Tea Party MaDNeSs

Last year Elliott had her first Annual Christmas Tea Party.  This year I decided that Berkley should start hosting hers too.  Midway into the preparations I decided that if they both got to have tea parties, I should get to have one  too!  So it was a busy day- Berkley's at 11- Elliott's right after school at 3 and mine at 7.

We started our preparations on Wednesday- setting Elliott's table and started making treats.  I wanted them to have lots of little things to pick from so I pinned a bunch of stuff on pinterest then showed the girls and they picked a few things to make.

Here is the table for Berkley's tea.  She was SO excited.  Makes it all worth it.  We brought down her little kids table so that it would be easier for her to serve everyone. She was very concerned that her friends would think that they were the chef- when clearly she was the chef.  I explained that she would be the hostess and serve them their treats, that we were already did the chef part before the party so she would be safe.  Kurt brought them a Christmas apron for being hostesses.  She was so excited to wear it!

 Here she is serving her guests.  She kept reminding everyone in her best big kid talking down to little kids voice "Now remember, I am the hostess"

 How cute is her little face?!

 Sugar cubes are big business at tea parties. Don't try to host one without them.  She loved showing all her friends how to properly put sugar in their tea.  (We went through the whole container of sugar before it was all said and done).

 They had snowman sandwiches then Berkley passed out treats

 Here they are doing cheers. 

 Next they did an art project.

 Cousin Rylee, Berkley, Madison (our neighbor), and Emily Kate (shes known EK since they were babies- they are 2 weeks apart.)  I love that these 4 girls will probably be at every annual Berkley Tea party. It will be so fun to watch them grow!

 This is Patton with his future wife Allie- Emily Kate's little sister. Isn't she the cutest?! I say Allie is his future wife- although Katie and I have plans for him and Palmer as well- They sound like a country club couple Patton and Palmer Pomeroy. Ha ha!

 Showing off their artwork

 Next up Elliott's party! Last year she wanted to invite her whole class of girls and we ended up with 16 kids. This year I was smart and said we could only have the amount of kids that would fit at the table. Much more fun and manageable for me!

 Here's some pictures of all the treats. They were the same for all the parties.

 The girls decorated cookies too

 Here's Ebop handing out treats

 The best news of the day was that Elliott's teacher stopped by with her little girl. Elliott was thrilled!

 The whole group-

 The craft for E's party was Grinch Ornaments

 Now for the fun part....Mama's "Tea" Party.  I thought we should have a picture of me pouring tea as well....

 My sister came and spent the night with the kids- Berkley and Rylee didn't go to bed until 11.....

 2 of my neighbors- I love them because they make me look short!

 Mom and her friend Karen came too

 My friends Suzanne, Kelly and Brenna

My little man

Sooo. I wrote this post 2 weeks ago and was waiting to take pics of him to put with it. But now I decided that those pics are so stinking cute that they might be on his first birthday invite...and you know how I am about revealing pictures that might be on an invite..... So there are no pics today!

This guy is awesome. Seriously amazingly awesome.  I cannot believe that he is going to be one in a month!  I really would freeze him just like this.....although if I'm getting to do things that can't really happen I want to freeze him like this, but make him able to get food in his mouth and not make a huge mess in the highchair.  That would be my one big problem nowadays- its nice to have my problems I suppose.....but seriously this guy gets more food mashed down into his highchair than anyone ever. He likes to smash stuff on his tray- then sweep his hand back and forth and make it all fly off in different directions.  Another favorite trick is to take the top tray off (it clicks down to make it easy to wash- but sometimes it doesn't get snapped all the way....its the first thing he checks when he gets in his chair.  If it isn't snapped all the way he rips it off and flings it like a frisbee).  Chris and I are remembering how much we hated feeding time with the other two monsters- its amazing how little things like that escape your memory when you are deciding to have another baby.....Berkley used to love to look right into your eyes and drop food off her tray purposefully.  Elliott was just messy. In fact we just remembered how when she was a baby we said we couldn't wait until she was big someday and we had another baby- we would just make her be in charge of picking up all the food off the floor as payback......she hasn't gone for it.

Whew! That turned into a bit of a tangent.....all that included- I would still freeze him just like he is right now :-)

He is crawling everywhere and into everything all the time (just like Elliott was) he leaves no area unchecked and always manages to find little things that his sister leave strewn around the house.

He is working hard at climbing the stairs- so far he's only made it up 2.  He is easily distracted.

He started waving- its so cute!

When he doesn't want you to do something *usually its when he isn't in the mood for me breaking into song* he'll wave his arm back and forth wildly

He holds his arms up when he wants to be picked up. How can you say no?!

He loves to splash in the tub. Crazy wild splashing water everywhere pull the shower curtain over splashing.  He is ALL BOY.

