A Grand Slam Birthday Party

I have been dreaming of Alex's 1st birthday since before he was even born.  As soon as we found out we were having a little boy, I just knew that I wanted to throw him a baseball-themed 1st birthday party.  Some call me crazy for thinking that far ahead, but my plan was almost perfect...almost...

It started with a great invitation.  And who better to help with the invitation than the amazingly talented Sarah Burns to take the photo and the creative genius of Becca Paro to design the invite.  I'd say those 2 combined, plus Adorable Alex made his birthday invitation a Home Run!

Amidst all the craziness that life has had in store for us lately, Alex's birthday took a lot to prepare. I seriously could not have done it all without the help of my entire family to pull together all the little details.  But this little guy is worth every ounce of effort that everyone put in.  He sure is cute, right?!

For party details, I made a pennant-style birthday banner, baseball decor that we have around our house already anyway, and tons of baseball pictures of our baby boy.  I'll post all the baseball pics in a separate post because the series of them all are just too cute!

We also had a day at the ballpark menu, complete with hot dogs, nachos, lemonade, and potato salad.  We also did homemade cakes and cupcakes made by my Mom.

And of course, we had to have peanuts and Cracker Jacks.  We put them in favor boxes and there were also party favors for the kids.

A few months ago, I bought this great slip-n-slide in the shape of a baseball diamond for the kids to play with.  After all, I knew that a birthday party on a hot summer day would have to include some sort of water fun to keep the little ones entertained and cool.

Check out these all-stars taking the field.  I think someone needs to tell baby Koy that he is crawling the bases backwards!  And Jillian ran to steal second while Jackson was cheesing it up at home plate. She must get her baseball smarts from her Daddy!

There were other fun things to do, like jumping on our trampoline or splashing in a kiddie pool.  I'd say the kids had lots of fun.  

There's Jillian, pouting for the picture, while her friends smile!

Bubs' party seems like loads of fun, huh?!  Except you may be wondering why there are no pictures of him at his party...hmmmm...

Remember when I said my plan for his 1st birthday plan was almost perfect...

Well, it was almost perfect because I forgot to plan for him to NOT be sick for his party.  (OK, I know I could not have controlled that part).  He slept through 90% of his party...

And when he was awake, he was a little clingy.  Sigh...

We let everyone have a cupcake and most people left without seeing the birthday boy.  But since my family was here, they stuck around while we waited for Alex to wake up.  Once he did, we finally got to sing Happy Birthday to the sweet boy.  

Big sister Jillian helped us wish him a happy birthday and blow out the candles.  

And just like Jillian, he was not too fond of the icing on the cake.  I'm sure if he would have tasted it, he would have loved it.  But since he wasn't feeling so hot, we took his cake and decided to cuddle with him instead.

Alex's birthday would not have been complete without some family pictures.  After all, these people came a long way to spend it with the birthday boy.

The Acostas with Granny, Auntie Shell, Uncle Joseph, and cousin LoLo

With Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Manda, Gilbert, and Lauren again

At the end of the night, it was still fun to get to look back on Alex's 1st year of life.  Our little family of 4 feels so complete and full of love thanks to this little guy.  I am proud of Julian and I for surviving and thriving with not one, but two, happy, healthy, wonderful kids.  

Alex, you are the little boy we always dreamed of.  You are our son, our pride and joy, our little man. Here's to a million more memories to come and years and years of happy birthdays to you, Bubsy!

Even if he was sick through most of it, I'd still say Alex's 1st birthday party was a Grand Slam!!!

A Whale of a First Birthday

For Bubsy's first birthday, we decided to celebrate his milestone by hitting the road.  My family was coming in via train and so we decided to meet in San Antonio.  I drove with both kids on Alex's actual birthday and we met up to show the birthday boy a good time.

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandsons

 The night of his birthday, we went down to the River Walk to have dinner.  But I think these girls had more fun getting to see each other and spend quality cousin time together.  

Jillian and Lauren

We called it a night so that we could get up and go to Sea World the next day.  We got there as early as we possibly could with 4 kids and 5 adults in tow.  

We enjoyed a few of the shows with the animals, but they really weren't enough to keep the kids attention.  

After the show, we put the bigger kids on a little ride all on their own.

Birthday boy Bubsy was more than happy to stay with Mommy though.

The heat was a little too much for everyone, so we decided to grab lunch and cool off.  The kids loved showing off their Shamu hats.

We braved the heat again and ran into a couple cool characters.  

Jillian loved getting to meet Elmo, Abby Cadabby, Ernie, Burt, and Zoe from Sesame Street.  Baby Mikey even got in on the fun!

This little guy slept through the characters, but was all smiles once he woke up from his nap.

We decided to end the day with some splash time at the Bay of Play area in the middle of Sea World.  

We put the kids in their swimsuits and let them run loose.  They spent over an hour, splashing and sploshing and just being kids.  It was the most fun of the day to see them enjoying themselves and interacting a lot with one another.  And it was a great way to escape the Texas heat!

