More Birthday Fun

It was so nice to have Eli's party the weekend before his actual birthday this year. His Birthday was the following Saturday, so we were really able to just enjoy him and celebrate as a family that day. My grandparents and Aunt Karen decided to make the trip down from Virginia to see Eli on his birthday. It was SO nice to have them here for the weekend, and Eli just thought it was the greatest birthday surprise ever! He also thought that his birthday celebrations were never going to end after two weekends in a row of 'parties.' We decided to grill out that night, and then had a special cookie cake and ice cream dessert.

Eli and my grandad have such a special bond. They are so sweet together!
He loves to slide down the slide in the playroom and then run full force into your arms on the couch. That weekend he only would run to his great-grandaddy.


He had a few more presents to open on his real birthday, so we let him do that while we were all relaxing out back.
My grandma, aka 'the pillow lady,' made him this precious horse pillow. He loves horses, and will not sleep without his 'neigh neigh' pillow.



My ice cream loving boy ended his day with a sugar coma. Which is how it should be on your birthday!
I'm so grateful for everyday that my grandparents and Eli get to share together. Although a few months may pass in between visits, the amount of joy that they get from each visit is priceless. Eli is SO lucky to have two sets of great-grandparents that love him to pieces. I'm so thankful for the memories that he already has with them.

Air Show

We were so excited to be able to experience the Beaufort Air Show as a family this year. We knew that Eli would love seeing the big airplanes up close, and hoped that he would survive without a nap that afternoon. It took him a while to adjust to the loud jet noise, but he was still loving every second. We walked around and checked out all of the planes on display, and then found a spot to sit and watch the show. We talked a lot about Uncle Matt while we were there, and Eli thought that he was in every jet that flew by!

Mimi brought him this Blue Angel back from one of the events they went to. So we brought that along with us, and he played with it the whole time.
A retired veteran was walking around handing out these little flags...which provided an entire afternoon of entertainment for Eli. Who needs toys anyways?!

He was so amazed the whole time.
He finally learned what to do when the loud jets flew by.
The Blue Angels put on such a great show. Eli loved counting them as they flew by. He always starts with all 10 fingers up, and mommy's sunglasses ;)
I definitely see many more trips to the Air Show in our future! Except next time, we'll be planning in advance and getting the VIP seats and parking that Papa Tom can get for us!

Spring Days

I've been in a blogging funk. So much to blog about, yet so little time to sit down and do it. We've been enjoying a nice little break from baseball. Danny and Eli have been off on a lot of father/son outings, and I've used that time to play 'catch up.' I've organized and labeled hundreds of baby boy clothes, and started to work on cleaning out all of our closets. Eli is quite the mommy's boy these days, so his best time with daddy is when I'm out of sight and out of mind. I love that they've found special things to do together that they both enjoy...and yes, it does involve baseball :)

We spend A LOT of time outside. The only tears shed outside are over freshly scrapped knees, and even those are brief. I just love this time of year.
He loves watering any and everything in sight now that he's learned to use the hose.
He and Daddy wash the cars at least once a week now...and how could Eli neglect his own car?!
Sometimes Daddy has to help

We're gearing up for the hot summer months. And what better way to do it?!

We play a lot of baseball around here

And blow a lot of bubbles!

I couldn't get Eli to look at the camera to save my life...but isn't this just the cutest chair you've ever seen! It's personalized with his name on the back, and also on the carrying bag. My cousin Patrick and his girlfriend Brittany sent this for his birthday. I'm sure this chair will see it's fair share of baseball games!

On a completely random note...we've had an unwelcome pet in our house since yesterday. I tried to shoo him out, but by the time Danny got home he had found himself a comfortable spot in the high window in our foyer. Eli just discovered his love for lizards a few weeks ago, so he's all fascinated by our new resident.
Me...not so much.

Car Party

When I started planning out Eli's 2nd birthday party in my mind months ago, I very quickly settled on a 'car party.' His love for cars is no secret, so we knew he would love it regardless. I know that in the years to come he will have much more of an opinion when it comes to his birthday parties, but I sure have enjoyed planning his first 2! I'm not too big on themed parties, and can never find what I'm looking for as far as decorations, so I typically end up making most of the decorations to fit the vision in my head. I did the same thing last year for his monkey party. I use sites like etsy to find a basic idea or theme, and then I make it our own.

Here are a few of the birthday boy right before his party...

He's still loving his big Cars balloons. We like to get our moneys worth out of things :)


I had these little car and truck stickers designed, and then I had them printed at Staples. I cut them to fit the suckers for favors, and then again as cupcake toppers.
I love that the little trucks had an 'E' on them.
I've done cupcakes for both of his parties. They are a favorite in our house! I used our favorite, 'rainbow chip' icing, and added some red sprinkles for color.

I forgot to take a picture of the food table again once it was all done. We did hot dogs on the grill, pimento cheese sandwiches, and had a lot of fun extras to go along with. As usual, we had way too much food!
Eli was so proud when he blew out his '2' candle all by himself. Unfortunately we missed that on camera! There was however, plenty of cupcake eating caught!
We thought it was so sweet that GG ate at the kids table!
We moved Eli's new play set outside for the party. That poor thing got a rude awakening! I think there were 10 kids playing on it at one time. We were all just waiting for the whole thing to tumble down the hill into the lake.
Eli had some really good present opening helpers! It's a good thing too, because he would open a gift and then disappear with it for a while. He eventually got the hang of it!
He got a leapfrog laptop from my Aunt & Uncle. He seriously loves this thing! We knew he would, and hoped it would get him away from our laptops! He's always wanting to 'type' and help me work, so this has been great. He's already learned several more letters and animals since we got this too.
Another crowd favorite was the big Tonka dump truck from Mr. Billy & Ms. Amanda. He opened this first, and could have stopped there for the day. Daddy couldn't get it out of the packaging fast enough!
The boys were sure to test out all of the new cars and trucks together.
We're still laughing about this. Uncle Charles is always up to something crazy. He always seems so innocent, but really he's always scheming or plotting something :) He transformed my chalkboard sign and made it into a plea for tips! He thought that 'please leave a dollar' and a tip jar was much better than my boring old 'please take a favor.' Of course I didn't notice it until the party was almost over. I'd say he 'won' that round!

Overall it was another really fun party! The weather couldn't have been any more perfect for an afternoon cookout. Most importantly, we were so blessed to have such a big part of the Morgan family here. I know Eli loved having so many of his cousins there to celebrate with!