Chaz's 3rd bday party

Yes, I should have done this post 3 weeks ago BUT, if you are not aware, I lost the memory card from Chaz's birthday party *tear* So, it took me weeks to get over the guilt of "bad mom." I reached out to friends and family and managed to scrounge up enough pictures for a post. I am ever so grateful to the people who took pictures. They aren't the over 100+ I had (oh mercy me!) but they captured the day and memories. I am forever thankful!!
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So, now that I am past the tears let me start by saying I finally gave into a theme.. and not a Razorback back theme (easy) like his first birthday. But a "Full-fledged, go online and buy everything that matches, Buzz Lightyear threw up on the party" theme. Chaz was over the moon. He would find things as I would purchase them and a box would come in.. He would say "is this for my Birthday party on Saturday (even though it would be weeks away)" I tried to make a classy Buzz lightyear theme but you can really only do so much. I went with purple and green as my main colors. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the cupcakes, flower arrangements, balloons, decorated tables or giant paper lanterns that hung from our back porch.. But you can use your imagination.
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We had pizza 1) because it is in the Toy Story movies and 2) because it was E.A.S.Y

After opening what I think was every Buzz Lightyear toy know to man and a few razorback, Manny, Mickey mouse, etc Chaz loaded everything up in his wagon so "nobody will take it." Seriously kid, nobody is going to steal your toys AT your birthday party. HA!When I asked Chaz what he wanted for his birthday he would say "A card, hat and blowers!!" "and my friends and cousins to come over" I failed on the hats but we had plenty of friends, cousins, cards and blowers. Brandon liked the blower. This picture cracks me up. These are Buzz goggles. Chaz thought they were so cool. We are going to have to do some alterations because this kid's head is a little to big for the strap. But he loves them anyway! Then it was time for candles. Please excuse the messy hair, this kid sweats like a beast!
He was so excited to be able to blow out his OWN candle. Remember we have had a few issues with this in the past. We even got a special buzz candle (of course)
I decided to go with ALL cupcakes this year. Besides the pizza this was probably my best decision. Nobody (usually my mom) was tasked with cutting cake and divvying it out to people and there were not a ton of kids anxiously awaiting cake as the cutting was taking place.. Just grab a cupcake and go! Oh, and I decided on white and chocolate icing this year.. Last year it was BLUE. What was I thinking????
Sid looking super stylish in her shades!Brandon chowing down! Fletch checking out his cupcake. I love that he came dressed for the occasion in his Buzz Lightyear shirt!

I love this look! I am not sure what it is all about but it is classic. Maybe he thought someone was going to steal his cupcake!and the cute little treat boxes. This picture is not as great as the pyramid I had on the dining room table but thank goodness I had made one for Chaz and was able to take pictures later. The contents were simply adorable. Toy Story Pez , Toy story tattoos, Toy story silly bands, Toy story stickers, dum dums, bouncy balls and if you notice the ribbon around the box is also Toy story with Buzz and Woody. I love that I was able to shop online for all this stuff. Talk about a deal!and probably my favorite part of the whole thing was the sticker on the front of the box. I ordered them from Etsy. LOVE!!We only had a few things on the party agenda--pizza, cake, presents and "the surprise"-- so for the most part the adults sat around and visited and the kids played in the backyard.
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Emily in the police car.Chaz, Colt and Jackson in the rhino. This was Colt's first time to ride in the rhino and I don't think he could have had a bigger grin!
I had to step in and push them up the hill. After a few hours the rhino begins to loose power. Check out Colt's face. Still grinnin'

Kelsey and Jackson.

Addison, Katy and Turner!

It was hot outside so every once and a while I would find the kids inside playing with the train set.

Turner and Campbell hanging out in Chaz's room

Campbell found a good resting spot on Michelle's shoulder

Anna and Fletcher showing my dad how the blowers work!

And then it was time for "the surprise" Wait! Let me rewind.... a few months back Ryan and I had the conversation about how cool it would be to have a projector and a blowup screen so the kids could watch movies (and adults could watch football) in the backyard. Then a light bulb went off in my head and I was on a mission to make this happen in time for the birthday party. Izzy's mom was sweet enough to let us borrow her projector (from Illinois!) My cousin Michelle found a blowup screen at the sample store while we were in NY. I got a text from her asking if we wanted it, SOLD! Well, it wasn't quite that easy. A few days before the party my dad decided to take the screen out just to "make sure" everything was there and working. NOPE.. it didn't have a SCREEN! Seriously? Of all parts to be missing. Well, needless to say that went back to the store. Now I was stuck without something to project the movie on.. I thought about hanging a white sheet on the fence and calling it a day. But my sweet dad called and said "Do you want me to build you a screen??" I didn't really know what to say as this was a lot of work but before I could answer I think my dad was already at Lowe's buying the material for the screen. Saturday morning this was in my yard. GO DAD! I was so excited. We had Toy Story 3 (don't ask how as it is still in theaters) a projector and a screen all ready for an evening movie in the backyard.

