Arrrrgh...Matey!

Before I say another word...let me just say that all the pictures in this blog were taken by my amazingly talented cousin and best friend, Jennifer Nicholson.  God has blessed her with the gift of capturing beautiful moments in people's lives and freezing them forever.  I am so grateful for her.  The pictures she's taken of mine and my hubby's journey as parents are like gold to me...simply priceless. She's been there with her trusty camera since before Thatcher was born and has snapped shots of him growing that are my greatest treasures.  I hope she knows how much she is appreciated!  Please, please, please check out her blog here: Jennifer Nicholson Photography blog and follow her on Facebook here Jennifer Nicholson Photography

Thatcher's 3rd birthday bash was so much fun.  I decided early in his beautiful little life that until he's old enough to ask for specific b-day parties, locations, themes, etc. that I would choose, so that they can be of maximum cuteness!   His 1st birthday was cowboy since I had done his nursery in vintage cowboy things.  It was simply adorable and somewhere in this house I have pics and when I find them they will be posted.  His 2nd was The Very Hungry Caterpillar and it was held at our favorite local park.  It was too cute, too, but the one that takes the cake for me is the 3rd Pirate bash. 

I am blessed with a family that oozes creativeness. When there's a party to be planned my Mom, Mimi, Aunts Lynn and Joanna, and my mother in law, Cathy and her sister, Kristy, and my cousin, Jenny are the 1st people I call!  Mama and I made almost all of the decorations for this party.  I also borrowed a lot of pirate themed things from a friend of mine at school who is just as obsessed with Pirates as my family is (thanks, Wendy).  It turned out really cute, and I have to say that it started a party-planning fire in me that has run rampant!  My brother and sis-in-law have since asked me to help with my niece's parties, I recently did a Sweet 16 party and have 3 more parties in the next few months I've been asked to do.  I'm thinking seriously about making this my side job, focusing heavily on it in the summer months since I'm off all summer.  We'll see how this turns out, but in the meantime, I give you Thatcher's 3rd Pirate B-day Bash:

Now, I am no artist, but if you give me a picture of something, or better yet, give me an overhead projector and a copy of what you want, I can work magic. For this banner, I Googled pirate clip-art and found images I liked and sketched them onto banner paper.  It was pretty darn cute!

My husband can tell you that I am NOT A COOK!  For this cake, I again Googled pirate b-day cakes and found this one. I then asked Thatcher's amazing Aunt Kristy to whip it up for me.  She added a green bandana on our pirate because she knows the Birthday Boy so well...green is his choice color! ADORABLE....and delicious, too!!

Blow out those candles, matey!

The designated party place in our family is my Mimi and Granddaddy Jim's basement!  They have a full fledged apartment down there that is decorated like something right out of a magazine.  The hubs and I have asked several times to just move in down there, but it doesn't look too promising! The apartment opens up to the gorgeous backyard that my Mimi works tirelessly in and her green thumb is apparent in the beauty of that yard.  Hubs and I had our wedding reception in this very yard, my cousin and his wife were married there, there have been parties, baby showers, holiday meals, and simple quite memory-making moments with the great grand kids in that space.  It has been the site for many, many, many laughs, memories and photography sessions. Its the perfect party location, so I asked to host Thatch's party here!

Decorations consisted of cute pirate statues borrowed from my friend at work, a Happy Birthday pirate banner inside on the mantle and cute pirate themed hanging decorations that I actually found at Dollar Tree. For outside under the deck, I hot glued plastic gold coins to fishing line and my Mama made an adorable pirate banner to hang from the rafters made from construction paper and twine.  This was my favorite decoration and to this day still hangs as window treatments in my Pirate themed classroom! I drew out several treasure maps and Jolly Rogers that were hung around also. It was a SUPER simple party to decorate, but all turned out precious!

I had several games that the kids played.

Dig for buried treasure.  

Simply filled a galvanized tub with sand and threw in gold coins, rings, necklaces, bracelets, etc. from the Dollar Tree (my choice party planning supply store) and had shovels and buckets for the kids to use.

Caleb digging for buried treasure!

Cap'n Thatch showing his mateys where the treasure is.

 

 

 

Walk The Plank

Filled a kiddie pool with blue balloons and drew out some alligators on cardboard.  Each matey had to walk the plank and could either jump into the pool filled with balloons or turn back.....most of them jumped! In the background, you see the BEST investment the hubs and I have made since we became parents. THE JUMP HOUSE!!  A staple at all of our parties and many or our friend's and family member's parties!  Also...I'll admit...it's been inflated in our den a time or two on rainy days! 

My little Cap'n and his Daddy.  How awesome is the Hubs?!  This party was right up his alley!

My brother can pretty much build anything...I mean really...how many people can I say, "I need a plank for a pirate party," give not a single drawing or plan to, and viola....instant plank!  That's my brother...spooky that he can understand what's in my head by just a few simple descriptions, but here it is....the perfect plank!

