Jaggar's Actual Birthday

Even though we partied the weekend away for Jaggar's birthday, I'm a firm believer you have to do SOMETHING on your actual birthday. So we'd planned to go to dinner that evening. Mom and Mema were leaving the next day, so we wanted one last meal out. Since Jaggar doesn't really eat like we do (he prefers candy and ice cream), I chose Mexico Lindo because they do sing happy birthday there (not all restaurants do), and it's descent but cheap. I'm probably the only person in the world that just doesn't care for Mexican food, but I had it in my mind that we were going so I didn't revolt.

My kids love water, and there is a fountain right up front that they are obsessed with.

This one, in particular, can't stay away. It was his birthday, so I tried to be lenient with him...but Jaggar was horrible at this restaurant. It was like he'd never been out before! I was embarrassed. I didn't know what the deal was. I don't expect perfection out of a 3 year old, but I do expect him to sit down and you know...not run around the table And when he's made to sit, to not scream, "I want to go home!" I ended up having to take him to the bathroom and spank him!

They didn't care though.

Lovely take one. We've got issues with him picking his nose. Disgusting. If you don't have children, just know...they can be really gross.

Better pic. This restaurant is really pretty inside, and the servers are always excellent. Always. Which is more than I can say for 90% of the restaurants I've been to.

It looks like he might be smiling but based on what I experienced while there, it's unlikely.

These next few pictures of him and Travis are hilarious to me. Just look at both of their expressions.

Personal fave. Check out that scowl.

Hahaha...Travis.

Okay, so we THOUGHT he might be excited about them singing happy birthday to him. Wrong. Very wrong. They bring out a little sombrero, and he, of course, hated it. I have a theory as to why he was so awful that I will get to later. Watch them sing here. I am not very good at double fisting, and I was taking pics and trying to video so forgive that.

This little fried tortilla with cinnamon and sugar that they bring is wonderful. Of course, Jaggar wouldn't know. He refused.

Jaggar ate the cherry; Travis wore the hat.

Sage gladly wore it. At least we had one happy child.

He was able to go back to the fountain while I paid, so that made him happier.

Once we got home and the kids had baths, I took one last birthday video of Jaggar, and it's super cute. HE is so cute.

A pillow we found at Target that was appropriate for the day.

And my theory for why he was so horrible at the restaurant? Shortly after the kids were in bed...actually, while we were putting Sage to bed, I started feeling nauseated. This isn't totally out of the ordinary for me these days, but it was intense. So I tried to go sit with mom and mema and talk to them some on their last night, but I couldn't. I said, "I've got to lay down...this food has made me sick." And I couldn't even wash my face (which I have kept up in routine, btw!) or brush my teeth. I just tried to go to sleep...but I was awakened. The thing I hate most woke me: throwing up. Without being overly graphic, let me just say that I can't think of ANYTHING worse to throw up than Mexican food. Nothing. It will be a LOONG time before I go back to Mexico Lindo because of that. I just figured baby hated Mexican. I didn't move for fear it would happen again in the night, but I still felt very nauseous all night. I cautiously got up the next morning, and Jaggar was flying through the foyer on his bike, which is normal. He suddenly started screaming. Mom thought that he bit his tongue. That is, until he walked into the kitchen...and threw up everywhere. Morning sickness was out. We had a stomach bug. That poor baby ended up throwing up ALL DAY LONG, and he freaked out each time because he did not know what was going on. Thankfully, he'd scream when he felt it was coming, so we had time to get him to the bathroom. I think that he thought if we didn't take him that he wouldn't throw up because he'd scream, "I don't want to!" It was so sad. And awful. I never did again that day, but I had a few times I thought I might. SO...he was excused for his behavior at the restaurant. I think it was sneaking up on him then. I wish I'd felt that same thing sneaking up on me or I'd have definitely NOT eaten that basket of chips on my own.

Present Time

After cake and ice cream, it was time for presents. I actually had to kind of force Jaggar to sit to open them because he was so busy playing.

Just a little bit of the craziness.

Nick the family man

And here we go. I loved the outfit from the Mundy family. Jaggar was...you know...ready to move on.

He loves Paisley.

