One Time Around

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Liam is 5!!

Raise your hand if you're FIVE!! (and raise two of you're excited about it!)

Liam at 5 is energetic, persistent, determined, loving, enthusiastic, outgoing and brave. He is truly our puppy dog! (Try watching a movie or reading a book with him, and you will see exactly what I mean by this.)

His loves of the moment include:

Riley and Spotter, his faithful friends (of the stuffed variety)
Scooby Doo and Paw Patrol
Superheros, especially Batman and Cosmic Ray
T-Ball: Go River Cats!
Playing basketball with Dad and our neighbor Louie
Riding his bike
Popcorn, breakfast (but not popcorn for breakfast, although I'm sure he would if we let him!) and spinach- thank you, Popeye!
Having his back scratched ("Mom. Scratch back and tell story.")
Playing heroes, walkie-talkies, race, chase, sports, and trucks with his trusty sidekick, Joergen.
Justice, fairness, and tattling
School, both real and pretend. He especially loves to be "assigned" homework and given projects.
Reading-- he is doing great with sight words and is always trying to spell and figure out new words on his own. He is really into being read chapter books, like Scooby Doo mysteries and has even started his first Harry Potter!
Sharing BIG NEWS. "Mom! Mom! Big News! Such and such and Do You Know What?! And such and such and Then Do You Know What?! And so on and so forth and Do You Know What??! And eventually, you get to the "big news". Eventually. And it's usually something along the lines of, "Declan is now walking" or "Emily is going ice skating."
Disney's Frozen. But really, what kid isn't into this right now?!
Wearing a shirt, tie, and blazer to church, just like his Dad.

And on his list of dislikes:

Mushrooms, zucchini, and cornbread (are we even related?!)
Taking "no" for an answer in the absence of extensive, logical rationale.
Going to bed. So, nothing new there.

And, well, that's about it!

On the allergy front, Liam is doing amazingly well. Looking at his skin, you would never have guessed we'd had such a terrible and seemingly never-ending winter. I don't think he's had a single eczema outbreak all season! We've also been adding new foods to his diet we previously thought were off-limits: butter, Greek yogurt, and more and more cheeses. It's given us such hope.

Liam's 5th birthday fell on sunny, warm Saturday - one of the very, very few sunny and warm days we've had since last fall! After coming home from swimming lessons in the morning, he got to open his birthday gifts from us and from his Illinois family before getting ready for his party in the afternoon.

First up, his gift from us:

A fort-building kit! He couldn't wait to get started on his first Batcave.

He then got to Face Time with Grandma and Papa while he opened up their big box of birthday fun! He is so excited to make his first project with his woodworking kits, and looks like such a big kid in his new Milford Bearcats hats.

Next, it was time to make Liam's cake. Good thing I have these two helpers to lick up every last bit of the batter, whether on beaters or thumbs:

And then- PARTY TIME!!

Always looking for an opportunity to wear his Batman costume, Liam wanted to have a superhero party. He was allowed to invite 5 friends and asked everyone to come in costume. It was an awesome convention of all sorts of heroes!

Joseph, Chase, Liam, Kaelyn, and Emily. Not pictured is Joergen (Robin) and Lucas (Spider-Man)

Liam was just beaming that his two besties were able to be there to celebrate with him. He sees Emmy almost every day, but hadn't seen Kaelyn in months. I loved watching their little reunion.

After all the kids had some time to play and run around, we played a Batman version of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Joergen wanted to play but did not want to be blindfolded. To each his own!

Liam started walking off in the wrong direction entirely, but good thing Batgirl was there to get him back on track!

After the game, I gathered all the superheroes outside for a very important mission. They were each given a can of Spiderweb Spray (silly string) and told that Liam's dad was actually a bad guy in disguise. The only way to defeat him was to work as a team to capture him in a web. The kids had an absolute blast, the parents (myself included) got a good laugh, and Dad was such a good sport!!

