birthday shananagins

I thought I would post some pics of the party... before it was a long lost idea.

I had him a shirt made especially for the big event and I let him pick his shoes...
you see he went with the frog boots.
I thought it was a nice choice!  ;)

I spent a couple of days making everything 4th of July festive!  Flags were everywhere!
Lance got up at 6 in the morning to get ribs and chicken and brisket and sausage and corn on the cob and... whatever else on the grill.  My mom made yummy potato salad and 'sauced up' my beans.
Between the 3 of us, we made a ton of food, but had barely any leftovers, so I guess we had just enough!
We had a great turn out (more than I expected on a holiday weekend) and we had a set of twins and a set of triplets... How's that for a party!!  ;)

I had to cancel Lisa, the cake lady that I had booked 6 months ago since we changed the date, but luckily my friend Stephanie was able to take my spot for her son's birthday party this Saturday.
And our Sam's club cupcakes were just fine!

We borrowed my mom's whale water toy and she rented the kids the slide...
Which was awesome!!
The kids slid over and over and over again.  They loved it!

...and maybe us mom's played a little too!  ;)

He got more loot than he needed, and most of the kids got to go home with a goodie bag, that they filled themselves, of red-white-and-blue pencils, sunglasses, tattoos, candy, poppers and other business!
A few special kids (including my own) went home with a runny nose followed by a case of hand, foot and mouth a few days later!  But that is okay, it was more than worth it!

A few of our friends stayed for the "after party" of fireworks and adult time.  It was so good to hang out and chat with everyone.  And the kids of these families were POOPED!

The next night, (July 4th) I was on call so my sister and I took Maddox out to some friend's house in Decatur.  They drop a lot of money into fireworks and food so it was a fun time.
I am way too frugal to ever celebrate like that, but I am not against watching someone else splurge!

I made Maddox another video this year for his birthday, but I stepped it up a notch by adding videos.  It was really cool because I was able to make the music quiet some so that you could hear the videos but I made a big mistake by syncing the video to the music without omitting the videos... SOOO only about the fist few seconds of the video would play before it would start fading back into music.
Here are a couple of new-er videos.  (from about a month ago)  That I never posted to my blog.  (the first video is his letters, the second video is his shapes)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLKXr3l5bsk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNy1WfTmerg

Colors are still a no-go.  So don't expect any videos on that soon.  :)
Everything is green.  --Occasionally he lucks out, and it really is green...  but he doesn't know the color.
He gets brown.  If I hand him a white towel, sometimes he'll say, "no momma, I want brown towel."  Or laying on the couch, he'll trade me his red pillow for the "brown pillow"... but only in these 2 concrete episodes.

I have to say, however, we went to our jeweler a few weeks ago and Maddox was counting magazines at a table.  11 magazines.  (11 is as high as he can count-- occasionally he'll go to 12, so there probably was not 11 magazines, but that's the number he stopped at!)
A lady working there said, "that's smart, what's your name"
"mammax"
*she looks to me for verification
I say, "Maddox"
She says, "oh, I guess I could have read his hat."
Maddox pulls off his hat, points to his name stitched on the side and spells his name to her letter by letter. (except reads her the X before the O and only reads off one of the Ds)
She looks impressed and said, "How old is he?"
He says, "I most 2" (almost 2)
She says, "good grief!  What school do you have him in?  Your money is well spent"
my mom, before I can respond: "none-- that's all him momma!"

Moral of the story:  I fight back in forth with myself wondering if I am doing the right thing, keeping him home with me.  I tell myself that my child will be in a school environment for 13 years... and we still have four years before that starts.  He is super social and smart... and we stay WELL.  So I think this just verified that for us (I realize every child and situation is so different) but for us, this is right.  It made me want to tell everyone who likes to drop their opinion on the benefits from a school... and likes to list to me all the things that he is missing by being here...that I think we are fine. 
He got sick from a birthday party... and I HATE for him to be sick.  I am not ready for a weekly illness.
We will do a MDO at some point, but probably in a few years.

Another thing that makes me giggle... a couple of people bought Maddox nice flash cards so that we could trash our homemade 3X5s!! 

I found a teacher store in Keller that is AWESOME!  I bought a gift there for a friend's kid...  I can't wait to go back and get Maddox some stuff too!  I want to find a curriculum for him.  But all of the ones I have looked in to online are thousands of dollars... I am hoping I can put together my own from that store!

Crazy enough, I think that Maddox learns a lot from my phone.  He loves to play his games and a few are really good!  So if anyone has any good learning apps for Maddox to add to our list, let me know!

 I have so many videos of him playing these games.  But I will spare you! ;)

The rest of our week was filled with me working A LOT, it  and I am pumped for that check. 

We spent his actual birthday Saturday with a big breakfast, a gift from his gigi (a big bubbles kit) that she left for him to open before she headed to London, and TWO birthday parties.

I did not take any pics at Harper's 1st birthday Luau, but it was very very cute.  And thankfully, Maddox was on his very best behavior around all of the babies!  I'm sure Autumn thought I was 1/2 crazy saying he is being so difficult these days-- he played me for a liar!  But I was thankful!

I have a billion pics from Colin's 5th birthday at the Arlington water park.  It was a blast.  Stephanie and another family rented the entire park.  I think we may copy next year if I can convince my SIL to go in with me!!
Maddox played and played and would occasionally squat in the water and start blowing bubbles and get out of the pool just to jump back in.  (swimming lessons in action!!)  I was very thankful for Uncle Kaleb, who filled in for daddy while he was at work!

Cambrie was sleepy and didn't care much about swimming... but it  didn't stop her from showing her love to Maddox.  I wish you could see them in action.  It is seriously hysterical.  They are like magnets!  At one point she walked over, sat in his lap and he didn't push or whine, he simply kissed her on her back, right between her shoulder blades!
Then, later, he walked over for a hug, and she threw her leg around his side!
Then here, in this kiss, notice her closed eyes!
It is the cutest thing ever!

Here is a pic of the Lisa cake.  I'm glad Stephanie was able to use our date.  No one should have to miss out on her work of masterpiece!  ;)  Stephanie has used her a few times in the past and she is doing her wedding cake too! I can not wait to see it!

 

Yesterday Vanessa brought over her gift to Maddox.  It was WAY too much, but he loves, loves, loves it!
He wanted to ride it before we could even get it together!!  He wanted to wear his cars underwear, drink out of his Cars sippy, while eating his Cars fruit snacks in his new Cars bike!  Thanks Aunt Ness!  This Cars obsession is madness!