Jackson’s 2 year Farm Birthday

Saturday we had Jackson’s birthday party. It was so much fun! I had a  modern farm animal theme because Jackson loves animals and loves to make animal noises. I realized during the party that the theme may not of been very apparent since I ran out of time and energy to do some of my decoration ideas. I used black, red and white as the colors and it came out more UGA (much to daddy’s dismay) than farm. I think everyone had fun none the less. I KNOW Jackson did!

Here is the food table. I forgot to make little cards to put in front of the food to let people know what it was. I thought BBQ fit the farm theme and would be fine since mostly adults were coming. I made Pulled Pork, Baked Beans, pigs in a blanket, veggies, chicken feed (chex mix), sweet tea, milk and cupcakes. With Jackson’s egg allergy, I searched to find a cupcake recipe that would taste good. I used this cupcake recipe and this buttercream frosting recipe. The cupcakes were good, but the frosting was to die for. I seriously could have eaten the whole bowl!

I made all the kids that came to the party a freezer paper stenciled cow or horse t-shirt. I forgot to take pictures of them though.  Jackson also got a cow shirt because he loves to moo. When I showed it to him he let out a big MOOO!

This is my friend Kate’s baby Noah. He is 7 months old. Jackson was so excited about Noah being there. He hasn’t been around many babies, but he was so cute with Noah.

I’m not sure Noah was as excited to meet Jackson. I love his face here! He is such a good baby. I don’t think I heard a peep out of him the whole party.

Jackson shared his hat with Noah.

And gave Noah a kiss.

Jackson is such a little charmer. He gave each of his little guests a big hug and kiss. Even if they were not as open to public displays of affection. Poor Courtney wasn’t so sure about Jackson’s advances.

I was too slow with my camera to catch him giving Courtney a kiss or Katelyn a hug. I am seriously going to have to watch this boy!

These are my friends Alison, Kristin and Kate. Courtney (2 yr, 4mo) is Kristin’s little girl. She made sure we knew that was her mommy when Kristin was holding Jackson. Alison is Katelyn’s mommy. There were husbands and most of the grandparents and Uncle Chris, Ashleigh and Uncle Josh there too.

Katelyn (3 yrs) and Jackson had fun playing with his cars.

Katelyn, Courtney and I had craft time and made sheep with cotton balls. Jackson wanted nothing to do with crafts, he was too busy playing. The girls were so cute and polite making there sheep. They did not like glue getting on their fingers and I had to clean it off for them.

Jackson finally decided to join us for some coloring.

Jackson had some cute helpers to open his presents. Everyone was so generous with gifts. Jackson loved every one of them!

These bowling pins were a big hit with all the kiddos.

This was the best I could get of all the kids. 

Katelyn took the gift opening very seriously.

Courtney has the cutest little dimples and pigtails!

Both girls had a blast riding Jackson’s horse!

Cake time! Jackson was not excited about stopping playing for cake.

I told him one day he would actually like cupcakes and not throw a fit about eating one.

But this is all he wanted to do. Play!

Thank you every one for coming and making Jackson’s birthday special.

Jackson, I hope you had a great party and know how loved you are!

Jackson’s TWO year birthday!

Wednesday was Jackson’s 2 year birthday, so I wanted to do something special for him. Mimi and I had planned to take him to the Children’s Discovery Museum in Chattanooga. But, when we got there they were closed on Wednesdays. We were really disappointed and I had been telling Jackson how much fun we were going to have and how we were going to see dinosaurs (they have a dinosaur exhibit). We ended up going to the Tennessee Aquarium since Mimi has season tickets. I think Jackson still had fun even though he had just been there on Sunday with Mimi.

Jackson loved running around and climbing on the “rocks”. I think he liked that more that seeing the fish.

 Hat placement in the following pictures is done by Jackson. They are not an attempt by me to ghetto-tize my son.

I can’t remember what kind of creatures these were, but you could pet them if you wanted. Supposedly they did not have teeth, but I wasn’t about to stick my hand in there! Jackson wasn’t too keen on that either.

Jackson loved this mirror wall. He was too fast for me to get a good picture.

I think this was a giant catfish. It was bigger than Jackson!

My attempt at a picture with the birthday boy. He wanted DOWN!

See…Mimi was there too!

