Happy First Birthday, B!

I know, I know. This is late. I blame blogger - it's been a bit testy on photo uploads, and we all know that no one likes to look at blogs without photos.

A few weeks ago, we attended B's first birthday party! Whee for birthdays!

Here's Turtle, getting in some booka-booka time before we leave. Almost every morning, after breakfast, he climbs up into his Daddy's lap for some stories. It's his favorite thing.



And then we headed out. Turtle hadn't napped much, so he did take a doze in the car. It explains the completely out-of-it face he shows in this picture, when we arrived at the soiree.



However, once he saw all the rubber duckies and the balloons (and the food!), he snapped right out of it.



Hanging out with his daddy.



Playing hide-and-seek with the balloons and K.



Our friend Sara took these next two shots. Check out her work here.





Happy birthday to Turtle's little friend. Thanks for having us share in our day!

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Fun Around the House

Let's rewind a few days to catch up on all the happenings round this house.

Friday, we took an easy day. We were expecting guests for the weekend and we just wanted to take some time together as a family.

Turtle took the opportunity to engage in some training camp activities.



He is also figuring out how to shower the pugs with love and affection, demonstrated here. His version of a hug is to rub his head against them. Oscar is a patient, patient pug. He's been getting some extra yummies for his suffering.



After lunch, we took advantage of the under-100 degree temperature to play on the swingset. Turtle loved the slide.





And the bubbles too!



And, of course, the three pugs:

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B's Birthday Beach Bash

Turtle's buddy B turned one today. Happy birthday, B!

His mommy, my friend K, organized a beach day for some of our friends and their little ones. Four gals and four boys headed on out this morning to play.

C chews on a toy while J checks it out.



Birthday boy B is crawling for some toys.



Turtle, armed with his bagel, checks it all out.



J and C playing so cutely together.



Mommy and Turtle. He stood up and came over to put his arm around me. It melted my heart. Note: he is still clutching that bagel.



After a minute, he even leaned in to give me some loving. He's getting to a super-sweet stage. I love it.



A checks out B's sand. He was never really a fan of sand. He preferred to sit on his blanket and not touch it. However, after seeing B and J get all into it, he decided to investigate further.



What IS this stuff? Let's shove it up our nose!



Getting more brave. After all, the kid has a shovel. He can take on the world!



J, posing.



C, munching on his toy. Nom nom nom.



Turtle, enjoying the wheat bread from his turkey sandwich.



And all four boys on the blanket. The funny thing is that they were all ok, then one started crying, calmed down, and then someone else would start.




C holds A for support while J looks on in concern. It will be alright, man, they seem to be saying. Mommy did NOT laugh at this face. Not at all.



We all had a great time! It was awesome to be able to enjoy the beach in the middle of the week, and we had such a good time celebrating B's special day. :)

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Happy Father's Day!

Turtle, the pugs and I planned an amazing Father's Day Extravaganza for DH, for being such a wonderful daddy and husband. We really appreciate all he does for us and our family, and we wanted to make him feel as special and loved as he is.

On Friday, Turtle gave him a "teaser gift": a box of golf balls with a note that he had a tee time on Saturday morning with some buddies. Unfortunately, it was going to be in the hundreds that day, but he hung tough and said he golfed a good game.

Saturday night, our friends T&K babysat so we could enjoy dinner and a movie. We went to the Ale House for some cocktails and appetizers (yum, bar food!) and then we caught Angels & Demons. Although I'm not a Dan Brown fan (ok, what I mean is that I like his ideas, but I don't like his writing style) and I didn't love the movie version of The DaVinci Code, I actually enjoyed this. Probably because it's been such a long time since I read it. I am, however, digging around for the book to read it again, and then my opinion may change. :)

End result? We had fun. :)

To tie in with the golf theme, I made him these devil's food cupcakes with white chocolate truffle golf balls, graham cracker crumb sand traps and buttercream water hazards. He loved them. We all did, to be honest.



I made eggs benedict for DH's breakfast on Sunday - his favorite. Next year, Turtle will be able to help me.

We lounged around during naptime, and then we loaded into the car for lunch at Cruiser's. All I can say is yum. Although it was "not what DH expected", it was still supberb. I didn't let his altered expectations have any negative bearing on my cheddar fries with ranch dressing and Big Salad.

They also brought out crayons and a kids menu for Turtle. He hasn't really gotten the hang of drawing, although we've let him try out crayons and sidewalk chalk.

He seemed to catch on.


Wow. This orange stick makes colors on the paper. Weird...



I wonder how it tastes...



Sharing with Daddy.



After eating, we went on our first ever trip to The Fresh Market. Sweet Fancy Moses. That's all I can say. It was a glorious store. We bought a ton of meat and some fruit & veggies, and other yummy stuff. We are definitely going to make an effort to shop there more often.

It was such a nice day. DH loved it. :)

Hope all the dads, grand-dads, mentors, dads-to-be and other paternal figures had a wonderful day!

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Thirty-One Brunch

On Saturday, Turtle and I attended a fantastic Thirty-One brunch, hosted by K.

Here's Turtle, being silly during breakfast.



Thirty-One is really a great company. There are so many fantastic products. I got a small "wallet" that holds my ID, cards, cell and keys. It's a perfect all-in-one that I can just throw in whatever diaper bag I'm using. I also got some personalized cupcake notecards. I'll post pictures when they come in.

