"Teague is 2"

Teague's birthday party was a work in progress. There was some planning done, but not nearly enough. I decided on the theme and ordered some items so that they could play (if they wanted) and ordered some super cute birthday invitations from Polka Dot Designs. This is the invitation (poor copy) and then, this is what I had them say:

All Aboard!

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
Jump on the tracks
Our Teague is two!

He's discovered trains
and all they do
So we're building his first
and we need YOU!

August 22, 2009
Arrival time: 5:00 p.m.
Meet at Smith Station

Come ready to play, eat
and have some fun!

Reserve your ticket:
832-735-2128 or
ourfoursmiths@att.net

We spent the week before his birthday in Fredericksburg and the invitations were delivered to Sugar Land so I actually never got them mailed to anyone. A definite first for me. They were so cute and I was bummed, but we all survived my lack of organization. A few days before the party, I got on my bike and delivered a few and then called on my trusty friends to bring their children over to have some fun. They were so nice to show up to sing the birthday song to Teague! I know now who I can count on!!

Here's the cake that I worked on for several hours. I think it turned out well and I really think the kids liked it- of course, Teague couldn't care less....he just wanted to eat all the little candy loaded on each box car! Teague is loving his new train set and can play with it for endless hours.

When everyone started to sing, Teague just stared at everyone and didn't know what to think. He started telling us, "I two, I two..." with all 5 fingers. Then, his big sisters taught him how to blow out candles. What fun that was!

The older kids pegged their train car and went to town eating them. The more candy, the better! But like I said, Teague liked the cake and all, but he LOVED these train cookies I picked up from Maureen's Bakery on Hwy. 6 in Sugar Land. She did a great job decorating them and they were delicious....they were ALL gone before the party was over. As the older kids went back to swimming, we noticed Teague climbing from chair to chair at the table outside. He was going around and eating all the candy left on the train cars from the older kids. He was full, full, full of sugar!! Busted!! We made a train for Teague....
and cousin Cassie pushed him around on the driveway. After we swam and played games Teague got to tear into his presents. His sisters helped him get started, but that was all it took. He became a pro within minutes!! What is it that this birthday boy taught me this year??

1. That things work out perfectly even if things aren't perfect.

2. Little ones really don't care about the presents or the cake but do care about being recognized.

3. Adults really aren't that impressed by all you do at home to make the party, it's the celebration they care about.

4. I can count on my friends and family for anything!

5. God really knows what he is doing...he gave me a perfect little boy that I chose to name Teague.

6. I am blessed, blessed and blessed beyond belief.

Happy birthday baby boy and finally, we get to see the Legers!

We started this morning by going to meet our teachers for the 09-10 school year. Bailey got Ms. Downey, Emma got Ms. Baylogh and Ms. Garza and Jackson got Ms. Janacek. We are thrilled with all the teachers they got and are looking forward to all this year has in store for us. Jackson was chomping at the bit to get to Campbell to see his classroom and meet his teacher. The girls had so much fun showing him around and introducing him to everything. Here he is sitting in his VERY first desk in Kindergarten! He was able to find his name and take a seat! It's going to be great :)

Afterwards, we headed to Houston so that we could finally see the Leger's. Alisha and I taught together at Purple Sage Elementary in Galena Park in the late 90's. We both wanted to stop teaching after we had our first baby. I did quit teaching elementary school but thought I would do some teaching at night at the college level. I applied for a position at San Jacinto College and got a full time teaching job out of it. Alisha stayed home with her boy, Austen and she kept Bailey for me until she turned one.

I just love Alisha to death. I cannot tell you how different we are- she home schools, I don't- she is a terrific money manager, I am not- she is content at home always, I am not- really, we are so different. She is the BEST listener I have ever met and knows just what to say when I need to talk. She is a jewel! Our differences, I believe, are what makes us such fantastic friends.

Over the past 10 years, we have remained close and seriously, we have tried to get together all summer long. It's been one thing or another- we are busy and so are they. Last summer, we got together on Teague's birthday too. She made hot dogs for lunch and I brought over a boxed brownie mix to make for Teague's birthday cake. Austen, Bailey and Emma played rock band and Jackson and Teague played in Austen's room most of the day. They were in boy HEAVEN for sure. Look at all this good stuff to get into....
We took a break and swam for a short time. Bailey and Austen practiced strokes and timed each other. I was so funny to see them take their swimming abilities so seriously.

Jackson, Emma and Teague played on the play set.

We sang happy birthday to Teague and all enjoyed the brownies. Yummy!

When we were ready to go home, this is what we came into. I think Teague had pulled every single toy off the shelf! Alisha and I quickly picked it up and made the room all better. I had to take Teague out of the house kicking and screaming. None of us wanted to leave. We had so much fun hanging with Austen and Alisha and hope they will have us back sometime soon (considering the mess we made!).

