A slumber party!

Last night we kept our nephew Noah for the evening. He and Gordon are 5 weeks apart to the day and they are the best of pals and partners in crime. It was the first time these two had spent the night together and they had a blast. There was quite a lot of giggling and chattering in the evening.....so needless to say bedtime was delayed. But they both got a good night's sleep and were excited to get right back to playing together in the morning.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

Last week we took the little man to Sesame Place . If you've got young kids and haven't been there you should defintely check it out. The park has been around for 30 years...but a lot of people haven't heard about it. We LOVED it and can't wait to go back again.

We arrived Saturday evening and since we had season passes we decided to go ahead and head over to the park for a little while. This was Gordon's first trip to an amusement park so we thought it would be a good idea to let him check it out a bit that evening before the big day we had planned ahead.




He found a slide that he wanted to try.....here he is with Daddy right before they went up to the top.



He had the best time .....as you can see he was dressed for the Sesame Street experience (outfit courtesy of Aunt Linda)




Gordon rode his first amusement park ride that evening....Big Bird's Balloon Race....he was a little uncertain but seemed to enjoy it.



We also caught the last half of the parade.




Our second day started out with Breakfast with Elmo and Friends. Cost...$40, Gordon's reaction when he met Elmo.....PRICELESS!



We got to visit with several of Elmo's friends as well, including:



Bert, who stopped by while we were eating




Ernie, who was actually one of the first characters we got to meet. Could Gordon be more excited?



Big Bird

And he even got to chat with Elmo for a while.




We rented a cabana both days we were there; which I highly recommend. It allowed us to have a place for Gordon to nap, get out of the sun and was right near Big Bird's Rambling River, which we got immediate access to. Zoe stopped by the cabana to visit. I think Gordon had a little crush on her.



I don't think Zoe minded.




When we ran into her later on I practically felt like he was calling us over to meet his girlfriend.




We also got to do meet and greets with the characters.

"G" is for Gordon and (Super) Grover! Gordon wanted to make sure Grover was aware of the location of his nose.



I felt like was okay to wear loud, fun swim shorts given we were at a place where there are bright furry monsters ranging in colors from blue & red to purple and orange.

Gordon also got to visit with Cookie Monster; and quite frankly developed a rather good impression of our furry friend.



We also showed off our impression of the Count,



"AH - HA - HA - HA"

Gordon really enjoyed the water park. We spent a lot of time over at Ernie's wave pool.





Gordon also enjoyed playing at the Count's Castle. But we had to watch out if you heard any thunder, that signaled the start of the countdown for the big splash!



PaPa and Nana met up with us for a while one day.

We caught the full parade while they were there.




PaPa and Gordon had a blast running through the sprinklers.





We were really impressed with how excited Gordon was about the water slide. We thought he might be a little hesitant to try something like that but he loved it. So much that we spent a good half hour to forty-five minutes going down the slide, getting out of the pool and getting back in line to go again!





A close up of the fun






And back in line again!




We had such a wonderful time. And the little man was a trooper as always while we traveled. We hope we'll find our way back there soon!

The Beach

PaPa and Nana's house is finished and we got a chance to go down to NC and visit them for Memorial Day weekend.

We had spent some time down in Shallotte around Thanksgiving and went out to the beach for Gordon to check out the sand but technically this was his first beach vacation and he loved it!

We spent time at the beach or the pool every day we were there....the boy couldn't get enough of the water despite not wanting to get in at first.

Daddy and Gordon are ready to hit the beach!



The little man loved running in the sand!



Playing in the surf!



Building castles!



Taking the occassional nap...



And enjoying the amazing weather we had



Here is proof that I was actually on the vacation....



Now for a little pool time...



3, 2, 1......BLAST OFF!



One afternoon we met up with Uncle Elliott, Aunt Jessica, and cousins Isabelle and Noah and walked around Southport. The kids had a great time and were exceptionally cute...of course!



PaPa and Nana joined us for our little adventure. We had a great time checking out all the boats....as you can see Gordon is more interested in the boats than smiling for the picture.



We're looking forward to heading back to Holden Beach soon!

Big Boy Haircut

The little man had his first major haircut last week - he did a great job! Here is a picture of him right afterwards showing off his clean cut look.



He's officially lost the baby look....

Catch me if you can!

I've been extremely hard to keep up with days.....I'm always on the move. So much in fact, that Friday night after Mommy finished work and picked me up from daycare we had a little outing to purchase something new for me....

MY FIRST PAIR OF BIG BOY SHOES!!!



Check them out aren't they sharp!

Made my day!

So today was one of those not so great but not incredibly terrible days...just one that you could pretty much sum up as "I've had better" Anyway this evening, as "luck" would have it (can you sense the sarcasm) Gabe got held up at work unexpectedly. So Gordon and I were home and both not feeling too great and dinner didn't go smoothly...pretty much blah for both of us. We headed downstairs to veg out and I decided to watch a Maroon 5 concert I had previously recorded. My friend Joli and I went to see Maroon 5 this past weekend and I have been on an all play Maroon 5 kick for quite sometime - my co-workers have accepted that and I appreciate them for it. Anyway looks like my taste has rubbed off on the little man, because check him out:


Not only did he pick up on my awesome taste in music; he'll be a hit on the dance floor.

This whole event lasted less than 30 seconds but put a smile on my face and absolutely made my day! Thanks Gordon!!!!!

My 1st Birthday Party

This weekend a lot of people came to our house...and they all came to visit me! You might find this hard to believe but I am going to be 1 year old on Wednesday...I know right!!!! ONE YEAR OLD!

Mommy and Daddy planned a big shindig for our all our family and friends to come to and boy was there a great turn out...I felt so loved!

Here are a few pictures from the big day...I really enjoyed the party and loved seeing all my friends and family.

My Daddy made this amazing fruit basket....


Mommy found really cool decorations with my favorite animals on them and Daddy made a cake of my favorite animal...a monkey!


Originally we were going to have a big cookout but the weather didn't want to cooperate so we had the party inside instead. After we everyone ate burgers and hot dogs it was time for the cake!


I was a little uncertain about the whole cake eating experience.....but I gave it a whirl


The individual cake that Daddy made for me was a little tough to dig into; in all the craziness of the day the 'rents forgot to take it out of the fridge (amateurs!) So Mommy cut me a slice of the sheet cake we had and I dug in a bit more to that one.


I wasn't sure what everyone else was waiting for so I told them to DIG IN!


All this time Mommy and Daddy have tried to keep me neat and clean when I eat but they seemed to want me to get messy yesterday; but I didn't do it - instead of wiping the icing all over myself I licked my fingers clean!


Mommy quickly got a picture of me in my birthday hat...and then MELTDOWN!


So we regrouped and went to open presents. I didn't have much interest in the process though...




AWKWARD....


But I had a good time playing with some of the toys I had opened and with the other kids at the party.



It was a great day and we were so happy so many of our friends and family could come to spend it with us. We really appreciate it!


And I really missed my MeMaw, who ended up getting the stomach bug and couldn't come...we're going to celebrate when she visits next week though.