August 2015, Latest & Greatest News

A Splashing Good Time

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 🙂

Bday Party Invite

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!

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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.

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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!

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How awesome was this park? The kids {and adults} thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

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Cute mushroom!

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Liam & his cousin, Sierra ❤

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The orange slides were a definite hit with all the kiddos.

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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.

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Again….couldn’t get all to cooperate, but still so cute 🙂

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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!

Goodie Bag

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!!! 🙂

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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 ❤

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Until next time, friends!

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July 2015, Latest & Greatest News

Liam’s Big Boy Room Makeover

There have been some exciting updates that have happened around the house here in Casa de Murphy this summer! One of the most exciting that I want to share with you today is that we upgraded Mr. Liam’s room from his nursery decor to a full-on big boy room.

With the exception of converting his crib to a toddler bed back in June 2013, his room has been the same  Disney Lion King theme since we 1st were getting ready for his arrival. I have to tell you that I had mixed emotions for this experience — sad to see the last of his baby things go out of his room but yet excited to watch & help him pick out his own furnishings.

Here’s a peak at what his room looked like before we began the update…….

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Since Stephen & I had obviously picked the Lion King theme, we let Liam pick out what he wanted for his new room. Without hesitation, he wanted an Avengers  / Super Heroes room. He also helped Stephen pick out the new colors for his walls:

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He was a great helper, as well, with the paint 😉

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Liam’s room is much smaller that we originally thought while 1st shopping for new beds. The placement of the door, window & closet also proved to make things a bit challenging. There were several beds we chose that ended up being too big or awkward of a fit when we measured to fit. We knew that we didn’t want to go through re-doing his room all over anytime soon, so we wanted a good, solid bed that would last awhile. We decided to go with bunk beds & opted for a twin over full. This particular one is a definite space-saver, as the left-hand side also have a set of SIX FULL drawers and FOUR cubbies to store toys, books, etc.! No need to buy an extra dresser for us. LOVE IT!

If you’re in need of kids furniture & you’re in Florida, we highly recommend Kids Furniture Warehouse — great quality & awesome prices!

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As soon as Liam declared he wanted the Avengers for his room, I started scouting online for bargain deals and of course, cute bedding. I found this set on 50% clearance with JCPenney!! What an awesome deal!! 🙂

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The window valance I found at Bed Bath & Beyond

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Grammy & Papa Rock gave us these awesome pictures above of Hulk & Captain America (hung above the top bunk), as well as a signed poster from the Incredible Hulk movie 🙂 …all GREAT additions to the room!! Best of all, it was re-purposing items they already had. Gotta love that!

The bookshelf is from Target, but was in his room previously …we just kept & reused it.

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Stephen found these art deco posters at Target and we framed them. I really love how the Marvel & DC one turned out on the blue wall.

The striped bin, lamp & end table were also Target finds! I used the bin to store some of his stuffed animals that were previously ALL over the floor (we condensed down). Other stuffed animals were tossed up on the top bunk. The end table looks like a locker and is dark blue (I love it!) ….The drawer is perfect for holding super hero figures 😉

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I’ve seen many people post about these 3D wall art nightlights. We got one for Liam’s Avenger’s room. Target carries quite a few different variety’s, so little man got to pick out which one he wanted. Despite the Hulk being his fav, he actually chose the Iron Man hand. It really does look cool!!

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My “big” project for the room was painting letters for his name and adding Mod Podge to comic book pages to put on the letters. I picked up the letters at Target (can you tell yet I LOVE me some Target 😉 ) and some red craft paint — all of it came from their new DIY section …if you’re crafty or even a wanna-a-be, like me, it’s a pretty cool section.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with how the letters turned out!

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Liam’s room makeover was a lot of work (mostly for Daddy who did a FAB job), but it was SO MUCH FUN! The best part is that Liam is totally in love with it — total win!!

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Until next time, friends!

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