Things have been quiet around here lately but that’s not because we’ve not been busy. Just the opposite actually. It’s been hard to find time to sit down & collect my thoughts. We are definitely feeling the hustle & bustle of the holiday season….not a bad thing, though. Makin’ some family memories, right? ❤
Recently, we took, what’s become an annual trip, to Green Meadows Petting Farm in Kissimmee. It’s such a cute & fun family place. We especially love to visit during the month of October because each guest leaves with a pumpkin that they pick out on the property 🙂
Each year, I’ve tried to get Mr. Liam to milk the cow. He wants no part of it 😉 …however, this year he did pet Mrs. Cow so that was something new.
We spent the afternoon with our good friends and had the best time. Liam & Kenadie have been besties since they were babes ❤ ….I seriously can’t believe how much these two have grown up. Especially as I looked back at pics from our visits to the farm the last few years.
Ah, the goats are always a HUGE fave for us 🙂 …so stinkin’ cute! ….& always SO hungry!
Liam got a kick out of the Llama this year because we are now reading the “Llama Llama” books. He thought this guy looked like the character from his books 😉
baby chicks are cool ….
here piggy piggy …
The pony rides are another fav for our little man ❤ …this was the 1st year we didn’t have to walk with him, as he was big enough to ride with just the staff member (*insert mama tears…lol*)
Cheese!!
Doesn’t get much better than this ❤ …we love this boy to the moon & back.
Such a fun day at the farm! Definitely a great way to spend a Florida fall day.
Seriously, how much fun was Halloween on a Saturday night?!?! I vote to have it on a weekend every year!
We kicked off the weekend with dinner on Friday night at IHOP. Liam got a FREE spooky pancake. So fun!
When we got home there was a special delivery from Papa G & G-Ma –> a Halloween tin of yummy flavored popcorn!
On Saturday, the 1st thing Liam said was: “it’s Trick or Treat day!!!” ….he could barely contain his excitement 😉
We continued our annual tradition of hanging out & eating dinner with our good friends & walking their neighborhood. While Liam dressed up in a few of his different superhero hero costumes in the various holiday events we attended throughout the month, he had selected Baymax from Disney’s Big Hero 6 movie as his trick-or-treat outfit. He adores that movie! ❤ …I mean, it’s a Disney’s superhero movie, afterall, right?!?! 😉 ….It was hilarious because some of the people handing out candy did not know his costume & asked him if he was an Avenger. He, very matter-of-factly, stated: “No, I am Baymax”. Then, he would turn around and yell down the driveway, “They thought I was an Avenger!!!”
Halloween is the look of mischief…..
Daddy did some cool modifications to the wings to get them to stick out and not be flopping around. We glued tongue depressors to the inside flaps & then, he painted them red. The mask also fit a bit tight & squished his nose. Stephen added a few foam pieces (such a thoughtful daddy!)….however, Liam still didn’t keep it on most of the night. Ya know, it’s still pretty hot & sticky here in FL 😉
Let the fun begin!
Liam was so polite at every house. He said, “trick-or-treat” and then, “thank you” after getting his candy. Then, to each person, I also heard him say, “Happy Halloween!” ….my heart melted! We stayed out for about 2 1/2 hours. We even brought our wagon because we thought he would get tired and need a rest, but no, he trucked along & kept up the whole time. Heck, he even pulled the wagon (by his request) toward the end. The only thing he did ask for was to dump his candy bag and “start over” because his little bag was getting too heavy. This mama had thought about that ahead of time, so I did bring a bigger bag….lol!
He ended up with quite the haul of candy by the time we got done. Here he is — tired, hot & sweaty…but so proud of his little stash 🙂
It was a great weekend! We were a tired little family when all was said & done, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. When Liam woke up on Sunday morning, he asked if it was still Halloween. I told him, no, it was now November. Then, he asked if was Christmas. I said no again. Little dude proceeded to cry….I felt so bad! Once I explained that Thanksgiving was next & reminded him what that meant, he was ok. Being a 4 year old is tough work sometimes 😉
Here’s a look back on the fun from the last few years:
2012 (back before the blog …check out this adorbs pic). This was Liam’s 1st time trick-or-treating!! We just pushed him right up to the doors. Haha! …but he held his little bucket!
2011 (also,back before the blog …Baby’s 1st Halloween!!)
