Celebrating Our Littlest

Maggie’s birthday brought on some weird emotions for me. I was so happy we made it out of babyhood…all scales intact. But I was so sad…time to sell all our baby stuff…no more waiting for what-if’s (I got my tubes tied after Maggie…so the chances are pretttttyyyyyy slim of having #4…like less than 1%). 

Nana was away in Ireland on her actual birthday…scheduled home  2weeks later…so we pushed Maggie Mae’s birthday party a few weeks after she turned 1.  Didn’t matter…it was a luau theme…and in SoCal you can do luau’s all year long practically!!

It was a beautiful day. I stress about hosting gatherings. Most of the stress I put on myself. And I know that.
Creating cute decorations, putting cute snacks and favors together, finding the perfect cute cake, etc. etc. All of that gives me anxiety…and almost makes me shut down the idea of having parties. Its hard to explain…especially if you are the type that LOVE event planning. I wish I found it easy…but I don’t.

My big kids helped me set up….lol

Owen’s party was a cluster…didn’t have a backyard so had to change location to a park..I had JUST finished treatment so we had SOO many loved ones to invite. I remember the day like a blur. But in the end it was AWESOME and wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our family and friends!

Ella’s first birthday, I tried to make everything just right..doing things that people didn’t even give a darn about…causing stress. lol Having to also move her birthday party back 2 weeks because of the flu that we got and then the day of it was a chilly one…which didn’t work in our favor either.

So…for my third First birthday party…I decided she would get whatever was easiest. I hate saying that its because she's the third and blah blah blah…so I’d like to say…its from learning from the past. People don’t care about anything other than celebrating the little one! I just put myself into check…finally and didn’t need all the extra’s. Stressing about every little detail. And guess what…it all turned out PERFECT!!

 

Luau themed pool party…

Paid one of our graduated swimmers who is a real lifeguard to come and keep an eye on the pool. Help put some parents minds at ease….a little bit anyway. He only had to jump in once…and it was for my kid (Ella)…while her father was also in the water….sooooo I guess that means money well spent! hahaha

Maggie slept for the first good bit of the party…which was ok with me. It was warm out, kids were having fun swimming, parents got to kinda eat their hawaiian food in peace.

Had Ono Hawaiian cater the party…with PB&J’s and chips for the kids!

The ONLY thing I made was the 5 layer dip and the carmel/chocolate pretzels. Thats it. Everything else…well it was bought…and I’m ok with that!

My pretty candy table was a TOTAL fail! It ended up being where all the candy was melting…so it turned into a nothing but cute background table! lol

Maggie nappedl…kids played…daddies watched football…I think the afternoon went pretty darn smoothly.

The Dad’s were happy to get to eat and watch football…win win for them! lol

This is “Nana’s Picture”…she does it with every one of them at their 1st birthday party.

 

Little Miss Maggie Mae finally woke up and loved watching everyone play.

Shes my first baby to be walking at her first birthday party…that was pretty cool!

I loved the cake I got…and it was a TOTAL bargain! I got it from Sams Club for $30! Its plain but oh so cute!

Maggie is also the first kid to not cry when being sung too…AND eat her cake!! She's a different little one forsure.

And when I took the candle away from her…because she was trying to eat it, I became that #assholeparent

haha She wasn’t too happy that I wouldn’t let her eat wax…but she cheered right up when Daddy brought her for a swim/rinse off in the pool!

My FiveFamily

Shockingly lil sister wasn’t to happy about the kisses…shes my most UN-cuddly baby too. Sad…but it is what it is!

That evening after everyone went home we opened presents and chatted about how great we thought the afternoon was!

Thank you to everyone for coming out!!

Baseball Days

Owen’s fall little league season was still chuggin’ along.  We are practicing 2-3 days a week and playing 1-2 days a week. Its been keeping us busy. The evenings were usually beautiful but those afternoon games were brutal. Yes its “fall” in all of America…but fall in SoCal means…its JUST as hot as summer!!

Watching Owen develop this season has been pretty cool. He’s been kinda placed as the “starting” catcher. He went from not know what to do…to setting himself up correctly, trying to throwing base-runners out and being a good little all-around catcher.

With it being kid-pitch the game is so much slower. Makes watching kinda boring especially in a 2 hour game Owen could potentially only get up to bat 1 time! He’s got some learning to do at bat…but its improving…

 

He’s starting to “get it”…when he strikes out he’s pissed (and sometimes cries)…when he gets a base hit I can see his little heart pumping outta his chest with excitement. But I still am not sure if we have found “his thing”.  He doesn’t LOVE baseball…but is satisfied doing it for now. He’s not upset when he doesn’t have practice, but doesn’t complain about going either. So eh…we’ll see.

We still have a month left of season…we’ll see how this progresses.

Pumpkin Patch

Now that its football season our group of friends get to together a little more often than usual….well at least all the husbands get together to watch football on sundays.  Us wives either get a break for the day OR gather as wel. Sometimes having a quiet house to do laundry, grocery shop and tidy up is more important than our Ball and Chain Fantasy League! haha

Since it was early in October we decided to brave the Moms and Kids day to a pumpkin patch. Sounded like a great idea…until I realized as I sat in LINE to get inside to park BEFORE the pumpkin patch even opened that it might have been a little more challenging than I thought. haha BUT we made the best of it…got the kids out for a bit.

We went to Irvine Park Pumpkin Patch…the same day as most of Irvine. lol

I do have to say though…traveling and doing things alone with 3 kids isn’t as scary as I remember it in the past. I remember thinking it was impossible…and asking my friend Heather (mother of 3) HOW the heck can I possibly do it…it gets done…oh how things have changed.

While we waited for our friends to show..I thought it was a good time to try and get a proper picture of the 3 kids. Having all 3 looking, smiling nicely and cooperating is a hard task. But these came out kinda cute! love them.

even thought Ella is a little out of focus…thats ok. No one will notice. lol

Kids did the corn maze, played a carnvial game and ate some popcorn. It wasn’t very eventful…the place was just TOO packed.

This was funny…trying to get all the kids to pose for a group pic…oh dear. This was the best one I got.

Maggie was pissed…it was her lunch time…and she wasn’t amused by Owen holding her…she wanted to crawl around the sharp lil pumpkins.

I love my friend Heather…and how she always takes GOOD freakin’ pictures. I love watching her patience when trying to get kids to cooperate.

Her kids are like professional little models…when they are listening to her! heehee

Here are some cute ones she got of my familia that day.

So “Fall Activities”

Pumpkin Patch – Check
Carving Pumpkin -
Get Costumes -
Decorate for Halloween -

Oh this time of year keeps us busy!!!