ok i'll admit i have been very veyr bad at updating the blog lately. I promise i'll try to get better. Just so much has been going on lately it's been hard. Not counting that uploading pictures can be very time consuming and annoying.
But since last post we celebrated Tyson's first birthday...AGAIN! this time in southern california with his family and friends down here. THIS party was pretty expensive. Well the party itself wasnt too bad but the ideas that Justin and I wanted for the house was expensive because the timeline sped up a little bit. Originally we were going to have the party at a park, then a friends house, then it ended up at our house. WELL we had a lot of things we wanted to change and decorate in order for the house to look more..."homey". The reason it sped up was because we especially wanted all of this before everyone came to the house. I mean plenty of the people had seen the house before but a lot, especially some of Justin's family hadn't seen it at all and we wanted to make a good impression.
So let's see everything we did.... well when I was gone in Northern California for the two weeks Justin had the idea that he wanted to buy a pool. (if you know Justin, he always has an idea). Well he told me that he already bought an above ground pool but would wait until I came home to put it up. Well anyone that knows Justin also knows he can be pretty darn impatient or shall we say compulsive. Well low and behold I come home and not only is there a pool but an entire two story deck to go with it. I am baffled. Our backyard looks a mess because this deck is hardly put up, wood everywhere. Basically an entire mess with only 3 weeks until the party. Long Story short, with the awesome help of friends, more then once, the deck was put up nicely and the backyard was clean by the time of the party. We bought some nice trees and plants and Justin and his friend did some gardening and made everything pretty. Justin filled up the 9,000 gallon pool. (yea i can't wait to see this water bill). The gardeners came and cut this huge treee/plant/bush and removed this huge tree stump which expanded the backyard by a ton. Justin also tore down this fence that seperated the backyard from the side yard because it was practically falling apart anyways, so that also gave us plenty of more room. Justin put up some misters, we bought new outside chair furniture and the backyard was ready to decorate. Inside we bought a bunch of new frames and printed out pictures of our family and families and put them up by the entry. We had Ty's crib finally so we fully decorated Ty's room, wallpaper and everything... which looks amazing by the way. And we super cleaned everything to look sparkling.
As far as the preperation for the actual party we rented two big tables with umbrellas for the backyard, borrowed a long table for the food, and got tons of safari decorations as that was the theme. We also made our own fruit platters and cheese and cracker platters. I was so nervous for people to show up. The day of we woke up super early to clean up everything and make sure everything was good. Justin was gonna take the dogs to the groomer so we wouldnt have to worry about them. Well only one could go so he had to take the other one to his parents house. I'm assuming after he did that his mother helped him go get the wonderful BBQ food she had ordered for us. The only thing is, Justin somehow told her there were going to be 80 people when there were really only half of that. so we had LOTSSSSS of food. Not counting all the food we had sitting out to snack on. It was already one when they came which was the time the party was suppose to start but luckily the only person that had showed up then was Justin's cousin Corey which I was thanking God for becuase he was helping me a lot with Tyson while I still set up everything.
People started showing up and of course "The house looks really nice". Yes all the time and money for the 5 words we had wanted. We had a bounce house that Justin bought for the not so many kids we invited and a sno cone machine with three different flavors (all Justin's ideas and creations of course). We had plenty of seating, and mostly plenty of food. Well considering it was pretty hott outside, even with the misters we installed, most of the party stayed inside for the most part. SO the misters and tables and umbrellas and chairs didnt get much use. Considering there was probably only 4 kids, the bounce house didnt get much use either. The pool and deck definitely got no use, so pretty much out of all our "re-decorating" the picture frames got the most use. lol. who would have thought. A lot of people showed up though so it was definitely a good turn out. So many people just love Tyson and I know I say this a lot but he is sooo lucky to have so many people around him that love and care for him so much. He was being passed around so much I hardly held him the entire party. He entertained some of the guests for like 30 minutes just climbing in and out of the chair my dad got him. He would climb up, sit down, clap and smile really big, and climb down. Turn around and do it all over again.....over and over again!!! His friends Damien and McKenzie were there so he played with them a lot with his toys. He got to eat sno cones and lots of crackers too.
When it was time for cake, we sat him in his high chair and everyone crowded around him and we sang hapy birthday to him. It was way past his naptime so at first he was really cranky but once we all started singing he started to smile. It was so cute becuase after we were done he started clapping which was so cute so everyone then laughed. Well this time, instead of stuffing his face into the cake and making a hige mess, he HARDLY touched it. I literally had to shove icing in his face so I could get a cute picture. Maybe he had stage fright with 40 people looking at him waiting for him to do something. I know this part made Justin a little sad because I know he wanted us to get a great picture like we got at his other party. OH AND DONT GET ME STARTED WITH PICTURES... so its cake time I'm trying to get these cute pictures and MY CAMERA HAS NO MORE SPACE.... i had only taken like 5 pictures the entire party...how could this be? so the whole time we're singing and waiting for him to dump his face in the cake im taking a picture them scanning through old pics trying to erase some to take some more. It was horrible becuase I did miss some good pictures. SO many people had their cameras though so they HAVE to send me their pics. After cake Tyson was so tired, he hung out for a little longer but then he took a nap. The only thing is i put him down for a nap BEFORE he opened his presents. So pretty much everyone left before he even opened his gifts. I felt bad becuase no one got to see him open what they had bought him.
After he woke up only Justin and My friends were left so we all sat outside and watched Tyson open his gifts. He got so many cute things. From a sponge bob sprinkler, to pool toys, to beach toys, to spoons and forks, books books and more books, clothes, and two pair of nike Jordan shoes. lol. He even got a swing which was absolutely perfect because our new deck had an extension with hooks specifically for a swing. Of course we put that up right away and tested it out and of course it was a winner. He loved it.
NOW i still have one more project to make the birthday finally complete and thats make my thank you cards to send to everyone. If you know me then you know I like to make everything myself. Being that I only have so little pictures on my camera I dont have many to choose from so hopefully I can get some people to send me pictures quick so I can choose one for the thank you card, otherwise the one I want out of my bunch will have to work. But I want to thank EVERYONE that made this party possible and for being there and celebrate for Tyson during this milestone. Although he won't physically remember it, it'll be fun telling him about it when he's older and i'm glad he was surrounded by so much love. Next year we'll be more low key.
Enjoy the few pics I have
