A Circus First Birthday

This past weekend we headed down to Austin for a fun family getaway. One of our friends was throwing a first birthday party for her daughter so it was the perfect excuse to make the trip. It also worked out that my brother and Claire were going to be in town. We had such a wonderful weekend and were so happy that we got to hang out with friends and family. I'll detail the rest of the weekend in another post but for this one it's all about the PARTY!

Natalie did such an awesome job planning this party for her little girl Reese! I loved the theme, the bright color decorations and of course all the yummy food.

Check out the adorable party below-->

I love the picture of big brother Aiden leaning in to give his little sister a kiss! So cute!

Ryan had a BALL! 

There were so many toys that he loved playing with and he enjoyed the food as well. 

Ryan LOVED this hot pink cupcake. 

He really just enjoyed licking the icing...who can blame him?

Oh and he was a HUGE fan of the sandbox. Can't wait to get him back to the beach!!!

One of Ryan's favorite toys that he found. He may have monopolized it. 

My little silly clown testing out the photo booth. 

Why is his shirt off?

Let's just say like father like son....

Just posing for a few more pics!

Goofing around with daddy

Kevin and Rob let me dress them up...and take a picture. Yay!

Playing at the ZOO

Last Friday the weather was BEAUTIFUL so we decided to head out to the Zoo with some friends. We headed to the children's area first so that the boys could run around - they loved it but Ryan kept trying to take a dip in the water so we had to move on.

Checking out the fish tank

Just chatting with his new goat buddy

He was ok sitting with them but just didn't care to feed them. Whatever works. 

Here piggy pig

I spy an elephant

Just driving in my safari jeep with my buddy Ford

Ryan really liked the giraffes. So intrigued.

I wasn't sure how Ryan would react to the giraffes (considering he wasn't a huge fan of feeding the goats) but he was actually all about it. Look at those little hands getting right up there to that mouth. What a sizzler. 

What a beautiful day! 

Loving this Texas Winter!

Happy New Year

Only 9 days late...

New Years Eve was so much fun - we were so lucky to have Kevin's parents offer to watch Ryan (the entire night!).

Kevin' dropped the little man off around 6pm and when he got back we took a couple of pictures then headed out to dinner. We ended up getting very last minute reservations at Abacus which was so nice since we hadn't been out to a fancy dinner in a while. It was fun getting all gussied up since it was NYE too. Anyhow the food was pretty darn good (with the exception of my entrée - that Mr. Rathburn recommended himself! eek!), but overall we were super happy!

After dinner we headed over to the Bottermans house to ring in the new year!

All the boys

And the ladies...

It was such a great party and I think everyone had a great time. There were over 300 pictures taken with my camera but don't worry, I will only show show a few of my favorites!

Look at those fancy dance moves

No fireworks!

I just like how scared Kevin is - so silly!

We had a blast!

Happy New Year!

Christmas - Part 2

We started round two of Christmas by attending 4pm mass at Kevin's parents church. The Hales (and Michaels parents) also joined. It was the family service so no nursery for Ryan. Overall he did really well - good thing we had the whole family there to entertain him!

After church everyone headed back to our house. We wanted to host Christmas Eve and share a Vassilaros tradition.

One of my favorite family traditions is making homemade pizza on Christmas Eve.  It was always so special because we didn't really eat a ton of pizza growing up. My mom cooked a lot and we rarely ordered out, so pizza was definitely a treat. And we decided to make it homemade because my dad wasn't a fan of "chain" pizza...and that's how it started. It's so much fun all gathering in the kitchen and cutting all the toppings and making the pizza. Oh and also - my parents let us to drink Coca-cola (instead of milk) - that was, by far, the coolest thing EVER! However, now days I usually prefer wine...but I am sure Ryan will get just as excited about the Coke thing one day. So although my family was back in Houston we hosted everyone at our house and made pizza. I think Kevin and I did a pretty darn good job. I wish I would have got a picture of our yummy pizza - it was delicious if I don't say so myself!

Afterwards the kiddos decorated sugar cookies. Ryan even joined in on this...

He is VERY hands on. 

And I suspect he did a little taste-testing. 

What a mess!

We had a great time eating pizza and Christmas cookies for desert. After dinner we busted out Catch Phrase.

On Christmas morning the little man slept in until 8am. Once he finally got up we packed up all the gifts and headed over to the Hales house so that we could all open presents together.

Ryan loved Audrey's pink computer

The Hales always get a REAL Christmas tree and its HUGE! Michael even made the BOW on the top - what a husband!

Ryan's big gift from grandma and grandpa

Cousins helping Ryan open his gifts

The shape sorter was a huge hit

Every so often the little man would get sidetracked by the big ol tree and all of its easily assessable ornaments. 

Loving the musical instruments

Helping the little man open his big ol gift

Playing with E!

The Suns stopped by

Truman (12 mo) Ryan (17 mo) 

After opening all the gifts, eating a wonderful breakfast, playing with all the toys and attending an exclusive party at Lyla's Party Palace we were pooped. We headed back home for Ryan's nap time...

Around 4ish we headed over to Kevin's parents house for Christmas dinner. The food was delicious and there were still more gifts to open!

All of our stockings had wonderful surprises in them....Ryan LOVED the little windup toy in his!

Cheers to a wonderful Christmas with our family!

Christmas - Part 1

As I mentioned earlier we celebrated Christmas twice this year! My family came in town before Christmas and we sent a few days with them and then celebrated Christmas on the morning of the 24th before they headed back to Houston. It was so great to have my YiaYia and Papu in town - I am so glad they were able to hang out with little R!

Playing on the iPad with Papu

Pro Yiayia reading Ryan a book

Eating some yummy breakfast with Papu

So many gifts to open! Next year I will definitely be assembling Ryan's bigger gifts instead of wrapping the boxes!

He LOVED the bows! He was quite the little bow thief!

Looking for some more bows to steal...

And stolen!

Daddy helping Ryan out with his stocking

Bob was happy to find a lap

Not surprisingly Ryan loved the boxes and tissue paper

One cool kiddo!

Ryan LOVED this farm - even without the batteries (yay)

Hanging with Uncle Nick

Such a wonderful (pre)Christmas morning! Loved having my family in town over the holidays. Ryan is so lucky to grow up with family so close!