My Jordie boy is such a middle child, in every sense of the word. He is my quietest guy, he demands by far the least amount of attention, he is the most obedient one, he complains the least, he is the easiest going of the bunch (just like his daddy), and he just loves me through all the chaos of our life.
He cherishes alone time with me whenever he gets the chance and his favorite thing to do together is play games. Our favorite up to this past week was the card game Kings Corners, but other ones he likes are checkers, Battleship and Uno. Last weekend we taught him how to play Ticket To Ride and he is hooked! Earlier this week we got KJ to bed early and James was still at baseball so we sat down to play a round and he absolutely kicked my butt. I really enjoyed this quiet time with him to just chat and to watch him carry out the strategy that he had learned the first time we'd played it on Saturday. This kid is a smart cookie and a very quick learner. So much like his daddy in so many ways!
Pretty darn proud of himself!
I love you so much Jordie boy and I hope you want to continue to play games with me for many many more years to come!
For years our friends have been beach glass searchers and I never understood the fun of it until 2 days ago and NOW I GET IT! I actually find it extremely relaxing and like a fun treasure hunt! The past two days me and the kids have gone to Beach Gardens beach and spent an hour in the beautiful spring sunshine laying on the rocks picking up beach glass and talking about life. It makes my heart so happy to be able to do something that we are all enjoying! I see many more trips in our future ❤️😄
How does she look so grown up already?! Just weeks away now from the big 4th birthday and she just seems so much older than that.
This concept was so much fun and as soon as Jenn posted about this kind of mini session I texted her and said that we were in! I knew how much fun the kids would have with the photos, and I was right. All three of them loved it, but none as much as James! He was so excited and totally into the different poses that Jenn had him do to go along with his Lego skateboard park he got for his birthday and spent hours building last weekend.
I had such a hard time deciding which photo to put first on this post....but I settled with the big one of James cause he was just so excited and really did so good with everything that Jenn asked him to do! When I showed him this picture today he was so excited and couldn't believe all the awesome James's that were in one picture!
Next up is my favorite of Jordie! This is the one that Jenn shared on her page and I just love it. This scowl is just so my Jordie boy that it makes me giggle each time I look at it!
And then Ms Kennedy with her Care Bears. I just LOVE the colors of this one best of all.
Now here are the other shots from each of them! I love how Jenn gave us multiple shots because in this series of James I think I love this first one the best of the ones that have just one part of the big photo above. You should have seen him leaning like a pro on that skateboard but the kid is a total klutz and couldn't balance like that even if he tried to!
LOVE IT!
Funny story about this one in particular...James wanted so bad to be climbing on the rock wall but Jenn wasn't sure how easy that would be with positioning him in a way that she could make it look good...but SHE DID IT! He looked so awkward when she was taking the photos but man did she ever work her magic and he looks awesome up there scaling the wall!
This kid is so funny. I swear his session was the shortest and he just listened really well, did his few poses and he was done and off playing with the other kids. He is such a funny little character and he kept laughing and saying that he hoped that Jenn was going to shrink him so he was the same size as his toys :)
These are his AWESOME new remote control cars that he got for his birthday. I'm not kidding, if you want to get your kids a cheap but amazing RC car, buy these ones! The two together were less than $40 and I got them online at Showcase. Actually they were $39.98 and I needed to spend $40 to get free shipping so we ordered him a third car that isn't nearly as fun as these two!
I bought this set of little Care Bear figurines before last Christmas but had planned to keep them and give them to her this year, BUT as soon as I saw Jenn's idea I knew I had to open them up for these photos, and man am I ever glad I did. These couldn't have turned out any better!
Once again I'm surprised with how Jenn can work her magic. This part of the shoot was definitely the hardest cause Kennedy is very fast and very busy these days, but Jenn clearly got some good shots in amongst me chasing K and her continually knocking down the Care Bears!
SO...if you're in the PR area...book this session with Jenn Parkin Photography!! You won't regret it I guarantee that! These are the kind of photos I know I'll look back on forever and remember them at the ages they are now, with their favorite toys. I love them!
This party was so much fun to put together and yes it was a fair amount of work, but it's work that I absolutely love doing. Seeing the look on his face when he saw the decorations and the cake was enough to make me smile ear to ear. We did a quick fun scavenger hunt game and then just let the kids go wild in Nana and Papa's back yard while the adults visited and ate.
We are so thankful for our awesome friends who helped us celebrate our Jordie boy. Our closest family friends were all there and Jordie couldn't have been happier to have his best buddies there with him. PLUS we had the added bonus of his Reimer cousins being there too which was just a total blast for everyone. It will definitely be a party for us all to remember!
Here are the many many photos that we took of the party!
Starting off with the sign that was supposed to be a banner but this was easier to do!
He was just the cutest Marshall ever on Halloween last year
The night before the party the Reimers arrived and I put them all to work helping out!
Doesn't every kid want to help decorate the goodie bags for their party?
Ready to go!
Teresa was awesome and made this Tic Tac Toe game poster so much better than I would have!
