Latest & Greatest News, October 2014

Week-In-Review

Last week was such a fun week at gymnastics! Liam overcameย his fear of flipping upside down and did his pull-over on the un-even bar with Coach Elyssa! He was super proud, as were we! Even more exciting was that his coach sent him a ‘star student’ certificate in the mail later in the week to recognize this awesome achievement ๐Ÿ™‚ …that really was such a sweet gesture from her! Much appreciated by this momma & daddy!!

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We enjoyed a busy, but super fun weekend, as we geared up for the upcoming Halloween celebration. The festivities kicked off on Friday evening with our annual bash at the Bengel’s. Liam sported his costume and looked awesome!!

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Lisa had the house all decked out and I was in love with her ‘floating candles’ in their family room. Great touch!

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The kids decided to break out some pretty sweet dance moves. Liam definitely has some moves of his own, people….so cute!

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On Sunday, we took our little guy out to UCF for ‘Trick or Treat on Greek Street’. This was the 1st year we made it out there, and it was fun for him. He definitely was happy about the early trick-or-treating, and he did pretty good participating in a few of the games that they had set up.

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Trick-or-Treating is hard work ๐Ÿ˜‰ …..water break!

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Sunday evening, the boys did a little pumpkin carving out back. Even the fur baby got in on the action ๐Ÿ™‚

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Posing with his finished ‘jack-o-lantern’ …the smaller pumpkin is a fake one but he insisted that it was ‘the baby’ and that the one Stephen carved was ‘the daddy’, so they had to stay together….LOL!!! Too Funny!! What an imagination!

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By the time the candle burned out on this guy on Sunday night, I was exhausted….such a busy weekend, yet so much fun…..and, so many wonderful memories! Lots more Halloween fun to come this week. We are looking forward to sharing with you soon.

Until next time, friends!

~H

Latest & Greatest News, October 2014

Green Meadows Farm

Last Sunday, we headed out to Green Meadows Farm with our Sunshine Babies group for another fun-filled fall adventure! It was an absolutely gorgeous day & we had the most perfect weather ๐Ÿ™‚ …so thankful for that! You can look back onย last year’s fall trip, hereย {so cute to see how much little man has changed / grown upย }

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Our 1st stop was the hayride around the property. A nice, easy way to kick off the morning.

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How cute was this sign?!?! For some reason, I didn’t see it last year, but we got him to stand in front of it this time. Yeap, we’re clearly at the 3 foot mark ๐Ÿ˜‰

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Oh, the goats! He wasn’t as thrilled to pet them this go around, but this little guy was a cutie! He was one of a set of twins that was only ELEVEN DAYS OLD!! โค ….we were saying HIย  to him, here.

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Definitely got a kick out of feeding the goats! Look at the joy on that face ๐Ÿ™‚

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Ponies for days!! I think you can tell by the sweet expression on that face that he was IN LOVE!

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Well, hello there baby duckie!

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Ah, the pumpkin patch! One of the perks of heading out to Green Meadows during October is that each paying guest can take home a pumpkin….sooo, we filled our wagon with 3 lovelies that the boys will be carving up this weekend. It was MUCH harder {compared to prev years} to get this lively 3 year old to pose and/or stay still in a way that suited my photo-crazed ideas….the out-stretched arms with a cheeseย  was the winner of the afternoon. I’ll take it โค

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Another one of my stolen moments….searching for the perfect pumpkin for Liam {he wanted one of the smaller ones}

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Loved this one!

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Last but not least….I was super excited to see the same SPOOKYย  sign this year, as we had come across last year….so, I attempted to re-create last year’s shot. You can DEFINITELY see the difference in how much this little man has grown.

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It was a great day with our friends from the Sunshine Babies group! Liam had an awesome time exploring around and checking out all the animals. It’s, for sure, one of our favorite places to visit during this time of the year.

Until next time, friends!!

~H

Latest & Greatest News, October 2014

Welcome October :)

Happy 1st week of October, friends! With temps here in Florida dipping below 70 for the 1st time this season over this past weekend, it finally felt like fall was whispering in our ear. It was definitely enough for this Murphy family to throw open every stinkin’ window in the house we could ๐Ÿ˜‰

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When we hit the end of September last week, I realized that I skipped Liam’s teddy bear picture last month. Granted, not a huge deal. Especially, since I did remember for his birthday, but I had wanted to do it because we didn’t go for his 3 year check up until the end of August {oops!}….oh well! Catching up this month ๐Ÿ™‚

We kinda knew {expected} that little dude had grown a ton since last year, but I was down right shocked to hear his doctor say that he grew THREE inches and gained SEVEN pounds. WOW!!! Quite the growth spurt, right?!?! ๐Ÿ˜›

So thankful that all checked out a-okay. Every kid learns & develops in their own time, but on the average, he is doing just fine. He really is getting into the imaginary play. We LOVE to hear him play with his toys and make up stories as he is playing. It is fascinating to watch. We are working on teaching him to pedal his little tricycle that Santa brought last year, and I would like to focus over this next year on learning what educational activities and crafts we can do together that are fun but also help him learn……especially since he will be in Pre-K at this time next year (yikes!!).

