Holidays – Page 6 – Casa de Murphy

Our Easter EGG-Stravaganza!

May 7, 2014 casademurphy

Believe it, or not, I started this post about 3 weeks ago. It was definitely not my intention to be just sharing about our super fun Easter holiday almost a month after the fact, but it’s been crazy times around Casa de Murphy, peeps. Both Stephen & I have been working hard & on the weekends, swim lessons are still in full swing, and life has been charging on 🙂

Liam got to participate in his 1st real Easter Egg Hunt with our Meet Up Group of friends, the Sunshine Babies. This is a super fun group of parents and we really enjoy spending time with them! He had a blast!

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The park we went to was in Baldwin Park. Really great space & this fountain was beautiful. Of course, little man was hamming it up for the camera.

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Special buddies since they were babies…so cute!…Kenadie & Liam

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Family pic!

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The Easter Bunny came!! …all of Liam’s current favs…Thomas the Train, Toy Story & Tinkerbell.

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The Easter Bunny hid some eggs in the yard for Liam. He also planted lolly pops in the ivy…WOW! 🙂

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A couple of eggs had treats for Timber in them. The boys were sharing them directly after coming inside. HA!

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We had dinner with Grammy & Papa Rock on Easter. It was also great to spend time with my Grampy (Liam’s Great Grampy). The Easter Bunny got a tad bit carried away with his delivery here…lol.

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Liam was SUPER excited (hence this expression below on his face) to see that he got an Olaf from Frozen. We are loving that movie in our house right now.

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He had also been asking us EVERY day (really, NOT joking about this) for a vacuum. He had one that was a hand-me-down from one of our friend’s & it recently broke. This kid loved to use that vacuum around the house and was pretty upset about it. So, every day, he had been telling me he needed a new vacuum, and he wanted one like our Dyson vacuum. Well, unbelievably, they actually make a toy version of our Dyson Animal that we’ve had for years. It was love at 1st sight 🙂

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The afternoon would not have been complete without another egg hunt, right?!?!

Such a sweet picture between Liam & his Great Grampy!

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And, if this little dude is not spoiled enough…..

He got ANOTHER Easter basket from his Mimi & Papa D. He loved his Mickey cup, puppy & the baking set for his kitchen.

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It was really exciting for us to see Liam get into the Easter holiday this year. He enjoyed all the decorations and the eggs (and, most surprising for me…the CANDY…lol). I guess it’s another sign of the times….our baby is getting bigger…growing up some more!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday, as well!

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Until next time……….

December 2013, Latest & Greatest News

Visions of Sugar Plums

December 11, 2013 casademurphy

Here comes Santa Claus, Here Comes Santa Claus….yes, friends, last week we tackled a visit with the big man, himself. I have to admit that we were skeptical going into it as to whether or not we would find success, as last year was NOT a winner {there is no pic …MANY tears were shed}. Also, thinking back to his 1st Christmas in 2011, I wasn’t sure we could top that Santa pic ~ it was epic by my mommy standards & totes adorbs!! Here’s a look back on that one before I get to this year’s:

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Back to this year’s adventure, we decided to go after work on Wednesday. My original plan was to see Santa at Millenia, but time is precious & since we’ve had luck with Oviedo in the past, we decided to give it another whirl there. Amazingly, no one else was in line when we arrived. Liam was in great spirits UNTIL we got up to Santa. Then, it was not fun & games. We didn’t want to be “those parents” who force a crying kid pic. HA! The photographer was super nice and since no other family happened to be waiting, she was able to work with us for a short time to get Liam comfortable to sit next to Santa. I want to note {in the most hilarious way} that Santa was NOT allowed to touch Liam. Snoopy even had to act as a safety barrier. Notice in these pics below that no part of Santa is touching Mr. Liam. LOL! We tried a few different poses but Liam caught on every time. Overall, I would say we had pretty good success and these came out really cute. Such the little man!

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ok, Santa, you can read me a quick story….

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impromptu family shot….

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Next up, we had the super fun, 4th Annual — Bengel Gingerbread House Decorating Party!!

The 1st year I was just newly pregnant and I honestly don’t even think I realized it at that point. 2nd year, Liam was just a few months old and we were just there to have a good time 🙂 …3rd year / last year, we decorated a house together but he had no idea what was happening. So, this year I was a little more excited to do it. I knew he still wouldn’t fully grasp the concept but could still have fun with it.

I have to say I was surprised that as Stephen & I began showing Liam how to decorate the house, and choose the candy that he wanted to put on it, he began TO.EAT.THE.CANDY — our child does not really like candy OR chocolate, so you can imagine our surprise when he began shoveling the M&M’s in his little mouth. HaHa! What a kid!

Let me also mention that little man had spied the Bengel’s super cool Polar Express Electric Choo-Choo Train that circles their Christmas tree when we walked into their house. Sooo, the whole time we did the gingerbread house, we kept hearing, “i wanna play choo-choo” …hahaha. Niiiice!!

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train-tastic!! Now THIS is where Liam spent a LOT of time after we finished his house. While the adults chatted in the kitchen, we just kept hearing the whirling of the train going around the track 🙂

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Both sides of the Murphy’s finished house!!

