Emerson's first day of school 2011

Today should have been the first day of preschool for both Emerson and Ashton. Unfortunately, Ash has had a questionable fever for two days. So, he stayed home with me while Emy went to school.

This year Emerson is in a three's class. This marks a couple of big transitional steps. First, the classes now have 13 students and two teachers compared to 5-7 students and 1 teacher. Second, the parents no longer walk the kids into their class. Now I drop Emy off at the door and her cubby is in the hallway. These are both things that UCC does to prepare the kids for kindergarten(!) Inhale. Exhale. Breath.

Emerson has 3 friends in her class this year- Ethan, Ashley and Adelaide. I was really thankful for the familiar faces to help with the transition into a new classroom.

Speaking of friends, in the past couple weeks, Emerson has started on this "girls only" thing. As in, she won't play with boys. It is really quite obnoxious. She is even this way to her friends that are boys. Seriously, the "girls rule" thing is already starting? At 3.5? Where do they get this stuff from? And how can I nip it in the bud?

Despite Emerson not being into playing with boys right now, she still adores Ashton. As in, won't-stay-out-of-his-personal-space adores him. Oh well. Soon enough the roles will reverse and he will be annoying her. Tis the life of siblings:)


Hopefully Ashton will be well enough for school next week and I can snap "first day of school 2011" take 2.

Ashton's First Birthday Party

Ashton won't be one for 6 more days but we had his party this past weekend. It was small- just family and a couple close friends- but it was hot so we got out the pools and set up ghetto waterpark in our backyard. The kids had a blast and stayed cool and when the adults couldn't take it anymore, we all came in to play a little longer.

For Ashton's party, I decided to plan it using his favorite snack as a theme- goldfish! It was really cute and easy to work with. I found adorable invites on etsy that were blue and orange and just ran with it.

Here is the super ghetto set up. We had 3 large pools, a baby pool and a splash pad thing. Oh, and did I mention that we only had 7 kids there? Ha!

Here is the goodie table. The adorable banner was made by my friend Beth at Love, September. She also made Emerson's.

The snacks were easy! Did you know they make a ton of different flavor goldfish? I only bought about half of the flavors.

Close up of the cake. Turned out so cute...especially since it was $3.99 from Kroger!

My little tradition for my kids is to have all the guests sign it and then I put a picture from the party on the sheet. I put it in a frame and hang in their room. Although, Emerson is getting quite a collection of these...thinking I need to rotate some out and put the others into a scrapbook.

Family picture before the party.

Despite the 106 degree heat, Ashton was more interested in playing out of the water than in it.

He just wanted to crawl around everywhere with the occasional few steps thrown in.

This is what he ended up looking like most of the time. Such a boy.

We found one way to keep him cool in the water. Feed him snacks.

Emerson had fun playing with her friends.

Cake time.

A little unsure.

Emerson keeping a close eye on things.

Ahhh. Now he has it figured out.

Nice and messy.

Ashton thoroughly enjoyed cake and his party. It was a success!

Ashton in the kitchen

A few random pictures of Ashton the other day that were too cute not to post. Sorry for the terrible lighting...my kitchen is a dungeon.

Ashton really likes to watch the washing machine when it is running. It is so cute because if I start washing clothes while he is playing in the kitchen, he crawls over to it really fast to watch.

Playing with some of his books.



Hi "new face" that I just adore!

Ashton is 11 months old!

I have started getting RSVP's for Ashton's party. Insert sobbing here. How has this happened? I have made a good conscious effort to enjoy the baby parts of Ashton because I knew that it would go by all too fast...But already? Insert more tears here.

Deep breath. Moving on...Ashton is 11 months old and so much fun! He is such a delight. Everyone that meets him just adores him. He is smiley, chatty, playful, silly and LOVES to eat!

He has started holding things up to his ear to "talk" on the phone. It is precious. Here he is using his monkey to "talk on the phone". I told you it was cute!

Ashton loves playing copy-cat games with anyone that is wiling. His favorite thing to do (other than eat) is to play chase. He doesn't mind whether you are chasing him or he is chasing you...He enjoys it just the same either way. It is so cute because the entire time you are being chased he is just cracking up.
Oh, and his laugh! It is the cutest sweetest sound in the entire world! I wish I could bottle it up and keep it forever.
Ashton is still not walking but in the past week or so has done a little bit of independent standing. He is such a stinker...if he is holding on to something in each hand and not paying attention he will stand alone for the longest time. Until he realizes that he is standing, then he quickly sits down.
For record keeping sake, Ashton still gets 4 bottles a day. Three of them are basically at meal times and then one little one at bedtime. We are in the process of getting rid of the bedtime bottle so that we can then move on to cutting out the bottle all together. I want to start that project early after what happened with Emerson!

Ashy is totally off baby food and will eat whatever the rest of us are eating for dinner.

He still only has his two bottom teeth.

He is wearing 9-12mo clothes and size 3 diapers.

I am absolutely head over heels in love with him and can't believe that he is almost one. I don't know if it is just the infamous mother/son bond thing, but if I am having this hard a time with his first birthday coming up...what am I going to do when he goes off to college? Or (gasp) gets married?
Speaking of growing up too fast...Seriously, how grown up does Emerson look in this picture? She is changing so fast too! That deserves a post of its own though:)