Pinkalicious Party

The birthday girl

Grady- in a pink tie!

As you all know, Layla turned 3 a couple weeks ago and we had planned to do her first kid birthday party a couple weeks later. She has been so excited about this party and she had a very specific vision for the party. She really wanted the party at our house (I really wanted the party at Gymboree gym...), needed an egg hunt at her party (I was trying to envision this at Gymboree) and thought tutus and capes sounded like a "great idea" (Layla's favorite line these days) for favors.

So this pregnant momma got to work on the party back in February/March. After Layla would go to bed at night, lists were made, machines were booked and the sewing began. Nesting instincts allowed me to have everything completed before Grady arrived in May and I crossed my fingers that we would be able to pull off the party. Fast forward to the day before the party, and I got sick with the dreaded mastitis. If you have had it or heard about it, you know it swiftly knocks you off your feet. Ryan and my sister Cassie had to step in as leaders of the Pinkalicious party. Thank you both for being good sports and for completing all my tasks to get this party up and going! Enjoy the pictures!

Layla's vision is a reality.  Tutus and capes for the kids!  I kept the design really basic

and waited for a great sale at Joann Fabric.

Outside tables!  I was so thrilled to have outside tables.  This was Layla's first birthday party that did not rain...hooray for not having to be cramped in our little house!  The table runners were made by cutting out fabric triangles and hot gluing the corners together.  I like to sew but I really like to use my glue gun too :)  To speed up the process even more, I folded the fabric and would cut about 8-10 triangles at a time.

Food!  Layla's favorite foods are crab legs and hot dogs.  She has quite the diverse palette and we went with the more reasonable hot dogs for this party!

Sweet table

Cassie read Pinkalicious to the crowd...thanks Cass!

 

Egg hunt....Layla really wanted this at her birthday party and I scored big with the after Easter sales.  I used the Cricut with vinyl to attach the designs to the buckets.

Thank you Ann and Joan for watching this little guy so carefully for us!

Ryan manned the cotton candy machine and sugared up the kids and adults.

I reserved the machine back in February to beat out the graduation party crowds!

Singing time!

I got this great tip from our friend Lisa:  for easy to serve ice cream pre-scoop the ice cream

in foil cupcake liners prior to the party.  Layla had already eaten the fondant cherry off her cupcake.  Layla loves her fon-dant.

Present time!

Layla loved all of her gifts!  Everyone was very generous and she really is one lucky girl.

Cape time!

Silly cousins...after hitting up the sweet table!

Happy three years, Layla!  Hope your day was perfect-licious!

*A big thank you to my friend Steph for taking so many pictures of Layla's big day for me!!*

Day for the Dads

Ryan's lap is a little more crowded this Father's Day....

Thankfully, Layla doesn't seem to mind sharing the space. 

Ryan has visions of future golf Father's Days with Layla and Grady.   

Ryan is hoping Layla is right on track for this to become a reality!

 

And yes, Ryan is a very good daddy and the poor bags under his eyes in the picture above prove it.  Those are well earned after four weeks of middle of the night diaper changes and burping sessions!!  Happy Father's Day to Ryan and all of Layla and Grady's papas and uncles too, these are two very lucky kiddos! 

Bikes, babies & ballet

Can you tell what Layla's interests are right now?  I thought that this picture did a pretty good job of portraying Layla at the moment.  She is very into bikes, babies (see baby carrier on the back of the bike) and dancing (see Angelina Ballerina on Layla's shirt).

BIKES

Layla loves her new bike from Cassie, Jamie, Shea and Liam that she got for her birthday.  She keeps a pretend cell phone in the basket and tries to talk on it while pedaling...yikes! 

BABIES

Layla loves babies, both real and pretend.  She told me tonight that she was glad Grady was out of my belly and that she likes him.  Thank goodness and let's hope it continues! 

DANCING

Layla dances everywhere around our house these days.  She goes from ballet to hip hop and bounces all over the place and always finishes her routines with a bow.  Her ballet shoes are already very worn in and I am starting to wonder if they will hold together for a summer of dance class and dancing at home. 

