James' Pirate Party

This past weekend we had James' 5th birthday party and it was Pirate themed. I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. Mike planned a whole treasure hunt, which the kids really enjoyed. We had a bounce house and the weather, although a little hot, turned out great. Here's some pictures to document the fun of the day:

Pirate Decorations

Close-up on the treasure chest

The spread the day of the party

James' Pirate cookie cake

James in his pirate shirt with his buddy Brynn

James and Logan on the bounce house

The mini-pirates listening to the treasure hunt instructions

The kiddos on the hunt

Checking the treasure map

The first treasure, pirate swords

The second treasure, personalized shovels to dig up the treasure

Digging for buried treasure

Treasure!

Pirate treasure (bags included chocolate coins and jewels)

All the kiddos after the treasure hunt

James getting Happy Birthday sung to him

blowing out the candles

I still can hardly believe my baby boy is 5 years old. Where does the time go? Looking forward to many more awesome birthday parties in the future. Thank you to all of our wonderful friends and family for making the day so special!

Happy 5th Birthday James!

It is so hard to believe my baby boy is already 5 years old! He'll be going off to college before I know it! He had a wonderful birthday which started with a delicious birthday donut.

 We continued the celebration at his school with a pinata and a special birthday snack.

My birthday boy waiting to hit the pinata

James swinging at the pirate head

James with his class

My handsome little man

For a special birthday treat we took James to the Tower of Americas. Ever since we moved back to San Antonio he has wanted to go there so we figured this would be the perfect occasion. It definitely did not disappoint. The food was delicious and James had a blast.

On top of the world!

What a goofball!

Me with my boys

James with his delicious molten chocolate lava cake

Although he keeps me on my toes daily and there are days he takes me to my wits end, I wouldn't trade him for the world. Happy birthday to my first born beautiful baby boy. I look forward to seeing you grow into a wonderful young man....just don't do it too fast! ;-)

Thundering Herd...It's a wrap!

This past Sunday we had the wrap party for James' first soccer season. It was held at Momaks, which has an awesome playground and large field area for the kiddos to kick around their soccer balls. James got his first trophy and he was so proud of it:

We are definitely signing James up for soccer in the spring. I foresee this becoming his favorite sport and I'm so glad he will be able to continue on with such wonderful friends. Go Thundering Herd!

Fun Saturday

So this past Saturday was James' last soccer game of the season. It was the perfect day for the last game...the season is over and we are finally getting beautiful brisk mornings which made the game so much more enjoyable. They kids had their soccer pictures before the game so I tried to snap a few shots, but I know they professional ones will turn out much better so I'm looking forward to getting them.

My little soccer player

The whole team with Coach Chris (the sun was not cooperating with my camera)

Go Thundering Herd!

After the game a bunch of us headed to The Cove for lunch and playtime for the kiddos. I love that place so much. They have great food, a wonderful outdoor patio and play area for the kids. We were having such a great time that we ended up spending the whole afternoon there. After quite a few bottles of wine though, it was time to call it a day :-). I am looking forward to signing James up for Soccer in the Spring again. He absolutely loves playing soccer with all of his friends and I love hanging out with all of the wonderful parents!

James and Alessa enjoying their ice cream

James with Lyla and Loreli

Halloween 2013

As always we had a very eventful and fun Halloween. It started with James' school parade in the morning, which is always fun to see. I love seeing all of the kiddos in their different costumes and they always have such a great time. We had a huge rain storm the night before, but it moved out of town right in time for the parade. It won't rain on our parade! ;-)

Iron Man ready for the parade

My little Iron Man

He's so tough! :-)

For Halloween evening we had friends over for a pre-trick-or-treating dinner and had some playtime in the backyard before we headed out to trick-or-treat. James had such a great time with his friends so we will definitely plan on getting together for Halloween every year with our friends.

All the kiddos ready for trick or treating

 My mummy dogs...I think they turned out pretty cute and they tasted delicious!

 Our pumpkin carvings this year (we were a bit lazy with these this year, as you can see the small one didn't even get carved, oops)

Our Halloween decorations from the street

Note to self: Don't leave candy out for trick-or-treaters while you're out and about. I left a bowl (actually a cauldron) of candy out for kids that came by while were out trick-or-treating. We were a little surprised to come home to a completely empty bowl. Since our home is kind of at the end of our neighborhood, we rarely get trick-or-treaters, but I thought I'd be nice and leave some candy out. Last year we had tons left when we came home, so I thought the same thing would happen this year. We recently put in a new security system which has cameras, so we watched back the tape. To our surprise the first culprit was a mother with three children. She proceeded to take multiple handfuls and put them in her kids buckets. Three pre-teens came by a short time later and wiped us out of the rest. So within 15 minutes of us leaving, we were out of candy. I get the kids taking it, but the mother taking that much candy was astounding to me. So much for the honor system! Oh well, what can you do. Now we know not to do that next year. Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Jackson's Sip n' See

Last weekend my wonderful sis-in-law and best friend threw a beautiful sip n' see for baby Jackson. We have been so blessed with a beautiful baby boy and I was thrilled to introduce him to some of our friends and family. Thank you to everyone who shared in our day and to the lovely hostesses with the mostestess ;-)

The awesome decorations my sis-in-law made

The yummy cake

McKay feeding Jackson (she's going to be such a great big sister soon!)

Our good family friend and neighbor, Necia holding Jackson

Our lovely hostess, Margaret with her bf Krys

My awesome sis-in-law holding her nephew

Cousin Louisa trying on one of Jackson's presents

My goofball husband

The beautiful Monica holding Jackson for the first time