Happy 5th Birthday to my Big Boy Jackson!

October 29th my sweet Jackson turned five. It is hard to believe! We typically don't have parties at places other than our home, but we decided five was a big number and went all out I guess you could say by letting him do his party at a local inflatable party place. Now, I will spare you all the confusion and misery..but just know the FIRST place where our party was booked closed down and we were scrambling to find another and also that these places have strict policies about outside drink and food being brought in so I had to show myself a little to enforce my point that we were not doing pizza and their 23 carb juice boxes! So, finally the owner got on the phone, and her son is diabetic, too! So, she understood and everything ended up just fine. The original place that closed down though offered private jumping rooms..this one didn't. So, Paul was quite amazed at how chaotic it can be in one of these places with tons of kids of all ages running around and sliding and jumping. It was quite humorous to see it tear his nerves up. :) Us moms are veterans at this kind of stuff. The dads not so much.. :)

I think all and all Jackson had a great day. He did get a little inpatient waiting on our turn in the party room, but that was my fault. I was trying to be super organized so I got there early, and literally he was sick of jumping for an hour and half waiting on the cake and presents. :) Poor guy. Mommy is sorry...I forgot what it's like to be a kid! :)

He had tons of friends there and got lots of great presents!
The theme was Mickey Mouse Pirate party, and he loved the cake I made him. Let's just say I probably won't be making that one again though. :( ONLY for Preston. And, I will be trying to talk him out of it. :)

And, Jackson of course loved it being a family day where Daddy was part of all the festivities.

Daddy got him a Leapster 2, Preston got him a case for it, and I got him a game for it. (And, thanks to our friends who got him two more games!) (Ok..well..let's all be honest here. Dad got the credit from Jackson for the great gift of a Leapster. When you know whose idea it was, and uh, who went to buy it. But, I will give Dad props..he paid for it with all his hard work. :))

Jackson loves the leapster. And, I do, too! If you are wondering about getting your child one, email me! I can tell you how great it is!

And, a huge thanks to my photographer, Erica! She saved the day! It is so hard to do all that as a mom and take care of your child! Thanks to dad for videotaping it, too!

Jackson is SO much like me. I am not sure if I should say it is funny, or sad, or what. :) He slept with his presents the night before because he was so excited! Isn't he a great kid though? He didn't even unwrap them or peek. :) NOT to say Preston is NOT a great kid. Because he is. But, we all know how him sleeping with wrapped presents might have turned out. He is just like his daddy. Which I love.

Oh, how time has flown by. This birthday was extra special to me I guess for several reasons. Because it was the fifth which is special and big. And, because of all the stuff he has been through this year I can honestly say I am blessed to still have him around to celebrate another year. You don't always think of it that way until you are reminded of the brevity of life. And, this year I was. What a blessing to be able to spend this day celebrating a wonderful, smart, adorable, little boy. God has big plans for him. I feel it. And, diabetes will make him stronger and I think will play a part in that plan. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for him.

Happy Birthday, buddy! I love you so much! Even when I want to send you to your room. (Like right now..you are sitting in time out screaming your lungs out... :) Had to include that tidbit for you to read when you read this post years down the road...Ah..motherhood.)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Breeana!

I always wondered what it would be like to have a niece, and thanks to my sister-n-law and brother-n-law now I know! And, it is very fun! I have fun going to her "girlie" birthday parties and seeing her room with all the dolls and dollhouses, and sadly and secretly I must admit I often want to open her Barbies she gets as gifts and check them out. :(

We recently went to her Strawberry Shortcake themed party and helped her celebrate turning three!

The kids had a great time, and I am pretty sure the birthday girl did, too! I cannot believe she turned three already! It made me remember how close Preston is to turning three. Isn't it kind of sad? :(

Happy Birthday, Bree!

Mitchell Academy's Fall Festival!

When I decided to homeschool, I was still in the shock mode that I could not believe my child had diabetes or that he was not going to be able to do all the fun activities preschool can offer throughout the year with his friends including fall festivals. I was bound and determined to keep up their "social life" myself as best I could. And, we had a successful Bike A Thon, and then now a great Fall Festival! I will admit it was a little chaotic probably because it was my first time attempting something like this at my home. Even through the disorganization at times though, I do truly think the kids that came enjoyed themselves. We handed out prizes and played games and ate some snacks. (As you might imagine I try to steer away from food as much as we used to.)