Of course the kids wanted to help with it too
You should have seen the look on my mom's face when she heard I wanted to cut the cheese, meat, sandwiches and watermelon into bone shapes! :)
I tried to do it but she told me to get the hell out of the kitchen and she proceeded to do it all
Even Jimmy got involved helping
Decorations
Jordie showing Papa all of the Paw Patrol pups in the decorations we put up.
The next morning this little guy was up super early and just raring to go to Nana and Papa's for his party!
Even more food preparing...and even more bone shaped food!
Jordie was given this cardboard castle from the Reimers for Christmas and that very day we decided we would set it up for his birthday party in May and let him and his friends go to town on it. It just so worked out that the Reimers happened to be in town because it was the long weekend!
These two were thrilled to set it up
Auntie Teresa rigged up the doors so the kids could pull them up and not let people in
I really like this picture of Jordie and his Auntie
He got to be the first to draw on it!
And a good one of him and his cousin
hahahahahaha...his eyes match his googly eye pajamas in these 2 pictures
All set up and ready to be played on
Of course James couldn't wait to play it...even if his brother had no idea how to actually play
He's dressed now and ready for his friends to arrive
Attempted some family photos before the party
He got into the cheezies almost immediately after they hit the tabe
Big hugs for Annie Ya who was luckily able to join us for the first hour of the party before she had to go to work for the day
More of the decorations and the awesome bone cake that my friend Kelly made for me!
My friend Kelly did an awesome job on this cake! All I did was bake the cakes and throw the toys
on it....she did the rest!
Happily showing Papa his cake
He wasn't big into drawing on the castle, but he did love pulling up the drawstring doors to keep people out (especially me!)
I LOVE this picture of these two!
Such big smiles
Now Maddie's here and she loved the castle too!
And Blake loved the yard castle too!
Time for the Paw Patrol scavenger hunt game!
The kids got a sheet with the pictures of the pups and they had to find the 6 bowls in the yard that had the copies of the badges and then they had to match them up. The game only lasted a few minutes but the kids all said they had fun!
Such a cute picture of Maddie!
Time to eat!
And of course I snuck in a little hug too
Maddie is such a friendly little one that she happily sat with kids she didn't know to eat her lunch
Ms Gracie with Kelly
I don't remember taking these next few pictures and I think Jim must have had the camera
at this point. He definitely has a soft spot in his heart for the little girls in our world.
Aaaaawwww....what a pretty little smile!
hahahahahaha....sorry boys! Uncle Jim was clearly in charge of the camera at this point!
Such beautiful little eyes
Only adorable babies are allowed on Diesel's dog bed
Time for the cake!
I love our smiles in this one
It was heavy!
Happy Jordie found his favorite Chase toy
Nana said no cake on the deck so they all had to sit down on the grass
Happy Kaleb
James was excited because Quynn agreed to eat the rest of his cake
And there she goes!
Adorable Shayne loving her cake
Another beautiful photo of Maddie
And Livie
After his cake he wanted a cupcake (and because the big kids got both he thought he should too!)
This is why I love doing theme parties...it's for these kinds of smiles!
Two of my favorite kids
The next two photos are probably two of my favorites!
Lukas finished off his cupcake in no time!
These two big kids didn't look to be having too much fun!
Sorry Dane-O...definitely not the best picture of you buddy!
Jordie playing with Baby Gracie
Time to hand out the goodie bags as kids were leaving
These 3 have been buddies since they were born and we try to get a picture of them at least once a year...I would say this one is definitely a keeper!
These two are just the absolute cutest couple in the world
Big hugs
Look at how tightly her arms are around his neck
And here's the money shot!
Such love
Checking out the goodies in his goodie bags!
Big hugs for Lukas and Quynn
Sharing his chocolate with Nana
Now big hugs for Shayne
Adorable smiles
Party is cleaned up and time to open his cards with his toonies in them
Super cool 3rd birthday Rubble card!
Funny enough the boys asked me to take a couple pictures of them out on the deck
This is absolutely my new favorite photo of my boys. I love that they are holding hands in it and that was totally on them...I didn't even notice it until that night when I uploaded the photos. This one will probably be blown up big for my wall very soon!
Action shots
It's 2 pm and it's time for snuddles from Papa, then home for a nap
We're back at N&P's house for dinner and back playing in the castle some more
I also love these four photos too!
And this adorable video of us too!
Hands down, my favorite kids show ever and I am so excited that I finally got to do a birthday party for it. I thought last year it would be for James but he loved TMNT instead and last year I knew it would be the last year I could do Bubble Guppies for Jordie so I went with that with every intention of saving PP for this year :)
This was the cut out logo that I used on the top of the cake!
Wow, if you got all the way through that post...good for you! I really do these posts more for me than for anyone else but if you enjoy seeing stuff like this too I'm happy you kept at it. I know that years down the road I will for sure look back through these posts and my biggest dream is that one day my boys (and maybe future daughter-in-laws) go back and look through them and smile knowing how much I tried to give them the best that I could.
