1st Birthday Party

 My baby is officially a toddler! My baby boy is 1.  We had his party in the 100 Aker Woods via Friends Park.  It was an amazingly gorgeous day; we had had rain all week long but not for his day!

The park was decorated with everything Winnie the Pooh!

All of his food was themed! I had a great time finding all of the different things on Pintrest.  I never would have gotten it all done though without the help of Nana, Grandma, Aunt Erin, Andrew, and Grandpa!

Acorns were made of Hershey kisses and mini Nutterbutters

Tigger Tails were pretzel rods dipped in white chocolate that I dyed orange and drizzled with semi-sweet chocolate.

Hunnycomb was rice crispy's made with Honeycomb cereal.

Andrew thought that it was ironic that my mom made the Christopher Robin's Coleslaw. 

Homemade Applesauce, this was the one thing Elisha would eat!

Stick House Sandwiches aka pulled pork sandwiches.  

Pigs in a blanket aka hot dogs on a roll.

Woodchips aka potato chips and onion dip.

Rabbit's Veggies and Roo's Ranch Dip!

Full Food Table

We even had carrot stick silverware.

This is Texas Sheet Cake which I made for the guests

This is Elisha's cake smash cake which I made thanks to some great advice from a good friend! (Thank you Mrs. Tina!)

Completed Dessert and Favor table.

Our favors were Hunny Pots with homemade honey candies.

Favor's close up, Elisha owes a big thank you to his Aunt Erin for helping me put these together!

We also had a 100 Aker Woods sign that some great friends had made me for my baby shower that we got to re-use and we made a big picture collage of the number 1! It was too windy so we had to lay the collage on the table instead of hanging it up. 

I can't believe how fast he grew!

Our friend is a local photographer and she came and took pictures of Elisha's cake smash. (Tracy Parron*) Although, he was not all about smashing the cake.  Note to self for next time- soft icing.  Although I am very pleased with how his cake looked the icing was hard and he did not get really messy from it. He also did not want to eat it!   

Candle time!

He touched it but was not sure about it...

He did smash a little corner of the cake.

But we kinda had to coax him into eating it ... or we just shoved it in his mouth; however you want to look at it.

In the end he was still my happy boy!

Mrs. Beth then got in on the action and tried to get him to eat some.  He still wasn't to sure about that ;-)

We also had a lot of family and friends come up to visit us for the special day! 

Happy Birthday Little Man! Daddy and I can't wait to see what God has in store for you in the coming weeks, months, and years ahead! We love you! Happy 1st Birthday! 

*Tracy Parron from http://www.tracyparronphotography.com/ is the photographer who took Elisha's cake smash pictures and the formal familiy pictures. 

Easter Round 2

When Grandma and Grandpa Kassouf came up for Elisha's birthday we also got to celebrate Easter with them.  We were only 1 week late so it worked out very well!  

First, Mom and I made Easter bread.  This is something that Andrew's mom has made since he was a kid but she only makes 1 a year and it only happens on Easter.  I had to make sure that I had all of the ingredients so we could have our Easter bread! 

Second, we dyed Easter eggs! Yes, I'm sure you thinking, "What? Elisha is only 1 year old. How is he going to dye Easter eggs?" Well, I bought an Easter egg dye kit last year the day after Easter.  I didn't really think about if Elisha would be able to do it or not I was just excited we had a baby and I bought it.  So, since we had an Easter egg dye kit I figured we should put it to good use.  I am so glad we did! Elisha loved it!!! First, Grandpa did a set of eggs while Elisha sat in his high chair and watched.  

Grandpa showed Elisha what to do.

Then we let him drop the eggs in the dye; well really it was more like throw the eggs into the dye.  Elisha would take the egg and with all his might he would throw the egg into the dye.  Then after the dye splashed out he would laugh at himself.  It was so much fun and I loved seeing the joy on his face! He was also very intrigued by the color change.  If you want to watch the video of this adventure you can see that on Facebook.  (Video's don't upload well here)  

Taking the egg ...

It made it in!

Let's do it again!

Throwing the egg in!

