Valentine’s Day – Casa de Murphy

February 2017

Valentine’s Week Wrap-Up

February 21, 2017 casademurphy

Our Valentine’s last week was everything BUT quiet 🙂

I started things out with putting up our usual few decorations around the house to spread some love & cheer. However, this year, I wanted to do something new & started THIS project I found on Pinterest. I put one heart up a day from Feb. 1st through Feb. 14th. for Liam. Each heart listed a positive attribute for him ❤ — he loved it & that made us happy! He said, “Thank you so much, Mommy!” after he saw the heart on the 1st day & gave me a great big hug! I hope to do this every year now.

For his class Valentine’s this year, we looked through a ton of designs, and he chose THIS astronaut valentine, and we thought it was super cool & fun! The free printable was found online, so I printed it out on card stock. I literally ordered a bucket of astronaut men from Amazon and then used neat, sparkly black washi tape to secure them. LOVE IT!

Since Valentine’s was falling during the week, we took advantage of the weekend before and had a date night. Bahama Breeze patio seating was perfect! 🙂 — Wee Man enjoyed a night hanging with his karate friends while we relaxed!

After church on Sunday, we had a family Valentine’s breakfast at Keke’s — YUM!!

Then, on Valentine’s eve — everything got turned upside down for the rest of the week 😦

I got a call at work that our sweet boy had fallen off of the slide at his aftercare program and hurt his arm. Not the best type of call you want to get, but you drop what you’re doing and go get your love.

After a visit to Urgent Care, it was determined that he had fractured his humerus bone in his left arm. They put a splint on it for the night.

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I didn’t even realize until looking through Facebook memories throughout the week that his burn on his little arm also happened during this week two years ago. Ugh…we need some good vibes on this week from now on.

The next morning, the doctor and staff got him all fixed up with a shiny, red cast {he picked the color…his fave} 🙂 — he’ll be wearing this baby for 3 weeks. The doctor said for this type of fracture, it is very common to need surgery, but he does not. We are VERY thankful and blessed for that news!! We are also hugely grateful for the care and compassion for everyone at Nemours Urgent Care and Pediatric Orthopedic Clinic — They have been just absolutely amazing during this difficulty time for our little family.

For the rest of the week, little dude insisted on sleeping on the couch. As long as he was comfortable and resting, we were ok with that ❤

His teacher and class were so sweet and collected all of his Valentines while he was out 🙂

While we had an adventurous week, we are very thankful that everyone is okay and that what is broken can be healed. Little man’s injury definitely could have been much worse. Being a parent will always keep ya on your toes. Kiddos are full of surprises and definitely don’t come with an instruction manual 🙂

Hugs,

February 2016, Latest & Greatest News

Our Happy Valentine’s {Recap}

February 19, 2016 casademurphy

Last weekend was such a fun-filled weekend for us. We hope you all had a lovely (total pun intended) Valentine’s Day, as well! ❤

Hop on over HERE for a look back on last year’s festivities, as well as previous year’s photos of this sweet day.

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Our fun began on Friday, as little man had his Valentine’s party at school. He was super excited for this. Party days always mean fun treats for all friends, and we were bringing special plates & napkins to share this time 🙂

I tried to get him to wear his Valentine’s shirt from the previous 2 years but he was NOT having it. When I showed him the shirt with the heart & the truck (see last year’s pics) and told him he would still fit into it….he said ‘No’ 😦 …this mama was sad. Not gonna lie. He basically said the shirt was for babies and his friends weren’t going to have shirts like that. Sooo, while I can still get him to humor me with the holiday shirts, I got him an updated, more ‘big boy’ shirt to wear this year 🙂

Vday 2016 1

We are big into coloring right now & all things crayon, so we made these super cool heart-shaped crayons to give out to his classmates for Valentines. I wrote about it over on Orlando Moms Blog 🙂 …Liam even did extra work this year and signed all his cards!

2016 Liam Class Valentines 1

Party time at school!

2016 Vday 2

My boys surprised me with flowers ❤ …Liam picked them out all by himself!

2016-02-12_Valentines 1

Checking out his valentines from his friends. We made a box for the 1st time this year that he had brought to school so he could have a place to put all the cards in. It was a lot of fun decorating it together….although, he did get distracted a bit in the process. HA!

