So Frustrated...

Okay, I'm going to vent here a little bit in hopes that once I am done I will feel a little better. We were supposed to have Parker's birthday party this Sunday and I had to cancel it due to the dreaded swine flu. Yes, the not so big town of New Braunfels is right smack dab in the middle of one of the outbreak areas with 8 confirmed cases in Guadalupe county and many more "possible" cases. Both school districts in town are completely shut down until May 11th, as our most day cares, the library, parks and many more places.

When I heard the news that the schools were shutting down on Tuesday night I immediately knew that the party was going to be a definite no-go. Now, I of course don't want my kids to get sick nor do I want any of my friend's kids to get sick and avoiding a party with a bunch of kids running around is probably a good step in the right direction to keeping everyone healthy, but I am still really bummed. I feel like I have worked hard to put together a really cute jungle safari party and was really looking forward to this weekend, and now it's just gone. I know it sounds petty, but I spent a ton of time finding the perfect jungle stuff to put in the pinata, found a great pinata, scoured the Internet for the perfect plates and napkins, reserved a jump castle, found fun arts & crafts activites to keep the older kids entertained, put my Mom to work making the perfect jungle-inspired birthday outfit and "designed" the cutest cake. And now I feel like it is all for not and my baby (which is probably the last baby I'm going to have) isn't going to get his well thought out and planned one year birthday party.

The thing that really irritates me is that I scrambled last week to get Parker in to my photographer to do some cake smash pictures so that I could get a picture collage in time to put out at the party and have some cute thank you cards made. My week was so hectic with having just about the entire house painted, getting a horrible stomach bug from my kiddos, and my A/C going out that I really didn't need the stress of doing cake pictures (which shouldn't be stressful but it seems that all picture sessions with an infant are stressful!). Luckily, the pictures came out really cute and I got a great collage, which arrived at my house today and I posted the proof of below.

Now I'm just hoping that we get to reschedule his party where I can put out his collage, use all the stuff I bought, eat the fabulous looking cake that is to be made (the cake in the pictures is a mini-version of the real deal for the party minus the jungle animals that will be on top of the cake), send out Parker's super-duper cute thank you cards and most importantly, celebrate my baby's first year of life! I know I'm probably over-reacting and it shouldn't matter whether he has a party since he won't remember it anyways and it would be just as special if it was just us and close family, but it just really has me riled up! Then what irritates me even more is that I can't seem to find a good re-schedule date that works with schedules until like mid-June!!

Okay, so that is my rant, sorry to bring anyone down but I needed to let that out...hopefully it doesn't sound too crazy/superficial/obessed since I should just be happy that my kids are safe, healthy and happy (which I am thankful for).

I hope all of you are staying healthy and you enjoy Parker's cake smash picture collage (click the picture to make it full screen)!

Blue October's Biggest Little Fan

Here's a few short videos of Tristan rocking out in his Elmo jammies to one of Daddy's favorite bands, Blue October.

Role Reversal

Parker wants to be like his big brother and Tristan wants to be like a baby...silly boys!!!! This is how they ate breakfast this morning, we fed Tristan in the highchair, tray and all and Parker stood and ate breakfast at Tristan's Elmo table!!!

Weekend Fun, Part 4 - Fiesta Texas

I am finally going to officially finish up this series of posts!! About a month or so ago we took the kids to Fiesta Texas to see the brand new super kid friendly section of the park, Wiggles World! I think Tristan was in heaven the whole time...Wiggles music played over the speakers, all the rides were made to accomodate kids of his size and all featured his favorite Wiggles-themed things (i.e big red car, airplane, fruit salad, etc.), and there was a Wiggles friends stage show featuring Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword and Wags the Dog.

I'm telling you, he was in heaven!!!! Parker, on the other hand, could have probably cared less, but he was a good sport about the whole thing nonetheless! If you're in the San Anotnio area sometime this summer and have a little one, then you have to check it out, they'll love it.

Daddy and Tristan ready to take off on the airplane ride

Parker watching from the ground, and chewing on his yummy shoes
Way up high in the air

Mommy and Tristan on the yummy, yummy fruit salad "ferris wheel"

Getting buckled up for the big red car ride

Cruising

The roller coaster, check out Victor's face, he was definitely scared...although he adamantly denies it

Another shot the second time around, defintiely no doubt, scared cat!!!

Waiting for the stage show to begin

I guess the Wiggles music was so soothing it put him to sleep

A couple of short video clips of Tristan showing off his mad dancing skills...watch out Wiggles!

Party Time!

I have so been in birthday party mode for the last couple of weeks. Believe it or not, my little baby is already going to be one in less than a month!!! I decided on a jungle safari theme for his party, which we are having here at the house, and am so excited.

I ordered the cutest little plates and napkins with brightly colored jungle animals on them, got a giraffe pinata, ordered all kinds of jungle stuff from Oriental Trading to fill the pinata (still need to get candy though), got little plastic safari hats for all the kids, have the cake all lined up to be made and am getting the invitations out this week! Whew, that took me like two minutes to write and what seems like 2 months to actually get done.

I don't have any pictures of all the party stuff yet, you'll just have to wait until the actual party post, but I'll leave you with a few shots of Parker and a look at his party invitation.

Party invitation front

Party invitation back (blacked out our address since this is an open site on the web)

Easter 2009

Look at me go, it's only one day after Easter and I'm already blogging about it, and with lots of pictures...now if I can just get the last month's worth of stuff on here too!!!

We spent Easter Sunday afternoon at my parents house along with Victor's mom and aunt. We ate an early dinner and the kids spent most of the time outside hunting eggs and playing on the playscape (i.e. Tristan swinging). I can't believe this was Tristan's third easter and Parker's first, my how time flies!

Both kids did pretty well egg hunting...Parker got the hang of picking up the egg and putting it in his basket pretty quickly, as did Tristan, but his attention span was pretty short. He hunted eggs for a bit, then lost interest and would go play for awhile, then do a little more hunting, back and forth, back and forth. He definitely did not like it when we would crack eggs on each other's heads at first, but he got into the excitement after a little bit. Although, he only liked it if he was the one doing the cracking, no surprise there!

We had a great time and took a bunch of pictures, enjoy!

Parker ready to go to GiGi and PawPaw's house

Tristan showing off his best "cheese" before heading out

One more time for practice

And one with Daddy

Mommy and her boys

Okay, now Parker is right side up!

Ready to get going

Having fun at GiGi and PawPaw's while the Easter bunny was hiding eggs

Checking out their easter goodies

Parker found some Cheerios in his easter basket

Tristan loved this light and spin egg thing...simple pleasures!

Quick family picture

One with "Alla" and "TiTi"

Outside for egg hunting

Poor Parker got an egg cracked on his head and was not excited

I guess he decided a little confetti never hurt anyone!

Holding on tight to Mommy, out of the line of fire!

Victor and Parker

Daddy helping Parker hunt eggs

Stopped for a quick picture

Tristan got tired of hunting eggs (very quickly) and headed over to his swing

He decided he should sit in the swing and everyone else should bring him eggs to crack on their heads...gee, think he's spoiled??

He actually got out of the swing to get Daddy

In full swing

Smash!

Daddy retaliating

Tristan was less than enthused about getting an egg cracked on HIS head

GiGi and Parker taking it all in

Tristan returned to egg hunting after he got over the whole egg on his head ordeal

Look, two eggs!!

They were everywhere

Looking ever so handsome

Went after Daddy again, look at Park trying to get away!

And one for GiGi

Outside after eating for some more egg cracking

Victor kicking a confetti egg in the air...look closely and you can see the confetti!

Stomping an egg