Hayes's Wheels on the Bus Party (Part 2)

As promised yesterday, here are more pictures from Hayes's Wheels on the Bus birthday party.  Click here if you missed it! 

 

Thanks to my awesome sis for being our photographer for the day. Love you Aunt Rachie!

 

 

The sweet birthday boy!

 

 

 

He was so excited when his big cousins arrived!  I love how he's looking at Jack in this picture!

 

 

 

Both graddads!

 

 

 

 

Uncle Al!

 

 

 

 Gigi



 

 

 

Hayes with Aunt Rachie!

 

 

 

 

Hayes and "J."

 

 

 

Mommy and Aunt Andrea.

 

 

Great-grandmothers!

 

 

 

It was one crowded house! 

 

 

 

Singing to the birthday boy.

 

 

 

He was unsure about the cake until I gave him a bite of icing.  Then he dug in.  I'll have to post the video later.  It was pretty awesome!

 

 

Mommy and Daddy with the cake monster!

 

 

Big cousins are great for helping open presents!

 

 

Holding the toy Mommy and Daddy bought in Ethiopia.  We bought him gifts to give for several birthdays.  He loves making noise with his zebra toy!

 



Great-granparents.

 



He fell asleep shortly after opening his presents.  It didn't bother him that we had a house full of people.  This birthday boy was TIRED!

 



We were sad to be missing Uncle John and Aunt Ellen who couldn't make it, but we had a great day!  We are blessed with a large family who love and care about our precious boy!  We had a great day celebrating our Ethiopian angel!

Hayes's Wheels on the Bus Party (Part 1)

We planned Hayes's party for this past Saturday even though his birthday was last Friday.  It was nice not having a party the next day to worry about and being able to enjoy his actual birthday!  I didn't plan it that way on purpose, but it definitely worked out!  I'll probably do that again in the future!

Here are a few pictures from his special day! In order to spare you a barrage of pictures in 1 post, I decided to split it up into 2 posts.  Today's pictures will be of the decor and tomorrow I'll post the family shots.

 I love a good theme, so I went with the "Wheels on the Bus" since that's his favorite song right now.

I had fun decorating our dining room shelves to go with the theme.  And since I'm a teacher, it wasn't too hard to get my hands on most of this stuff!

Close-up of the shelves.  I made the "Happy Birthday" apple banner and taped letters on a large serving dish to make a clock.

The food also went along with the theme: carrots, celery sticks, apple slices, oranges, grilled cheese and PB&J, and pretzels.  Of course, we ate off lunch trays (courtesy of the fabulous lunch ladies at my school!).

Close-up of the adorable (and delicious!) cake and cupcakes made by my WONDERFUL sister!

I found the perfect cupcake toppers from Johnna of Mama Matryoshka on etsy. 

Cartons of milk, juice boxes, and water to drink.

The birthday boy's seat!

Party favors for the little guests.

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday boy!

Birthday boy wearing his cute school bus tee from Nicole of lil' threadz clothing on etsy.  

I can't even believe he's one!  We had such a fun day celebrating our little man!  Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow!

It Was a Happy Happy Day

As I mentioned in Friday's post, it was our sweet Hayes's 1st birthday.  The hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day with our son.

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like a shirt with a monkey wearing sunglasses and a tie!

(And oops!  Our documenting of our day didn't start until the 3rd stop.  Bad mommy!)

The day started in a not-so-fun-way at the doctor's office for our 1-year checkup.  Well, just the shot part was't fun.  

Then, we headed to Bread & Company to have a yummy lunch together.  Hayes chowed down on applesauce, bread, and tomato basil soup (this kid will eat just about anything!).

Next, we went to Phillip's Toy Mart to pick up a birthday gift for the man of the day.  We let him carry it around the store, but don't worry...I still wrapped it up and officially gave it to him later that night.  He still seemed surprised to me!

After our little trip to the toy store we headed home so Hayes could take a much-needed nap.  We hung around the house until time for dinner.

For dinner I thought it would be fun to take him to eat Ethiopian food since he's never had it.  A couple of months ago, I bought an Amazon deal for $15 for $30 worth of food at Mesob, a local Ethiopian restaurant.  As we sat down and took in the music and atmosphere, I immediately started to tear up.  It reminded me so much of our time in Addis Ababa.  I miss our son's birth country often and this overwhelming feeling of homesickness came over me.  It was fun to reminisce on our time in Ethiopia over dinner.

We ordered Doro Wat, Beef Tibs, and Lentils, which we scooped up with injera, their flat spongy bread.  If you've never had Ethiopian food, I highly recommend it.  Everything was delicious and Hayes agreed!  I was so glad that he enjoyed his native food!  Our waitress was so sweet-she even brought him a piece of birthday cake!

