Hudson & London’s Birthday Party

 Since Hudson and London's birthdays are so close together we decided to celebrate them together with one big Halloween Costume Birthday Party!  I made the invitations below to hand out to the kids in Hudson's class.  The party was October 30th so it gave the kids a chance to break in their costumes before Trick-or-Treating! 



I had a hard time deciding what to make as a 'goodie bag' since the kids would be getting so much for Halloween the next day.  I decided on Carmel Apples.  I had never made carmel apples before but I found the little carmel sheets you just warm up and place on the apple and thought it would be quick and easy.  Yah, it wasn't so easy.  In fact, it was seriously challenging!!  None of the goodies I got to stick on the carmel would stick.  Who would have thought carmel wouldn't be sticky!!  After many hours of laboring away, we made it work and finished up 40 carmel apples to hand out as our parting gifts!!!  Many thanks to my wonderful Mommy for helping!  The finished product turned out to look very pretty!



We turned our house into a bit of a haunted house.  We also decorated tables outside with fun table cloths and balloons.  We had a moonwalk for the kids to jump in.  There was also a clown that stopped by to make balloon animals for the kiddos.  Here are some of the decorations:


It was so much fun to answer the door as our guests arrived!  I LOVED all of the costumes!!  There's really nothing cuter than babies and small children in costumes.

Here is baby Chase as a convict with a tear drop tattoo and all!!

His beautiful sister, Princess Cailin.

Here are Misti, Kendra, and Carson Clifford:

Ty & Luke Mitchell:

Beautiful Princess Magnolia:

And her little bro, the Frog Prince (Caleb).   Ashlee & Chase.   Holly & Jack (a.k.a. Charlie Brown)

Dennis & Scooby (Carson).

Hudson is so funny.  My Dad did a little face painting and he asked Hudson what he would like to have painted on his face.  He asked for an "Ear" of all things so my Dad drew an ear on his forehead!!!

Londiebug and her Daddy:

Isabella the ballerina

Travis: Superman!

Cake time!!!  I got cakes that matched Hudson and London's costumes.  Our neighbor's daughter, Stephanie, made London's cakes.  She made a special 'smash' cake for London but London was to entranced by everyone watching her and was not the least bit curious about the cake sitting in front of her.  We were kind of bummed there were no pics of her with frosting all over but I have a feeling birthday #2 will be a different story!  I guess a girl has to look good for her party!

Hudson had a pirate ship cake!  He also had a spider cake b/c after I saw the lady bug and the ship, it didn't look like there would be enough cake for everyone so I bought a 3rd cake!  Jason harrassed me about having 3 cakes and it was too much but I'd rather have too much than too little.  I'm new at this!  I'm learning!!  I took the spider to Hudson's class at school and they LOVED it!


Having fun!!  I had lots of games planned but after the kids did the limbo they really wanted to get back to jumping!  (It was very entertaining to watch them do the limbo!!)  I think the moonwalk was their favorite part!  I think most of them never came out of it except to eat some cake.




Presents!!!


We had this backdrop for picture taking! 

  

Thank you to our many guests, friends, & family for helping Hudson & London celebrate their birthdays!!  We had so much fun and can't wait for next year's party!!!

7 Acre Wood

While London and I were in NY, Jason and Hudson went to the 7 Acre Wood for their fall festivities.  Hudson got to ride a pony, a tractor pulled train, pet lots of animals, and have lots of fun with his Daddy!  They also stopped and got his Halloween costume!  Arrr Maties!! 

Happy 1st Birthday London!!

London is ONE!!!  I think this has been the fastest year of my life.  I don't know how London could possibly be one already.  I was so excited when we found out we were having a little girl and she turned out to be more perfect than I could have ever imagined!  Her crystal blue eyes catch attention every where we go.  Now her little personality is shining through and she is quite the entertainer.  She is also quite the talker and has a pretty extensive vocabulary for a 1 yr old.  She loves to tease and be teased.  She loves music and will sing and dance as soon as she hears a single note.  Her dance moves are always on beat and they are not few by any means. She loves her big brother and thinks he is the funniest person on the planet.  They have a very sweet brother/sister relationship (hopefully it will keep progressing that way!).

Unfortunately, I had to work on London's birthday (so I thought).  I took her into school and we were surprised by her classroom being all decorated for her big day!  Her teacher's were all there eagerly awaiting her arrival so they could give her lots of birthday wishes!  We took in mini cupcakes for all of the babies (and teachers) to enjoy!