He loves throwing things. Pacifiers, balls, toys, food.  He'll roll a ball back and forth forever.

He likes putting things on his head.  We were at lunch with Donnie, Becca and Rhett- he had about 6 pieces of pancake on his head and Elliott called my attention to it- I thought she had done it until a few minutes later I look at him just meticulously putting one piece of pancake after the other on top of his head. Then he sat there and smiled proudly.  (I'm glad one of us has a good time while he's eating) By the way- Berkley was alarmed that Rhett (3 years) was smashing all his bread on the table- Becca told her not to worry when he was done he would smoosh it all together and eat it.  Obviously something I have to look forward to with Patton- I guess at some point they grow out of throwing food but smashing it is just too much fun to pass up.

He recently had canned peaches for the first time at Nanny and PawPaws restaurant.  He gobbled them all up- when I was exclaiming about what a mess he made with the peach juice he ran it through his hair- as I get a wipe out to clean it he lowers his face to the table and smears the whole side of it through the juice.  Messy BOY!

He says "Hi" he won't sign for anything.  See Berkleys video from when she was 10 months old ***HERE*** it must run in the family. He prefers to scream.

He has the cutest laugh ever and its SO easy to get out of him.  He's a happy happy dude - he loves to show off those little jack o lantern teeth!

He doesn't like dogs.  Lucky for him we'll never have one ;-)

Pulling people's hair (mostly Berkley and mine) is highly entertaining for him

He likes to tease-  he'll act like he's going to give you something then when you reach for it he rips it away and laughs.  He also likes to pretend he is interested in eating whatever you are feeding him on the spoon- he'll open his mouth wide and just as the spoon gets to his mouth he'll slap it away sending food flying everywhere.  Can you see why mealtimes are so much fun? It looks like a battle zone when he's done.

He loves playing peek a boo.  It is SO CUTE. He'll pull his hat over his eyes or put a blanket or cloth over his face and wait. When you say- where is Patton- his little face breaks into a grin and he rips the cover off his eyes. It is absolutely priceless.

I guess thats about it- trying to make up for all my lost blogging- E spends so much time going through the archives, it really is nice to have this little online history to look back at!

2 Posts in a Day?!

That's right. Its your treat since I've been MIA for so long.  I can't believe how few pictures I have from the last month or so, its pretty sad.  What is even more sad is that I spend so much time taking pictures for people and when my dad asked me today for some individual shots of the kids I had to scrounge around to find good ones of them.  Its all good though- photography season is over and even next year I am not going to accept as many shoots as I did this year. My main focus is being here with these guys and taking pictures of them and all their little moments.

Here is my cute guy trying to get a little mommy time while I was in the middle of editing- you can see my to do photography list up there on my red board. Blah- glad that is done- for the most part!

Here is the famous chicken costume. I should do a post of all the pictures I have at different ages these kids wearing this costume, it was Elliott's when she was a year old....

 He's pretty upset with the mess he made for me to clean up. Do you see the crazy tuft of hair? Love it!

 He is our pacifier guy. Neither of our girls were ever very into them. This guy goes to bed with it, wakes up with it and wants it throughout the day.  I told Chris we should really break him of it before he turns one because after that it is impossible.  As much as he loves it I think it would be a pretty big nightmare to do now though. So my decision is who cares? Someday you'll see us cruising through the mall when he's 5 with paci in his mouth. He's my last baby :( :( :( Plus he looks super cute with it. Oh and I need a pic of the back of this shirt next time he wears it- it says Man of Steel. So cute.

Berkley and I went to a kids cooking class at Market Street. It was SO FUN! I highly recommend it- only $18 for both of us, we made and ate lunch and had treats to take home for Chris and Elliott too.

 I LOVE this picture! When did my baby get so big :-(

 Decorating our cookies

 We also made reindeer cupcakes

 Making our cheese calzones.

 Berkley also had her Christmas program at school. Afterwards she informed me that she was supposed to be dressed fancy and next time she wanted a fancy dress.  Here she is walking in- with her bow in her hand- that she proceeded to stuff down the front of her dress when she needed her hands for singing. I love her.

 Just in case you have never been to one of these wonderful church preschool performances I thought you might like to see what they are like. You cannot see. Partly because the kids are only 3 feet tall and mostly because other parents are completely rude.  They will literally stand up in front of you.  They hold their camera up in the air to record their kid.  Perhaps you think all of this is fine because clearly your kid is the most important one to see and record and how else can you do so? The answer is that the polite thing to do is stand in the back or on the side.  (And when I say on the side- not on the side that is in the aisle.....)

 Being the seasoned preschool performance people we are, we didn't have the video camera charged up.  I went ahead and sat in the aisle with a cluster of people that were on their knees holding their cameras in the air to get a few of Berk.  Man do I sound jaded or what? Sorry for the rant ;-)

 Berkley also had her school party today. 