Last Friday, we headed to the Amway Center for a night of family fun. Clearly, someone was pretty pumped about that….
We were super excited to be able to attend the VERY FIRST showing EVER of Disney On Ice’s new show — 100 YEARS OF MAGIC 🙂
It was a fantastic event & definite fun for the whole family. Be sure to check their schedule here to see if the show is coming to a city near you soon! Also check out my previous post here to catch up on a little bit of background for the show.
The show opened with our classic & all-time favs — Mickey, Minnie, Donald & Goofie ❤
I love the Disney On Ice shows because they remind me of the Ice Capades shows that I used to watch as a child. Having the opportunity to share these same kinds of memories with my little one is pretty special to me.
Various Disney & Pixar movies were incorporated throughout the show. Obviously, Frozen made an appearance. I am not kidding when I tell you that the ENTIRE Amway Center sang along to “Let It Go”…..
Aladdin has always been one of my favs ….<3 you Genie!
Liam was over the moon to see the gang from Toy Story 🙂 ….I didn’t get a good picture but before these guys came out, the army men did a little number that was awesome!
Lion King! …..this one will always hold a special place for us, as that was the theme of Liam’s nursery 🙂
All the kiddos (and adults, too….let’s not deny it, peeps) were thrilled to see the Disney Princesses skate out onto the ice. Definitely one of the more magical moments!
Here’s a peak of the show’s finale …..ended just as good as it began!
Such a great family night! We left with our hands full (popcorn, cotton candy, & a sword….lol!) and our hearts full of wonderful memories. Thank you to Feld Entertainment for this amazing opportunity for my family!
Until next time, friends!
I am a Feld Entertainment Blogger Ambassador, and in exchange for my time and efforts in attending shows and reporting my opinion within this blog, as well as keeping you advised of the latest discount offers, Feld Entertainment has provided me with complimentary tickets to Feld shows and other exclusive opportunities.
Last Saturday, we gathered together to celebrate our little man’s 4th birthday. Very early into the planning, he declared he wanted an Avengers party, so I was excited to find this invitation on Etsy.
The shop I worked with is called, Cupcake Tops. Now thru Sept. 30th, use code: casademurphy and you can receive 20% off any purchase of $5 or more in their shop 🙂
Liam LOVES to swim & play at splash parks, so we thought it would be fun to have his party at the Oviedo Splash Zone — part of the Oviedo Aquatic Facility. Basically, it’s like a playground in about 1 ft. of water. SO MUCH FUN for all!!
When we booked the party, we chose the morning time slot, as we thought there would be virtually no chance of Florida showers that early. Well…..Murphy’s Law — it stormed AND poured for literally the week & a half prior to and days after the party. I’m talking HEAVY rain peeps. Poor Tampa was under a state of emergency there was so much rain. I just kept praying it would let up for those few hours. We had no back up plan. Driving to the park, it started to sprinkle — I was less than thrilled, but Liam was so positive (as always). He said, “it’s okay Mommy. Sprinkles are not bad :)”. Love him! We were blessed as the rain stopped AND the sun came out. The weather was beautiful for the entire party ❤ …..and then, it poured again as soon as we got home….LOL!!
I have a lot of pictures to share, so be warned that this post is long 😉
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This is one of my fav shots of the morning. I have to tell you that Liam was a little stinker throughout the party, and almost every time I asked him to pose quickly for a pic, he said ‘no’ or ‘after cake’ or made a face. We had to work HARD for this shot!
Knowing that we would be doing a water party with lots of kiddos, I thought cupcakes would be best & most easy to manage. Publix came through like champs with these! I gave them little direction, and we were thrilled with the end result. They even surprised us with these fun rings as toppers.
We had a table set up under a ginormous umbrella. Again, so fun! Perfect for shade from the sun or rain. Since it was a morning party, we opted for breakfast snacks and coffee for parents. Thanks to Dunkin’ Donuts for coming to the rescue! I called ahead and we walked in just before the party, and they had our whole order ready to go. HUGE time saver!
How awesome was this park? The kids {and adults} thoroughly enjoyed themselves!
Cute mushroom!
Liam & his cousin, Sierra ❤
The orange slides were a definite hit with all the kiddos.
It was SO hard to get any kind of a group shot. Even this is not the best pic of all 3 of these guys, but this is Liam with his bestie, Kenadie and a pal from school, Jase.
