A Royal Celebration

It was quite the affair on Thursday morning when six petite princesses and one ninja turtle (he didn't have a prince costume) arrived at our 'castle' to celebrate Alexa's fourth birthday! I had a blast preparing for it, although I have always underestimated how much help Billy provides for these parties - mowing the grass, helping me cut out random decorations, dish duty, etc. are all much more time consuming when accomplished by only one person!

We had planned the party for a date he could attend, but at the last minute, after the invitations had been distributed, his travel dates were changed and he was unable to come home. We gave Alexa the choice of having her party when her daddy could attend, or having her party with her friends on her birthday and having another special celebration with daddy when he was home - being a girl who likes celebrations, she chose the latter.

I am blessed to have such wonderful friends here since Thursday morning, I woke up on schedule to finish last minute preparations before the guests began to arrive at 10am. What I did not plan for was my son to wake up running a fever and wanting nothing else but to be held. I guessed it was another ear infection since his nose had been running, but regardless, I was getting nothing done. I called my friend Cindy and she was more than willing to come early and help. My friend Juli was already taking her son to the pediatrician (same one we see) and I was able to get an appointment for Brody around the same time as Karson's appointment, so she took both boys to the doctor during Alexa's party.

The party went well, with much dancing and giggling. We played Pin the Crown on the Frog, and Find Cinderella's Slipper. I had two other activities planned, but they were all playing so well, I didn't bother interrupting. Lunch consisted of the Fairy Godmother's special PB&J wands (sandwiches cut into star shapes and stuck on a sucker stick), Princess Punch (pink lemonade), ham and cheese pinwheels (ran out of fairy tale names), and fruit.

The party was fun, but the parting was bittersweet since Juli (my friend and neighbor who took Brody to the doctor) and her family were leaving after the party to move back to Texas. Her husband is also a reservist who was on active duty orders to Fort Jackson. Her daughter is seven months younger than Alexa and her youngest son is three months older than Brody, so the kids loved playing together. At least they are in Texas and we hope to visit them as well when we go to see my family.



It has been quite a whirlwind of parties since we returned from Texas on the 25th - Walker (the ninja turtle) had his birthday party on the 27th, our sunday school class had a swim party for the Cotters (Juli) on the 28th, our neighborhood had a farewell party for them on the 29th, Alexa's birthday party was on the 2nd, and Alexa's friend Allie had her birthday party today! Allie's party was at Hair Doodles, a salon just for kids and the girls got their hair and makeup done and their nails painted! Alexa was loving every moment as you can see in this photo!

Sorry for the lack of photos of my son in this post - due to his ear infection, he hasn't been in front of the camera much lately - I'll try to do better on my next post. Regarding updates, he is pulling to a stand much more frequently now and has even taking a few steps to 'cruise' around furniture (at least he did that once, today, to reach his sister). He is having an orthopedic consult on the 23rd to determine if he needs braces for his feet - the Physical Therapist does not know if his rolling ankles are something he will grow out of on his own or if he needs some extra support and that is why he is delayed in cruising (they don't consider his lack of walking a delay until he is older than 15 months).

I'll let you know what I find out. As for his babbling, he definitely says "dada" with a purpose - it is adorable to hear him get excited when he hears Billy's voice over the phone. He still says "ba" for ball, and he definitely calls Alexa "lala". Still no "mama", at least not directed at me...he's says "MMMMM" a lot when he's eating, and he came very close to making a "P" sound when we were in Texas spending so much time with Papaw (my grandfather) and Pawpaw (my dad).

That's enough rambling for this post...