Characters & Candles

We had a fun busy weekend!

I'm going to start with Friday because the weather couldn't have been more perfect!  I moved the office outside and the kids played all day!

I got this little outfit at the consignment sale and it is the cutest thing ever! 

They got a blanket out of my car and laid down just checking out the clouds!  It was so sweet.  After work we met some friends at the park and played, played, played!

We kicked off the fun early Saturday morning at the Just Keep Smiling Live with the Characters! show. This was the fifth year and it was so much fun.  My boss got us VIP tickets so we got ot go early and meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Marshall, Chase and Moana.  Barrett was so excited and AveryAnn was excited from a distance.  She waved to them but she had no interest in getting close.  I loved that we go to take our time with each character and really interact.

Grampy tried but she was having no part of it.

After we met the characters we headed to our seats!  The show was great as usual.  Every time a new character would come on stage AveryAnn would go "wook, Mommy! Wook!" or "Wook, Grampy! Wook".  I loved getting to see the show through my kids eyes!

After the show we met a few more characters!

We've never seen Star Wars but my sister was Rey so we had to go see her.

After the show we headed home to get everything set up for AveryAnn's birthday party!

Confession:  I struggle with my kids birthday parties.  It started with Barrett, obviously, I had a big first birthday party.  It was beautiful and perfect and I loved it.  I knew that I wouldn't so anything that big year after year but for the first year it was perfect.  Since his birthday is Christmas day and the holidays are so hectic I tossed the idea of a party in December after that first year.  We started just doing a little play date with his buddies at our house and it has been perfect.  We see both of our families on his birthday and we have cake and celebrate with them then.  He's already talking about his birthday party next year so I don't know what we will do.  SO when it came time for AveryAnn's second birthday I wasn't sure what to do.  I hated to do a big party when Barrett doesn't get a big party, but I wanted to make sure we got to celebrate her with our families.  So, I planned a little party at our house with our immediate families to celebrate her and it was perfect.  I got the house all ready and then picked up the cake and pizza.  I ordered her cake from Publix and I loved how it turned out!  It started pouring down rain while I was in the store and I got soaked. 

I always buy fresh flowers when I'm having company.  I feel like they add a personal touch to even a simple get together!

As soon as we were done singing and we blew out the candle she asked for a fork.  She thought she should just dig right in the cake before I cut it.  This was after she got her own piece and fun uncle Patrick gave her some ice cream.

Love this sweet little family of mine!

Sunday was busy too!  We got up and started getting ready for church.  For some reason both kids woke up so early.  While we were getting ready Patrick got called into work and it was raining.  I'm sure my attitude was less than Christian.  We survived Mass and quickly ran to my parents to change and drop AveryAnn off because Barrett had evaluations for baseball.  This is the first year we've had to do evaluations and neither of us knew what to expect.  The weather was less than ideal and was effecting how they usually hold evaluations.  The boys were going one at a time and having to wait in line and they were not happy about it.  Barrett was tired and hungry and after waiting for 30-40 minutes he was done.  Had a complete meltdown and wouldn't participate.  They assured me he would be put on a team and that it wasn't a big deal.  I know that my attitude was awful.  I'm sure that played a role in his meltdown.  But I was nearly in tears on the way back to Gardendale because I feel like such a failure as a parent.  I really don't care about the baseball, I don't care what the other people think, I just want to raise a polite, kind, caring, child. I have to remember that he is all those things.  But just like myself, I can't expect him to not be cranky when he's tired or hungry.  I can't expect him to have a great attitude when I don't even have a good attitude.  I can't hold him to higher standards than I myself have a hard time upholding.  I'm trying to give him grace (and myself). 

He did pose for this cute picture before he lost his mind.  And hopefully in 10-20 years, that smile will be all I remember.  

After we left evaluations we headed to the gym to workout.  We left there, picked up AveryAnn and headed back home.  It was the first of 3 busy weekends.  We're looking forward to so many fun things this Spring!