May-cation

Gah, can we just take a minute and talk about the total diva baby in this picture?  She is perfect!  

Ok, we can move on now.  Last weekend we had a little staycation!  A year ago when we moved here, I used the patriotic heartstrings of Texas to score us the win in a dad/son photo contest.  The prize was a nights stay at The woodlands resort and conference center.  To the boys, it was "the Marriott" because the hotel near mom and dad that has a fancy pool is the Marriott.  

It took a while to decide about booking and there was a little bump (ok, a pretty big bump by the end) in our timing with the baby girl's arrival.  I finally got it booked and we packed up half the house to drive across The Woodlands to the resort.  It was also a golf package so a tee time was requested.  

We had to wait out a thunderstorm or two before we could head down to the pool and check it out.  Lillian and I spent most of our time under the umbrella while the boys made use of the pool and super fast waterslides.  I did eventually go down one of them and it was scary fast!  The poolside service was impeccable!

Just like at any resort, they had activities all day.  They had balloon animals, face painting, outdoor movies and snow cones.  They had all kinds of poolside games too.

Jackson was especially good at water hoola hooping!

I just love his little eyelashes.  I have to use fancy mascara to make mine look half this good!  

This is what Lady Lillian could be found doing most of the time we were at the pool.  She can't sleep at all on her back so lucky for me the bob lays nearly flat and she can turn over and go right to sleep.  Here's hoping to a long and happy belly sleeping summer!  

When you're the best of friends, spending all your time together...

Some of my most fond childhood memories of summer were in the pool.  I hope they remember theirs the same way.

The boys discovered that the refreshments room was the warmest place to be after a cool swim.  Ah, the fun of a hotel.  I guess it never gets old as you can see from Jason's amusement! 

We also got breakfast the next morning and it was delicious.  We were exploring the grounds when we happened upon this guy...and his entire family. Seriously we saw 5 snakes in 5 minutes.  Creepy!

The boys and I spent the next morning at the pool while Jason played a round of golf.  Jackson insisted on taking his shirt off and you can rest assured he won't be doing that again. His shoulders blistered from it just like I tried to tell him.   

This guy can't go anywhere without finding a reptile of one kind or another.  Seriously.  A frog, snake, lizzard or a turtle.  He can spot em' and catch em'!

"The rain never bothered me anyway"-sang in my best Frozen voice.  It came quite a rain and I joked with the boys that if they didn't get out of the rain, they'd get wet.  

We had a great little staycation and we didn't have to go far.  We didn't even have too many clothes to wash upon our return.  The boys called it our May-cation because it was the last day in May when we checked in.  We all called it FUN!

Ssssssssssssomebody's FIVE!

That's right!  My little crybaby, reason I started the blog Lincoln is FIVE years old!  I was just weeks from delivering him when I started blogging.  My consistency has probably never been lower but I can only blame that on a certain little someone of the female variety!  

Lincoln had wanted to have a SNAKE birthday party for a while.  He wavered into superheroes a few times but always came back to snakes.  Jason and I believe that within reason we should try to give the kids the birthday party that they want.  They will only turn 5 once and it should be a day they remember forever.  Lincoln had even drawn pictures of his snake party and the snake man that would bring them here.  Thank goodness Jason contacted the snake man and signed him up!  

In the weeks leading up to the party I did what every good modern mama does these days.  I started a pinterest board for snake party ideas.  Of the ideas I pinned, few were carried out but I feel like I did my mama duty nonetheless by initiating the pinning procedure.  

We used this awesome banner that has been used for Lincoln's birthday for the last 3 years now.  Some of my mom's students made it for his 3rd birthday and it's lasted through 2 more!

Ok, thisssss (haha) was so cute I couldn't resist.  Apparently no party is complete without goodie bags and these were easy and cute and cheap to boot!

Mr. Clint (aka the Snake Man) is preparing to handle snakes...in my living room.  I wasn't so sure about having them inside.  We had a whole back yard that would be great to handle snakes in but he assured Jason that the snakes would do better inside.  

Lincoln didn't have any trouble cuddling up next to these cold blooded reptiles!  It took me a little more getting used to.  The way the man talked about them, they sounded like teddy bears.  

Lincoln was the first to hold each of them and he was the one to help place them back into their pillow cases also.  WHY they keep snakes in pillow cases I do not know!  

Jackson HATES this photo.  He looks terrified.  I'm pretty sure he wasn't at all afraid but showing it to him and watching him squeal is too much fun!  

Lincoln and his buddy August!  He's made quick friends in the year we've lived here.  School friends, gym friends and neighbors all attended the reptile affair!

This one was a crowd favorite.  She was a stubby tailed boa and she was very "curious" as the snake man says.  He stubby tail cracked me up, he said she was a little self conscious of it.  

The grand finale included a albino burmese python.  It was HEAVY but actually really pretty.  I decided I'd give this one a go.  

Yeah, it still kinda freaked me out a little, it was so cold and so heavy.  

Now, this is what I considered the grand finale.   In all my pinteresting, I decided I could tackle the cake making.  I enlisted the help of my good friend Emily and then I proceeded to dominate her entire day with helping me make a snake cake.  While it did take the majority of a day to complete, it was totally worth it!  I was pretty proud of my limited cake making ability.  I even managed to use paper towel grain to press "scales" onto the icing.  The inside was red velvet to mimic real snake blood.  Yes, it was truly my crowning glory in the cake making world.  It was both my debut and my grand finale. The alpha and omega.  You won't find me making another cake any time soon.  I'll be paying tribute to my local baker for future birthday events.  

Lincoln was the "junior snake handler" at his party!  He's pretty proud of that award, as if there was ever a doubt that he'd win.  

Here'ssssssssss looking at you kid!  You came into this world crying.  You often still do.  You can't stand your pockets to be crumpled up and your shoes rarely ever feel right.  Every single day I have to get your pajama shirt inside out while you do the pants.  You hold the doors for me while I push baby sister through them.  You love to play in the water, sink, hose, doesn't matter.  You can't ride anywhere at 5pm in the car without falling dead asleep.  Your best friend and worse enemy is your brother Jackson.  You love your baby sister but especially so when other people are around.  You like to hide and scare me or "disappear" and have me look for you.  You graze in the kitchen all morning eating every bar, pop tart or sweet food I'll allow.  After that, you might not eat anything else the rest of the day unless it's sneaking a snack in the pantry and me finding the wrapper a few weeks later.   You're a good boy and on the occasion that you do require punishment, you will often say "I love you, mom" or "can you give me a kiss before you spank me?"  I always oblige, then continue with said punishment.  I love your quirky self more than you'll ever know.  You were born to be a middle child!  Maybe that's why you're Nana's pick! 

 You're most definitely my favorite 5 year old!

Note: the above snake has a mustache!  It's such a cute mustache, he couldn't be that bad, right?