You can check out more great stuff here. Be sure to notice all the new patterns and colors for summer!

K is also an amazing photographer (check out her work at KC Frick Photography). While we were enjoying the party, she let me play with a few of her lenses, so I could make a decision about purchasing a new one. I got some cute pics.







The other K and B, and me with Turtle :)

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Turtle's First Haircut

Today, it was time. Even though Turtle doesn't have a ton of hair, it was a little raggedy in the front and it was driving DH crazy.

We called Doodle Doos and made a 1:30 appointment. Then we headed over to Hurricane Grill & Wings for lunch. Turtle devoured his grouper and cole slaw. After all, it was a big day.

And then it was time. We arrived at Doodle Doos, which is just an absolute mecca of cuteness. They have the most adorable books and wooden toys and all sorts of fun things for wee ones. I will probably be heading back for some puzzles and other things Turtle may love.

The first step was to make Turtle feel at home. The lovely woman greeting us led us to a wooden toy that had balls that rolled around on a track. She showed Turtle how it worked and left him there to get settled. He had grand time, even though he was more interested in hitting the balls together than letting them roll.

After about 10 minutes of that, we moved him to a wooden rocking car. It was fashioned like the "chairs" the kids can sit in, except, on rockers instead of stationary. He loved it. DH rocked him a bit, while he checked it out.

And then it was go time. Miss C was ready for us and we loaded Turtle into a cute boat for his first hair cut.

While she assessed the situation, her helper put on a little bubble show for Turtle. As you can see, he knew something was coming and was not about to be won over.



This is the suspicious face.



This is a Turtle with a comb on his head.



You know, this pampering thing isn't half-bad.



Yeah. I'm handsome. You know it.



Look, Miss C, I help you.



I love my comb.



Damn right I look good.



It was too cute for words. The whole thing.

They gave us a photo, a certificate and a little acrylic box with some little locks of hair.

For those who were concerned, there are still some curls. We didn't want to go mullet, so Miss C did thin them out a little bit but that's all.

It was, all told, a success!

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Turtle's first trip to the Happiest Place on Earth

Whew. We are home from a whirlwind trip, exhausted and weary, but definitely bursting with rave reviews.

The original plan? My best friend, N, was joining her boyfriend, M, while he attended a conference in Orlando for three days. Turtle and I were going to drive down first thing Wednesday morning and either meet for lunch, pool time or a trip to Animal Kingdom. It was a solid plan.

And then came the phone call on Tuesday night. N & M were staying at the Reunion Resort. She had a clue that it was impressive, but had NO idea that instead of a normal room, they had been booked in a ridiculous three bedroom/three bathroom condo. What???

So they invited us all down to spend the night so we could be there early. Well, gee whiz, why not?

DH decided he would come, too and so we had a new plan.

Tuesday night, after I got my hair cut (pictures to come at some point, but yes, I love it and yes, it was worth dumping my stylist) and got home, we headed out. This resort is so new that it didn't register in our GPS, which ended up in us getting a little lost. Like an hour lost. But that's ok. We made it in before 10, got the Turtle settled (note to us: Turtle has a weird love of hotels that leads to an uncharacteristic desire to NOT go to bed), and waited. M was at a function and N was having dinner with another friend. They finally got back and we had some wine and good conversation. So nice.

The main hotel building.



Similar to what the kitchen and living area looked like.



We got up bright and early (Turtle does not operate on the theory that he should sleep late if he goes to bed late. Sigh). We got everything packed up and then we headed over to Animal Kingdom.

Another lucky thing was that M ran into an old buddy who was able to escort us into the park gratis. How great was that? We were very appreciative of his kindness.

Here's Turtle, taking his job as navigator very seriously.



Are we there yet???



I have to say. This child was a CHAMP. It was approximately, 95 billion degrees out, crowded and bright. We were working on a skipped nap and a new environment. There was one meltdown, that came as we were headed to the safari fastpass. We think it was a combination of the heat, the crowds, and the overwhelming feeling that comes with being at the Happiest Place on Earth.

So Turtle had a wee crying jag.

The good news? Melt downs can be averted.

Apparently, frozen lemonade solves all the problems of a weary one year old. Whew.





We thought we would walk down the two jungle treks, attempt to hit the Nemo show, have lunch, then ride the safari and head home.

Turtle loved watching the "bubble-bubbles" in the aquariums.



We weren't able to make it into Nemo, but we had a nice lunch, and then headed back to the safari line.

But wait! What's this?

Observe the flushed cheeks, the limp posture, the lolling head. Could it be... a child who pooped out after a day at a Disney park?? We weren't waking this poor thing up for anything.



So while DH watched him, N and I rode the safari. We got some cool pictures. We were surprised to see so many animals out and about in the heat.

The hippos.



Elephant.



These rhinos were about 10 feet from the vehicle.



Hard to tell, but a lion is sitting up there, head up, mane blowing in the breeze, looking for all the world like a postcard. If you see my DH, please let him know that if I only had a better lens, I could have actually CREATED my own postcard. Also, that Christmas is coming, and I am happy to accept late birthday gifts.



Turtle was still sleeping when we got off the ride, so we decided to head out. The bummer was that he didn't get his first Mickey ears ice cream on a stick. Boo. We got him a stuffed hippo and a vintage Mickey t-shirt to compensate. Oh, and then we went to Dairy Queen. And then we drove home.

We were very proud of our little man. He was a superstar.

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