best birthday present! {picture & text heavy}

for my birthday this year, pete planned a trip to mickey's house!

pete & jack had decorations up & bday presents for me on saturday before the park!

we packed up our car and drove to disneyland on friday, the 22nd for a celebration weekend. disneyland is one of those magical places i can go to again and again, without tiring of the music in the streets, the smell of each land, the lines, the laughter. ahhhhhh. i can't wait to go back. we used to pack up the car often as a little girl(thru adulthood), my mom being a bit of a disney fanatic, and we had the BEST time.

it was an extra special trip this year, one i've been thinking about since i was a little girl - taking my very own child to the park to share in the wonder. boy, oh boy, did he love it too!!

dumbo was our first ride, naturally. perfect for a 2yr old!

jack loved pirates. every once in a while, he'll start singing in his car seat, 'yo ho, yo ho, a 'rates life for meeee!!!!'
sleepy after his first day of disneyland...but right back at it in the morning:

jack was a tad bit overwhelmed our first day in the park. imagine it, the whole place looks like a cartoon come to life! he meets characters he's only seen in books and on tv. but, watch out! the next morning jack was allllll about it. he was so pumped to ride teacups again and again. 'mama, dada, ride cups! mama, dada, ride elephant! mama, dada, 'rates!' it was soooo cute.

family photo:

taking the railroad, alllll aboard!

the jungle cruise. never gets old.

meeting pooh

minnie's house

donald!

i love how jack looks at his friends. priceless.

good ol' queeeeeen!!!!

sheep!!

time to head home. we had such a fun day +1/2 at the park that we bought annual passes! we'll see you again soon, mickey :).

ps. many say they want to wait to take their children to disneyland when they are older, but this was absolutely perfect! jack remembers the trip well, he recalls details we didn't even think he noticed (like timmy on top of dumbo) and shares all his disney info with gran + grandpa. he'll sing pirates, and ask to go to mickey's house again. he loved it all. it's one of those places that you enjoy differently each time you go. it was that way for pete and i, too. love disneyland. absolutely love it through jack's eyes. best. birthday present. EVER.

happy new year (better late than never, right?)

i've always secretly wanted a license plate frame that said, 'always late, but worth the wait!', it's the story of my life...

2010 has been so fun! i am going to update the blog as much as possible this weekend, to keep you all in the loop, get a record of the year's events, and keep up my online calendar for future scrapbooking endeavors. enjoy!!

the first few days of 2010 were shared with an amazing house-guest, Les, who came to live with the green fam while helping my mom at Hamilton House (she was visiting Super Pop Pop in PA and attending the ah-may-zing gift show in atlanta with my sis). so fun. here she is working on a large tower with little jack:it was like old times, so nice to have a dear friend stay for a few nights! and to share my crazy life with her :). and it was a HUGE help to my mom. and jack LOVED having all the extra attention from his kasar!

Worst blogger ever.

I'm working on it, uploaded the pictures, all 1100 of them. This
wouldve been a perfect time to focus on blogging, instead, I watched
my two favorite men take a sunday afternoon nap... That's happy.

He's Two

And insisting on wearing his 'boots! all day, every day. I had to make
a deal with him that first thing in the morning he could put on his
'boots! if he went to bed like a big boy. It worked, and daddy
followed through (he got Jack up and let me sleep in a bit!!). Jack is
sooooo much fun!!

christmas day!!! {with the uncs*, aunt, + gran&grandpa}

around noon, my parents and siblings came over to celebrate christmas with jack (us, too, of course, but you know he's the main attraction!). *jack calls his uncles, "unc". too cute, we roll with it!

bike riding!

swinging on our porch swing (a awesome surprise from unc jd)

the costanzo spread

jam session with unc david and.........................

LESLIE + JAMIE!!!

jk and les drove up to fairfield (solely for snacks, we know), and spent time with jack and chowed down at my parents' house. they left full, that we made sure of. it was such a fun surprise!

christmas morning!!! {santa came!!}

christmas eve traditions continue.

family pic. it's blurry and i should've taken the time to crop, but i'm behind in blogging...

another christmas eve tradition is opening one present. that present is always new pjs. so everyone matches - pics in the morning are much more presentable that way!

i think jack thought there was something a little more exciting than pjs... in the morning, little jack, you won't believe your eyes!

opening daddy's for him, too!

his top said, 'santa's little helper' and the pants were santa faces. precious.

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. bailey, mommy, jack, daddy, and pepper.

cookies for santa.

making cookies on christmas eve has always been a family tradition - after all, santa needs fresh cookies to keep him going all night! i wanted to share the experience with jack, so while he napped i pre-measured all of the ingredients for these cookies.

all ready to mix!

such a fun time!

this discovery was jack's favorite.

sneaky boy!