CJ's birthday day...

Sometimes life is crazy. Sometimes things in my house get misplaced (yes, it even happens to me). So I finally found the cord to our small camera and the small camera when I had time to download the pictures from it. :)

On CJ's actual birthday he had lots of fun. He woke up and had lots of fun playing with granddad.

Then we were off to Atlanta to have some fun at the aquarium. Scott and I got CJ season passes for his birthday. We decided he had plenty of "things," but what we wanted him to have more of was time as a family. It was a great decision...even if he looks like he hates life in the picture with me. :) He just wanted to go look at the fish!

He had some super silly fun hanging out with granddad...

And then after lunch we walked across the street to a great park and had even more fun. It was an absolutely lovely day!

mess free finger painting...

CJ has a wonderful heart, and he loves to help. What he doesn't realize though is that sometimes his help really isn't all that helpful. One day, I really needed to get a few things done in the kitchen that he just couldn't "help" with. I knew I needed a distraction, so I broke out an activity I had been saving for just such an occasion. I got this body wash for free a while back, so I was fine with using it for something other than its intended purpose. I let him squeeze some of the fun blue colored body wash into a ziplock bag, and then he could finger paint with no mess. He loved it! If your kids are a little older, or you have just been to the beach, it would be fun to add shells and beach treasures to the bag too.

best.party.favor.ever!

A few weeks ago, CJ's friend Caden had a surfer party. It was super fun with way cute decorations and yummy food. Jessi, his mama, also made the cutest party favors. They were a bucket with a small beach ball and sun glasses in them. The sun glasses live in our car, but the bucket and ball have been super fun in CJ's little pool. Check out the pictures papa got of daddy and CJ playing. (And don't be alarmed...Scott's short are really close to his skin color. He's not skinny dipping.)

day at the lake (long overdue)...

You can tell by CJ's short hair that these pictures were from over a month ago. :) Since I got caught up on the big posts, now I am trying to go back and catch up on the little ones as I have time. About 2 months ago (yikes I know!), we spent the weekend at the lake with friends. Scott had so much fun taking CJ out on the boat and Will enjoyed some good one on one time with his mama. Here are my boys, up early, to head out for a morning kayak.

Jason helped put CJ in...

lowered them into the water (check out Scott's super cool life jacket!)...

and they were off! Scott said CJ just sat quietly the whole time looking around. He really enjoyed it. A few days after we got back, he saw a kayak on top of a truck at a stop light, and he started saying, "mo boat. ride mo boat daddy." SO SWEET!

When they got back in from kayaking and then some tubing and wakeboarding fun, CJ passed out...

Unfortunately, when he woke up, he was sick. We headed back early, but the next weekend CJ and daddy went back for more fun and had a great time. This guy definitely shares his daddy's fondness for the water.

birthday party extravaganza...

Months ago, I was looking for a fun theme for CJ's party that wasn't character driven. And let's just say the boy choices were slim. Then I stumbled upon a picture of a candy buffet, and I knew that's what I wanted to do. A few weeks later, my friend Stephanie asked if I wanted to do CJ and Anna Grace's party together since they had so many friends in common. Split the work?? No brainer. But give up my theme, I wasn't so sure. And Stephanie prefaced the offer with the statement that she was pretty set on a theme. But guess what she wanted to do too...CANDY, and lots of it! Prefect!

We planned, decorated and I think we might have bought Columbus, GA out of candy. Friends are still telling us they have candy left over from the party (that was over a month ago!). Here is the buffet. Doesn't it make you want to eat your weight in candy?

And it that wasn't enough, Stephanie did a great job with the table decorations...

And here are some of the other decorations...

And party favors. We figured if we were going to rot kids' teeth out with candy, the least we could do is give them a toothbrush. teeheehee...

CJ and Anna Grace were a hoot. They ate and ate candy to their little heart's content. Stephanie and I were both of the attitude that since it was their birthday party, then they could, for this one day, eat whatever junk they wanted! Whenever CJ would get himself candy, he always got one for AG too. Such a gentleman already...

As we were heading out to decorate, I heard Scott's mom say, I see a little blond girl. The only little blond girls I know are my nieces from Florida. Scott's brother and his family drove up just for the day. Such a fun surprise! Here is CJ, Anna Grace and Jayden all looking with longing at the pool...

So we let them go for it! Anna Grace was content to sit on the side, until...

she decided she would jump to Scott, but only because he was holding CJ. Stephanie and I both agreed that it was a good thing we were going to Tennessee for 2 weeks after the party...these two were (and are) a little codependent!

If you kiddo doesn't like the water, get WATER WINGS!!! They are awesome! Before them CJ wouldn't let go of Scott, but when them he is fearless.

And don't worry, Will had lots of fun too.

And here are (most) of our friends. It was such a fun day to swim, eat and then pig out of candy!

After we swam, we all headed inside for real food (sorry, no pictures of that). And then cupcakes! I knew CJ had already eaten a lot of candy, when the prospect of a cupcake didn't thrill him.

He was a little unsure of what to do with the candle, but after watching Anna Grace...

he figured it out. :)

They were sparker candles, but once they started sparking, neither one of them liked it at all...

And just in case you were worried Will wasn't getting any attention, during all of this he got lots and lots of love from his Aunt Balenda. :)

Here he is showing her his new trick. It's really cute until he does it while you are feeding him squash...or applesauce...or carrots...

After all the food it was time to open presents. Aren't they cute in their matching chairs. :) I was a little worried they would go after each other's bags, but they did great at looking, but not taking.

I loved that CJ opened every card. It was so sweet. He would open the cards before the presents. Such a good little guy.

For those of y'all who got to be there with us, thanks for celebrating with us. For those of y'all who were out of town or lived too far away to make it, we missed you. But for all of you, thanks for loving CJ.