2016 Vday 4

An awesome surprise arrived in the mail from his Pepe Murphy….a personalized Valentine’s book. LOVE IT! I always had wanted to make one of these for him. Such a cool idea.

2016 Vday 5

While Daddy worked on Saturday, we made cupcakes. Someone couldn’t wait to get his hands on them.

2016 Vday 6

Always being silly 🙂 ….even when I was trying to get a nice, smiling photo of the two of us to show off our finished products. I have to tell you that he chose to eat a cupcake with NO frosting. What?!?! …complete nonsense.

2016 Vday 7

This cutie was waiting for me Valentine’s morning. I love that Daddy helped him to work so hard to write everything out himself. Liam hand-picked the card, too. ❤

2016 Vday 8

We let him choose where he wanted to go for a family Valentine’s Day brunch after church….he chose Golden Corral because of the chocolate fountain (i’m totally not kidding….his words). Hahahaha!!! Gotta luv it! ❤

2016 Vday 9

Our weekend was filled with many smiles and a whole lotta love. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Hope yours was, too!

Until next time, friends!

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February 2016, Latest & Greatest News

Melted Crayon Hearts ~ Valentines Fun

February 12, 2016 casademurphy

Happy Friday…and, almost Valentine’s Day ❤

I’m over on Orlando Moms Blog sharing my most recent post with you and just in time for this special day of love. A perfect chance to have some fun with the littles. I hope you will check it out 🙂

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You can link to the full article HERE

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You can also check out a few fun Valentine’s projects I did with Liam last here and shared with OMB.

First up — Valentine’s LOVE Art Canvas

Love Art Canvas_OMB

Link to the full article HERE

We also had so much fun Growing Heart Lollipops

Heart Lollipops_OMB

Link to the full article HERE

We are looking forward to a fun-filled family weekend. Hope you have a Happy Valentine’s, as well!

Happy Reading!

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February 2015, Latest & Greatest News

Valentine’s Wrap-Up

February 17, 2015 casademurphy

Last week was a lot of fun in Casa de Murphy….naturally, there was a lot of EXTRA love floating around, as we celebrated Valentine’s Day ❤

Liam was super excited to have a party at school on Friday, as well as exchange Valentine’s with his friends. I had found two different Valentine’s that I thought he would like, but this is the one he picked:

I found this awesome FREE PDF to use for the Valentine card from Simply Modern Mom. I bought a 24-pk of bubble sticks from Target for $3.99 and found a fun roll of washi tape, also at Target to tape the sticks to the card. It was perfect!

I brought back last year’s fav bag toppers from Makoodle to use for our teacher’s gifts. This, again, is another awesome FREE PDF. I am so in love with Liam’s enthusiasm of the holidays this year! He was SO into walking around all the rooms and hand-delivering these bags….it was THE cutest!! ❤

For a look back on what we were up to last year for Valentine’s, check out our post here.

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I was so tickled when I found Liam’s Valentine’s shirt from last year in his closet and realized it would still fit him this year. Ya know it’s just these little things that make us mommy’s super happy, right?!?!

And, just for a little bit of loving nostalgia of this heart-filled holiday, here’s a look back on our other Valentine’s with little man:

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On Friday morning, before we headed out the door, I couldn’t help myself on the cuteness overload ❤ & snagged a quick pic {thanks, Daddy!}

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After school on Friday, Liam had a ball looking at all his little Valentine’s from his friends, and a few from his teacher, Ms. Tamie. I loved that he listened very carefully, as I told him who each Valentine was from 🙂

Valentine’s Day morning started out as a sweet one. We had a few gifts for Liam to open when he woke up. He has really been into the Duplo Legos, lately, so he got a new set, as well as pretty cool Hulk mug that we found at Target.

Stephen surprised me with this totally awesome black & white canvas painting of a picture of my two boys ❤ ….definitely an understatement to say that I am in love with it!

This was done by a local artist, Nikki Bentley. For info on prices or how to order, you can contact her at Bentleyspawprints@yahoo.com

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I am not going to post pictures or get into much detail, but since it happened & I am about sharing our “real” life here….I will tell you that ad mist this crazy love fest of Vday, we had an unfortunate accident later in morning on Saturday. My poor sweet baby splashed very hot water on his arm in the kitchen & got a 2nd degree burn 😦 …it was a scary incident but happy to report he is okay. We have a few weeks of healing ahead of us, but he is doing great. It was heart-breaking to see him in so much pain, though. I feel horrible that it happened and so many times wish I could re-do the whole situation, but I guess that’s why we call them “accidents”. Still hurts my heart.