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When the sun began to go down we quickly put the kiddos in their PJs and put blankets out on the ground. We had cool Toy story popcorn tubs for all the kids. They were all SO excited. It was a very proud mommy moment!

The sun was quickly out of sight by the time the movie started. I purchased LED lights that you can put in balloons to make them glow. We put them in purple and green balloons and lined the edges of the "movie theater" It was a pretty cool effect!

I think all my efforts paid off and Chaz had a wonderful 3rd birthday, I still can't believe he is 3!! Thanks to everyone who was able to join us for the party and we missed those of you who couldn't make it!!!

The Hills in NYC -- Day 4 of 4: Goodbye big city!

Day 4.. Our flight wasn't until later in the day so we left our baggage at the hotel and headed off for another day of no plans and lots of walking, because we haven't done enough of that! We started off in Greenwich Village at a small little shop for breakfast. The majority of things were closed because it was Labor Day but this was a pretty good place. They had Nutella hot cocoa, I don't understand this but Sarah was in heaven! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryan spent the morning with a business partner who lives in the city. So Sarah, Jeff and myself did some more exploring. In our wandering we found Washington Square park which was full of families enjoying the perfect Labor Day weather. The fountain was beautiful. If I had Chaz with me I have a feeling we would have had a wet child.

We started at the beginning of 5th avenue and walked all the way up to the Flatiron building. Stopping in a few shops on the way. I can't believe I am going to legitimately say this, but I only bought 2 things.. an I heart NY shirt for Chaz and one for me.. The only reason there were two is because it was a 2 for $10 cheap T-Shirt shop. Really, that is ALL I bought!

We met up with Ryan for lunch and then it was more walking, why not?!?! During our travels we stumbled upon this beauty. What is it you may ask? Well it is the something us marketers like to call a popup store.. This one was for PopTarts and can I tell you we walked in at the right time. The people who worked there looked like they were preforming a segment of STOMP. It was amazing. They were singing, clapping, strobe lights flashing and all the while they were making custom PopTarts. WHAT?!?! I was hilarious! I felt like I had walked into the twilight zone. But unfortunately the iPhone was dead, so no video! Remember that sculpture we climbed the day before? Well this is the PopTart version, cute huh?
We had been to Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn so as Sarah said "We decided to head east and wave to Queens." Sorry Staten Island--no love for you! The stench of the east river is just as bad as they say. YUCK! But the view was beautiful. We just kind of hung out for a while. It was nice to rest the feet because by this time my two pinky toes HATED me!!
Skywriting.. Now, I will tell you that with the wind it took us a good 4 tries to figure out what they were writing.. We would read off the letters like we were working on a Wheel of Fortune puzzle...C-A-S-I-N-O ... Casino! Casino! It is for a Casino! Wow, we are geniuses! And then it was over.. we took one last group shot before we made our last subway ride back to the hotel in order to catch our plane. GOODBYE BIG APPLE!!
My only regret of the entire weekend is ....that I didn't have a pedometer! I would LOVE to know the miles I logged. My jeans were fitting a little looser when I returned. Just on this last day our route looked something like this, according to Tour Guide Sarah. Back to reality.... Hello NWA! The trip was a blast. BIG, HUGE thanks to my friend Sarah for asking us to join on this unbelievable weekend. I cannot thank you enough. I think we became even closer friends over this trip and actually discovered our husbands are not as far on different ends of the spectrum as we once thought. Oh, and a BIG thanks to my mom and dad (and Shane and Lisa) for watching the munchkin. I know he had a blast and probably didn't even know we were gone.

The Hills in NYC -- Day 3 of 4: Statue? What Statue?