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Buuut….let us not forget…

After all the kiddos where done with their houses and playing in the house, I went back out on the patio and this is what we found:

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Stephen & Lisa were decorating the leftover {pink} house and let me just tell you…it was INTENSE. Here’s what they came up with:

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These two are already planning next year’s masterpiece….sad or exciting? not sure yet …LOL

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Always fun times with these crazy friends!! Love ’em

Latest & Greatest News, September 2013

Adios September!!

October 1, 2013 casademurphy

the days are long but the years are short. make the most of it. -author unknown

I saw this quote posted today & loved it. While I think our days sometimes seem to also fly by, we definitely aim to savor each & every second together.

Well, September has packed it’s bags, huh? Gotta say that I’m kinda excited about that. This means that fall is officially here & the holiday season is upon us. I LOVE IT!! The decorations, gatherings, outings, smells, food….all of it equals fabulous fun in my book! And, the fact that Liam can understand it way more this year & get into the festiveness is an added plus!

This past weekend Liam & I headed down to spend some time with Grammy & Papa Rock. It was Grammy’s birthday last week so Liam was excited to spend some special time with her & give her the card he signed himself 🙂 ….he had so much fun playing there that he couldn’t hang with me on the drive home.

On Saturday afternoon, though, I do have to mention that we did have a MONUMENTAL moment…….LIAM.ATE.CHOCOLATE

For anyone who is not familiar, Liam has refused anything with chocolate even in it since we started him on solids. We’ve kinda always jokingly wondered if he was really our kid because he’s had such a strong aversion to it. However, this weekend he asked for one of my M&M’s and I gave him one…fully expecting him to make a face & spit it out. NOPE…he ate it….happily AND asked for more…and more! A new day has dawned in Casa de Murphy, my friends….

When we got home on Saturday afternoon, Daddy surprised us with a kitchen re-do for Liam’s kitchen. This look below is now stage 2 for the Little Tikes Cook-N-Grow Kitchen. Little man had to immediately check things out. Daddy even got a cool new crate to house all his play food. So cool! I want to make a few more tweaks to this new set up, so stay tuned. I’m consulting my friend, Pinterest 😉 HA!

Sunday = cleaning + bringing out the Halloween decorations! Hooray! We found this awesome Mickey Mouse Halloween t-shirt for Liam at Target. He was in love with it. If you’re wondering….yes, we already have his Halloween costume and yes, it is A-MAZING!! Keeping it under wraps for now, but I will tell you that I got the MOST incredible deal for it & got the ONE costume I wanted but didn’t think I was gonna get….More about that later.

A loooong time ago….literally months….we bought this Little People’s Pumpkin Patch Farm on clearance & put it away. Almost forgot about it 🙂 ….Thank you, Daddy, for remembering it was up in the closet! While it’s hard to tell in the pic, all the farm animals have little Halloween masks on. Liam played with this while I was getting ready to put up the decorations.

Oh man, do I ever love hearing that little voice running around the house saying, “punkin”….so cute!! He is loving all that we’ve put up to celebrate what’s coming in October. We’re hoping to have some fun filled weekends ahead, as well. How about you?

September 2013

Labor Day Weekend 2013

September 4, 2013 casademurphy

So summer is technically over, right? Labor Day Weekend 2013 ushered it away with a bang…or a barbeque…or a dip in the pool….bring on fall, peeps!! Of course, in our neck of the woods, it’s still hot as you know what …definitely does NOT feel like fall yet…but we can pretend for now 🙂

Last week, on pretty much on unplanned whim (but those seem to be the best sometimes), we signed Liam up for his very 1st lessons of ANY kind. Yes, I know …what can a 2 year old really do ….I asked myself this same question. He’s doing Playball. It’s a program that’s designed to teach fitness & movement while also teaching the basics of sports, such as baseball, basketball, & soccer. He will get one lesson a week, and it will be taught to his age group. Best of all, it’s during the day AND at his school so super convenient for us. His teacher/coach gave rave reviews from his 1st lesson last week. She said he listened well & participated. She was also amazed at how well he, at 2 yrs old, understood the concepts of the sports they covered that day. Got to give credit to Daddy for that one! We’re gonna try it for this month and see how he does & likes it. Here’s a pic of the T-shirt he wears on the days he has his lesson each week:

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We kicked off our holiday weekend with a cookout & swim at our friend’s. I actually wasn’t feeling too hot that day, so it was a Daddy & Liam afternoon…I was sad to miss out on the fun. Especially, seeing Liam’s 1st trip down this big old-school water slide. Happy someone took pics that I could share & freak out over…part of me was glad I wasn’t there…not so sure I would have let him go down it….hahaha! Daddy said he was a trooper and asked to do it again after the 1st time down. Figures! No.Fear.Ever.

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Sunday, we took up trip to Amaya Papaya to celebrate one of Liam’s fav buddies from school’s birthday. We had a great time playing around there and enjoying the afternoon.

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We closed our fun weekend out on Monday with another cookout at Mimi’s & some swimming (Liam’s favorite this summer). While in the pool on Monday, he figured out, on his own, how to swing his legs in front of him & float onto his back. Hilarious…he was loving it!! I was impressed that he managed to do that even with the swim float on.

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As always, the weekend seemed to go way too fast! We’re definitely looking forward to the fall season, the upcoming holidays, and the fun things associated with them. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times…Liam is our world & every age is more fun than the last…so we are definitely looking forward to these next few months with him. We may not always admit it, but I think it kind of makes us feel like kids again 🙂

Until next time, friends…..