Thanksgiving 2012

We had a very nice low-key Thanksgiving this year with my family. It was only us, my parents and Joey and Louisa (Melissa showed up later because she had to work). Since we're used to having a large number of people on Thanksgiving it was nice to have a more intimate one with the people that matter the most in my life. Although we missed having the rest of our family there, we had a great time and ate and drank way too much as usual. We won't mention the terrible football games that took place that day...

Our Thanksgiving Family portrait :-)

My big boy on the slide

My hubby and me

James' face is priceless here (I have no idea why he looks so sad)

The family minus Mike (he's behind the camera) and Melissa

James loved the bubbly juice

Baw Paw and his grandbabies

My cheeseball brother

Dad carving up the turkey

Uncle Mike reading to Baby Louisa

Wishbone face off, LOL

Alamo Heights Parade

Yesterday we had the privilege of being a part of the Alamo Heights Annual Holiday Parade. One of the mom's at NPDS works for Jack FM and since they were participating in the parade she was able to make sure Northwood Presbyterian Day School could participate as well. It kind of snuck up on us (who knew the Holiday parade was held before Thanksgiving) so we didn't get the participation from the parents that we had hoped for, but next year we will plan ahead and be ready for it early. There was a total of 4 parents and 5 children, but I think we did a great job representing NPDS in the parade. We had James drive his little John Deer car so he wouldn't get tired walking the 1.3 miles down Broadway. Surprisingly he walked more of it than he rode in the car for. Luckily the other children were more than happy to step up and drive the car. It was actually a really nice walk down Broadway although the pace was a little faster than we anticipated. Between keeping up with the Jack FM vans in front of us and making sure we weren't run over by the RV behind us we were moving at a pretty quick pace. We are hopeful that next year we can find someone that has a trailer that we can decorate and have everyone ride on instead of walking. All in all it was a wonderful experience that I think the kids will always remember (I know I will) and I look forward to participating in the parade for years to come.

The crew ready for the parade to start with our homemade banner :-)

Even though he barely fit we had Jake take over
the driving because James was previously driving like a maniac

Unfortunately blurry, but you get the idea

James' Birthday Celebration at School

I just love James' school. They are so amenable to anything you want to do for your child's birthday. I made special birthday strawberry muffins for the class to share at snack time and then we brought a fully loaded Batman pinata for the kiddos to smash. Unfortunately the only Batman pinata I could find was a pull string one, but I figured they could still smash it. Apparently they are actually tougher to break than regular pinatas, but the kiddos still had fun. It ended up breaking at the top where it was hanging from the tree before we even made a dent in it, but we just improvised. It was really nice for James to be able to celebrate with all of his friends from school since many of them couldn't attend his party. Hard to believe my little baby boy is already 4 years old. Hopefully he doesn't grow up too fast.

James and his buddy Alessa

James getting happy birthday sung to him

The birthday boy swinging away

James and all his friends

James' 4th Birthday Party

This past Saturday we held James' 4th birthday party at Amazing Jump. This is a place here in San Antonio that has numerous trampoline courts, bounce houses, games and even a mini-roller coaster. It was a great place to hold a birthday party for my rambunctious 4 year old and he loved every minute of it. Thank you to everyone that celebrated with us. It wouldn't have been the same without you!

The birthday boy ready to party

Party room all set up

The awesome birthday cake from LeCake

The party favors I made

Jumping away (I love the face of pure happiness)

The "dodge ball" game ;-)

Getting sung Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candles

Getting ready to ride the roller coaster

BawPaw & Gigi and friends relaxing while watching the kiddos play

Happy 4th Birthday to my amazing little boy!

Halloween 2012

As with every year, we had numerous Halloween events to attend. I think Halloween is quickly becoming one of James' favorite holidays, coming in as a close second behind Christmas. I absolutely loved Halloween as a kid and now that I have a child of my own, I am starting to love it once again. It's so fun to watch James get excited about dressing up. I have a feeling this may become one of our favorite family holidays and we have even talked about throwing a Halloween party next year for all the kiddos in the neighborhood. I guess we'll see how next year goes and we'll decide then. This year we attended the St.Pius Halloween carnival as we did last year and a Halloween party thrown by our good friends the Holmstroms.

My little Spiderman ready for the St.Pius Carnival

Playing mini-golf at the St.Pius Carnival

James and his buddies at the Holmstrom's Halloween Party

Mike & I at the party

The kiddos playing the eat a donut on a string game

bobbing for apples

Making yummy caramel apples



After a busy weekend of Halloween events we were more than ready for the actual holiday of Halloween. We first attended James' school Halloween parade and then enjoyed a fun filled evening of trick-or-treating. Since James is older he enjoyed trick-or-treating a bit more and we were able to stay out a little later and hit more houses. I've had so much going on lately that I wasn't fully prepared for Halloween, but I wish I had set up a group of friends to go trick-or-treating with because I think James would have had a little more fun. Next year I definitely plan on doing that. Regardless, we had a very nice evening and as usual James made out like a bandit. I apparently neglected to take pictures of James the night of Halloween, but here are some from his school parade:

James in his school parade

Another shot of James

James posing with another Spiderman in his class (there were 4 total including James!)

Pumpkin Carving

We had a great time carving our pumpkins this year and I got to even use a new carving tool Mike bought. Here are some of the photos from the day:

Taking the goo out

James painting his little pumpkin and daddy carving his

James helping daddy carve the pumpkin

The finished products (I used a pumpkin carving dremmel to make the ghost)

Dino World!

I am so behind on my posts, but I've been meaning to post something on our trip to Dino World. A couple of weeks ago we ventured up to the DFW area to visit Mike's Brother, wife and son Tommy for his 3rd birthday. While we were up there we decided to make a side trip to Dino World in Glen Rose, TX. This is one of three Dinosaur Worlds in the US and it is an outdoor museum where visitors can see up close life size models of the amazing creatures that once ruled the Earth. It definitely did not disappoint. We started out by doing a fossil dig in which James sifted through sand to find real fossils. We then ventured on to see the numerous life-size statues of many different dinosaurs. We had a great time and if it were closer we would definitely make many trips there. So if you live in the DFW area and even if you don't I would absolutely recommend checking this place out. Here are some of the many photos we took that day:



James inside the T-rex head

digging for dinosaur fossils with Daddy