This is right after the splashing!
Can you see the dye on Andrew's wrist?

So much fun!

Our Easter is complete!
Bread and colored Easter Eggs!

Happy Easter!!

 Well it is official I must have a one year old (well almost) because Elisha has just celebrated a holiday for a second time.  It is super exciting and super sad at the same time.  I love seeing him grow but I also miss my baby. 

Today was a nice family day.  We started at Crosswalk for church.  Aren't these boys adorable?!

My little man will be walking very very soon! 

Then we headed to Nana’s house.  We spent a lazy afternoon at Nana’s hanging out with Uncle Kyle and playing with Elisha’s Easter basket!  

Elisha loves to hear people play the guitar and when Uncle Kyle got his out he was more than enthralled.

Then Uncle Kyle even let him play!

Elisha was so excited! He loves his Uncle Kyle. 

Yummy Goodies!

Eggs!

Oh, there are yummy things in the eggs!!
Little Crunchies are his all time favorite!

Elisha also decided that it was really fun to play in Nana's pantry!

We also went down to the bay to take family pictures!

It was a little windy!

Mommy, I'm a big boy now!

Finally, we spent the evening with my extended family for Easter dinner.  Elisha enjoyed exploring Aunt Debbie’s house and seeing his great grandparents!

Elisha loves his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Elisha spent much of the day chasing Tara around.
He loves animals!

Daddy and Elisha took selfies just before dinner. 

Just hanging out after dinner.
Yes, Elisha is holding a cell phone.
Nana turned Amazon Prime Music on, on the phone and he held it for the next half hour jammin out to music. 

Happy Easter! Lord we thank you for saving us and for making the ultimate sacrifice!   He is risen, He is risen in deed! 

Snow Endings and Spring Beginning's

I believe that we have finally made it through all of the snow this season.  Elisha did get to go out to play in the snow a couple times but he really did not like it.  It was super cold and he was all bundled up making it hard to move and he wasn't sure what to do with the snow.  But he did love to sit at the door and watch Andrew and he worked outside shoveling the sidewalk and clearing the cars.  Here are a few of our favorite snow images!  Until next year ... I hope. 

We have also had a few nice days in March and I could not be more excited about it.  Those day's we have gone outside for a walk because I just love the warmth!  Here is our first walk of the season!

Tea and Snow

This winter has been very up and down.  I think it has been one of the coldest on the books but snow wise although we have missed 11 days of school we really only had two bad storms.  One of those storms happened to be a on a day when Andrew and I had a double date scheduled and the babysitter all lined up.  Since the winter had been such a bust up until that point we decided that it would probably be a bust again and we were going to go on our date.  So our dear daycare mom Mrs. Beth came and picked up Elisha and they were off for a day of fun.  Jamie and Beth Bavis came to pick up Andrew and I so we could go to tea!  Yes, I said tea and not coffee.  I love going to a tea house and having tea, finger sandwiches, and scones!  I never realized that tea houses actually existed until I moved to Bel Air, I just thought they were an English thing or something from the movies.

Anyway, we were off to tea.  Much to our surprise as we left on our adventure it was actually snowing quite a bit but we were determined so we forged ahead.  We enjoyed a great lunch with delicious food and tea in the winter wonderland.  It was snowing way more than any other storm we had all year....

Here are the boys getting back to the car.

Here is the tea house when we left to go home.

Needless to say, what is normally a 20 minute ride home really took us an hour.  We didn't even go home because we were afraid that the Bavis' minivan would not be able to make it into our neighborhood.  Our son was also at Mrs. Beth's house, which is in the same neighborhood as the Bavis' house.  So we ventured over to the other side of Bel Air unsure of when we would get home.

Here are pictures of the traffic/snow on 24 (this is the main road through Be Air).

Once we arrived at the Bavis' house, the Merson's (Daycare Mom) came over and picked us up so we could be with Elisha.  They have two, 4 wheel drive vehicles so it was a lot easier for them to maneuver in the snow.  After a few hours hanging out with them the snow started to slow down some and Tim Merson was able to drive us home.  It was a crazy day that was full of all kinds of surprises.