California 2010 Wrap Up

 

November 24 – The day before Thanksgiving was spent lounging around the house, and then meeting some of Spencer’s old friends for an afternoon BBQ at the park…

Saylen had a great time crawling back and forth through the doggy door… something new for the boy that thinks he is a dog!

Saylen wanted in on the basketball action, but had to settle for swinging with the girls!

 

November 25 – Thanksgiving Day – Dinner was at Grandpa’s house, but first we hit up the beach. There aren’t any photos from the end of the day, but Saylen was a total trooper, making stops at the Hebert, Prentice and Stauffer family dinners after finishing up his own turkey day meal…

Playing with his second cousins… Aiden and Jacob.

Spencer, Saylen, Jeremy and Jacob (Spencer’s best friend cousin and his son).

 

November 25 – Time to wrap this trip up, but not before we head back to LA to join Zach for the Yo Gabba Gabba live show. Saylen was coming down with a cold at this point, but didn’t let that bother him until the plane ride home (20 minutes of crying during take off – lucky us).

Watching the show – totally into it!

Zach performing – as seen on the big screen. We had special passes, but that meant we were in a luxury area, not necessarily up close!

One last good-bye with Uncle Zachy!!

California treated us well. Flying with Saylen has been relatively painless, and I’m not gonna lie, I’ll be sad when he turns 2 and is no longer free! We hope to return this summer, but for now… it’s back to the clouds.

Cali Day 2…

More from Thanksgiving in California…

November 23 – Our second day in town was spent taking Saylen through Ventura to see all of daddy’s favorite places…

 

We were fortunate enough to crash Jeff’s bachelor pad and stay at the Prentice house while we were in town. This series of pictures was taken in our room, where Saylen randomly picked up an apple and started eating it. Maybe it can only be appreciated by a parent, but as he learns to eat more foods, we panicked initially about him eating an apple… but how could we say no to such a cute face!

Saylen had his first taste of milkshake at Foster’s Freeze! It was banana and, needless to say, he LOVED it.

The driving force behind the trip was for Saylen to meet his only Great Grandpa. Spencer’s grandpa still lives in the house Spencer grew up in, and it was so fun to have Saylen in the same environment. Hopefully next time Saylen will be old enough to participate in the Colusa Open (aka golf in the front yard).

A definite highlight of the trip was dinner at the Benard’s. Spencer’s long time friend Tamara is married and has three boys. They had us over for dinner with another one of Spencer’s close high school friends, and her little boy. So fun to see everyone!

 

On a side note… the Bears beat the Seahawks today, and will play for the NFC Championship next Sunday. At least someone in the house is happy…

Motivated…

After a very recent phone call, I’ve decided that “tomorrow” isn’t good enough to get back into the habit of blogging!!  So here I am, home alone on Saturday night (well not alone, but Saylen has been asleep since 7:00), and I figure… no time like the present to update you all on what is new!!

SAYLEN IS WALKING!! This isn’t that new… it’s been about 2 weeks now, but he is getting better and better every day. He has also become quite the snuggler. He got a pillow pet for Christmas, and he absolutely loves burying his head in it and then looking back at you for approval – super cute!! These things are all great, but with someone on the move, capturing the moment isn’t so easy. I hope to have some pictures soon… but for now you will have to settle for some long overdue pics of our trip to Cali for Thanksgiving!

 

November 22 – arrived in LA and spent the day at Warner Brothers, with Zach and his sister who was the best host ever…

Hanging out on the set of Chuck. Well.. kinda… The episode they were filming hasn’t aired yet, but there wasn’t much to see as they appeared to be in some secret spy room :) We did manage a family pic on Zach’s Nerd Herd golf cart!

Saylen and Zach playing in the trailer.

Saylen carefully observing while Zach gets prepped for Conan!

We got to hang out in Zach’s dressing room while he appeared on Conan. TOTALLY DIFFERENT being behind the scenes than watching it on TV. At this point it was around Saylen’s dinner time, and he was totally running on crazy kid adrenaline - he hadn’t had a nap the entire day and was still super happy!

Almost the perfect picture!!! Maybe next year Saylen will look at the camera. Such a fun day, and I’ll take whatever I can get to help him remind him of it someday!

To Be Continued…. Gotta get some sleep for the big game tomorrow!!! GO SEAHAWKS!!

Turning One… A Few Weeks Late

I guess this is just a product of having a child in December, but I can’t believe I haven’t posted about the infamous first birthday!

As many of you already know, the weekend was far busier than just a birthday party. One of my very best friends (we met in preschool at age 2) got married Saturday night, and as a member of the wedding party, I had lots of commitments starting Friday afternoon! Saylen’s party was Sunday morning, but thank goodness it was at the studio (where I work) so at least I didn’t have to clean the house.

As previously mentioned, the theme for the party was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” story – if you don’t own it, go buy it right now, we love it! I did a lot of prep ahead of time, and had help from my parents and in-laws… and everything went off perfectly.

Here are the details…

I made the goody bags with all things related to the party, and used them as décor throughout – like above as  table centerpieces.

One of the ideas we had early on was to serve all the food that the caterpillar ate in the story. This made menu planning super easy! I read a lot of creative ideas on various blogs as to how to display the food, but in the end I just made tags that had the line from the story that corresponded with the food.

I also made this giant caterpillar to display Saylen’s monthly pictures. This was so fun for everyone to see how much he had grown!!

Play & Presents VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There was lots of playing and of course the opening of presents!

This picture pretty much sums up the cake experience. He had NO clue what to do, and wasn’t very interested in figuring it out. With a little encouragement, and a fork, he realized how amazing chocolate cake really is!

At the end of the day we were completely exhausted, but it was all worth it! We had everyone leave a fingerprint picture for Saylen on a pillowcase, so he will have something to remember his first birthday by forever. It turned out really cool!!

I can’t believe our little man is ONE!!! Time has gone by way too fast!