Jackson and Mimi at the stingray petting tank.

Jackson stuck his hand in the water, but didn’t touch any stingrays.

I think the butterfly exhibit was Jackson’s favorite part. He kept trying to touch the butterflies, but they had other ideas.

Second attempt at a picture with Jackson. Not any better.

Jackson got a big kick out of the shark cage.

Jackson thought all those rocks were there for him to climb and crawl on.

Of course Jackson got to pick a toy at the gift shop. We came home with yet another truck.

I hope you had the best birthday Jackson! I promise we’ll try the Discovery Museum again soon.  Mommy and Daddy and everyone in our family love you so much!

Jackson’s Turning Two!

I had really cute invitations picked out to print for Jackson’s party, but our printer decided to die as I was about to print them. Dang! Skip ahead a few days of mama panicking that invitations had not been sent out yet. Paperless Post to the rescue!  Now I just have to pull off the rest of the party.

Big Boy Haircut

Jackson’s hair has been looking a bit shaggy lately. And not in a good way. He was growing wings on the sides of his head. I, being a thrifty mommy, thought I could trim it myself. Umm, that didn’t work out so well. So, I broke down today and brought Jackson to get his first haircut! There is a kid’s haircut place near us I thought we could try.

Jackson played with the train table while we waited for our turn.

They had different vehicles for the seats for small kids to sit in. Jackson wasn’t too sure what was going on, so I picked the firetruck for him. Which he refused to sit in and we had to buckle him in.

Now I could say he did great and just move on, but it would be a lie. He threw a complete fit and screamed bloody murder. I had to hold his head still so the lady could cut his hair. We tried to give him a sucker, he pushed it away. We tried to give him a train, he threw it down.  Then, just as we were almost done he pointed to the toys behind him and shouted “Car!” There were shelves of toys that kids could pick from after their haircut. We gave him a red car and he was perfect the rest of the time. I guess we just needed to find the right distraction. I should have known it would be a car.

Remember those shelves of toys, well, Jackson wanted to take home EVERY car. I told him he could pick one, but that wasn’t good enough. He wanted them all. He ended up picking a space shuttle and then threw another huge tantrum. I had to pay and walk out with him screaming and thrashing in my arms.

I seriously needed a drink by the time I got in the car. I’m not sure the cute atmosphere was worth the toy tantrum afterward. Not to mention I paid a ransom for his cut and space shuttle.

Here are some pictures I took of his big boy haircut when we got home.

How could I not forget all about the tantrums with a cute face like that?!

Smoky Mountains

Daddy took this week off from work, so we decided to have some family fun! We drove up the the Smoky Mountains near Gatlinburg for the day. We stopped on the way and picked up Mimi to come with us. Matt has been going to the Smokies since he was a little boy and Matt and I have been several times together. But, we had not taken Jackson yet. So this was his first trip. We wish Grammy had been able to come with us!

We stopped in Maryville at the Harley-Davidson store because Daddy wanted to look at motorcycles. Jackson had a blast looking at all the motorcycles. He literally ran all over the store and was very upset to have to hold mommy’s hand.

On our way into the park we stopped to get a picture to commemorate Jackson’s first trip. It will be fun to get a picture at this same spot over the years.

Next we went to Cades Cove to let Jackson “hike”. He absolutely loves running around outside! It was a bit chilly, but that didn’t stop the cub!

After hiking we worked up an appetite, so we stopped for lunch. Jackson had fun waiting for his food by playing with his truck and dinosaur.

As we drove through the park we could see snow on top of the mountains.

We decided to try to drive up the mountain to see if we could see the snow and let Jackson play in it. Luckily the road was open so we were able to drive up.

Jackson wasn’t so sure of all that white stuff! There was quite a bit of snow, it covered Jackson’s shoes. Mommy wasn’t prepared for playing in the snow, so we didn’t stay too long.

We did drive into Gatlinburg and walked around a bit. Our plan was to have dinner there, but it was so crowded we decided to just leave.  Next time we’ll remember that we don’t really enjoy Gatlinburg and just stay in the park and hike.

We had a GREAT day and had lot of fun!!! Jackson was such a good boy and did great in the car and out in the cold. Jackson, Mommy and Daddy hope you enjoyed your first trip to the Smoky Mountains!