The sense of humor he is developing truly seems to be a combo of both Stephen and me…..this may prove to bite us in the a$$ down the road ๐Ÿ™‚ …..already I hear sarcasm and have seen slight eye rolling {omg! lol} …For example, he has already picked up on the fact that I will call him by both his 1st & middle name when I am trying to get his attention. At Publix, on Saturday, after calling him in this manner, he looked up at me with a very matter-of-fact tone of voice and stated, “Mommy, my friends call me, ‘Liam Murphy’.” …well, excuuuuse me!!

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If you would like to check out the last few posts of these ‘teddy bear pics’ I had posted, please see here, ย hereย and here.

Happy Fall, ya’ll ๐Ÿ™‚

~H

Latest & Greatest News, September 2014

Recent Happenings

Where have these last few weeks gone? Can you believe we are creeping into October this week? ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย Good grief….ya blink, and time just flies ahead.

We have had some fun around here, lately, and the calendar is not letting up anytime soon. That said, I better get my bootie up-to-date with these posts, eh?!?! ๐Ÿ™‚

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We are continuing gymnastics, once a week. Liam really looks forward to it and shows much enthusiasm. However, it has definitely been a learning curve for him to get used to a structured learning environment outside of daycare, but overall, we believe this will end up being a great experience for him from all angles — physical, social, and emotional. It helps that he has a friend in class with him, and here’s a sweet pic of the two of them hanging out after class. LOVE the expression on Liam’s face while he’s looking at Kenadie…..priceless!

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Two weeks ago, it was PIRATE WEEK!! So much fun! Liam did activities all week long at school to keep in the spirit. We also visited the Orlando Science Center on Saturday (9/20) & part of the activities that day were in celebration of Pirate Week. They had this awesome wall mural below up in the KidsTown area. I had to capture a pic ๐Ÿ˜‰

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I am so fortunate to work for a GREAT office at UCF that allows me the flexibility to go to special events at Liam’s school, like his Pirate Parade. It was so cute โค …he made me hold hands with him as we walked through the school {heart.melted}

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This was a cool little play pic they had a the Science Center. Now, ya know, I had to get him taking his pic in it, right?!?! ๐Ÿ™‚

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The main purpose of heading out to the Science Center early that Saturday was to check out their new Bats Exhibit. YES, there are REAL.LIVE.BATS! It was actually kind of cool because we got to see them chow down on some melon and avacado just after I snapped this pic (no flash, as that would disturb them). As soon as Liam realized we were in the same room that the Curious George Exhibit had been in, and that it was NOT there anymore, he was less than impressed. The kid cracks us up!! ๐Ÿ™‚

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He LOVED this jet flight simulator in the Science Park Exhibit area!

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Down in KidsTown at the Orange Grove Factory

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We finally made our way up to the DinoDigs Exhibit on the top floor. Liam said, afterwards, that this is his favorite part of the whole center.

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He really enjoyed playing in this fossil area. It was pretty cute.

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I told Stephen I am always the one “behind the camera”, so he snapped this pic of me & Liam….Liam is fixated on the moving dinosaur next to us. I think he thought it was real ๐Ÿ˜‰

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This was hysterical! Our little meteorologist at the Science Station – WFTV Severe Weather Center 9.

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Last week, at Liam’s school it was Community Helper week. They made these really cute projects. He was so proud of them!

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They also had a Sheriff’s Officer come see them with his police car. He thought that was pretty cool. He said he got to sit in the back of the car, too ๐Ÿ˜›

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Last Friday, it was my mom’s birthday, so Liam & I headed down to her house and spent the day hanging out with her. We had a nice time ๐Ÿ™‚

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We capped off the weekend with making the house Halloween festive! Hooray!! So much fun! You have probably heard me say this hundreds of times, at this point, but each age with Liam it just keeps getting more & more fun. He had a ball helping with the decorations! It’s brings me happiness to see the excitement in his eyes as we do these things together. Love him!!

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Whew! That was a lot of catching up, right?!?! ….sorry for the all the posting! I told ya I was behind. HA!!

There was so many more fun pics, so head on over to my Instagram to see the rest of what we’ve been up to {@casademurphy}.

Enjoy the rest of your week, friends!!

Until next time….

~H