The party!

Jake asked for a Spiderman birthday party, so a Spiderman birthday party is what he got! This was his first "friend" birthday party, so it was pretty exciting for us all. I asked Jake several weeks before the party who he wanted to invite. His first answer was, "Cohen!" He continued to list his requests without any prompting from me (I promise)and we ended up with a guest list of 10 total friends! You could definitely tell who Jake's best friends are at school and church, and that he's a pretty social 3-year-old. He made the list all himself and everyone on our guest list made it! We started off the party painting some "walls" that had all the kids' names on them...

The painting was a lot of fun! It's always fun when you have permission to get messy...

Before I go into the rest of the party, I will admit, I'm not the best event planner. I could not have done this party without the help of the Internet and most especially my super creative husband. All these ideas came from one of those two sources; I'm just smart enough to listen. Our first game was called "Web Wrap." Basically, each child got a roll of crepe paper (the web) to wrap up the bad guys. It was a pretty fun game...

Who were our bad guys? None other than Daddy...and Uncle Chad...

Yes, the game was pretty fun, but I think what the kids liked the most was when the game was over and they got to run around like crazy in the yard throwing crepe paper in the air. That looked a little like this...

and this...

Our next game was the "Web Walk." This was a Spiderman version of a cake walk except they stood on Spiderman villians and the prize for landing on Spiderman was a Spiderman sticker. This game got a little crazy pretty fast, but I have to say the group did pretty awesome for a bunch of 3-year-olds. Here's the start of the game as everyone is patiently waiting for the music to begin...

Of course, there was food, presents, and cupcakes scattered in with the games. We had popcorn, fruit and special home-made peanut butter spider crackers (thanks Grandmama). I also made red velvet Spiderman cupcakes because when I asked Jake what kind of cake he wanted, his answer was, "Red!" Here's the birthday boy as we sang "Happy Birthday" to him...

He stood with his hands on his hips throughout the entire song and even as he blew out his candle...

Here are the troops eating their snacks. This seems like the appropriate time to remind everyone Jake's birthday is in January, and the party was January 7. Yes, January is typically a cold, winter month, but as you can tell we're happily outside in short sleeved shirts! I admit I was pretty anxious about hosting the party at our house and wondering how to keep all the kids entertained inside. Well, God solved that dilemma for me and we had perfect weather to spread things outside!

Our grand finale game was the "Web Blast." Each child was given silly string to shoot the bad guys and we set up the painted walls from our first activity for the kids to use to hide behind. This was a lot of fun and a perfect way to end the party. The silly string was a little hard for some of them to squirt, but luckily we had lots of parents around to help out. They thought it was hilarious to "hit" the bad guys. Here's some of the craziness...

And here's our bad guys. Looks like the kids did a pretty good job...

Finally, before heading out with Spiderman favors and a special spider tootsie roll pop, we attempted a group picture in front of our handcrafted walls. Here's our best shot...

Overall, I think our first friend birthday party was a success! I think the kids had fun, and most importantly Jake had fun and felt especially loved on this special day. I'm thankful to all our family who each helped in some way, whether cleaning, shopping, decorating, preparing food, and most importantly, encouraging and supporting. Jake is blessed to be surrounded by so much love.

Our Jake

I want to take some time to write down some things about Jake I don't ever want to forget about him at a newly age 3:

*Jake loves to sing. He sings a lot both in the car and at the house. He's mostly just singing to himself and I think it's the cutest ever. I have tried to capture his singing on video a couple times, but the moment he sees me he stops. Some of the songs I have heard him singing are "Away in a Manger," "The Star Spangled Banner," "Wild Thing," "Glory to God, "Jesus Loves Me," just to name a few.

*He's developing a wonderful imagination. The ways I see this in action are when he tells me his food is either an airplane, football player, or some other object. Also, instead of using her markers and crayons to draw, he most often turns them into football players or other make-believe things.

*He went through a stage while he was 2 when he was a big-time back seat driver. He doesn't do it so much anymore, but when I'm stopped, he used to tell me which way to go and would get upset when I turned the other way.

*I've noticed that he uses the word "probably" a lot. I guess he must get that from Kevin or me, although I don't notice it in our vocabularies.

*Sometimes he still just wants to be held. I'm dreading the day he grows out of wanting this affection, so I'm so happy and blessed to show him love by holding him.

*He really, genuinely likes sports. It's hard to say if he has a favorite, b/c he seems to focus on whatever is in season. During baseball season, playing baseball was a definite, everyday activity. Now, we've moved through football and on to basketball.

*He laughs the hardest when he's playing with his Daddy.

*I know this is normal for a 3-year-old, but this Mommy is still amazed and proud. Jake can completely dress himself. He needs someone to tie shoelaces, but he's a champ at everything else.

*On the topic of clothing, he's very opinionated about what he wears. I usually give him a couple choices of shirt, pants, etc. and he's OK, but he HAS to choose. He also has definite favorite articles of clothing, these are typically sports related, but not always. His favorites lately are his new warm-up suit, Peru soccer jersey, "basketball or "soccer" shorts, or any of his Spiderman shirts.