We also painted pumpkins! Aiden and Preston made theirs with a wide array of colors..all mixed up! :)

Some wore their costumes even if it was just for a little while. It was kind of cumbersome to participate in everything all dressed up. And, I didn't want that pumpkin paint all over Buzz.

Blood sugars weren't perfect, so I don't think Jackson felt all that great during the whole event, but we worked around it all and he ended up enjoying himself I think. All the more reason to be glad we were at our home and not at school. I really, really hope it is true what everyone says about how things do EVENTUALLY get easier and settle down. They are easier than July, but still! But..I guess that's another post. Don't get me started. :)

A big thanks to all the Maw Maws in our life for helping save me the bottles for this fun game!

And, of course we needed goodie bags! I am so surprised how excited kids can get about cheap plastic toys from Oriental Trading! :)

My friend, Katy, did a great job with the face painting. Not sure how she got nominated for that, but for the most part she manned the station. :) A few other moms did their own kids, and I have to say so many of my friends are artists! :)

And, a huge thanks to Grandma Gail for loaning us the tables and chairs...

A huge thanks to Yule Forest for a great deal on the pumpkins...

And, an even bigger thanks to Daddy..who paid for it all..and who makes it possible for me to be off work so much to do fun stuff like this!

Happy Fall, Ya'll!

Living It Up On The Farm

Like I said before October is very busy for us. Amazingly even with no children having school activities this year to be committed to this year felt even busier than usual. So, (some of you probably think I am fibbing here..:)) but I really thought I would have to skip some of our October traditions and pick and choose what would fit into our schedule. But, remember Paul's last minute fishing trip? Well, when the cat's away the mouse will play..:)

The boys and I spent a rainy, cold afternoon at Southern Belle Farms! The weather left much to be desired for and honestly if we all had ended up with pneumonia at the end of it then I would not have been surprised. The funny thing was I texted Paul to tell him it was 47 degrees and where we were. I was making a joke referencing the person I mentioned a few posts ago about being called a "supermom." Remember..it wasn't a compliment. :) Paul about made me pee my pants (which I am confident the pee would have remained frozen down my leg) when he said that's not supermom, THAT'S RETARDATION. :)

See why I have to do some things while he is away? He doesn't share my desire for misery I guess. :)

And, as usual with Paul the corn maze at level one took us years to complete, and we ended up coming out the entrance instead of the exit. Sigh. Why are those things so hard for me?? :)

But, as you can see we really had a great time!

Everyone got along and afterwards we had a nice dinner out with Maw Maw and Paw Paw. It was just one of those good days.

And, the kids will hopefully remember it down the road. That's the thing..I always say I will remember these days and those moments. I hope they do. At least a little. Maybe Jackson is old enough to?? Oh, well. If they don't...

We will always have the pictures to remind them.

It's the Most Busiest Time of the Year!

Kinda sounds like a Christmas card, huh? Except you hear "the most wonderful time of the year." Well, October for us is wonderful, but also very busy! We always make it a family tradition (I will add here Paul told me yesterday he thinks we have too many 'family traditions':)) to go to the Georgia National Fair in Perry each year. It is getting more fun each year as the kids get older, and while it was a bit chilly this year, we still had a blast. We typically stay till closing for the laser show and fireworks, but even I this year was too tired for that! It was quite busy as it was the last day of the fair. We always go that day, but this year it was busier than other years. A big thanks to Daddy for putting up with the crowds. Fairs and crowds are not his favorite things by far. But, for us he will do just about anything! Including the fact that we (hopefully this won't tarnish my reputation forever..it's Paul's idea after all!!) always break the rules and get only one armband for me and Paul to switch off with (yes, it takes typically about $5 to get the person placing it on your arm to do it loosely:)) This year it didn't take $5 after all, but...the person didn't do it as loose as they should have. And, Paul was stuck with it...the whole time...and rode every ride that required the accompaniment of an adult. Poor guy. :) But, at least I didn't leave nauseated like I did at the Henry County Fair! And, I had time to take pictures!

I love pictures of the three of them. They are my absolute favorite.

If you look really closely you can see Preston squished in the middle of them. In Henry County, he was too short for rides like this. Not in Perry. Much to his happiness, and also much to Paul's wonderment I am sure. How in the world they all fit in there and survived without vomiting at the end I have no idea.

