Behind the scenes at the Magic Kingdom

Adorable photo, right?

My sweet baby boy, walking up to the castle.

How about this one?

Mother and son walk up mainstreet.

So yeah... here's what's going on behind the scenes:

Not quite the magical moment...

Ah well... he cheered up pretty fast!

Bradley's First Hair Cut

He turned one, he started school... it was about time for my little guy to get his first hair cut.

So, we did what any responsible parent does... we took him to the Harmony Barber Shop for a trim! Of course, the Harmony Barber Shop is on Main Street. The Main Street of...

The Magic Kindgom!

Yep. We went back to Disney World.

My little Mickey was ready to walk down Main Street and meet his barber:

And she couldn't have been more wonderful with him!

Bradley was a dream.

Like he's been doing this all his life:

Of course we had some toys, just in case:

And daddy recorded the whole experience (including me crying through the whole thing):

When it was all done, Bradley was awarded with a special hat:

And I was awarded with a sweet smile:

So maybe every hair cut will be this easy... if every one of them is at the Harmony Barber Shop at Walt Disney World!

Bradley's First Day of School

I was excited for Bradley to start "school" this semester.

He was excited, too! Really excited:

When that Monday rolled around, however... he was sick! Thankfully he had a quick recovery and was ready to learn on Wednesday.

Bradley loves school. I drop him off in his classroom and he never looks back! He usually runs straight to the station with the little people figures... or to the xylophone.

I miss those squishy cheeks while he's there, but he's always full of smiles and ready to play when I pick him up!

Bradley Turns One

A few days after Bradley turned one we had a small party with family and close friends. It was delightful.

Bradley's favorite toy is a ball... so we invited friends to have a "ball" at his party!

Literally.

That's our backyard. And that's 144 beach balls.

To keep with the theme, all of the food was round:

I put up all of Bradley's monthly photos:

And I still haven't been able to take them down!

We took a few family photos:

Then is was time for CAKE!

(Surrounded by the party hats.)

At first Bradley was a little confused:

But after his sweet cousins jumped in to show him the ropes:

He was hooked!

My sweet Birthday boy passed out shortly after the sugar rush.

It was a very special (and emotional!) weekend for me as my little baby is looking more like a toddler every day! (And of course, I missed taking many photo opps-- like B with his Papa P, Papa T and Mimi! Or more shots of the food... Oh well...)(Next birthday I'm making a "shot list"!)

That night Chris and I toasted to our first year of parenthood... and we look forward to many more birthdays with our little guy.

Bradley and Daddy

Bradley sure does look up to his dad:

 That makes Bradley happy:

And it makes me happy, too.

Mother's Day 2013

So this is a little late... but here's a recap of my first Mother's Day.

I asked for crawfish, so Chris did an impromptu boil:

My mom came over and enjoyed it too!

Chris had a fun activity planned for Bradley... that involved paint!

Bradley painted a masterpiece, while my mom, dad and I cheered him on... and Chris made sure he didn't eat the paint!

Bradley painted four pieces. As he was done with each color, he'd pass the paper to Chris:

Keeping paint off of Bradley's face was going pretty well...

Until this happened:

Bradley became quite the temper mental artist:

But he graciously agreed to pose with his masterpieces before going in for a bath and nap:

I love being a mom, so taking a step back to "thank" me for doing something I love... well, it seemed a little odd at first. But from breakfast to bedtime Chris was so sweet with his plans to help me relax and enjoy the day. And of course, little Bradley was a sweet, happy baby the whole time, too!

Alaska Night Out

In the middle of our Alaskan Adventure we left our kiddos with Allison's sister-in-law and headed out for a night on the town!

Here we are about to leave (at around 9pm!)

We enjoyed patio drinks (all made in Alaska) and had small bites at the top of a hotel:

(It's getting close to midnight in that photo.)

And a "selfie" (is that what the kids are calling them these days?) on the way down:

Later we walked to the pub where they start the Iditarod and were regaled with stories from John's dad.

Allison and I jumped outside for an after midnight photo:

Note the sunglasses!

It was a really fun night with the adults and one of my favorite memories from the trip!

This concludes my Alaskan Adventure posts (only two months later...) and I hope to catch up and with more fun events from the end of Summer/beginning of Fall!

Fishing in Alaska

We had two big fishing experiences in Alaska. One was during the Cousins' Camp. While Allison and I were hosting Cousins' Camp 2013, the rest of the crew were fishing:

Here's Bradley with some fish in the background:

More culturally significant, however, was when we got to go to Kenai and watch the Alaskans dip net fish for salmon.

Each year tons of salmon swim past this beach and Alaskans (and only Alaskans-- we were not allowed to help-- but enjoyed watching!) pluck them out, bonk them on the head and fill their freezers.

This shows the men with their dip nets:

They stand in the water and net the salmon when they swim by. Then the drag the salmon to the beach where the women (and children) "bonk" the fish.

You see two of those kiddos with their "bonking sticks":

It all sounds very innocent enough... but good grief, it's violent! Did you know fish bleed?! I didn't!

Lucy tried her hand at the bonking stick, too:

I'll refrain from posting the more bloody photos... but here's Allison with a hard-earned catch:

And I do mean hard-earned! This was not an easy, relaxing day of fishing for the Alaskans!

Bradley was glad that he couldn't walk yet, so he was able to snuggle up while at the beach:

Later, however, I took him to the car to stretch his legs... and boy was he happy about that!

We had spent the greater part of the Spring eating up everything out of our freezers so we could ship back the Alaskan catches (not the Kenai salmon, but the catches from the deep sea trip). And we've been enjoying the fruits of their (I'll say "our"... even though I did get to actually fish-- the camp counselor helped make it possible, right??) labor ever since!