Day three we were up early and ready for the day.....LIE! We did not get out of the hotel until 11am. Oh well it was vacation, right?? It may not look like it but we really didn't have much of a schedule. Besides the Yankee's game we really had zero schedule. We had a list of "things to do" but we only had a few things that were a must --Empire State Building, Central Park, Ground Zero, Status of Liberty, about 4-5 Seinfeld things, Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square just to name a few. And if you look at the list we had covered almost half by the start of day 3. So this made it ok for us to be a little slow on Sunday morning.
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After our morning stop to Dunkin Donuts (they have iced tea.. it is no Sonic but it is tea) we decided to hail a taxi down to Battery Park and see the Statue of Liberty.
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But first we needed some food. Now I will say I am not really the food connoisseur but other than the Yankee game we hadn't really had a great eating experience--remember it was about survival :) So after we got out of the cab we start walking, we rounded a corner and saw a beautiful little alleyway filled with restaurants on both side and tables with umbrellas in the middle. It was adorable and VERY promising of GOOD food. We opted for a Mexican food place called Mad Dog & Beans. It smelled very good and we were very hungry! It was very good but there was a little bit of an incident with the bill, you can read that on Sarah's blog. But remember you have to come back here! Anyways, after lunch we head toward what we thought was the way to see the Statue. There wasn't really a rush of people heading in one direction or signs so we had Ryan ask someone *Insert catchphrase #2*

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We quickly found the line which wrapped around a stone building. It seemed a little long but it was THE Statue of Liberty, this was on the MUST list--so we waited.. With zero movement for several minutes. So of course we sent Ryan in for some recon work to see what the deal was, you know the "man doesn't mind pesterin' people." Within the matter of minutes Ryan was standing in front of the crew... "We have a decision to make. How important is the State of Liberty to you??" We all looked at each other and then at him with very perplexed looks on our faces. "You see this line? Yeah, this is the line for the tickets. THEN you have to go stand in thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat line to get onto the ferry" As he was telling us this he motioned to this VERY long line that had at least a thousand people in it. How did we not notice this line when we were walking up? It would take us hours upon hours to get through these lines. Our day would be consumed by lines. AND according to Jeff "you don't stand in line that lasts longer than the ride" Good point Jeff, good point! Faster than lightening we were over the fence and out of line, decision made! I am so happy we were with a group that all thinks the same. No argument, no hurt feelings, very quick decision, all smiles. We would be viewing the lovely Lady Liberty from afar and that was OK with us!
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And of course we had to walk up to the water and do the typical pose..

What? You don't see her? That Statue we have seen in books, movies, stamps, etc for our entire lives.. Yeah, I thought it would be a little bigger as well. Well, I will assist you in finding the lovely Lady Liberty... There she is.. yep, right there!
She is a little bigger in the Hood's photo, but still a spec on the map!
We were able to get a few good pictures from different places on the pier. But still this was as good as it got.. I will take this for not having to stand in line for HOURS!!Ryan even took the time to mimic the Statue in case there were some other tourists who didn't get on the ferry.. Yeah, not much difference!I humored him and took a picture. Jeff sat on a bench and looked at us all like we were nutso!

What do you think we are doing here? Well, Ryan is irritated that my hand is not flat.. Why did my hand need to be flat?

So we could take this cheesy tourist picture of us "holding" the Statue of Liberty. Yeah, I know we failed.. But we thought we were funny!So after all this fun we all needed to find a restroom (Yes, I am about to tell a restroom story in NYC.. it is funny, I promise) Anyways, we got about 6 different directions to a restroom but finally happened upon a small rock building with zero line on one side and a looooooooong line on the other.. You guessed it! The women's side was the one with the line as long as the Mississippi. Sarah and I hopped in line with the hope that it would go very fast. The boys went to their side of the brick building and were back in a flash. Sarah and I had not taken one step forward. So we inserted Jeff's philosophy about the length of the line vs the time on the ride and opted to break some rules. We made Ryan escort us one at a time into a stall in the men's restroom. A few things to note 1) there were men in this restroom doing what you do 2) the restroom as FAR from clean 3) I am 100% sure we cause irritation for the men who were legitimately waiting their turn when there two girls jumped in line asking some weird guy (Ryan) to hold their purses. But we did it and survived.
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For the next several hours we just wandered. We walked around the financial district, looked at some amazing old churches, 5th avenue, Ground Zero, etc.. We stumbled upon this beautiful church in the middle of the financial district. It was amazing that such a peaceful place could be smack dab in the middle of such hussle and bussle. The inside was amazing and the outside had a beautiful courtyard that is the only active cemetery in Manhattan and was the final resting place to many, including one of my favorite Law & Order peeps... Jerry Orbach. As we started walking down Wallstreet to see the NY stock exchange we got to see a little piece of NYC randomness.. Yes, that would be a panda.. Yes, he is sitting on a chair in the middle of the Financial District.. and yes, I took a picture. Because I LOVE randomness!!

We kept on walking, as if we hadn't done enough of that! And soon we were seeing more things that we had only seen in movies and on TV.

and on the steps of the Federal Building Ryan needed to get out some nervous energy. What a goober!

and then it was time for Ryan and I to be Seinfelded. We had listened to multiple quotes, inside jokes and randomness of Seinfeldland over the past few days AND we went to Sardi's .. but we had to go to the meca, Sarah's Graceland. We jumped the subway and traveled all the way uptown to see this... Actually something we recognized. The boys went inside to use the bathroom and although they didn't actually film the scenes inside this coffee house Sarah wanted to see the inside.. one step in and we noticed it was the smallest restaurant on earth, so we quickly backed out. The Hood's got their picture in front of their Graceland so they were happy!