My parents bought Thatcher this AWESOME pirate pool for his birthday.  We didn't put water in the pool for our party because...well...I am NOT a fan of a ton of wet kids with grass stuck all over them running through my Mimi's house and me having to clean all that up! So, instead we filled it with balloons and plastic balls.  There were inflatable swords that came with it and I made pirate hats out of newspaper for all the kids....well, and mostly the adults wore them!  I'm telling you...we have some of the GREATEST party guests!  

 

 

 

Sword fights aplenty!

My little Cap'n was worn out by the end of the party....he'd never admit it though!

See...what'd I tell you about our party guests??  A LOT of them came dressed up for our Pirate Pallooza! What a fun, amazing group of people God has blessed my son with.  And this is only a handful of the people that love on my baby boy....how blessed we are!

Just a few other pics from the party that are my favorites!

My brother, my sis-in-law, and my Willow June....who all made their own pirate attire for the party.  I told you my whole fam is creative!

The hubs....my most favorite grown-up pirate! And yes...he wears that hat when simply sitting at his computer at home and has even worn it to work a time or two! Pirate Obsessed!

My Mimi and Willow....pure joy.

Wills trying to steal a kiss from Baby Carter!

Adorable....I KNOW!

Now THIS is how a pirate should look after his birthday party. The Hubs and my sweet, worn out little Cap'n.  He is our life, our love, our everything.  I hope when he's grown he'll look back on his birthday parties with fondness and say he had the most awesome parties a kid could ever have!  

We love him so!

Mrs. Carter's Class

I have so many things to add to this blog of things I've created and done in the past year.  I chose to go back and try to do them in order as 2010 progressed, so we're going all the way back to August 2010 for this post. 

I am a 3rd grade teacher at a wonderful little school in the Birmingham area. I absolutely adore my job. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this is what God wants me to do for a living. Every day is different. More days than not are stressful, exhausting, crazy, messy, but not a single day is like the next. I work with a group of people that love kids and pour all of themselves into these children. Its a fun job, sometimes, but it is very difficult. I have gotten attached to so many kids, the hubs has to remind me all the time that we have no room in our house for extra kiddos! I love the kids at my school. For many of them, school is the only normal, constant thing in their lives, and I love knowing that they can trust me to always be at that classroom door at 7:55 each morning.  I pray that I am impacting their little lives for the good and that they can see God through me, my actions, my words, my hugs. 

So, MCS was blessed to have a brand new building built! Our new building is GORGEOUS! And...the nerdy teacher in me was THRILLED beyond words with all those fresh, new counter tops, desks, cubbies, shelves! It was fantastic!  So, I thought I would share some pics of my classroom. This was the theme I chose last year because my Mama and I had made so much for Thatcher's 3rd birthday and I couldn't make myself just throw out all the pirate decorations just because the party was over.  So...Mrs. Carter's class was pirate themed!  Super cute, too, I might add!

My classroom library. I found the net w/ stars at a yard sale for $1.00. The pirate banner Mama made for Thatch's party was cut down to fit over my classroom windows. So cute!

I LOVE that my kids have cubbies! 

Multiplication Island...and incentive we do school wide to encourage our students to learn those multiplication tables! If you pass your test, your pirate stays on the island, if you don't, you drift away on a life raft! The kids love it!

Student's birthdays. They like that everyone knows when their birthday is and I also used this when I taught about making and reading graphs. Multi-functional!

My classroom door. As the students came in on the 1st day of school, they colored and decorated a pirate girl/boy, I laminated them and we added those to the door.

A close-up of the decorations over the cubbies. More of Mama's banner, a treasure map I simply drew out onto a piece of cardboard, and some decorations I found that fit the pirate theme at the Parent-Teacher store.

Behavior incentive. Good behavior all week equals your pirate staying on the island.

That's it! My room was really cute, I thought. No one else in the school had pirates, so that made me love it even more.  This year, its the same, simply because I didn't have the energy or the money to take it all down and redo the room in a new theme at the end of the year.  If I had the money, I would like to do owls this year, but I don't, so it'll stay pirates. Sorry! I'm thinking positively that this year will be a great one! The 2010-2011 school year gave me a run for my money. I had a pretty tough group, but now, after being off for the summer, I can say that I am ready to get back....well...kind of!

Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's ROCK AND ROLL!

That's mine and Thatch's favorite saying! : )  I'm ready to get rocking and rolling with this blog!  I've done a LOT of DIY/craft/artsy stuff this summer.  I have to say that its been a great summer.  I had originally planned to send Thatch to daycare twice a week so I could get more done, but yeah....that didn't happen.  I just can't be away from him.  I miss him too much! My biggest longing is to be a stay at home mom, but since that's not possible, I PRETEND to be one during the summers, and boy do we live it up!  Since he didn't go to school as much as planned, we artsied together! In between playing with our kittens (Batman and Robin), Alabama Adventuring, weekly library visits, play dates with my niece Willow, lunches with Daddy, reading TONS of books, lake trips, play dates with lots of amazing friends, jumping on the bed, tickle fights, and me being Batman/Thatch-Man's best friend, Robin/Super-Mommy, of course! Fun, great memories made!

