Party Prep

So, on Friday my baby boy turns one!  

I really can't believe it.  It is so cliche but so true that time flies by so fast and so much faster with baby #2 than baby #1.  

I feel like I blinked and a year has gone by.

But, we are gearing up for a party around here for Ty!

It took me forever to decide on a theme.  I really wanted to think of something that would represent Ty but, I could not get inspired.

What does he love??...food, baths,....more food....not sleeping...he smiles alot.

I just couldn't think of it.  

But, thank goodness for Kinley.

We were talking about it one day and I asked "What does Ty like?"

And she said..."We should have a ball party!" 

(in her really excited scream voice)

Duh!  It is perfect!

His first word ever was "ball" and he can throw a ball, chase a ball and it truly is his favorite toy!

So, we are having a ball themed birthday party.  Not sports balls...more like bouncy balls.

Here my inspiration board...mostly via pinterest. And here is his invitation that I made on my computer. 

 It is going to be a much more toned down party than we have had lately. 

 Mostly just family and a few close friends. Ty does not have a ton of friends from school or anything yet so while we can, we are keeping it pretty chill. 

 I love creating my own invites. I always get them printed at Staples on cardstock or textured cardstock and it is a custom look without a custom price! 

 (i mean, everyone eventually just throws them away anyway...why spend a ton!?)  

One of the first things that I envisioned for the party was this multi-colored styrofoam ball garland.  Kinley and I had a great time playing with paint one night. 

I thought the best way to get good paint coverage on the styrofoam (without re-paintbrushing them 100 times) was to squirt some acrylic paint into a gallon sized ziplock bag and roll the styrofoam around.  This was so fun for Kinley.

We had just bought the three main primary colors and so we had a quick art lesson to remember how to mix them up to make orange, green, and purple.  Kinley loved that too!

I think they turned out awesome!  

I can't wait to see them all strung up.  

Stay tuned for some birthday and party pics soon!

First Day of School

So, today was finally Kinley's first day of school.  I absolutely love Kinley's preschool and could not ask for more but, we definitely start later than everyone else out there!  Kinley has been ready for weeks for school to start and she could not run in the door fast enough.  She has a great class this year with lots of familiar faces.  I am excited to see how she grows this year and all that she learns.  

It didn't take much for Kinley to get excited about first day of school pictures.

 

Ty was another story.  I could not get him to focus on me at all!  He was too busy watching a trash truck drive by.

And, Kinley already had homework before school even started.  We decorated her All About Me poster and took it in for her first day.  She loved getting to color it with markers, stickers and pictures!

 

Showing off her new backpack.

 

She walked right in to school and unloaded her backpack in her cubby, handed off her teacher gifts, and grabbed her attendance name tag and put it in her slot.

 

Yay for the school year starting!  We can't wait to see what the year brings!

Cousins Weekend 2012

Labor Day weekend this year was extra special because it was also Joyner Cousins Weekend!  We had cousins weekend last year at the lake house when I was pregnant with Ty and it was so much fun that we knew it would have to be a yearly tradition. This year every single cousin on the Joyner side of the family made it...even Bart and Olivia! 

 We were so excited to all be together and just spend quality time. It was a super relaxed, never put on a stitch of makeup, play games, stay up late, sleep late, and eat a lot kind of weekend. It was fantastic! 

We really had such a fun time that I never even stopped to take many pictures. I did however make shirts...duh! I cannot take much credit for these shirts because Bart, Ben and Olivia created the design on our Galveston trip. Everyone picked whether they wanted a tee or a tank and got a shirt with this fantastic crossword puzzle on it. It was really amazing. Bart used some app that he input the clues and answers in and it busted out a perfect crossword configuration. Everyone loved flipping back to front to see what clue's answer was their name.  I am sick to death that we did not get a group pic in matching shirts though...agh! We did some boating and jet skiing. We sat on the dock and played in the sand. We did some fishing...literally for like 5 minutes. Kinley was crying...begging Ben to let her fish and Ben refused forever because the water was SO low that there were FOR SURE NO FISH to catch. But, finally he relented and let her just cast some bait and reel in....then like 90 seconds later she caught this.

   

Saturday was Scott's 25th birthday and we celebrated. We sat around and talked a ton (and I was annoying and taking super close-up pictures because the lighting was good...) Sunday I got to meet my mom and dad half way and drop off my kids for a 24 hour adult only period. It was fun. We got to be a little louder than usual past dark. We even played some flip cup and it was pretty competitive.

   

(sidebar....I love flip cup.... I had never played it before until a few years ago.....I am not awesome at it but, I love it. I also love that it can totally include everyone....I have played it a lot while pregnant with water or diet coke....Brooke played the whole game with cups of Coke and there were many people that played with non-adult drinks. It is just super fun....sidebar over) We also played lots of ladder golf and corn hole. Apparently Bart and Scott are the team to beat. Pretty much undefeated. Also, Matt is amazing at performing Olympic charades which we forced him to entertain us with for close to an hour one night while listening to Garth Brooks. It was so fun. Wish I had some pictures or video.  

But, my favorite part of the weekend was just spending time with my family.  I am so, so blessed with the family I have. All around, I have the best family. I am close to my brothers and all my cousins on both sides, and am so thankful for that. Our parents always made it such a priority for us to spend time together and I want to continue that tradition for myself and my kids. It is such a fun, laughter-filled, safe, loving, supportive environment. Despite any age difference or distance we are all super protective of each other and our time together. I can't say enough great things. 

 I can't wait for Cousins Weekend 2013!