Austin's 5th Birthday Party

Austin's 5th birthday party turned out perfect and was so much fun!! The theme was a tough decision over the summer but he eventually decided on going with a Braves party. =) This was actually our 3rd baseball party theme (we're bound to repeat some themes with 3 boys, ha), but our very 1st Braves theme. We had the best time planning it and our birthday boy absolutely LOVED it. Yay!!

The oh so talented and wonderful Megan did the invites for us and her work is just the best! I fall in love with every single invitation she designs for us! 

Austin was SOO excited on Friday night and Saturday morning that he could hardly stand it. There's just no excitement quite like it's my birthday party day excitement. =) He was so sweet giving us hugs and thanking us for everything. It was a major chore keeping all 3 boys out of the favors and decor as we set up Friday and Saturday but their excitement and joy was contagious and Austin's gratefulness was the sweetest! It made every bit of hard work sooo worth it!!

Traditional pre-party family pic! 

My birthday boy who will be 5 (a whole hand!!) on Saturday.

My sister let us borrow her Braves wreath for the party (thanks AnAn!) and since we had the exact same set-up with the tent and water slide as last year, we decided to put it on our door by the garage and added some balloons too.

The favor table! It took us weeks to decide on favors but we finally went with cotton candy, "Big League Chew", and vintage baseball cards. The baseball cards were Terrell's as a child and were dated 1992 when the Braves were awesome. =)

In our dining room and foyer I went with simple centerpieces that the boys loved and couldn't keep their hands off of...

This little man was my shadow Saturday morning and was way too excited and curious to go hang out with his brothers in the basement. So once I started making pictures he was ready to pose!

The cake table!

Austin's cake turned out perfect! There was LOTS of indecisiveness going on when it was time to pick out the cake... then once Austin finally made his final decision we couldn't decide whether to go with an edible hat or to use our own. In the end, our cake lady gave us pros and cons and we decided to go with our own. She did a layer of vanilla and a layer of strawberry. It was sooo good!! 

The back of the cake was extra special and one of my most favorite things about it!

We had lots of our own Braves/baseball decor to use plus I was actually able to find Braves balloons, plates, and cups at our party store. YAY. =)

The water slide was a huge hit again this year!! My parents have rented this for Austin's party for the past 4 years and it honestly makes his whole party. The boys LOVE it and enjoy it for the whole party weekend every year and all of the other kiddos have a blast too. We're crossing our fingers for a pool party in the future. =)

These 2 enjoyed the baby pool quite a bit. =)

We decided to serve baseball food for lunch and went with grilled hot dogs and nachos... plus I had some fruit too because most kiddos love it. Several of our little guests ate under the garage together. 

These 2 cuties ate inside together. =)

 The kids enjoyed the water slide while everyone finished lunch and then we rounded up the crew to come in and watch Austin open presents. And I think it's safe to say he was thrilled with every single gift. =)

I love Garrison's face and reaction too. There are some serious perks to being a brother of the birthday boy. =)

This particular gift is a "Hot Wheels Sto and Go Playset" and Terrell had one just like it as a child. It was actually his favorite toy. So daddy has been just as smitten over this gift as Austin... and his brothers. =) 

Austin truly loved and appreciated every single gift. And I loved watching his joy and gratefulness overflow. It was a sweet and fun time for our favorite middle man. 

We moved right from presents to the cake and singing of Happy Birthday. One of my very favorite parts of all of my boys' parties! I'm just so thankful for my boys and looove watching them grow and celebrating birthdays with them.   

After enjoying our delicious cake some of our party guests had to leave, but those who were able to stay enjoyed the water slide again. The birthday boy was the first back on the slide. I got an action shot of him right as he came down so you can only see his head. #mamawasn'tfastenough =)

We did have one guest who wasn't impressed. Hahaha. Bless it. Piper decided she wasn't a fan. #memories

 

Love Shannon's surfer pose. =)

Layton finally agreed to go down with Terrell and LOVED it! 

Oh the cuteness! He went down several times with Terrell and then some by himself too. 

