Pirate Pool Party!

I can't think of a much better way to celebrate a late summer birthday than being IN the water.  This year we were able to take advantage of our wonderful neighborhood pool and hosted a pirate themed pool party for big G.  Here are some of the highlights.

Pirate buddies!

The details:

Shark Bait!

I tried to keep it easy and healthy!

Cupcake ships...that melted shortly after arriving!

Treasure ready to be plundered.

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Arrrgh! G be 3 today matey!

It's hard to believe that G is already 3.  This year's theme is PIRATES.  His party isn't until Sunday but here's a quick look at he best pirate scowl (at Target because of course I'm not ready for the party yet and had to pick up a couple of last things).  Happy Birthday Buddy!

Thanks to Team Guenther for sponsoring G's birthday celebration (aka Anna's 6th birthday party) at Jump Zone .  Until the very end he thought it was HIS party.   Luckily no presents were opened on premises or there might have been a brawl.

G and Anna were only 1hr and 5 minutes (and 3 years)

away from sharing the same birthday!

(G wouldn't sit still long enough for him NOT to be a blur.)

The master of the fake smile!

Custom pirate shirt.  I do love my Silhoutte!

Optimism

One of my favorite new co-workers posted this picture outside her cube and it makes me smile everytime I walk by.  It helps remind me that perception is everything.  We each have control over how we react to the things that happen to us in life.  If, for example, our car breaks down on a busy week when we have a million errands to run, we can look at it negatively and simply cuss complain about it.  OR we can use it as an opportunity for personal growth.  Here are just a a few of the opportunities I've identified for this week: 

• Practice delegating by
 asking Jimbo to run a few of the errands while he has the car during the day.  

• Investigate the bus system that we have here in town.  I've seen them several times as I've been driving home and have meant to investigate, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

• Save some money by bringing my lunch to work each day 

• Get to know my co-workers better by asking them to take me to lunch with them.

• Write a blog article about the whole situation so that JMKG knows that I'm still alive.

• Have an actual conversation with Jimbo that is not instantly interrupted by a tiny voice needing something as he drives me to work.

Tell me how you turned a challenging situation into a positive experience?

Happy Birthday Uncle Vann!

We're so lucky to have so much family close by, but there is one man that trumps all others in the eyes of the boys. UNCLE VANN.  Both boys get excited beyond belief when he shows up.  Vann's birthday is July 22 and G's is 7/27 so this year we celebrated together.  G got a few more presents than Vann, but he didn't pout....too much!

G made the front page of the paper!

In the Anderson family the 4th of July is a MAJOR holiday!  I recently asked Grammie if she had to choose between celebrating Mother's Day and 4th of July, which would she choose and without hesitation she responded with Independence Day.  This year was the 28th annual floating of the Lake Gaston Boat Parade, led by none other than Grammie and PopPop.  In the picture below you can see Big G peaking out the back of the boat.  When we showed him the picture, he was much completely unimpressed with his own picture but excitedly yelled "look mommy, the candy boat!"  (The boat to the left of ours in the picture threw out bags of candy during the parade.)  I'm so proud of my little guy for not letting his fame get to his head.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Lake Gaston 4th of July 2012

Well someone responsible had to drive the boat!

Graham hard at work

and he found what we were looking for!

Special thanks to AJA for posting these pics.  We, of course, forgot our camera!