And so, as you can see from the pictures, Layla is doing well with the transition from only child to older sibling.  I know it is still very early on so only time will tell how Layla will do as Grady starts staying awake for longer periods.  She has been such a good big sister so far!

I am trying to figure out how to balance two kids (my hardest time is tending to both of them when Layla is in the potty and Grady is eating...I need one more hand and I swear I would be good to go!) and how to get out of the house a little to enjoy the summer.  I will let you know when I have it all figured out...I wish! 

Grady- 2 weeks

Our little Grady is now two weeks old.  It is so odd to think of our family without him now and we look forward to watching Grady grow...but slowly...grow up slowly please :)

Grady checked out well at the doctor today.  All seems to be on track and he weighed in at 8lb 7oz and measured 21 1/2 inches.  For those keeping track, he is up 5oz from his birth weight and up 1lb 6oz from his lowest weight after birth, 7lb 1oz.  He made a nice little bounce back which was a relief to me.

So far things are going well.  He is a sweet little guy who likes to eat and be swaddled and he is a little cuddlebug.  He even appears to like the car (gasp!).   Happy two weeks, Grady!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Layla!!

Yesterday we celebrated three years with our Layla.  I cannot believe that she is three.  Turning three and becoming a big sister...in two weeks time.  So many changes! 

We had such a nice day celebrating with Cassie, Jamie, Shea, Liam, Grandma Barb and Papa Pete. 

Thank you all for coming and making Layla's big day so special! 

 

Happy birthday, sweet Layla!

Lately

Grady has been here for eleven days and what a full eleven days it has been!   Here is what we have been up to:


Grady and Layla have been busy getting acquainted with each other.



Layla is excited to have a real baby to read to!



Grady had his first sponge bath (which you can see he just loved!) but these will now be a thing of the past since his umbilical cord fell off yesterday. 



We have attempted (and failed) at tummy time :)



Blue has decided he is not sure about the newest addition.  He has been doing a lot of yowling but thankfully has been nothing but nice to Grady.  Howie has just been home for a couple hours and then headed back to my parents' house.  He will make his return home this weekend and will be sporting a new thunder shirt to help ease his anxiety. 



Our little guy has been awake for longer periods.



As a special treat, Layla went with Ryan to pick out ballet shoes for her upcoming dance class and she has been dancing up a storm around the house.



More sibling time!



I have fallen in love with the Rock 'N Play sleeper (thanks Joan!).  It is elevated for spitty babies (this makes two for two for me!), portable and Grady sleeps really well in it.  Don't worry, he did get bundled after the picture, I just wanted to remember how little he looked in it.  Also, can you tell how his hands were positioned inside my belly?

 

I have been loving having a a newborn again and I mourned Grady's week milestone.  Why does time go by so quickly and why is Grady already seeming too big for the newborn onesies?



Speaking of mourning....man, did we mourn Ryan going back to work.  It was so nice to have him home for TEN days (two weekends and Memorial Day made his week break nice and long) and we were sad to see him go.  Thankfully, Grandma Barb came to assist for this entire week.

 

More tummy time attempts (key word: attempts!!) 



Layla had her first birthday celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Janisch.  They will be on a trip next week so we celebrated a little early and it was a really nice night for Layla.



And since it was a birthday celebration and all....technically Grady attended his first birthday party too :)

 

Liam and Grady have started their cousin bonding!  Liam gave good hugs to Grady
and was very interested in the baby.



Grady showed off some modeling moves!



Grady went in for his newborn pictures and Grandma Barb and Cassie came along to help.  My mom came on Layla duty (Layla did a quick photo session and then my mom took her home) and Cassie came to help as support/basket holder.  You will understand what I mean by basket holder when you see the pictures...I will post the link soon!

 

And finally Layla got some much needed Shea time!

 So that is our last week and a half in a nutshell.  I am going to try hard to keep up with blogging but once Grady is out of the sleepy newborn stage....nothing is guaranteed :)