Beach Vacation for "Spring Break"

I feel a little strange calling our vacation a spring break vacation, because I am a stay at home mom...so I don't really have a "spring break" exactly, but my mom does since she still works with the schools.  Therefore, our girl's (plus Walker) trip had to happen over spring break.  My mom's best friend from high school, Karen, had a family connection to this amazing condo in Venice, Florida.  She asked if we wanted to use it for a little get away.  Of course we jumped at the offer and coordinated flight schedules.  My sister flew from New York, we left from XNA, and Karen from Minnesota. 
We were scheduled to leave Friday afternoon, and in true Walker style he wakes up with a 101 fever Thursday.  I decided to call the doctor and get an appointment right away because the last thing that I wanted was to go to some random doctor in Florida.  We couldn't get in until 4:30 because of the "spring break rush," which I guess is a real thing in the medical profession.  Anyway, it is such a good thing that we went because it turned out that Walker had a really bad double ear infection!!  That is the last thing that I needed to hear to make me that much more nervous about the plane ride the next day.  The doctor was SO great and gave Walker a shot of antibiotics (to help it work faster) and gave us tons of advice of how to handle the flight and manage Walker's ears.

Even with his ear infections, Walker was amazing on the plane.  He did great going to Florida and coming back.  He made lots of friends and we had many comments about his funny personality.  He wanted to sit in my mom's lap the entire trip, which was fine because I got a nice break :)

Reading his favorite (and heaviest) book

Happy to be in Tampa

It is crazy the amount of stuff that you have to (or at least I choose to) take when you travel with a baby.  Luckily, it is free to check any baby item.  I checked his pack-n-play and car seat, and then paid for one bag.  I had his stroller, diaper bag, and my very large purse for the plane.  The diaper bag and purse were full of toys, food, and books.

He did awesome and slept in here all naps and all night

The condo was amazing!  It was right on the beach, with a balcony view of the ocean.  We were able to watch the most colorful sunsets every night.  One morning we saw a dolphin playing close to the shore.  Our day basically consisted of a lazy morning, lazy time on the beach, a nice dinner, and then lazy time before bed.  It was wonderful :) ...however, I use the word "lazy" loosely.  Things are not really that lazy when you have a one year old waddling around. 

We were on the 10th floor, the second to top.  The top is reserved for four penthouses.  The beach was not your typical fine sand, which was hard on my feet...but great for finding beautiful shells and much easier to clean off.

Venice, Florida is a cute little retirement community.  It is great for fishing and is known for finding shark teeth.  Camille, my sister, and I spent some time sifting the sand for shark teeth.  It was pretty cool because we found some and I am planning on making things for Walker out of them. 

 Massive overload of pictures:  You ready?

Walker's first time at the beach...he took a couple of days to warm up to it

He was very excited about his beach toys though, and there were tons of shells around to keep him entertained

That is our condo in the background.  It was perfect because there were only a few people on the beach so we had plenty of space.

Loving the beach...and maybe giving a "west side" shout out

sharing his sea shells

He loved being with his g-mama all week.  I definitely played second fiddle.

Aunt 'Mila

A quick little snooze before dinner.  It was perfect because I could read and watch the ocean, which cuddling my baby.

A gorgeous sunset (photo by camille)

(photo by camille)

These next pictures were taken by Karen Melvin:

Camille got pretty good at making Walker laugh

Karen and my mom

Walker's Birthday Party

I love planning parties and thinking of all of the fun details and decorations, so planning Walker's 1st birthday was a blast.  And Pinterest gave me lots of fun ideas, but did not help me with my time management. 

For Walker's birthday I decided on a construction theme because both of Marcus's sets of grandparents are in construction.  The Walker family builds houses and the Necessary side builds roads, etc.  Since it is mainly family that comes to a one year old's party, the construction theme seemed like a nice fit.  When I started searching the internet for ideas I saw that Oriental Trading had "I dig being 1" party supplies on sale for super cheap.  It was like it was meant to be.  Everything just went from there.

I made the banner with my silhouette machine and then put up the pictures from 0-12 months.  I made the wreath out of the bags that our newspaper comes in and then put up some construction figures that I use at my office. 

This was the table in the entry way.  Each kid was allowed to get a favor tool box that had fruit snacks shaped like tools, a tool shaped water squirt, and an "I dig you" shovel with an eraser, sucker, and bubbles.  The grown ups got a picture of Walker that said "thank you for coming."

 This is a close up of the shovel.  I used the silhouette again to make the labels.

The picture favor

This is Walker's "smash cake" and one of his presents.  I tried to do this party on a pretty small budget, so I figured I would try and make the cake...he didn't know the difference :)  When I served it to him I took it out of the truck so it was easier to grab.  He loves his new toy almost as much as the cake.

These are some of the cupcakes that I made.  I found the tool cupcake toppers online.

The cups and napkins were $0.99.  I was so excited about them.

This is the table mostly ready.  I used my silhouette machine to make construction signs with fun names for the foods.

My mom made a delicious fruit salad.

The birthday man getting ready for his party.  I also used the silhouette to make his shirt...but unfortunately didn't get a good picture of it and it was a little small.

My mom and dad playing with Walker before the party.

Jennifer had these adorable cookies made for the party.  They were amazing!

He was so excited to have friends to play with!!

I set up his room like a "work zone."  I brought my building blocks, legos, play dough, construction trucks, and other construction toys from my office.  My awesome neighbors let me borrow their son's table for the play dough and legos.  There were also stickers and a construction scene picture for the older kids.  I think everyone had a good time.

Sharing his toys with Nora.

The grown ups hanging out and eating.

Trying to figure out how to dig in.

Getting the hang of it now.

I am sad this picture is blurry but it was on my phone.  I know someone got a better one, but this will do for now.

My dad and Alexia playing with Annabel and Addy.  I am pretty sure my dad wanted to take Annabel home.  He was calculating how old Walker would be if I were to get pregnant now, yikes.

Straight to the bath tub and then back to the party in new duds.

Some of his presents.  We asked for a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in lieu of gifts, but I guess family can't resist.  I am so happy with the donation we were able to make though.

Playing with Dany, his babysitter.

I worked on a picture/video montage for the family to watch.  It was 17 minutes long, which was a ton shorter than it could have been...but I am sure some guests felt like it was still a little much :)  It took a lot of restraint not to include every single cute picture or video clip.  We watched the video while Walker devoured his cake. 

I think the party was a big hit.  I was exhausted when it was over and am thankful we have a year before we will do it again.  I guess I will go ahead and admit that I was a total mess all weekend about Walker turning one.  I am pretty sure I cried like 6 times.  They were happy tears of course.  I feel so blessed with our lives right now.