Again….couldn’t get all to cooperate, but still so cute 🙂
Here’s a quick clip of Liam & friends playing…..
Amidst the craziness of the party, I completely forgot to take a pic of the box of favors I put together for the kids. However, I had taken this pic at home beforehand, so I had some saving grace. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out. I found the favor tags from an Etsy shop called ICandyEvents. The shop owner was awesome to work with & customized the tag for me.
I put a few of Liam’s fav things in there — glow sticks, stickers, temporary tattoos, and a ring pop. All superhero themed, of course!
Shortly before the party ended, we pulled everyone out of the water to do cake & sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the birthday boy. You can see below just how happy he was that we made him get out & stop playing….hahaha!!! 🙂
We had such an awesome time celebrating Mr. Liam. Thank you to all who came out to have fun with us!
Happy 4th Birthday, Liam Michael — you are one LOVED little man ❤
Happy 4th Brithday, our sweet little man, Liam Michael!
Honestly, I cannot believe how fast this last year has flown by. My mom jokes that we will be sending him off to college before we know it….I’m afraid to blink because she’s probably right.
Here’s the latest teddy bear pic ❤
If you follow our adventures, you know this teddy bear pic is a fun regular measure of growth for us. Check out all our past pics here.
Last year, we also started a new tradition of a BIRTHDAY INTERVIEW. Let me tell you, this was hilarious to do with him again 🙂 …definitely recommend to do with your kiddos! I found this free printable here via Pinterest that we’ve been using.
Other notable things these days…
He frequently refers to me & Stephen as “guys” …as in “hey guys….” 😉
He is a master at the iPad — absolutely LOVES to watch amateur videos on YouTube of product demos of toys & role play….there is an enormous amount of videos of Imaginext, which he has grown quite the collection.
Super heroes are everything — most days you catch him in a superhero shirt. I am hard-pressed to dress him in anything else, actually. He won’t have it. His room is superhero. His birthday party theme was requested to be that, as well.
While he didn’t mention it in his birthday interview, he is also quite fond of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
He loves going to “school” and next month he is starting Pre-K!! He knows this and he already says he is in VPK 😉 …he also will tell you that next year he is going to “hildegard” (kindergarten …lol!!)
Dancing and music are also his favs! This little dude has some awesome moves of his own AND he knows most Top 40 songs by heart ❤
Always smiling & always happy — BEST disposition ever!!
*However, I will add a side note & keep things real that I am predicting the asserting of independence, attempts of attitude, & pushing the boundaries to see what he can possibly get away with to be quite the test for us this next year…..all normal but we have definitely seen our fair share. He is a GREAT kid but he is kid and is learning….also, we are 1st time parents, and we, too, are learning along with him.
Words cannot express how much love fills our hearts for this little man. It is such a blessing to have him in our lives. He is truly a gift.
We had so much fun for our holiday weekend! For a look back on the last few year’s be sure to check out here and here.
On Friday, Stephen had to work so it was just little man & me hanging out. We are huge fans of the PBS series, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, so we caught a few episodes on Netflix while playing & cleaning up. I walked by Liam’s marker board at one point in the afternoon & he told me he drew O the Owl from the show…so cute!
I couldn’t help snapping a pic of this one practicing brushing his teeth solo…we do it for him but we’re also trying to teach him how to do it by himself after we do it. This was cuteness overload for me.
After we got ready for bed on Friday, we went out front to do a few small fireworks. Someone LOVES him some sparklers! If you didn’t see my latest post last week for OMB, be sure to check it out — HERE.
All decked out in their RED, WHITE & BLUE ❤
Before fireworks & fun-time on Saturday, we grilled up some deliciousness 🙂
Little dude had to grill up something of his own too….just.like.Daddy 😉
only one word for this —> YUM ….all about balance, right?!?!
After dinner, we headed over to Lake Eola to hang out & catch some fireworks.
This one gave us an awesome dance show while we waited for it to get dark…..note the shoes 😉 ….I had taken mine off while we lounged on our blanket. He also took his off but then put mine on & paraded around. Hilarious!
For a while, it looked like it might storm, but we got this awesome sunset just before nightfall.
Fantastic show, as always, City of Orlando!!
We had a great holiday weekend celebrating our great nation’s birthday! Hope you did as well!