During dinner several Ethiopians came over to say hi to Hayes and talk with us.  It was fun to share some of our story with them.  One man said "It's wonderful what you are doing, taking a child from poverty and giving him a loving home.  We appreciate you."   We told him how lucky we feel to have such a sweet, loving son and how much we love the country of Ethiopia.

When we got home, I put him in his traditional outfit that we got while we were in Ethiopia.   Then he opened his present from us-a car.  We have 2 more things for him at his party next week!

It felt so good to have a connection to his roots, even if it was such a small thing as going to dinner.  One of our favorite things about the Ethiopian culture is how warm and welcoming the people are.  All in all it was a happy happy day!

Happy Birthday, Hayes!

I know, I know...long time no hear from.  But this full-time working and being mommy isn't leaving me much time for blogging.  I'll try to do better.  No promises though!  

Lots has been going on around here lately including our 6 month visit with our social worker, Hayes's first Thanksgiving (spent at the beach!), changes in his sleep habits, and walking.  I'll blog more about those later; I've got exciting news: today is Hayes's 1st birthday!

I can't believe our not-so-little-guy is one today.  We'll be celebrating next weekend with a little party with the fam.  Today the hubby and I are spending a low-key day with our man.  We both took the day off so we could celebrate.  Well, let's face it...Hayes doesn't know the difference, so it's more for us! : )

We don't have any big plans for the day (other than his 1-year checkup where he will have to get a few shots.  I know, not nice mommy!  But I already took the day off, so I figured we needed to knock it out!).  We plan to take him out to eat Ethiopian food tonight since he's never had it before.  It's important for us to remember his birth country and celebrate that too.

This week as his birthday approached, I couldn't help but think of his birth mommy.  How does she feel today?  What is she going through on this day?  Is she thinking of her sweet baby boy like I am?  These thoughts somehow make me feel more connected to her.  Maybe one day I will have the opportunity to thank her for this incredible gift.  I would like to tell her how loved and cherished Hayes is.  That's he's a loving, energetic little boy that's just so full of life.  That he brings so much joy to our lives each and every day.  That we can't imagine life without him.  That our lives have been abundantly enriched because of him.  Those are just a few things I would like for her to know.

Happy 1st Birthday, Hayes!  You are one loved little boy!

Hayes's 1st Halloween

I know I'm little behind (forgive me, going back to work hasn't agreed with me!  But more on that later!), but I defnitely wanted to document Hayes's first Halloween. And I knew you'd want to see our adorable little monster in costume!

Hayes rocked his spider shirt at school on Halloween.

Hayes and his punkin,'  We carved his pumpkin to match the current growth of his teeth-2 on the top and 4 on the bottom!

 

 

Mommy and Hayes.  Yes, my sweater came from the boys' section at Target (in case some of your sons wore the same thing on Halloween.  I love being festive!)

 

 

 

Daddy and Hayes.  Daddy was still wearing part of his Duck Dynasty costume that he wore to work!

 

 

Hayes and his lion buddy Hudson.



 

 

Hayes and his pals Evie and Hudson.  At this point, he's defintely had it with all things Halloween and taking pictures!

 

 

We had a fun Halloween hanging out with friends.  I'm glad I didn't stress too much about his costume (we found it at Old Navy for 1/2 off 2 days before Halloween!) because he wore it all of 10 minutes.  I hope you and your family had a fun Halloween too!

Thoughts on Going Back to Work

Well, today's the day I kept thinking was so far away....the day I return to work (and in case you're wondering how I'm posting from work, this post was magically set to post on its own).  By the time this  posts, I'll have been at work for about an hour.  So forgive the confusing nature of me writing this in the future tense.

The hubby and I will be dropping Hayes off at his new school together.  I figure I could use a little moral support!  I've taken Hayes to play there once, so he could get used to it a bit before today.  And he loved it.  His teachers and the school are great!  But still, this mommy's heart is going to be sad.

Well-meaning friends and family members keep assuring me that it will just take some getting used to and that he's going to be great.  And I'm sure he will be.  But my adoptive mama friends will understand why I'm a little extra worried.  I'm most worried about our progress with his attachment (to read more on attachment in adoption click here).  I just don't want us to take steps backwards in how far we've come.

I thought I'd be ready to go back to work-that I'd be bored at home (and that is in NO way to offend you stay at home moms.  I know how tiring it is.  I just love teaching!).  I'm worried I'm going to be rusty and not know what's going on (well, that 2nd part is true.  There's been a lot of changes at my school, so I probably won't know what's going on!).  LOTS of worries here, so prayers would definitely be appreciated! Oh, and advice too.  If you adopted and went back to work, how did it go?  How did your child(ren) deal with it?

I mean, look at this face!  You wouldn't want to go back to work either!