Shortly after I arrived at work, I received a call from the school letting me know Hudson had a stomach virus that was going around and I needed to pick him up.  They told me 22 of the 26 kids in his class were out sick with this virus!  I decided to leave London at school to keep them separated.  I really didn't want her to get a stomach virus on her 1st birthday.  But as luck would have it, I received a second call from the school after lunch saying poor little London also had the virus.  I went to the school and picked her up and sadly we spent her 1st birthday battling a nasty stomach virus.  This virus turned out to be a long lasting virus and I had to stay at home with them almost the entire week!  Somehow, probably with my obsessive act of disinfecting everything all day, everyday, I avoided getting it.  On top of this, we had a huge birthday party for both Hudson & London planned on Saturday.  I had originally planned to take Friday off of work to prepare.  Instead, I had to prepare while taking care of two sick kiddos.  However, with the help of my parents & Jason we were able to pull it off (party post coming soon)!

Here are London and her teachers at her school party:

 
Mrs. Anderson:  She is fantastic!  She was also Hudson's teacher when he was an infant and we became friends during that time.  She invited me to go to a scrapbooking class with her which I used to go to once a month until London came along.  Hopefully I can start back up before too long!  Mrs. Anderson is super duper creative and is extremely thoughtful.  I never have to worry if my kids are ok or if they are being loved on during the day because I know she makes sure they are well taken care of! 

Mrs. Ewers: She has become very special to London and London has become very special to her.  I will never forget when she told me, "I have been around a lot of babies in my time but this one...this one is definitely the sweetest baby I've ever seen!".  She made London a very pretty bracelet with London's name on it for her birthday.  It fits me now so I told her I will enjoy it until London grows into it and then I promise to pass it down to her.  She told me she had to do something special for London's birthday because she is so special to her.  One day she asked me if she could be London's adoptive Grandma!  And again, I never doubt if my babies are getting enough love and attention at Primrose!  Love them!

Ms. McBride: She always lights up when we bring London in and she always greets us with the best smile.  I've never seen her when she wasn't happy.  She is the one who likes to play with London's hair and she always gives her really cute ponytails!


Ms. Meeks wasn't there when I took the pictures but she is also a wonderful teacher and loves London very much.  We are very grateful to have such wonderful women taking such great care of our baby girl!

The New Kitchen!

Finally...pictures of "The Kitchen".  Hudson was very excited to see the UPS guy walking this big box up to our door as we pulled in the driveway.  I took it up to the play room, opened it up, dumped it out, and began the long process of putting it together.  I have never seen anything purchased in a box like this where you have to put EVERY SINGLE PIECE together!!  It was insane!!  Jason was out of town so I worked on it until both me and the kids lost our patients.  Once Jason came home, he picked up where I left off...using a power drill!  Why didn't I think of that?!?!  Eventually, it was all put together and has supplied endless amounts of entertainment for both Hudson and London.  We now eat lots of pretend food and drink lots of pretend drinks! 


Here is the massive pile of stuff that had to be broken out of its plastic webbing and snapped and screwed together.

Hudson used my camera to take a picture of London while I worked on the kitchen.


This is when Jason came home and took over!


Yay!! We have a kitchen!!  Time to play!!

Birthday Card From Grandma & Grandpa Holladay

London received her first birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa Holladay!  They gave her some money to put in her piggy bank!  Thank you!!!

Just Playin’

I was playing with the kids one day and decided to get out the camera.  They were very willing to pose for me this day.


London loves to pretend she's talking on the phone now!  She has the cutest baby babbles!

Hudson loves playing in the pillows on our couches and making houses out of them.  He was actually "Ironman" in this picture and he is popping out of Ironman's house to see if anyone needed to be saved from any monsters lurking around.

A Visit From The Galant’s!

The weekend after I came back from visiting Emily, The Galant's stopped by for a visit!  We love them and wish we could see them more often.  They have 2 absolutely beautiful girls: Gray and Isla.  The girls have the cutest little personalities and Hudson had a blast playing with them.  There were lots and lots of wonderful giggles!

Thank you to Emily & Bernd!

 I'm trying to get caught up on my blog again! 

Emily and Bernd gave Hudson and London some awesome birthday presents while I was there visiting.  Since London was with me, she got to open hers while we were there.  Hudson opened his as soon as I came home from the airport!  He was incredibly excited and as soon as I told him about the gifts he said, "Oh wow!!  Thank you!  That was so sweet! (those were his exact words!)".  They got him a great Lightning McQueen game.  We have since designated Wednesday nights as family game night.  It is so fun to be able to play games with Hudson now.  He also got a new football so he and daddy watched the Texans play (and win!) and tossed the football back and forth.  Hudson is actually super good with a football.  He still hasn't decided if he is right or left-handed but he can launch that football like a rocket with either hand!  He can also catch the ball really well too.  And finally, they also got him a magnadoodle (which is great for him to use to practice writing his letters) and a new book.  Thank you sou much!!  You made this little boy VERY happy!!