Spider-Man Lucas, armed and ready!

After all that excitement and running around, and once the "bad guy" was captured and returned to his normal identity, it was time for cake.

Make a wish!

And then: presents!

Chase and Liam checking out his new Hot Wheels

Liam hugging Emmy for her gift- a giant 30-inch Batman!

Liam's gift from Nana and Grandpa was this very cool voice-changer/karaoke machine, which made its way around the party like wildfire. Everyone was excited to give it a try and see what their voice sounded like on auto-tune! Hilarious!!

It was an awesome day for our awesome little superhero. We love you, Liam. Happy 5th Birthday!!

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

GG's 90th Birthday

On yet another snowy Saturday, we celebrated a special milestone birthday...

... with one very special lady!

GG's birthday party was at the Out Door Country Club in York, and despite the weather, it was absolutely beautiful. Although the party itself wasn't a surprise, many of the guests and other aspects of the day certainly were - and her face when she walked into the room was just priceless!

People traveled from far and wide to be there to celebrate, including Aunt Erin from France...

... and cousins Melissa, Anya, and Brian from Oregon.

The weather had us nervous, but somehow they all arrived safely and in plenty of time to party! It was such a fun family reunion, and I could think of no better reason to gather us all together.

GG and Grandpa

Uncle Jim and GG

GG and her boys

GG with all of her grandchildren: Shannon, Brian, Melissa, Tim, Jen, and Erin

To help keep the youngest generation entertained, Nana and I set up a little craft table off to the side of the room (thank you Cathleen for the fantastic idea!!). The kids were all so cute making cards and Valentines for GG!

Gilbey, Aunt Ellen, Anya, and Liam

Colin and Joergen

And then there was this little one! Genevieve charmed everyone in the room with her happy and adorable smile.

When it was time for lunch, Uncle Jim offered a blessing:

Followed by a toast from Grandpa:

And the "Happy Birthday Song" led by none other than this guy!

(I think she liked it :))

After lunch, we surprised GG with a slide show of photos and memories from the last 90 years. Even though I must have seen it a hundred times prior, it still gave me "happy tears" (as Liam calls them) to watch. Everyone had contributed so many fantastic photos from over the years (not to mention the ones I'd pilfered from Grandma's own photo albums), and it made me feel so fortunate to be part of this amazing woman's life.

After the slide show, it was cake time!

Make a wish!

As a side note, the ODCC has a seriously fantastic pastry chef. That cake was awesome.

We rounded out the party with some photos with the guest-of-honor:

Sisters! GG and Aunt Jayne

Grandpa, GG, and Nana

GG and her children

Happy, happy birthday, Grandma. Here's to many more celebrations to come! xoxoxo

Monday, February 17, 2014

Let It 'No

Do you want to build a snowman?!

(Disney's timing for Frozen was impeccable!)

After a couple of relatively disappointing (for kids, anyway) winters in terms of snow, this winter has more than made up for it. Even though we haven't had a snowfall of more than 10" or so, we have had almost a dozen snowfalls that required shoveling so far... not to mention freezing rain, high winds, a nasty ice storm, and yes, a polar vortex. We seem to get hit with some kind of wintery precipitation every few days or so, giving us little time to recover - and plenty of time to complain! And did I mention that it's been COLD?!

The local meteorologists have struggled to accurately predict much of our weather this winter (well, it had been quite a while since they had any interesting winter weather to predict I suppose), and after getting barely a dusting of snow during the predicted "major storm", followed by several inches of totally unexpected snow just a few days later, Liam astutely observed,

"You know, Mom, sometimes I just think the weather people should just look out the window."

Preach.

At least our new house came with one of these babies in the garage!

Villanova has had an unprecedented number of snow days this winter, giving me lots (and lots) of time at home with the boys. What to do with all this time off? We've worked hard to stay occupied, which is not always an easy task given the icy conditions and frequent sub-zero temperatures. Whenever we could, though, we went outside. We built snowmen...