Anyway about the party. The kids had a lot of fun and it was great for a really wide age range of kids. Instead of serving cake, the kids got their choice of ice cream sandwiches or popsicles. Bailey won’t eat ANYTHING even close to a sandwich so we told her it was an ice cream cookie treat. She loved it. She still talks about it and it makes me so happy to see her try new things. They also had hamburgers and brats and typical barbecue food, and two big tubs of water balloons, and a small kiddie pool. Everything was really well done but just laid back and casual. One of the best parties we went to this summer.

And of course, pictures-

As the evening went on, she got better at climbing up this ladder. At first it really took her a while and some of the older boys were just climbing over her.

Splash! I love this one… caught the moment perfectly.

Eating the beloved “ice cream cookie treat” with Daddy.

(Did I mention Taylor was there too?)

Okay so I just saw this picture and it occurred to me… the kids were supposed to choose either ice cream sandwich or a popsicle. I guess Bailey decided to have one of each and it didn’t even register with me at the time. Oops!

In fact, I got a little crazy about two months before Bailey’s birthday and started talking about having a princess party for her at our house. I am sooo glad I didn’t! Her party was tons of fun and I didn’t have to clean a thing. Remind me that I am never having another birthday party at our house… with the possible exception of Taylor’s first birthday.

Anyway- on to the party pictures. Bailey kept telling Piper what was supposed to happen next. My child has a freaky memory and always remembers the order in which every single thing should happen. Not sure yet if that’s a blessing or a curse. But throughout the party she was like “Piper, now it’s time to do xyz… Now it’s time to go open presents…” etc.

She loves the bars- here’s a quick video-

And they also got to do the air track, which is her absolute favorite thing. And I figure she might as well enjoy it at gymnastics, because I don’t plan on ever owning a trampoline!

When it was time to go in the party room, Bailey said, “Come on Piper! It’s time to open presents… you can open the Barbie and the Barbie car I got for you!” Clearly, she doesn’t understand the whole surprise thing yet!

Trying to keep cool… I think I changed Taylor into his swimsuit about five minutes after we arrived!

Bailey thought she was really cool getting to drink lemonade with a twisty straw!

And the last picture I took was Taylor checking out the exersaucer/walker inside!

After that most people started leaving. We did stick around to see Ella open her presents. Bailey insisted on sitting IN the chair with Ella. She really has no concept of personal space. I am glad we were able to be there for Ella’s party and that the kids had so much fun though!

It was also Taylor’s first party. He did really well- he always seems happier when there is a lot of commotion and stuff to watch. I have lots of cute pictures, so I am just going to upload them as a gallery and you can click on individual pics if you want to see them bigger.

Just a cute one of Bailey with my mom (Grammy)

We didn’t think we could do all 84 candles on a cupcake

I am so thankful to have my grandparents living here in town with us. I know I complain sometimes about having to “help” with them… but it is nice to spend time with them and I am glad they have gotten to know Bailey. And that they will get to know Baby Boy. Whose middle name will be the same as Papa’s middle name.

At first she didn’t want to change into her swimsuit. It was SO hot…

But then I convinced her to put her suit on and get in the water/sprinklers and she had so much fun! She also ate a lot of Cheetos!

She liked the sandbox too. I spent the car ride home picking the sand out of her bathing suit bottom! No more swimtsuits and sandboxes together. I am glad she wanted to get in though.

Thank you to Ella for inviting us! We had a great time

She was IN LOVE with Chuck E. Cheese (the mouse) and called him Key-Mouse. She wanted to watch him sing on stage the whole time. She also liked this ride with him and it took her picture and printed it out during the ride.

She loved climbing through the tubes like at McDonalds. She looks scared in this picture but I’m not sure why because she was waving and laughing up there. And if you have ever gone to any type of play area with Bailey- she is the fearless one who heads straight to the top and tries to play with the older kids. I have to try to catch glimpses of her once in a while through the tunnel windows.

The cake… she ate ALL the icing and it was so sweet. Huge sugar high but I’m just glad she’s eating!

And the birthday party had a Minnie Mouse theme. Bailey wanted to pose over and over next to the cardboard Minnie and get her picture taken.

One thing I love about C.E.C. is that EVERY ride is only 25 cents. Which lasts a loooong time for a two year old. I think we got ten tokens and were hard pressed to use them all. I mean the birthday provided us with the tokens… but for future reference it would be very inexpensive to go there and play for a while.

I have a lot of pictures from the party. Sarah- will be getting you cd to you on Monday, I’ll leave it on your door if you’re not there. Bailey had a great time and Claire was the perfect one year old party girl! She enjoyed her cake and was happy to see all her guests, and had lots of fun opening presents. And Bailey even ate about half a cupcake!!

We had an hour in the play room. They started with 20 mins of free play then the teacher did a song or march or activity about every three or four minutes and the kids either ran around or participated if they wanted to. Then the last ten minutes in the play room were bubbles and parachute. They all marched and followed the teacher into the party room for cake. None of them cried because she made it so fun to leave the play area! The party room was set up with a parachute on the floor like a picnic blanket, and there were party hats and juice boxes arranged in a circle.

Gymboree provided everything except the cake and pizza! They only had a half hour in the party room. I could have paid extra for more time but I chose not to. I’m glad I didn’t because by the time they finished eating cake they didn’t want to sit still and be contained any more. Then some of the antsier kids went out to the lobby to play with toys and ride on the rocking horses. Bailey even got a birthday t-shirt! The really cool thing was that the day of the party, all I had to do was pick up the cake and make sure her dress was ironed!