Austin's 5th birthday party was a huge success and so much fun!! He loved every single detail and that made my heart so happy! Big, BIG thanks to my parents for providing the entertainment and to everyone who came to help celebrate our birthday boy. He was genuinely thankful for each guest and gift!

This week we're on countdown to the big 5th birthday and we're super excited to celebrate lots during our long weekend! Saturday morning we'll wake up with a 5 year old!!

Friday Favorites: The Roller Coaster + Highlights

So the past 2 weeks have been doozies. Crazy busy and just really overwhelming and stressful for this mama. It's been a looong time since I've allowed stress and anxiety to take root like this but unfortunately it's happened over the past 2 weeks and it's just been a roller coaster that I haven't handled well. 

So blogging has sort of taken a backseat. Boo.

I love blogging and I really, reeally want to continue because this blog holds so many memories for us and SO many things we wouldn't remember otherwise if it weren't documented here. Plus I just love writing and keeping a family "scrapbook". But I'm honestly struggling with everything on my plate right now...going back to work (at least my version of back to work) plus everything else we have going on with school, soccer, schedules, homework, preschool SS, finding time to cook, finding time for family time, juggling all of my responsibilities, etc. Enter stress, exhaustion, anxiety, fear, more stress. Ugh. Sooo, I may not be blogging as often until this passes and things settle down and I'm able to get my bearings and adjust to everything. 

Today, though, I do have some highlights for Friday Favorites as these daily little snapshots of our favorite happenings are pretty special to me...

*Thank you Lord for your faithfulness and your mercies that are new every morning. This was sooo needed this morning after a rough night last night.

 

*Feeding the fish at Granna's is always a favorite!

*Bubble bath fun while Austin had soccer practice. =)

*Game Night with all 3 boys last week! Layton didn't understand the game but he was included and enjoyed himself without interfering so it was a win-win.

*Austin's turn for bubble bath fun while Garrison had soccer!

*Puzzles are still a big time favorite for my littlest man.

*I stumbled across this sensory box I made for Garrison shortly after I had Austin and Layton is in LOVE. He's played with it several times this week and I'm thankful we have another fun and independent activity for him to do!

*It's a "Fall" sensory bin so here's a closer look at some of what's inside.

*Our middle man was Student of the Month for his class for August! So proud of him!!

*I was able to sneak a pic of these 3 watching an episode of a favorite show on the iPad Tuesday evening. Terrell had to work late and Austin's practice was cancelled so it was a rare, laid back, week night moment that I was super thankful for.

*This month various parents and people in our community "sponsored" teachers and helped out with supplies and wish lists... we sponsored AnAn and Austin's teacher! (Garrison's teacher was already sponsored.) It was so fun and such a great way to help out our hardworking teachers who spend so much of their own money on their classrooms and supplies. We LOVE supporting teachers and Pick a Trojan!!

*More one-on-one puzzle time with my littlest love. =)

*Wednesday night legos! They played so great together for so long. Such a blessing!

*Layton and I made a visit to the library yesterday and after picking out books little man was all about the puzzles. 

*Then, we had a surprise visitor join us! Terrell was across the street at a closing and saw my car so stopped by and hung out with us for a little while. A sweet surprise for all of us. =)

This weekend is all about Austin's birthday party!! We're busy preparing and looking forward to a fun time of celebration with our almost 5 year old! I'm hoping he has the BEST time and that we all enjoy every minute of our weekend. Happy Friday!

Terrell's Birthday Weekend

On Saturday Terrell celebrated his 35th birthday... so we spent the whole weekend enjoying the milestone and celebrating with the birthday boy. It was a full one but so much fun!

Friday night Terrell's parents invited us over to celebrate and his mom told him she'd make him whatever he wanted for his birthday... so he decided on a huge, home cooked, southern meal of her chicken and dressing with sides. It was sooo good!! He was definitely spoiled to kick off his bday weekend!

