Birthday Parties and Such

So the weather is trying to warm up and we have had a day here and there of beautiful weather. Let's start our journey back in February. We had a beautiful day one day and at the first opportunity we got we headed to the playground. It was a great day for a picnic and we had a great time. Shelby was super excited that she got to wear short sleeves and a skirt without leggings or tights. She is definitely a warm weather lover and every morning wakes up with one question on her mind...can I wear short sleeves today?
This picture is too cute so I had to throw it in the blog. This is my dear friend Katie and her two daughters with Shelby.


Since Pratt was traveling a lot the first couple of months this year we put any birthday party planning on hold until he got back and wasn't going anywhere again. It pushed the birthday parties back, but the children didn't mind. We had JP's the last week of February on a Thursday afternoon. I was kind of hoping for a warm day so that the children could play outside, but of course, it was cold. Anyway, as we were getting the house ready for the party Shelby decided she was going to make JP a birthday hat. She has got the creative, artsy genes that I certainly don't have and I love it; except when she asks me to draw something for her and then after I try you can plainly tell by the look on her face that I grossly missed the mark. I have tried to tell her that I am not good at drawing and what not, but she still believes that I can do it so I try my hardest for her.



Okay, back to the hat...JP was so proud to wear the hat....


Of course, one of the best things about birthday parties is the cake. JP picked out a Cars cake this year. After seeing that JP got to pick out his own cake Shelby couldn't stop talking about picking out her own cake the next week. I am still finding it hard to believe that little man is 3 already!!!! Happy Birthday little buddy! I hope that you enjoyed your party and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for you this year!

The following weekend, which was the first weekend in March, we finally had Shelby's birthday. I say "finally" because to Shelby this day was long over due and she reminded me daily that it was not acceptable that we didn't have her party closer to her actual birthday. Anyway, it ended up being the perfect day. We took a gamble as the weather has been extremely cold this year and decided to have a party for her at the playground. Praise the Lord, He gave us a beautiful, warm, sunshiny day and everyone had a great time.

You are probably dying to know what kind of cake Shelby picked out...well, much to my surprise when we looked at all the cakes she went for the Care Bears cake. I really thought we were going to end up with this princess castle cake, but she went for the multi-colored Care Bears cake instead. It had all her favorite colors on it...purple, pink, and yellow. We had a great time celebrating this special day with many friends and family. As hard as it is to believe that JP is 3, it is even harder to believe that Shelby is 5!!!! Happy Birthday sweet Shelby! I hope that you had a really fun day at your party and we are so excited to watch you grow and to see what the Lord has in store for you! We know that it is going to be great!

After Shelby's party we took Shelby and JP to Palmetto Bay Marina to see The Spirit of South Carolina. It is a tall ship. What fun it was! I took a moment for Shelby to warm up to the idea of being on the boat; she always approaches things with caution and hesitancy until she deems them safe and fun. Shelby and JP had so much fun walking around the boat and looking at all the ropes and stuff. They were firing 1000 questions a minute about everything and when we were all finished they wanted to walk around the docks to look at the other boats. I particularly enjoyed this adventure because it was a walk down memory lane for me. One of my bestest and dearest friends from childhood and I spent most of our summer days ruling that marina. Her dad lived on a sailboat there and was in yacht sales; so while he worked we would explore and play. Those are some of the best memories I have from growing up on the island!

Along with all the freezing cold weather this winter, it seems that viruses and bacterial infections have been running rampant. It seemed that we were going to make it out relatively easy this year, but at the last push our family got hit. JP had strep throat really bad and about that same time I got some kind of something that put me in bed for the day and shortly after that Pratt got struck with a horrible ear infection. The day we took JP to the doctor to try to figure out what was going on with him was the same day that I was laid up. Pratt captured this picture of JP and me resting.