I thought I'd share some pics of my favorite things, so here goes:

This is my Husband, a.k.a. "the hubs" or "hubby." This is a picture of him looking very dapper at work. He'll probably kill me for choosing this pic, but I think he's so handsome!  He is the love of my life! We got married on May 21, 2005 after dating for a LONG time! We practically grew up together and he is truly my very best friend! He loves all things computer, fishing, pirates, magic, guitar....pretty much a multi-talented individual...kinda nerdy at times, but I love it. I was crazy about him before we had our son, but seeing him with our 4 year old is something I just can't describe! He's crazy fun, makes me laugh every day, and we have helped one another through some very difficult times in our years together! I look forward to growing old with him! He is my heart!

I'm sad to say that this is the only pic of my family I could find of us all together! This is from a recent beach trip we took that was great! The hubs couldn't go, so we were missing him, and I'm sure Thatcher is behind me in the surf, because when on the beach, he NEVER gets out of the water! From right to left: My daddy, my sis-in-law, my baby brother, Jordan, my Mama, my adorable niece, Willow June, and her Daddy, my middle brother, Jarrod.  This is the Glasgow clan! I'm insisting we have official family pics made soon. 

This is my Mama!  She is all things I aspire to be! Pretty much my hero.  Amazing friend, mother, housekeeper, chef, and to see her with her grand-babies is to see her at her best!  I've always loved and adored her, but to see her with my son and my niece...WOW!  Words can't describe! She's my # 1 confidant...sometimes I'm sure she wishes that wasn't part of her job! ; )  Her legacy is great, and I pray to live up to it each day! I had a lot of great pics of Mama with my daddy and some others with her grands, but I chose this one because it highlights why she's our miracle! She is an ovarian cancer SURVIVOR!! We praise God EVERY DAY for this, our mom, our miracle!

I love this pic!  It's the Glasgow Men! They may look big and bad, but they are all big giant, soft-hearted teddy bears when it comes down to it.  My middle brother, Jarrod is on the left.  As kids we were arch enemies at times, but now, he is someone I go to for advice, counsel, prayer!  He is an amazing daddy and wonderful husband, and one of the most Godly men in my life! I value his opinon on things and he always gives wonderful, 100% honest advice.  He chose the perfect sister for me and they created the most adorable little girl to ever walk this Earth! 

Jordan, the baby of the fam, is on the right! He is the most caring, gentle, would do anything for anyone person I know.  He will go out in the yard in 100 degree weather, among swarms of mosquitos and gnats, to play anything and everything my son wants to play.  He is smart WAY beyond his years and such a hard worker. He is willing to do anything asked of him and he is also a man of God. He is ALWAYS good for a laugh, which, according to Jarrod and I, is probably why he is  the FAVORITE! HA!

And then there is my Daddy! I must say, I'm kind of a Daddy's girl. He has always been the provider for our family and he is our go-to guy for pretty much anything! He has created so many beautiful things with his hands. His love for my Mama never ceases to amaze me.  He is dedicated, hard-working, loving, gentle, and I'm pretty sure my hubby gets tired of hearing me say, "Fine! I'll get my daddy to do it!"  My daddy has been a rock for our family and is such a comforting, loving man! I love him to the moon! 

Next comes the hubby's family! I'm so blessed because God not only made my family amazing, but the family I married into are just as amazing! On the back row you find the hubs, Ben, our step-brother, Justin, the hub's younger brother. Adrian is on the end and he is a close family friend who has been through so much with us that he's now adopted in, whether he likes it or not. On the front you find me and Thatch, my mom-in-law, Cathy and her husband, Tiger. Heather and her adorable littles, Kaycee and Jayce,  round out the family. This pic was taken on our annual family beach trip. Big props to Cathy for insisting we have family pics made even through all the grumbling of her sons! This crew is a sight to behold, and there is NEVER a shortage of laughter in the Hitt house! Tiger and Cathy insist on weekly family dinner nights in their home each Monday and those times are golden.  Memories are being made and I thank God for the blessing of this family!

Now, for the cutest thing you will EVER see on this blog.  Something the hubs actually helped in creating and my most treasured creation! Our 4 year old son, Thatcher.  He is our life. He is loved so by so many and he has no idea.  God has richly blessed this family and I am eternally grateful to Him for the simple fact that my son has so much love surrounding him. He will never go a single day without feeling love, acceptance, encouragement. I know because I have grown up feeling all these things and more.  

This is my little family. There were several pics of the 3 of us that were a lot better, but this one is so us. Happy, in love, laughing a LOT! This is just us! Pure joy....pure love...pure blessing! Excited about the future, watching Thatcher grow and learn, seeing LeAlan achieve dreams, and adding new little Carters to the clan!

So...this is me. This is who I am, who I love, what I create. There are so many more people in my life that make me who I am...I really could go on and on and on. I wonder, daily, how God could love so much to bless me with all that I have. The friends and family I hold dear give me a tiny glimpse of the extravagant love my God has for me.  Its unimaginable, and I pray that I never take a second of it for granted.