She even made him a homemade caramel pie!! We were STUFFED come Friday night. Haha! We had such a great kick-off to the weekend and Terrell's birthday. It was a fun and very delicious Friday evening for the whole fam. =)

On Saturday morning the boys and I went to pick up breakfast from McDonald's for everybody... and I think it's been over a year since we've done that. It's super rare so it was a treat for everybody... especially our birthday boy. =) 

The boys loved their breakfast so much they were practically finished by the time we sat down! Have I mentioned how they're eating more and more and we're now going through over 2 gallons of milk a week?! Gracious. Feeding growing, bigger boys is going to be a crazy experience. And expensive.

After breakfast we had the laziest Saturday morning ever. I seriously can't remember another Saturday (with kids, at home, in our 30s, ha) that we've just laid around and done very, very little for the whole morning. It was sooo nice... but it also makes you worthless. Hahaha. We felt so lazy and could hardly get awake good or make ourselves start a load of laundry or venture off the couch or out of bed for a long stretch. 

The boys did amazing on our lazy Saturday morning... They started organizing their Pokemon and baseball cards into binders and played really well together and watched a little TV. It was just a record breaking super laid back morning.

After a small lunch for everybody plus rest time, everybody got showered and ready for the rest of the day. 

Layton Thomas enjoying a little post-bath reading time. =)

We gave Terrell our gifts before leaving to go out to eat Saturday night. All 3 boys made him sweet homemade cards and he got some new sunglasses, a new UGA t-shirt, and a new pair of pants for work. He was pretty thrilled with our little gifts and cards. 

I didn't get any pictures of us at the restaurant with my parents and Anna's fam, but we had such a great time. No kid drama or public displays of craziness... plus the food was awesome! 

We went back to my parents' house for cake and presents and this year I surprised Terrell with a homemade birthday cake. (I didn't make it... ha) It was sooo good and we enjoyed it lots. 

Singing Happy Birthday, blowing out candles, and eating cake and ice cream are HUGE favorites for the boys. And between July 23rd and September 3rd we have 4 family birthdays to celebrate so it's been a fun birthday stretch so far.  

Saturday night was fun.... even if things did get a little wild and crazy with my children by the end of the night.  Ha. 

Sunday morning I went to church solo so the boys could stay home and rest/have downtime before heading out on a little road trip to Aunt Kara's. I only stayed for the first hour before coming home, eating lunch, and then we hit the road. 

On the way up, Layton napped and the big boys enjoyed Honey I Shrunk the Kids. =) A favorite from my childhood! They loved it!!

Our niece Allison turned 9 on Monday and we celebrated with a family party on Sunday afternoon. The boys had a ball and we enjoyed wrapping up our weekend with another celebration. The theme of her party was cats and Kara made the cakes. #cakeformonths They're freezing the majority of it. =)

It's so hard to believe she's 9! I actually had a flashback to her very first birthday party when we were singing Happy Birthday. *Sigh* Soak it up, savor it, enjoy it, make the most of it. 

The last time we went to a birthday party for one of our niece's on a Sunday afternoon this happened on our way home.... so this time around we vowed to get on the road earlier, really watch traffic and our app we use, and do our best to have an uneventful ride home arriving back at a decent hour for a school night. Kara lives 2 hours away so we got on the road around 4:30ish....

And things started so promising. The big boys watched a movie and Layton held onto his little party favors and things went smoothly for the first 30 minutes or so. 

Then Layton decided he was tired of riding and started yelling loudly. Then crying. Then the big boys started complaining of feeling car sick. Nooooo. Then I had to move to the backseat to entertain Layton who continued to cry and yell off and on and we debated on stopping earlier than we originally planned.... but based on our previous bad experience we were hoping to make it to the "safe zone" off the interstate close to home.... Buuuut Layton threw up. All over himself and me. Ohh good times. So we stopped at the closest McDonald's and changed his clothes (thank goodness we keep some extras for him in his book bag), I tried to clean up my shorts and the car seat, (thankfully it wasn't terrible), and then we ate supper and got back on the road. Gracious. Never a dull moment.

We survived! We're home!! Haha. 

I loved celebrating with this guy all weekend long and I'm so thankful we get to share all our crazy adventures together. Team Selph is my favorite. =) 

Happy 35th Birthday Terrell!! We love you!!