*His tennis shoes are NOT called tennis shoes, and he will correct you if you mistakenly call then tennis shoes. They are either basketball shoes or soccer shoes, depending on what Jake wants for the day.

*Jake and Daddy like to make up stories sometimes before bed. Jake usually starts his stories with, "So...." The word "so" is also spread throughout the story in places where a period or comma might call for a pause.

*He loves to fall down on purpose when he's playing. He also falls frequently on accident, resulting in bumps and bruises.

*He sweetly says, "Ta-da" when he does something he's proud of and he wants you to see.

Three!

Jake turned 3 on January 2. There will be a few posts to commemorate this special occassion, so this one is just about his special day on Monday, January 2, 2012. Jake woke up to a very special birthday breakfast. I made homemade cake batter pancakes with sprinkles...

After our special family breakfast, it was time to open gifts before Daddy headed to work. Here he goes...Cool superhero costumes; with Spiderman, of course!Jake immediately wanted to wear his new Spiderman costume. He loves birthday party accessories, so here's what the birthday boy looked like while lounging on the couch...After some time at home with Mommy, we headed to Chick-fil-a for a special birthday lunch. I think Jake's favorite part was the ice cream cone...

My Superhero!After dinner, it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out the candles on his birthday cookie (cupcakes to be saved for the party). Jake was really excited...and yes, I put three candles on one cookie...One last surprise present with some more Spiderman goodies. He dug right into the puzzle. It was a great 3rd birthday, but the fun has only just begun...

Happy New Year!

We celebrated a fun, family-friendly New Year's Eve. We invited some of our good friends over and rang in our first New Year's at about 8:00. Here are the kids ready to party! Eliza...

London...and Jake. In all fairness, Jake might have done Eliza's and London's partying for them...We even went outside for a little sparkler action. Jake loved seeing the sparklers...The girls, on the other hand, were not so sure. London's fist was more entertaining than sparklers...and Eliza might have been just a tad bit scared...

So, I didn't get one picture of a single adult. What is it about cute kids stealing the show? Well, we adults put the kids down after their celebration and rung in our New Year with games and snacks. Thanks Dishmans and Pimentels, for helping ring in our New Year with friends, laughter and fun!

An Aledo Christmas

This year, Christmas morning was spent with my parents in Aledo, so all the special preparation went on at their house. We got special reindeer food at preschool, so after Christmas Eve service Jake spread it out across the yard to help Santa's reindeer find their way...

Making sure he's got it all...My family has a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve night. Jake got Tinker Toys, so he got to building right away...and here's his first Tinker Toys creation: a swingset (with just a little help from Mom and Dad)...Christmas morning brought so many fun surprises. Here's Jake checking out what Santa brought him. This year he asked for "tools" and a "Spiderman watch." Santa definitely delivered!There's always fun surprises from Papa and Grandmama. Here's Jake jammin' on one of those surprises...He also got a cool miniature foosball table. Here are Jake and Daddy trying it out...

Christmas Day is all about trying out all your new goodies, and we did just that. Jake eventually got dressed, we enjoyed a delicious meal together, and he even used his new tools to help fix a stool. We were definitely blessed by two great family Christmas celebrations!

A G-ville Christmas

We got to spend some great family time with both sides of our families for Christmas. We started things off in Gainesville, with the whole Lawson fam. It's always a blast when we can have all the cousins together. Big T took the kids (minus a napping Campbell) to the fire station. He's a retired fireman, so he has the inside connection....

Here's the best shot I could get of everyone in front of the firetruck...

They all had their turn spraying the fire hose...What handsome junior firemen!Silly face...The best part of our time was getting to be together, but Christmas isn't complete without at least a few presents. Here's Jake opening a cool new book...and I had to include Chan-Chan. She's loves accessorizing!

Cookies!

Another fun Christmas tradition for us is baking cookies. This was my first year attempting home-made rolled-out cookies, and I have to say they tasted pretty good. It must be because I had a great helper...

I have fond memories of baking and decorating Christmas cookies with my mom, so I hope one day Jake looks back on our cookie baking days in the same way.

Presents begin

We decided to let Jake open his presents from us over the last few days before we headed out of town. We got him the game Don't Break the Ice and he really loved it. There's just something about being allowed to hammer on something and watch it fall apart that that's so much fun...

His big gift from us was a collection of costumes or "dress-up" clothes. Jake has enjoyed dressing up and pretending for awhile, so I was really excited to see what he thought about his new clothes. He definitely seemed to love it. Here he's showing off a couple...

He wanted to put on this Lightning racing uniform immediately and wore it all day long. It was really cute. Please excuse his flash face. It's so hard to get a good picture of Jake when I need the flash!

Christmas Lights

Christmas just isn't Christmas in our family without a trip to go look at lights. We're luckily to have some great lights close to us. There are even a couple that deserve parking your car and getting out to enjoy. Here's just a peek of what we saw...