We had a great time at Sea World celebrating Alex's first birthday!

Happy 1st Birthday, Alex!

Happy 1 Year to our little sunshine, Bubsy!  

It is so hard to believe that it has already been ONE WHOLE YEAR since our baby boy, Alex, was born!

How did this tiny human being turn into this big boy?!!!!

And what a big boy he is!  Alex is such an adventurous little boy who seems to never sit still these days.  He loves to roam around, causing mischief and exploring the world around him.

Bubs is starting to take those first few steps and it is only a matter of days till he takes off and starts walking all on his own.  For now, he is happiest when he is able to follow us from room to room and especially when he gets to chase Jillian around.

He is still a good eater and a good sleeper.  All around, he's a pretty easy going baby.  Alex loves playing with mommy's iPhone, playing peek-a-boo, and pretending to feed his food to Jillian.  He says "mama," "dada," "uh oh," and "yay" on a consistent basis.  He loves waving hi and bye and doling out baby kisses every once in awhile.  

Sweet baby boy, I cannot believe that you have been with us for 12 months already.  The time has seemed to fly by!  We have so many fun things in store to celebrate your first year of life and there are so many memories to be made.  We love you, Alex Acosta, for making our lives even more complete!

Jillian's Minnie Jumping Party!

 Jillian asked for a "Minnie Jumping Party"to celebrate turning three.  So we rented a local gym, invited some family and friends, and got dressed up as Minnie and Mickey for the fun evening. 

What party would be complete without lots of love from family.  They came from near and far to celebrate with the special birthday girl!

And what a fun age these kiddos finally are!  All of Jillian's school friends have been having birthday parties at this fun gym with lots of things for excited 3-year-olds to do.  So we invited a whole bunch of friends to come celebrate, too!

Jillian had a great time with so many people who love her dearly.  I swear, the smile on this girl's face throughout her entire party was priceless!

When she decided that she wanted a Minnie-themed party, I knew that the decor would not be hard to pull off.  If ever there was a year that I needed a break from hand-making all her party decor, this was it.  All of it was store-bought, but the little details were still absolutely perfect to her!

What party would be complete without a great cake.  She loved the purple and pink, the Minnie candle, and all the attention as everyone sang happy birthday to her.  And of course, she loved eating that yummy cake, too!

All that partying was a little too much for Jillian's baby brother, Bubs/Mickey. He gladly fell asleep in Daddy's arms.

Jillian's birthday party was so much fun and just the right way to celebrate our precious girl.

Hope your Minnie jumping party was all you dreamed it would be and more, Jilly Bear!  We love you!

A Golden Birthday for Our Golden Girl!

It was a very special day when Jillian turned 3.  You see, she turned 3 on February 3, so that made it her GOLDEN birthday!  We had a very special day planned for our GOLDEN birthday girl.

A special sneak peek of our golden photo shoot with Sarah Burns
of Butterfly Chaser Photography!

First, Jillian woke up to see her room covered in gold balloons.  She eagerly jumped out of bed and into the big pile of balloons.  All our family was still in town from a whirlwind weekend and she was happy to get to spend the first parts of her 3rd birthday with our extended family. 

Next it was time to open her gifts.  We kept all the gifts from her birthday party in the car so she pretty much forgot about her presents (thank goodness she's only 3 as this was pretty easy to keep from her).  We had them all set up in the living room when she came in and she was thrilled to see so much stuff, just for her!  

Among all the gifts, there were Little Golden Books for our little Golden Girl!

And there were even more treasures for her to unwrap, too.  (Note to parents: I think it made her ACTUAL birthday a lot more special to open all the gifts from her party.  While all her friends weren't able to see her open their gift, she LOVED seeing who each gift was from.  And let's be honest, what 3-year-old really wants to sit around and watch someone else rip open presents for  30 minutes.)

There was another special little treasure waiting for Jillian.  Julian and I decided to get Jillian a little gold locket with her initials engraved on it.  She loved this and she insisted that we put it on her right away.  She is really into jewelry these days and I think she was so happy to have her own little necklace.

Then, it was time to take our birthday girl on a fun birthday date to the movies.  Bubs stayed at home while we took Jillian to see Frozen (it was her second time, but our first).  

We had such a great time at the movies with our little love.  At times, she held hands with Mommy, and other times, she wanted to sit in Daddy's lap so he could protect her from the snowy monster.  Frozen is such a great movie and it was the perfect date movie with our girl!

Then, it was back home for some leftover birthday cake, and of course, Jillian was all smiles.  Throughout the day, our family left to go back home, but we are so glad that they were able to spend some time with us on Jillian's Golden Birthday.  

At bath time, I asked Jillian what her favorite part of the whole weekend was, from family to her birthday party with friends, to her baby brother's baptism and party.  And wouldn't you know it, she said her favorite part of all was going to watch Frozen with Mommy and Daddy!

That was our favorite part too, Jilly Bear!  It was the perfect way to celebrate your special birthday. We love you, sweet girl, and we can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us as we celebrate your golden age of 3!