Liam's 7th Birthday

The celebration for Liam's 7th birthday began on GG's birthday weekend with a family party at Bogey Macaw's in York. How cool to be able to celebrate with our York family, our NJ family, Aunt Ellen, Uncle Jim, and fellow birthday buddy Joanne!

Buddies Joergen and Colin

Uncle Jim, Aunt Ellen, Nana and GeeGee

Aunt Jayne, Joanne, Mom, Genevieve and Liam

GeeGee, Dad, Grandpa, and Aunt Jayne

An R/C helicopter from Uncle Tim, Aunt Jackie, Colin and Genevieve. Can you tell how excited he was?!

"Thank you Colin!!!"

"Do you think Liam will let us borrow it?"

"Happy Birthday, dear Liam, Happy Birthday to you!"

Making a wish!

A very special start to 7, that's for sure!

The celebration continued on Liam's actual birthday, which fell on a Monday this year. He loved all the birthday phone calls he received that day from his family near and far.

Sporting his new rain boots while FaceTiming with Grandma and Papa

Wearing his gift from Grandma and Papa (roller skates!) while holding his gift from us-- Star Wars Legos

Loving his sweet new bathrobe from Aunt Erin and Uncle Thomas! Thanks guys!

That night happened to be our sign-up night for softball at Screwballs, so we moved the party there so Liam could celebrate with our team.

Theresa, Liam, and Aunt Doreen

What's a party without cake?! I just had to revive that baseball cake design from his 3rd birthday for the occasion.

Making his wish on lucky #7

Love that sweet smile!

That cake was big enough to serve everyone, including our server and some random guys at the bar!

The next day, the party continued with an awesome gift in the mail from Uncle Jake and Aunt Surabhi-- drones!! These faces say it all.

Happy birthday dear Liam. Where have these 7 years gone?!

Mother-Son Date Night

On Friday night, Candlebrook Elementary hosted its first "Mother and Son Night of Fun" in the gym. When the flyer came home a couple of weeks ago, Liam very seriously asked me if I would go on a date with him to this very special event. Be still my heart!  When I got home from work that evening, he urged me to go put on something "fancy" while he himself got ready. He came out of his room a few minutes later wearing a button-down, a tie, and a fedora. Was not expecting that! It was so sweet!

A big group of us moms of first grade boys had all decided to meet up beforehand for dinner at Little Sicily in Bridgeport, which was a total blast and perhaps the craziest dining experience I've ever had! There were 15 moms all sitting at one long table, while 15+ first-grader boys "sat" at another one. They were quite literally bouncing off the walls and having the time of their lives. And every one of those boys was in a dress shirt, tie, and a hat! It was so cute to see how they'd clearly cooked up these plans.

By the time we got to the school, I am pretty sure Liam had expected the evening to be an elegant prom-esque evening of dancing with his momma, so imagine his surprise when he walked into a gym lined with moms talking to each other, with 75 little boys aged 5 - 9, yelling, laughing, running, and knocking each other down, with pop music blaring through giant speakers.  Liam turned to me and said, "Why are people acting crazy?! This is supposed to be a special date night with our moms!" He then asked me if I would please dance with him (melt!) and led me onto the dance floor. We didn't care that we were the only mother-son duo actually dancing-- we were having the time of our lives.

We later hit up the photo booth :)

Before the evening ended, the principal, Mr. Sparano, called all the little boys to come out in the hallway with him for a little surprise. Much to our surprise, each of those little boys came proudly walking back into the gym with a beautiful rose to give to their moms. Liam was so sweet and sincere in presenting me with his rose, and I knew this was an evening I would never forgot!

GG's 92nd Birthday

We gathered some party animals at Normandie Ridge to celebrate GG turning 92 years young!

Joergen and Colin

Uncle Jim and Grandpa

Liam and Genevieve

Anthony, Aunt Jayne, Trev and Janie with the birthday girl herself!

GG, Nana and Grandpa

Janie, Trev, Aunt Ellen, and Uncle Jim

Sisters- Aunt Jayne and GG

It was great having so many family members from near and far there to celebrate GG's special day, and truly, nothing makes GG happier than being with her great-grandchildren.

The party was complete with games:

Flowers:

Presents:

And of course, cake!

Make a wish, GG!

GG had no shortage of help when it came to opening her gifts :)

And especially loved getting to "see" her West Coast great-grands!

Happy birthday, GG!!

Snowzilla!

On Thursday at preschool, Joergen's name was drawn to host "George" for the weekend and journal about his adventures with our family. Little did we know, George was about to get snowed in and extend his stay for an entire week of winter fun!

The blizzard was forecasted to begin on Friday night. Liam was supposed to go to a birthday party for two of his classmates at an indoor swimming pool that evening, but the venue closed in anticipation of the blizzard. On to Plan B-- Chuck E Cheese! What better place to wait out the last couple of hours before a major snow storm? So the four of us put on our boots, grabbed George, and off we went.

As the party was wrapping up, the white stuff began to fall. By the time we got to our car, there was already a half an inch coating our car and the roads. 

The next morning, I knew it had been a busy night for Mother Nature!

Liam and Joergen (and George) couldn't wait to go outside and play.

I had to laugh when I opened the garage door!

Dad starting in on round 1 of snow removal. The snow continued to fall, and he had to repeat this process a few more times!

My view of Liam from the kitchen window, where I enjoyed a second cup of coffee from the warm indoors :)

Joergen and Liam making their way through the front yard (!)

When we weren't outside playing, plowing, or shoveling, we (well, Dad) tackled a redo of our kitchen pantry. It had originally been a coat closet with a couple of shelves, which we had always used for pantry items anyway. I couldn't wait to get this space organized!  Good thing George was there to help, too ;)

Ta-daa!

The next morning: back to snow removal!

Our snowfall totaled about 30", but the strong winds made the drifts even more impressive. We couldn't believe the view from the sun porch!

My view from the living room as the boys attempted to shovel out the deck:

Dad continuing the dig-out effort:

Buried!

One of the best parts of living next to a dead end is the awesome wall of snow created by the snowplows after a big storm. This one was amazing! The picture doesn't do it justice, but you can see the No Parking sign just peeking out of the top left below:

Kings of the mountain!

It didn't take long for every kid (and most adults) in the neighborhood to hit the hills at the township building behind our house. Liam, Joergen, and Will had a blast sledding!  I took the boys back to the hill the next day, too-- I think it was the first time I'd gone sledding in 20 years and I had as much fun - if not more so - than the kids! Everything hurt afterwards, including my sides from laughing so hard.

Walking back from the library one night, I was struck by this eerily pretty sight: the light at the end of our driveway, still glowing while buried under 2 feet of snow!