Whitney and Grady both had excellent birthdays this year, but their party day was especially fabulous!
The entire weekend couldve had better weather, but we made it work and still had a great time with family and friends who love our kids!
We started the festivities on Friday, Grady's actual birthday. He woke up happy and silly and loving his new walking skills :)
Ever the amazing Daddy, Eric took the day off work to celebrate with our dude! We brought Whitney to school and stayed for chapel. Grady was having fun trying on Whitney's shades while we waited for her class to arrive :)
Whitney's teacher, Ms. Lori, is AWESOME! She made a special birthday crown for Grady to celebrate his birthday with the whole school :)
And the school Director, Ms. Marti let Whitney choose the music for chapel. Have I mentioned how much we love her school!?
The kids all sang happy birthday to both Bass kids :) What a great way to start the birthday weekend, huh?!
We brought cupcakes for her classmates after lunch...I think they were a hit!
And after some great big hugs from her fabulous teachers......
......we were on our way to my parents' house to continue the celebrations!
My Aunt Gerry flew in from Ohio and my brother's best friend, Joey, flew in from Boston. My brother was delayed in Boston as he was producing the news of the marathon bombers being captured overnight.
Ya see, my brother is an Emmy award winning Executive Producer for a major news affiliate in Boston. He is married to his career. He's very good at what he does and his love for the news and producing shows in his award-winning work. So if he's married to his job, its as though his "wife" just went into labor....with triplets......on the subway (or the "T" as they call it in Boston). He couldnt leave. No way. I wouldnt have wanted him eating cupcakes and chasing my kids around a birthday party when we knew the world was watching his backyard for news of the marathon bombings.
So how awesome is it that my Aunt Ger and Uncle Joey were still able to make it to celebrate?! We missed Jay but knew he made the right decision by staying in Boston.
Uncle Joey was a great stand-in for Uncle Jay, and had Whitney belly laughing and Grady cracking up within minutes of our arrival at my parents'.
Round Bally!
And as usual, Aunt Ger brought sooo many gifts and spent time building and putting things together with our girl. Both kids absolutely LOVE Aunt Gerry. And whats not to love?!
Whitney LOVES the pink poodle her Uncle Joey let her open on Friday night. She is still cuddling it at night and tells us that "it reminds me to say a prayer for Uncle Joey so God will heal his head and make his booboo go away forever."
(If you would, take a minute right now to say a quick prayer for Joey as he is fighting a lesion on his brain that causes seizures and requires chemo. Youd never know he is up against this rare issue, as he is happy and hysterical and just one of the best people on the face of the Earth. So any prayers for healing are greatly appreciated!)
I grew up with Joey in the house as a second big brother. He and my brother have been best friends since we moved to Connecticut when they were in 3rd grade. Almost 30 years ago. He has a great family and is genuinely an amazing person. So its no wonder my kids instantly loved him and hold him in our hearts.
What other guy gets on a plane to visit his best friends' family....while his best friend stays behind??
Uncle Joey rocks.
That night, we all had dinner at my parents' house and Whitney and Grady got to open even MORE presents....
She LOVES the "Sophia the First" stuffies from Mac and Gramps!
It was a littttttttle tricky to explain to Whitney that it was Grady's birthday on Friday, and that HER birthday would have to wait two more days, but she handled it like a champ.
The whole weekend was really a celebration of BOTH kids :)
And keeping with tradition, Eric and I blew up a package of balloons to surprise Whitney in the morning.....at 4am, she gave me a scare as she woke up briefly when I was snapping a pic....
The next morning, both kids LOVED the balloons in Whitney's room....and not even ONE popped!
What a difference a year makes!!!?
Now, party day is a LOT of fun, but its also a LOT of work! Last year, I was useless, as I had just given birth 48 hours earlier. So this year, I was determined to get to that park and get those decorations done!
Eric headed out early to set up the tables, get the balloons, and pick up the cupcakes.
I stayed at home with the kids until Grady went down for a nap, and then the amazing, fabulous "Aunt DeeDeeDee" came over to hang out with Whitney so I could head to the party park!
I got to the park and my mom and Aunt Ger helped me get the park decorated with all the Seuss-tastic stuff I had accumulated over the past 5 months!
My dad made an AWESOME hour-long video again this year!