I love our traditions. Maybe we have too many. I don't know. What determines too many? When you can no longer afford them? When you can not walk at the end of the day? I don't know. That's a tough question. I guess if we couldn't afford them, or the kids quit wanting to go and asked to stay home? I just know that even though sometimes you are rushed heading out the door and asking yourself "do I really want to go" here or there everytime we get there (including Paul..this is actually his analogy I am stealing) and start having fun being a family and then bring the memories home it is really hard to imagine life without that particular tradition.

Stone Mountain at Its Best!

You probably remember reading last year that one of my favorite traditions is taking the boys to the Stone Mountain Pumpkin Festival. Again, this year we had a great time! It was much colder than previous years which limited some of our activities. But, it didn't stop us from trying out some new things... Like the inflatable slide Jackson played on...

And some oldies but goodies, running around the pumpkin patch...

And, again this year they had the bubbles to play in..we did this last year and everyone got wet much to their dismay. But, it wasn't a huge deal since it was warm outside. Thank goodness I was a veteran and knew with the cold temperatures they should enjoy it from afar. But, Preston wasn't tall enough for the inflatable, so the bubbles were his tradeoff. And, well we all know Preston. Enjoying from afar isn't really quite his faux pas.

As is getting paint on his hands. He painted a pumpkin ever so joyfully, but then realized it was getting on him, and things fell apart pretty quickly from there. :) I am sad to admit I am sort of glad he is becoming more OCD. Isn't that horrible? It was hard before when he and I clashed SO much. But, then again I don't want him to be as crazy as me...we'll see how that turns out. :)

And, regarding more new ideas of things to experience, Preston got his hair painted! I feel horrible that it never occurred to me he would want to. I guess I still see him so much of a follower maybe afraid to do things on his own without leadership from big brother. When we passed by the hair painting booth, I asked Jackson is he was interested. And, he was for sure not. As we walked further on though, Preston who had been for the most part quiet, spoke up and said "Mommy, I want MY hair painted." We quickly turned right around and took care of that! He loved it! And, he cried that night in the bathtub when it washed out.

Here he is waiting anxiously for the paint...

These are the days I will remember forever!

Disney is Good Anytime Anyplace...

Even on ice!!! Last year we went to Disney on Ice, and we loved it! But, I remember thinking why in the world would I buy us tickets to do something like this in OCTOBER. You know..the month where our family is the busiest!! Seriously. It is very hectic. So, this year I was all responsible and did not get tickets. I was contemplating it when I thought Buzz Lightyear and Woody were coming (last year the kicker was McQueen..and literally I cried when I saw their faces when McQueen came out). But, then I found out (or so I thought) Buzz wasn't coming after all. Well...little did I know the weekend the show came this year, Paul would be heading to Florida for an all guys fishing trip at the last minute. And, it was raining outside that day, so what in the world to do..??? Well, Disney on Ice was what to do! :)

We ran to Publix literally hours before the show, and got some last minute tickets. Still I thought Buzz wasn't a star in the show based on the description online, so we opted for decent, but much cheaper seats. We were 2nd row last year. This year I could have still gotten first row hours before the show. The kids were excited, and we ran home to put our Disney attire on.

Our seats weren't bad at all..the camera lens isn't a very nice one though..so I couldn't zoom that far. :) The kids didn't know the difference though. I saw tons of empty seats down front, so I asked Jackson if he wanted to try to move to better seats, and he said he liked ours. So, they enjoyed it.

But..lo and behold at the very last of the show..guess who came out?? ALL of the Toy Story main characters. Preston who was tired and about asleep I think about jumped out of his seat down onto the people in the row in front of us! I was pinching myself for not getting front row seats. :) But, they still loved it! Jackson was thanking me so much for taking them and asking if we could go again next year. I guess next year I need to just go ahead and buy advance tickets.

And, of course we got souvenirs. (I did remember that part when I was choosing the cheaper seats.) I thankfully am always able to talk them into ones that are worth the money for the most part though..so that is good. Who wouldn't enjoy a night out like this as a kid?

We did have a sugar issue during intermission..requiring me to check his finger with the kit in my lap in the middle of Phillips Arena and also draw up and give a shot (did you notice he is wearing two shirts?? and that I am ALONE!) in the middle of the the intermission. But..still..we had fun! And, that is what I am determined to do! Diabetes is NOT stoppping us!