This is most likely her screensaver. She was THAT happy! back on the subway to go downtown..Sarah and I seizing the photo opportunity..
the boys, well being boys..5th Avenue.
Ground Zero.. or what you could see of it. Ryan thinks we were on the wrong side but we couldn't really figure out how to get on the other side. So this is what we saw. Either way it was surreal and amazingly quite. People just stopped and stared. This book shelf was in a window on 5th avenue I texted it to my dad and asked if he could build me one. My sweet little daddy said "Sure!"

Then another beautiful church.. St. Patrick's Cathedral. My Dad said this was a must and it was. Absolutely beautiful!
More randomness... I think I can fairly say that these two were not from the city.. Let's take note of a few things 1) mullet on the dude 2) totally 80's hair on the lady 3) fanny pack, oh how we loved the fanny pack 4) man in capris.. enough said 5) socks with sandles That is about it. I have picked these poor people apart and I am sure they are nice but as everyone says people watching is the best!We hopped on over to 6th for a minute to see this cool structure.

Back to 5th.. Yes, we are those peopleAnd then it was time for Central Park.. as we were trying to cross the street we (Ryan, Jeff and myself) made a quick decision to jaywalk.. I know, I know. But the traffic was zero and it wasn't that busy of a street. Anyways, in the middle of our sprint across the street we realize Sarah had not seized the moment and was stuck on the other side. She had decided to "obey the law" and go to the crosswalk. Whatever. Jeff was sweet and went back across to walk with her...See her there? The girl with jeans on in between the girl with the red backpack and the lady with the headband? Yep, that is our Sarah. Central Park is just as beautiful as they say. You can get lush green trees and a high rise in the same shot. Amazing!The crew, sans me, decided to climb one of the rocks. Sarah and Jeff enjoy climbing "rocks" I stayed below and took the pictures.

If I haven't mentioned it before we seriously relied on our iPhones the entire trip. The compass (although it failed us a few times) was a necessity. BUT it kept asking us to "move the phone in a figure eight formation to reset" so this is what we looked like when we were prompted to do this.. fools, seriously fools.I had to take a picture of this guy. You know how you always see those people who sketch or do caricatures of tourists while they sit there and wait? Well this guy would sculpt, SCULPT a 3-D image. WHAT?!?! Yeah, it was that cool and very accurate. If I would have had Chaz with me we would have had a bust of his head. Supercool!and of course the classic Status of Liberty mime..
After a long wander in the park we were hungry and we needed something good. So, of course, we turned to the iPhone for assistance. We quickly discovered that the Mickey Mantle restaurant was very close.. Of course it took us walking over a full square city block in order to realize it was less than 50 yards (the other way) from where we started. Anyways, we arrived.. Ryan and I were quickly informed that there was a Seinfeld episode that mentioned this restaurtant. Why wouldn't there be a Seinfeld reference???It took all of 5 minutes for us to get a table and then our luck struck again. We sat down in our booth and looked up to see this.. Yes, we were sitting IN Mickey's booth. For real??!?It was a great place, good food, great company and we even got a real, authentic NYC cheese cake--well Sarah actually got it, I just took a bite!
Sarah managed to get us home...on the subway... in ONE try! GO tour guide Sarah!! Well after we put the Hoods to bed Ryan and I found some friends at the Hotel bar and decided to go out on the town. I mean heck it was our last night in NYC and who knew when we would return! First stop was a little dive bar a few blocks from the Hotel. It was a good time but we wanted to keep moving.. On our walk to the next bar we came across this sculpture of the famous Ironworkers photo and what do we do? We climb it of course..

It was very, very cool!

We saw and iron pig in a shop so of course I had to take a picture. The people with us --who were from Canada--thought we were crazy to love the pig! Whatever. GO HOGS!!

We ended the night at a divebar where there was a Johnny Cash cover band. Yes, a Johnny Cash coverband in NYC. I think this is odd, but maybe not! Oh well it was a great time!! I have to say to learned from our "tour guide" over the past few days. Although the way home was all within walking distance, the Canadians thought we were lost. Nope, not me. I knew exactely where we were. I pointed in the direction of our hotel and quickly rattled off our route. Everyone doubted me.. But within a few minutes we rounded a corner and there was our hotel. Success!

Next up: Day 4 of 4: Goodbye big city!