon as he sees the camera, he does it. Its so ugly, its cute!! At least you can see his teeth. He went from 0-6 in 6 weeks!

I just switched his closet from summer to fall. I love having a sister with great taste to get hand me downs from. Seriously, I don't have to buy a single thing! Isn't this track suit the cutest!?

Trevor trying to crack the code!

As for the academy, Tom is in his 5th week! He is over 1/4th of the way finished! He is enjoying it. Although, its very difficult. He is so drained at the end of the day. It'll all be worth it in December when he gets that badge!!

As for me, I am staying very busy. I'm in planning mode. I have our entire October booked with fun activities. Trevor's bday parties are in the works. {There will be 2!} I'm researching hotels for us to stay in the Dells to celebrate Daddy's graduation. I'm stalking the insurance website in hopes to print out a temp card for my new gyno appt on Friday! All in a days work..:)

Perfect Saturday

We had a pretty low key weekend; just what the doctor ordered. No, really, Trevor took a trip to the ER Friday night(only reason we went there was because we don't have a new pediatrician yet) and was diagnosed with a double ear infection. His right ear is considered severe. He had a cold that cleared up and apparently its common for it to turn into an ear infection shortly after. He had a fever Thursday-Friday afternoon and wasn't urinating. We took him in to be safe and sure enough, he was pretty sick. He has been on amoxocillan since and it a bit fussy, but getting better.

Anyway, Saturday morning I let Tom sleep in. Trevor and I played and made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. We returned a few emails and hung out until Daddy got up.

We ran a few short errands and got home with enough time for a walk before lunch. We tested out his wagon for the first time. The pictures tell it all-he LOVED it. That's his new "cheese" face, by the way.

We had lunch and Trevor went down for a nap. I went to get a manicure and pedicure. I tried out a new salon close to our condo and loved it! They weren't rushed, and whatever they used on my legs was amazing! I'm so glad to have found a new place for when I allow myself to be pampered!

We relaxed for a bit and then had to get ready for our night out. Tom and I attended a cocktail party for the boy Tom is running the marathon for. His name is Sam and he has Muscular Dystrophy. We left Trev with out good friends and he was asleep 30 minutes after being there. We enjoyed wine, appetizers and good conversation. They had this presentation about whats being done with the money and it was so amazing to be a part of it.

Around 9:30pm, Jill and I had to leave to make our show. We went downtown to see Chelsea Handler! We had awesome seats and she was hilarious! We got home at 2am, which was way past this Mamas bedtime!

I love days like that..family time, couple time, friend time, and me time all in ONE day!!

Heading Home

Lets finish up this darn vacation, huh!? After being up since 5 am, we finished packing, ate and went to MGM for the day. <~~~Aka Hollywood Studios but I refuse to call it that. We went to the Playhouse Disney Live show and Trevor LOVED it. I think more than anything the entire trip! Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is the only show I DVR for him. As soon as he heard the opening music, he sat so still and stared in awe. Soon, he was giggling, bouncing and enjoying every second. It was adorable!

We did go grab fastpasses for the Toy Story ride, knowing how long the lines are. Luckily, we went back and saw the wait was only 45 minutes and we could handle that. Its decorated so cute in there and it helps the time pass.

Of course, Trevor finally fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got on the ride. That ride is one of my faves, without a doubt!

This will be one of our traditional pics of him. Here it is from April-

The adults went on Tower of Terror while my Mom stayed with the kids. We used our fastpasses to ride TS a second time. We pretty much called it a day after that.

We had an hour or so back at the house before we had to leave for the airport. Trev took a dip in the pool while I got our stuff together. We had a quick dinner and were off. Trevor was overtired from not getting sufficient naps, so he was a bit irritable while waiting to board and on the plane. He dozed off for the last hour, and I was able to rest a little.

We were so glad to get home and see the Daddy! Tom boo-hooed the whole time, saying he should have come for the few days and how boring his life was. :0) Not sure when our next vacation will be. Possibly a trip to GA to hang with the Hopkins triplets again!

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In unrelated news, I have been in a bit of a slump since Saturday. We had our friends kids bday party to attend. There, was the couple whos wedding we attended in June. Shes 15 weeks pregnant. Happy, but totally unplanned and a bit shocked. "The one time birth control failed." This was mentioned many times. Then, we had our good friends over, whos wedding we were supposed to go to next May in the Bahamas. Shes 17 weeks pregnant. Huge surprise, resulting in cancelling the wedding. Happy, but not enjoying being pregnant.

Having to deal with both of those couples + me drinking 2 glasses of wine=sobbed myself to sleep. It felt like the first real cry for baby #2. Ive felt crappy since. When you add in all the stress of finding new doctors to get naked in front of and trust with your precious embryos, and knowing September is almost over. The month I totally expected to be pregnant by..I cant vent to Tom much, considering I see him for about 2-3 hours per day. Those hours are used for dinner, baths, homework and relaxing. Burdening him with my stresses is the last thing he needs.

Ill be okay. Im not sure what I need to feel better, but I hope to find it soon.

Wordless Wednesday

My 9-5=

Daytona Beach

Day 3 of vacation, we decided to take a break from the parks and drive to Daytona Beach. My Dad asked the worker at Starbucks the best route to go. He told him a shortcut that would avoid all the tourist traffic. Great!, we thought..We set out, our van following my sisters rental van..

3 hours later, we were still in the car! The man had us take this crazy route which led us through the national forest! Plus, we were behind this huge RV that was going under the speed limit and we had no way to get around it for miles and miles. By the time we got there, we were all crabby and ready to return home.


Thankfully, we didn't. We ended up having a wonderful day.

It was Trevor's first time in the ocean. I was sure he would be bothered by the salt water, but nope. He kept licking his lips, he liked it!

Trevor played in the sand for a while. Hes gotten really good at not eating up and actually playing.

Him and Tyler played. Tyler takes it upon himself to watch over Trevor. Hes always telling him, "No, baby!"

Trevor loved crawling through the water. He would crawl toward the waves and then turn around to escape them. It was too stinkin cute!

All the kids had a blast. Mikey used to be afraid of the water, so it was nice to see him jumping the waves in the deep part. They actually saw a pod of dolphins swim by!

The best pic I got of all 5. I love them SO much!

Handsome Braydon

Delaney spelling everyones names

Trevor LOVES Mikey. We all say he is the king of the family, because all the kids adore him. Mikey is a great oldest cousin and is really sweet with all of them.

Beautiful Delaney Grace

Trevor passed out in the stroller toward the end of the day, so I was able to go in the waves with the kids. Maybe next year Daddy can come and enjoy a day at the beach with all of us!

Thankfully, it only took as an hour to get home. We were all covered in sand from head to toe. I took a bath/shower with Trevor. He kept looking at me like..Hey, what are you doing in here with me? We got dressed and headed to Downtown Disney. Our car, which was just my parents, me and Trevor made it inside Wolfgang Puck before the storm. The other car didn't get so lucky. All the kids got drenched! They had to run into one of the stores and buy them all shirts so they wouldn't get sick. We had a nice dinner and did lots of shopping. Trevor got..a baby giraffe, his Mickey(he gets one every time we go), a bus, and the baby character set.

We went back to the house and crashed. I was sure Trevor would sleep through the night because we had such a long day. Unfortunately for me, he was up at 5 and wouldn't go back to bed. So, my day to travel home I was running on 4 hours of sleep. It was rough!

Ill finish up tomorrow. :)