Today, I’m over at Orlando Mom’s Blog sharing my tips for keeping your Independence Day safe & fun! Be sure to check it out before you head out for your holiday weekend festivities.
I am super excited to share that we have made some changes to our appearance around here 🙂 ….hope ya like it! The pages are even updated to reflect more current info & happenings.
It’s also been 2 years since I started this little blogging journey, and I have to say it’s really turning out to be a fun experience that’s evolving & growing all on it’s own. Last year’s anniversary post can be found here, and my very 1st post can be found here 🙂
With that, it was AWESOME to see that I had celebrated my 100th blog post with last week’s post! WOW!! — that’s a lot of sharing 🙂
I’ve got a lot more to share with you, so I hope you….
Last week started off as any other week, but quickly went south for me, as I spent a majority of it feeling pretty crappy. I came down with a bug and it threw us all off. So thankful to Daddy for picking up the extra slack while I was down. Me and the fur baby bonded a lot ….as you can see below ❤
During the week, my heart melted for a minute when the little dude took Timber on a walk solo for the 1st time (in our cul-de-sac) ….he was SO proud of himself. I was, too, & I was proud of Timber for letting his “little” bro take the reigns 🙂 — really was a special moment for these two!
By Friday, I was starting to feel half-way normal, so we wanted to kick-off our weekend. Let me begin, by first sharing with you this completely appropriate article I came across for Memorial Day that was posted on The Washington Post & written by a veteran. You can find it here. While many of us (our little fam included) often refer to this weekend as the unofficial start of summer, or a reason to have a cookout — it’s really NOT why we have this holiday. I want to ensure our little one knows about that as we bring him up & we take pause to not forget.
We all had the day off of work & school on Friday, so Liam excitedly said we were on vacation throughout the long weekend….I was good with that. To get some fresh air for us all, we decided to go out to the beach for a walk. He had been asking for weeks (literally) to go, and since I wasn’t up to a full day in the sand, just yet —- this was the next best thing. The ocean breeze was beautiful, and the water was cool.
tiny footprints in the sand ❤ …..
On Sunday, we went to Disney!! ….more about that a little later 🙂
We enjoyed Memorial Day on Monday with good friends. Barbeque and poolside — couldn’t ask for a better afternoon & end to our long weekend.
These two above had so much fun pouring cups of water from the pool on each other & their dads — just the little things, ya know? 😉
As usual, I am a bit behind with my post but luckily, not as late as I was at this time last year 🙂
April just ends up being a busy month for us. Lots happening — Liam got a new room, we just finished up his swim refresher lessons, me & Stephen’s anniversary, and all the other fun day-to-day business that keeps this family afloat. I will definitely be sharing some of this with you soon!
We knew Liam would be doing a few Easter Egg hunts throughout the Easter week, so on Easter weekend, we decided to do something a little different & headed out to the City of Oviedo’s Annual Marshmallow Drop.
It was pretty cool. Liam got to see a helicopter drop an enormous amount of marshmallows on the field & we ran out to gather them up in his basket. He just made the 3 & under age group, so that was fun. The event separated the kids by age, so there were several “drops”. The kids then got to exchange their marshmallows for candy. Cute!
The Easter Bunny came while little dude was asleep….I’ve mentioned before that Liam does NOT like characters in costume (e.g, the Easter Bunny). We had told him he was coming while he would be sleeping to leave him a basket of goodies. Well, normally, he would come out of his room as soon as he woke up…not Easter morning. We had to go in & get him — he wasn’t scared but he definitely asked us to make sure the bunny was gone 😉
Most of his basket came from the Target dollar spot (so dangerous but I LOVE it!!) …he was super excited to see Baymax in the mix and the new Tinkerbell movie!
After he had some time to explore the findings in his basket, we headed out front in our pj’s to discover that EB had left many eggs hidden all over the yard 🙂
Later that morning, we enjoyed lunch with several of our friends. Yes, I took a pic of the dessert — it was only fitting….haha!
There was an egg hunt for the kiddos after we ate. Serious business, peeps! Some of those eggs were really hidden. So funny! The girls did a great job putting it together for them.
Liam was thrilled to have his buddies, Allie & James, to play with. Here they are after the hunt exchanging their finding from the hunt 😉
There was even a pinata! Look at the swing on this kid! I think T-ball is in his future 🙂
We really enjoyed our Easter weekend and had a great time with great people!
Casa de Murphy 