Liam's 4th Birthday

He's been counting down to this day for the last 3 months while I've been over here trying to convince him to stay little forever. ;) Despite my every effort, it looks like he's winning. Our not so little guy turned FOUR on October 20th! We had the best time celebrating him all day long!!

He woke up to a trail of balloons leading him down the stairs to a new bike from his Papa and Grandma Williamson! I think he was kind of shocked at first when we turned on the lights because it wasn't something he'd been asking for but was something he needed and we knew he'd love. He's had his Strider balance bike mastered for at least a year now and is a complete speed demon on that thing.  Given that he's never really experienced pedals before and he pays no attention where he is steering, trying to coordinate both those things along with balancing a bigger bike proved to be a bit of a challenge and a little intimidating for him so we did add the training wheels for now. He's been practicing almost every day since and doing great! The bell is his favorite part. ;)

Things got a bit disorganized during our move and I made the rookie mistake of "hiding" his present from us at the top of my closet unwrapped ... a couple days before his birthday he walked in there and found it. Face palm! I promptly wrapped it later that day but he already knew what was inside so it's all he talked about until the morning of his birthday. He couldn't quite wait until his party so after finding the bike he opened his Batman robot too. He had a blast shooting daddy with all the darts all morning long! 

He also opened his new stellosphere from Uncle Brendan ...

In preparation for his birthday we told Liam he could choose whatever he wanted for his meals that day knowing full well what his answer would be ... a banana with peanut butter ALL.DAY.LONG. So yes, that is what we fed him for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner. haha Some things never change. 

He wanted to invite his preschool class and cousins this year to his party so it was fun having lots of kids over in the afternoon. He had a super hero party which doubled as an extra opportunity to wear his Halloween costume! The kids decorated masks with markers, stickers, and stamps, trained to be Spider Man but shooting silly string at a spider web, and practiced punching a "piñata" box for candy. They all had the best time!!!

I love my little "lefty" coloring away ...

Liam already gets plenty of sugar in his life and we wanted to instill a habit of drinking lots of water from a young age so we rarely have any kind of juice around. I mixed up some apple/orange/banana crystal light for his party and the straw in his cup literally never left his mouth. haha

I love that his cousins came dressed up in their adorable superhero capes and masks!

See what I mean! haha ...

This was the most FUN piñata idea ever!

In their little party favor bags I gave them all flashlights with bat stickers on the end. They were testing them out on the kitchen wall to see "Batman's symbol"!

We served cake, chocolate covered pretzels, and a fruit platter in the shape of Captain America's shield ...

After games we sang 'Happy Birthday' and had cake. I feel like every year I learn something NOT to do for the next year with the candles. Poor Liam as my first and guienea pig child. The first time was when he turned 2 and I had a number 2 on his cake but only used one candle. This year I used a #4 sparkler candle that he couldn't actually blow out and make a wish. I'll learn one of these days ... I did however let him pick his cake this year from Walmart which was out of my creative heart's comfort zone but it was a Batman cake that came with a helicopter on the top and blue icing everywhere and he was in love with it. So you know what, I was in love with it too! Especially when I saw his face light up whenever he looked at it! 

The kids were hilarious during the present opening! Some kids shouting they wanted to open a present, some of them were climbing in the empty boxes and throwing the wrapping paper, some were running circles around everyone. A backyard full of 4 year old boys keep things energetic! haha

The rest of the day Liam was perfectly content playing with all of his new toys and eating a second piece of that birthday cake that died everyone's teeth and lips blue. Even ya ya's ;)

H A P P Y    4 T H   B I  R T H D A Y   L I A M   R E X !!!
We love you so much!

a field trip to the pumpkin patch

A couple weeks ago Liam had his first field trip at his new preschool! We went to the pumpkin patch! The best part about it was that it was also the day we closed on our new house/ move in day so Nic was able to take his first day off work and come with us!! It was so fun to see Liam interact with his teacher and it made me smile even more to see the friendships he has already made in his class. The moving transition hasn't always been the easiest on him so as a parent, this helped lift some of the weight.

The first thing we did was a hay ride. This was my view ...

Lyla girl snuggled up to her daddy with those chubby cheeks scrunching her lips together ... Nicholas, you are not helping convince me to not have another one! 

Our best family selfie of the day haha ...

The hay ride took us to a patch of small pumpkins where everyone got to choose one to take home. This is usually my favorite spot to take our time and get fun pictures but we didn't have long before the next tractor was pulling up so this was my attempt of a sibling picture. Love that it shows what a sweet big brother Liam is though!

The rest of the morning, she had the best ride in the whole place ...

Although it was mostly just to keep her corralled. If she had it her way, she'd be running everywhere she went. haha Those eyes kill me ...

After the hay ride and pumpkin patch, we walked over to another tractor ride. Each of the kids in Liam's class got to pick an animal car to ride in and then they were pulled around a field. His cute little wave ...

Can you spot Liam in that line up?!

This girl was highly entertained by the baby pumpkins everywhere, she loved them!

That picture on the left totally depicts her personality right now ... any time one of us carries her on our shoulders she thinks it is hilarious to latch onto our hair. haha And the picture of her on the right reminds me of a similar picture of Liam at her age trying to eat a pumpkin. Time can be such a thief. 

They had a fun corn filled "sand box" for the kids to play in. I completely forgot to check pockets before we left and found corn kernels in my car and washing machine for the next week. haha Oops!

This pumpkin patch seriously thought of everything ... they had games and mazes galore, even this giant blow up trampoline! So much fun!

Liam doesn't love crowds of kids on things like this so he just stayed sitting down for most of it and let the other kids bounce him around. haha Reminded me of that crack the egg game I used to play as a kid on the trampoline. 

She is such a wiggly little thing right now and would rather be doing her own thing but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get a picture with my girl ...

I was so thankful to have Nic along with us. I can't imagine juggling the two of them by myself the whole time and it gave me the perfect opportunity to spend more time with Liam. He rarely wants his picture taken these days so I always feel like I have a handful more of Lyla. Especially when you give her all the snacks. ;)

It felt like her first real trip to the pumpkin patch this year because she was only a few weeks old when we went last year! She was so tiny and slept in the baby carrier the whole time. Not this year! She was pointing at everything and trying to soak it all in ... 

One of the games they had were these giant barrel races. Liam and I totally dominated these two slow pokes. ;)

The pumpkin patch is one of my favorite traditions every fall and it was so fun to be able to do it on a filed trip!  

our new home

We did it! A week ago we moved into our new home!!! I feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders just saying that out loud. haha It has been long few months but definitely worth it. In the last week, life has been a crazy whirlwind of unpacking, to-do lists, and working our tails off from sun up to sun down. So many things to share ... what we've been up to, plans we have for each space in our new home, and the holiday season! But for now I'll leave you with this sneak peek ... 

Sorry for the grainy picture, I took it one evening when we did a walk through and the sun was about to go down. 

As always, thank you for stopping by and reading! Means so much! XO