We are so thankful that Bailey’s friends (and my friends too) were able to come celebrate with us. Thank you to everyone for helping to make it a wonderful day for her!

I started out by saying how Jonathon, Bailey and I went to her friend Kaitlynn’s second birthday party this past weekend. It was at her house, and they had sandwiches and drinks. The kids just played downstairs and the adults ate, until it was time for cake and ice cream. The party seemed to go pretty well except that I got stuck sitting next to Amy’s really loud MIL during the gift opening. I heard “KAAAAITLYYYYYYYYYYN” about ten thousand times within the span of twenty minutes. That woman is loud, for real. And I don’t feel bad saying that because Amy and I have already discussed it.

When we were downstairs playing, the older kids were playing Wii. Bailey thought she needed a piece of the action and kept getting in their way. At some point, someone must have put her on this stool (or maybe she climbed up… sounds like maybe I should start supervising my child) and she was using the Wiimote for a phone.

Then the kids decided they needed that Wiimote (does anyone else feel like they have a speech impediment when they say that word?) –Bailey was NOT pleased.

We went upstairs to get ready for cake and ice cream. Jonathon asked Bailey if she wanted to wear a party hat. I thought she would hate it because of the chin strap but she loved it! It looks like she’s pulling at it in this picture but she left it on the whole time and didn’t complain.

The party had an animals theme. The decorations were really cute. Bailey gets so excited about giraffes and zebras. The cake was from McArthur’s Bakery and it was really good! I’ve seen/eaten quite a few of their cakes and I have always been impressed. I love birthday cake. I even love the smell of matches being blown out- it’s like it automatically makes me think of birthday cake!

Happy birthday, Kaitlynn!

We partied like rockstars on new year’s eve. All the way until 9:00 pm. We went to a party at Mae’s house.

There was a little time to chat with friends, and we spent a lot of time chasing Bailey around and helping her remember how to share.

They had an early countdown for the kids. All Bailey has talked about since then is the “dance party” and “happy happy happy.” Check out the countdown madness:

After that, we had a cake for Mae’s daughter Boo’s fifth birthday. They had a cool candle from China on top, it opened up into a flower and played music. Apparently, it’s still playing the music in the dumpster behind Mae’s house…

I got a few pictures of Bailey before we left the house. I got her to sit still and actually put in good pigtails. She ripped one of them out in the car before we even got to the party, five minutes away from home. But here are the “Before” pics:

The party was really nice. They had it catered and we drank wine. Well when I say we, I don’t mean Jonathan. I cannot find a wine that he likes. He’s more of a foo foo drink kinda guy. I mean that in the manliest way possible, honey Bailey was being kind of a nut the whole time. She wanted to go outside and play in the playhouse and on the cozy coupe. Well, the only people outside were standing next to it smoking, so that was fine for a while but then we decided to come inside. Where she ran around the house like a chicken with its head off and kept trying to climb the stairs. She finally stopped to play with Claire’s carseat for a while. I don’t know why she thinks it’s so fun.

Then we caught her digging in the candy dish and biting the Hersheys Kisses. Sorry, Sarah, if we didn’t manage to get all the ones with bite marks out. But I think we did

And finally, a picture with Bailey and Claire together. Claire is being held by Sarah’s cousin Katie. Its fun to see her cousins because we used to hang out with Nikki a lot in high school. They are both engaged now too.

Daddy and Bailey in the hot sun- It was pretty hot at first-

After an hour or so we found a cooler corner of the yard to hang out in and it was nice and relaxing after that.

Bailey with friends Kaitlynn and Valletta

Emily and Ella

Here is Ella eating her birthday cupcake- at first she wasn’t interested at all and got upset when the icing got on her hands. Once everybody stopped watching, she ate it.

Playing ball

Moving Tubes

And at this party we discovered that Bailey loves being sprayed in the face with squirt bottles!

Thank you Ella for inviting us to your party! We had a great time! Happy birthday, big one year old

We weren’t sure how the weather would be, but we tried to make Bailey look festive and Mexican, lol. What do you think?

Here she is with her Aunt Jen-

She spent a lot of time that evening reading books in their living room. Well, alternating with her spastic running-around-and-eating everything-in-sight spells.

I really think next time, even if kids are welcome we might not bring Bailey when we go out. I want to just be an adult and not chase a toddler. I want to be able to sit and talk and have drinks and not worry about leaving when she starts fussing. I hate that I want to leave her at Grandma’s… but I just want to be Tara for a night and not Mommy. I hate even saying that

When we arrived at the party, Sarah had a bunch of toys out for the kids to play with. Bailey really liked the busy box. I think that’s what it’s called. The thing where there are five pop-ups… you have to press a button/turn a dial/etc to get them to open… We might have to get her one of those for her birthday.


Andrew trying his birthday cake- at first he wasn’t really into it but then he ended up eating a lot of it. I just don’t have any pictures after the first few minutes because I was chasing Bailey around.



Busy playing amongst her friends and a giant pile of toys



This is what happens when you try to take the pictures of a bunch of little kids/babies. There is Bailey crawling away at the bottom right. Mackenzie seems to be the only one paying attention. AJ is holding a plate over his face, and Andrew is looking the other way. LOL

Bailey decided to go back and investigate the toy we gave Andrew.