Paisley got him a bag of water toys for the beach, where we are going for a week in July.

Each of Chrissie's kids picked out a toy for him.

He's slightly afraid of this spider man mask.

Okay, this was from Parker. It was called Sticky Baff, and I immediately asked if it was messy. Rhenda said there was no way that she'd do that to me. You basically take the powder inside and mix it with water. It turns the water to goo and then you mix another powder in it that turns it back to water. Chrissie even said it was awesome. So I wanted to test it in bowls in the kitchen before I filled a tub with it.

I included pics from the next morning of them playing in it here. I don't know if I did something wrong, or if my kids are just much wilder than Chrissie's and Rhenda's, but this stuff was INSANE. Granted, they ended up THROWING it at each other, and it was EVERYWHERE. The walls, the table, the floor, underneath the chairs, the blinds....I just kept finding it.

And I obviously couldn't mix the other stuff that was supposed to dissolve it on the floor and all those other mentioned places. It was even in my silverware drawer where Sage went to get a spoon without washing her hands. I had to get a shop vac to vacuum it up. IF they ever get to play with it again, it will be outside. And with the memory so fresh of how messy it was, that's a big if right now.

Back to the party, we got him a Thomas pillow pet.

And he loved that, of course.

This was one of his favorites.

And I love how the older kids are trying to peek inside his unopened present here.

Dinosaur train! HE LOVES this thing. It's a show on PBS kids, and he has many dinosaurs from it.

Cars

Okay, this was something that he talked about regularly, too. Jaggar loves Rudolph, as I've said. And he has many characters in the stuffed form from that show. I'm always looking on ebay because they made a ton of the stuffed animals in '98, and I saw one huge set for $12 at the time. It ended up going up to $30 with shipping, and I didn't want to pay that much, but Jaggar saw "Charlie in the Box animal" in the group and zoned in on it. From then on out, he kept saying, "Can I get Charlie in the box animal at my Thomas birthday?" So it became my job to find that one on ebay. I found it (with Clarice) for a very reasonable price and won the bid. His face was adorable. He said, "I got Charlie in the box animal! Can I put this in my bed?" Everyone laughed because it is so random.

He wouldn't put them down.

If you remember my after Christmas sales, one of the things I got was an Olivia house. This is a show on Nick Jr, and at the time, I thought the house would be cute for Paisley's birthday. Earlier in the year at Sage's book fair, Jaggar RAN and grabbed an Olivia book and said, "It's my fav-rit Olivia book! This is mine!" So that's what I got him, and he will go get that Olivia book all the time. Nearing his birthday, I thought of that house and thought how much he would love it...even if it is geared more towards girls. Well, when I took it down, I saw it actually turns into a pirate ship as well, so that was cool. His face when he opened it...o my gosh, he screamed, "OLIVIA! Get her out!" It was so cute.

My mom got him this dump truck that talks and shoots balls across the room. It moves and sings. SAGE actually loves that.

I immediately tried to get all the toys in one spot so that nothing was lost. We did lose Olivia, which was slightly traumatic, but Travis, who is always the one to find our misplaced things, found her.

Travis' dad and step-mom

Jaggar and Paisley. Notice he is still holding onto his Charlie in The Box. He also has Clarice and Olivia.

After presents, some people left, but most went back outside to play.

Notice my biggest kid at the top.

After everyone left, Travis fell asleep for a bit before taking Nick's slide back, but I could not sit down. I knew if I did that I would not get up, and I wanted to clean up somewhat. By the time I did, I realized I never even took a picture with the birthday boy.

He was SO grateful for his party. He told me, "This was the best day ever!" How sweet!!!! And when Travis was rocking him, I could hear Jaggar talking away on the monitor. I asked Travis, "He had a lot to say, didn't he?" Travis said that Jaggar thanked him for every individual thing on his birthday. "Thank you for my Thomas birthday. Thank you for my Thomas cake. Thank you for my Thomas balloons. Thank you for my present." That alone made every bit of it worth it. What a sweet boy we are blessed to have celebrated.

**Make sure to hit older posts at the bottom of the page because all of the birthday party posts wouldn't fit on one page. I finished up the party posts today!