The funny thing is that after we left the urgent care center, and we were on our way home….I was planning an afternoon of rest {well, at least, in my head}. I {honestly} felt like we were all emotionally spent by that point and it wasn’t even noon, yet! However, when everything happened, we had been preparing to leave to go to Sea World and Liam knew this. Sooo, he actually cried so hard in the car {again} when we told him that we didn’t think Sea World was going to happen, afterall. By that point, neither of us could watch him cry anymore, so we caved 🙂 ….and decided to just go for a few hours. He was all bandaged up, and it seemed to really lift his spirits and take his mind off of what had happened. So…. win! I took a few cute pics, as this was our 1st family trip there, and will share those later this week.

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We hope you all had a fantastic Valentine’s Day weekend! Until next time, friends!

February 2015, Latest & Greatest News

Valentine’s Fun for the Little Ones

February 3, 2015 casademurphy

Hi Friends! I’m sharing two super fun posts over on Orlando Mom’s Blog to get you & your little one’s ready for Valentine’s Day ❤

The 1st one is a LOVE Art Canvas Project that you can check out here.

The 2nd project is cute AND magical! Definitely sure to get some giggles 🙂 …It is Growing Heart Lollipops and you can check it out here.

We had SO MUCH FUN with both of these projects! 🙂

Until next time!!

February 2014, Latest & Greatest News

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2014 casademurphy

Happy Valentine’s Day!! Pardon the pun, but I really LOVE this holiday …I love the colors, love the hearts, love the warmth we feel, love the decorations, and LOVE making valentines. I have such fun memories from being a kid and making the shoe box to bring to school to fill with valentines from my friends. Now, I’m excited for Liam to experience that.

Here is my little valentine from this morning. All dressed up with a special shirt for his party at school today. So handsome!

2014-02-14_valentines

Thank you to Riley Reigh for this fab design especially for our little dude. You can check out her page on Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy. She also designed the shirt we had for him on his birthday, and I am sure this won’t be the last. LOVE IT!!

2014-02-14_vday shirt

Thanks to my obsession with Pinterest, I created this fun valentine for Liam to pass out to his friends at school today. I was inspired to do the cereal idea from a few different pins I came across, but ended up making my own template via Publisher. I found mustache washi tape at Jo-Ann’s and used that to affix the valentine notes to the mini cereal boxes that we bought at Publix. I hope the kids “cerealsly” like them as much as I enjoyed making them 🙂

2014-02_school valentines_collage

Then, I couldn’t stop….so, I found a FREE printable “hugs & kisses” tag here on the MAKOODLE website, so I modified it a bit and used the front half only. On the back side, I wrote a personalized note from Liam with heart shaped stickers I purchased at Target. I tied these tags to small treat bags filled with Hershey’s hugs & kisses chocolate candy’s. Perfect!

2014-02-14_teacher valentine collage

At drop off this morning, Liam’s teacher gave me this sweet card that he made for us. ALWAYS LOVE the hand-print projects…

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The elephant was an early Valentine’s present that we got from Mimi & Papa-D over the weekend. Clearly, he was a fan. Big hugs!

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My mom started the tradition of a few gifts on Valentine’s Day with my brother & me when we were small, so, of course, I am carrying it on…it only feels natural. Last year, he got a few books & his little oven mitt for his kitchen. This year, since Thomas is quickly growing in popularity, we thought it only fitting to go with that. So, these will be waiting for him when he gets home from school.

2014-02-14_vday gifts

And…..last, but CERTAINLY not least. The most wonderful surprise to my afternoon, so far. My better half made a surprise appearance at lunch time with this wonderful arrangement of flowers {they smell heavenly!}. We are usually always focusing all of our efforts on Liam most days, so this was a wonderful surprise and MUCH appreciated 🙂

2014-02-14_vday flowers

I know that showing love to family & friends is all year round …but ya got to admit, it’s extra special AND fun today. I think that’s why I like Valentine’s Day so much. Not because it’s the only day of the year to show your feelings but because it’s a FUN day!

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So, go out & have some FUN people….and LOVE!!

XOXO