This is how I get ready for my baby's 2nd birthday

I've decided that the theme will be trains for Teague's 2nd birthday party. He discovered trains at the Spraggins and ever since he has saying, "choo choo" to anything that rolls and noticing trains everywhere. I found a website with some pretty cute things so I went for it. Trains, it is. I found these little transportation tattoos. I found these little transporation pieces (one is a train) and we are going to hide these in the grass and let the little ones have a "hunt" for them. I found these train sponges to we can stamp on the driveway. I found these train whistles and put them in a cupcake pan with water. I put them in the freezer and plan to have them swim with the ice cubes. I found this cake pan at Williams Sonoma outlet in San Marcos so I picked it up and have decided that I am going to make the cake. Yes, me and I don't bake! Scary!I had a little help!
And now comes the decorating party...I bought smarties, dum dums, jelly beans, nerds and the such to decorate with. I hope it turns out!!

a birthday party times 3

This year we had ONE birthday party for the 3 older kids. We rented community pool #3 in Greatwood to host all their friends and it was a lot of fun for everyone. I was able to get a few pictures, but I had a girl with a photography business here in Greatwood to take pictures of the event for me while I tended to party stuff. She did a fantastic job and I highly recommend using someone like her to take pictures so (you the parent) can just enjoy the party, mingle with friends, and tend to the party activities like cutting the cake, etc. It was nice to know that Tiffany was taking care of pictures!! Here is what I got of the cakes:

Jackson's cake was a total fiasco! He has been spotting an Indiana Jones cake at HEB for the last few months. I have mentioned before his fascination with Indy and so there was no chance we would have any other kind of cake for him. So I went to HEB a few days before the party to order "the" cake...everything was good, but as I was leaving the store the girl that took my order came chasing after me. She came to tell me that they did NOT have the Indy cake "package" so I would need to choose something else. Knowing this was not an option, I started brainstorming what could be done to get "the" cake. She said they would be willing to put a picture on the cake so I went home and picked up a DVD case of Indy and took it up there. I added the little Indy characters from Jackson's collection and it all worked out... He was so proud of that cake!! All the boys had fun telling me which piece they wanted from the cake (most of them said Indy's face) and I had the unfortunate task of telling them that Jackson's had already called that one. Oh well, they all enjoyed the cake!!

Bailey and Emma's cakes came from the Nestle' Toll House Cafe in Richmond right in front of the new JCPenney's (Brazos Lakes shopping center). I think they did a great job on the cookie cakes. I took over one of the party plates to show them the colors and I was very pleased with what we got and the only thing left from these cookie cakes were the box! Yummo!

The birthday girl Bailey

I had a great idea to give away "noodles" as the party favor. I wanted the kids to play with them and then be able to take them home. Well, leave it the kids to find something better to do with them. The older kids went around hitting each other!! There were a few kids that enjoyed swimming with them at the party, but you'll have to look really close to find them...

After it was all said and done, this party was awesome and the "noodles" were a great party favor for everyone!!

T Ball and this tall

MeMe and Papa came into town today to see Jackson play T ball and Bailey play softball. We had a ball laughing and enjoying the tball game. Our first base player was in left field the entire game and every time the ball was hit (that's every time anyone went to bat- after all it is t-ball) everyone would start screaming "where's the ball, T******?". Every time. It was hilarious. Jackson really enjoys playing baseball! He is so proud of himself!

Bailey's game was right after Jackson's so we headed over to her field immediately. Her team did great, but not great enough to win. Bailey hit a line drive to short stop and made it to 2nd base, but wasn't able to bring home the run. She, along with the entire team, was disappointed with their performance- they REALLY wanted to win!! Next time, girls, next time!!

We were exhausted from all the excitement we had already had so we headed home to eat lunch and have some birthday cake with my parents. They ended up giving Jackson his gift from them and we gave Jackson his DS game- Lego Star Wars! Super E-X-C-I-T-E-D!!Later on that day, Jackson started to tell me how he had grown "this tall". This is what it looked like...so innocent and precious!

Lunch with Emma- happy almost birthday!

Emma's birthday is tomorrow and we usually make sure the day is all about her, but they are at school and Bailey has a softball game tomorrow night so we celebrated by going out to eat and singing "happy birthday" today! MeMe and PaPa stopped by again on their way home from camping and had lunch with us at Escalante's in Town Center and then we headed home for cookie cake. Yeah, Emma! Happy Birthday my almost 8 year old girl!

The kids are going to have a combined "party" after school is out this year. I did that when they were younger, but haven't done it in a few years. I feel like birthday parties get so overdone sometimes and our children are so blessed anyway. I told them last year that we weren't doing BIG birthday parties this year and that we would do a party together for Bailey, Emma and Jackson when school let out. I am trying to rent the pool here in the neighborhood for the party and I think that will suit everyone's taste- just perfectly!! But today I thought it would be fun to have a few friends over to celebrate and since Jerrod had heated the pool yesterday- Emma thought we should swim. She invited her favorite neighbor friends (4 kids from the Templin family so our two families together make a "party") and her friend Raney got to come over, too! Nothing fancy whatsoever- left over cookie cake from earlier and mac and cheese for everyone. It was the first swim for the season...boy, we are ready to open the pool for good! As you can see, they had a ball splashing around!!