Party, Party, Party!

South Carolina has been "home" since 2009, but home will always be the hills and woods of western Pennsylvania.

Blue Ridge Mountains in Virgina/West Virginia.   

...so...the middle of July took us home.

Out here its like I'm someone else,

I thought that maybe I could find myself

if I could just come in I swear I'll leave.

Won't take nothing but a memory

from the house that built me.

Posting my son's first birthday pictures on social media and drafting this blog entry helped me realize how valuable the individuals in my life are and how the memories that have been made over the past few years are truly irreplaceable.  Recently there have been some surprises about who is still around and who has disappeared.  It's sad; more so, it makes me inordinately angry, but I can't say that I would trade how I ended up "here" with these people and these memories for anything different.  I keep telling myself that the acceptance of change (and subsequently changing yourself) means that you are still capable of adaptation; therefore, change is good.  Right?  I used to be fairly decent at expressing myself through the written word; lately, I just don't know what to do with myself and my thoughts.  I'm afraid my husband gets the brunt of that because everything that I think just pours out.  Every question, every statement, everything.  Poor bastard.  Especially when I expect the same from him, and anyone that knows my husband knows he's the watch, think, think some more, and then maybe, if you're lucky, he'll comment or share his opinion/emotion.  More often than not, he really doesn't say much about his feelings, so I guess I speak enough for the both of us.

But I digress...

While we were home, we were responsible for a small handful of events.  One was an engagement party for my cousin, H.  The second was nugget's birthday party!  I was completely geeked out by both, and had a blast planning each of them.

My sister is the maid of honor in my cousin H's wedding at the end of August.  We know that it is going to be an amazing event, so we just knew that we had to host a really perfect engagement party.  My sister is in the Air Force Reserves, and took a small, voluntary deployment to Riga, Latvia to assist the building of an orphanage.  She was gone for a few weeks before the party, so I finalized many of the details (cake, decorations, food, etc.), but we worked together to finalize everything two days before the party when I finally made it north of the Mason Dixon.

I'm so very much looking forward to the wedding.  H and her fiancé are really adorable and fit very well, so I'm sure that the wedding will be both fun and heartwarming.

L and I tried really hard to make a fairly fancy engagement party in my parent's backyard and garage.  I think we pulled it off!

Wildflower centerpieces (Thanks, Aunt L)!

Candles lit! <3

Cake and cake table set up

Uncle C, hubs, me, J, H, and H 

We had a day of rest and recovery before we had to gear up for the nugget's first birthday.  I had been planning this event for months.  When I started decorating the night before, I was afraid that I had  planned too much for a first birthday before I realized that I straight up didn't care.  This is nugget's first birthday.  We only get one first birthday party, and we don't ever get this first-first again.

Here are the highlights of our amazing Where the Wild Things Are themed birthday party.

The cake table set up!

Collage of monthly pictures.
Smash cake.
Cupcakes arranged on a handmade stand thanks to the hubs.
Where the Wild Things Are and custom crown (which we forgot)
A sign that read, "Welcome to Lochlan's Wild Rumpus!"

Favor table.
Favors were small green boxes filled with candy rocks and bubbles. 

 Everything turned out so perfect.  By the end of the day all of us were absolutely happy, exhausted, and overwhelmed with love.

A few more of us and the happy birthday boy:

He actively opened his Aunt M and Uncle M's gift.

Mamaw bought him an awesome roller coaster.

I swear he enjoyed it.  He was just so hot and tired!

Nugget and his friend C.  So cute!

Smash cake with 80+ people looking at him was a huge success!

Look at those baby blues! *swoon*

It's always hard to leave, and now that we have little nugget, it's getting harder and harder to make that break; however, it also really makes me appreciate the time and space that the hubs have to create our life, and I think that's so crucial when you're a new family.

My perfect little family of 3!