We had three people stop in the park to ask where we got all the decorations, ask if they could buy the party stuff from me after the party, and just generally "ooh" and "ahhh" over the decorations.
Mission Accomplished :)
We had "green eggs and ham" cupcakes and Seuss colors. We had meatballs in the crockpot, for our "Meatball", of course.
I got the banner on Etsy, but didnt absolutely LOVE it when it arrived. I added the ribbons between each letter and spruced it up a bit until I was finally really happy with the result :)
We had "Hop on Pop" popcorn and the usual veggie tray, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, etc.
And I made a banner from "The $1 Spot" supplies with all the kids' chair pictures from the past year. I made signs asking everyone to sign the "Happy Birthday to ME!" books by Dr. Seuss for each kid. The middle picture frame eventually had a pic of the kids.
Mom and Aunt Ger were a BIG help!
We had planned the timing perfectly so Eric and I had enough time to get home, relieve the fabulous Aunt DeeDeeDee, get dressed, get the kids dressed, and get back to the park in time for guests to arrive!
We took our annual family party picture....my favorite!
And Aunt DeeDeeDee (Danielle!) continued to help wrangle the kids as we did last minute party prep!
Whitney had SO! MUCH! FUN! with all of her favorite friends there to celebrate her fourth birthday!
LOVE these kids!
There were a lot of last-minute "we cant make it" phone calls when illness struck or work had emergencies, but we SOOO loved and enjoyed the time with those who made it to the party to celebrate our kids!
And who was on the first flight out of Boston after the bombers were captured?!
Uncle JAY!!
He arrived in Orlando from Boston, after producing over 24 hours of non-stop news coverage, and came right to the party!
Isnt he the best?!
We truly, truly have the BEST friends and family on the planet!
I love that Grady is about to eat a leaf as all the adults catch up and chat lol
Such. a. BOY!
Four generations!
Dad and GG
Jay and Grady
We dont have many great pics of my family from recent years....I mean, we always attempt the Christmas pic and it always comes out nice. But I love this picture. Maybe because its outside and we arent all dressed up or posed. Its just us.
I think it also helps that we arent trying to wrangle children or get two kids to look at the camera while smiling!
Whitney had such a great day!
I think the pinata was a huge hit! It was our first year attempting this party staple among the 4-year-old crowd, and it was a success!
Lookout boys! These girls mean BUSINESS!
And Uncle Jay got it started:
Some of my beautiful girlfriends who happen to have beautiful little girls who make my girl smile! LOVE our friends and their families!
Grady was a trooper! He usually takes two naps, but he powered right through his afternoon nap and was happy and smiley and silly all afternoon :)
LOVE these two!
And these two :)
And these two :)
Our kids have THEEEE BEST cousins on the planet! Jonathan was the first one to get a true belly laugh from Grady last year, and he continues to make our boy smile!
Just part of the family that was at the party. I think we had close to 70 people throughout the day!
And while I think Aunt Gerry appreciated that Grady is less mobile than Whitney was at her first birthday party in 2009, I know she still cant stand all the concrete just waiting to skin our boy's knees :)
2009:
Whitney's favorite part has to be when everyone sings to her :) She blew the candle out about 5 times before we reminded her that she had to wait for people to sing to her!
Grady wasnt really sure what to think about the cake situation. He didnt hate it but he didnt exactly dig in either. My one disappointment is that we didnt have someone video tape the singing or cake eating.
Overall, it was an AWESOME day. The rain held off all day, the weather was overcast but a great temperature so we werent roasting or freezing. We got to see SSOOOOOO many of our favorite people, and both of our kids finished the day with smiles on their faces. Thats a great day!
We headed home for Grady to nap (finally!) while Whitney opened allllllllllllllll the gifts that took up the whole playroom!
We are so blessed with amazing friends and family who completely spoiled out kids!
That night we all headed to my mom and dad's house for pizza and recovery drinks, and a little walking practice for the big One Year Old!
Hard to imagine the fun continued the next day for Whitney's actual birthday!
We had such an awesome birthday party day...its hard to imagine anything topping it! Whitney and I are already in discussions about next year's "Jessie and Woody" party for their 5th and 2nd birthdays!
YeeeeHAW!! ;)
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