Patton thought the train table was super cool

 Here he is showing me what he found

 Berkley with the other 2 girls in her class.  There are also 4 boys.

Poor E Bop! No pics of her this time! We had to miss her Winter party last Friday  because both Chris and I were in bed with a stomach bug. I was SO sad- I had planned the whole thing and spent the entire night before preparing.  Lucky for us though mom was able to come over and take the kids so we could lay around feeling horrible and not worry about them.  Unlucky for dad- he caught it too! We felt so bad!!

Our Naughty Elf

I've had these pics for oh- a couple weeks.  Kurt our Elf is back - this year he's been doing a few naughty things. We're not too sure what has gotten into him.  One morning we came down to find out he had been making snow angels on our kitchen table. 

The kids also had their first hunt last week. Notice how dark it is? Yeah- that is because our kids think its fun to get up around 6.  Makes for a long day.

Anyway- Kurt was silly this time and here they are slithering like snakes to their next clue. 

The clue was under daddy's desk- which is where Berkley likes to play during the day now that he works from home. She has a whole thing set up under there. It is super cute.

 Patton was a little confused about all the silly things Kurt had them doing. (You can tell he clearly needs to wake up at 6 can't you? Look at those bright awake eyes.....)

They are all 3 crawling to their next clue

 The clue was it was in a scary toys mouth. Berkley immediately knew what he was talking about. This big foot causes a lot of crying around here.  I actually put Patton down on the ground to play with him the other day, he was pretty intrigued until Big Foot made a big movement- then he skedaddled away screaming.  I wish I had video.

 Dancing to their final clue

 Awesome shirts! Aren't they cute? Kurt sure is a good seamstress.....we think maybe Mrs. Claus helped him a little bit.

Its getting ridiculous

I had to blog before poor Elliott stroked out. Poor kid checks our blog almost everyday to see if I have posted yet.  Love her. I think I have a few more friends that are eagerly awaiting their Pomeroy fix as well ;-) After uploading all these I realized I totally skipped over Pattons Baptism- maybe I'll get crazy and do 2 posts today....

Hopefully I can be better now- the holiday photography season is finally almost behind me.  It was fun but so busy! I am ready to get control of the rest of my life and hang out with my kids again!

So Berkley had her little Thanksgiving celebration at school. Super cute- they sang some little songs and then had a feast. She did such a good job- Elliott has been dying to see Berkley's school so we took her out of school for an hour so she could go with us.  It was cute how excited she was to get to go see Berkley.

 This part of the song they are eating corn. Its about the cutest thing ever.

 Rylee and my parents came to watch too!

 Over the Thanksgiving Break Chris and I decided to take the kids on a little trip.  We debated forever about where to go- thinking Austin, San Antonio something like that.  Then Chris had the fantastic idea to go to Ft Worth. It was a perfect little getaway and the best part was its only an hour drive! There is so much fun stuff to do down there.  We love where we are now but miss our old friends and all the cool places! We stayed downtown and did lots of fun stuff- unfortunately half of my pictures got erased. Seems to be happening to me a lot lately...but we went on the mini train with our old friends Elizabeth and Ben, went on a carriage ride, took the kids to Simply Fondue where they had a blast cooking us dinner.  (Patton had a blast messing with the controls and whining making us truly sorry we took him ;-) )

We stopped by our old neighborhood to drop off some pictures to our friends and play at the old park. 

Went down to the stockyards to do the maze and watch the cattle drive.

 P made his first trip to the zoo.  He's checking out a big monkey that was laying right by the glass

Miss Grouchy

 And her grouchy friend. (not really- she was just trying to look grouchy)

The best part of the zoo is feeding the birds.  Since it was so cold and rainy they weren't overfed like usual so they were basically attacking the kids

 They'd have 2/3 fighting over their sticks of food

 After 3 attacked Elliott and scratched her she was done.  Berkley wanted to do it one more time.  This is my favorite picture ever! After this she threw the stick on the ground and I had to get it for her. 

 This poor tiger is always pacing behind the glass here. I feel so bad for him. 

 Guess who's being a stinker for the group picture. 

 P was snuggling up with his dadddy

There was an indoor pool at our hotel which was a huge hit with the girls.  We took them swimming in the afternoons while Patton was taking his nap,

Miss thang shaking her bootie

 E bop getting ready to swim.....it was pretty cold - I only braved it for a few minutes before getting into the hot tub!

 Patton found a new favorite activity- splashing in the bathtub

After getting home and unpacking- we repacked the car up and headed to East TX for Thanksgiving with Chris's side of the family.  Sadly I didn't take any pics except for these of Patton and Lexi- she was born in March and she's so cute!

 All the little kids- Madison is Lexi's big sister and just turned 6 like Elliott. They belong to Chris's nephew Blake.