The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

A Very Special Birthday!

Today is Maxwell’s great-grandmother Susu’s birthday!  It’s not just any birthday though, it’s her 90th!  Fantastic!  What a milestone!

Susu – we wish we could be with you in person today to give you a big hug, but know that we are thinking about you and sending you lots of love and wishes for a great day!  We’ll give you that big hug at Thanksgiving!

To make up for not being able to see you in person, here are some pictures taken especially for you!

Maxwell wanted to include the “pump-choos” in your birthday pictures…

and he worked hard to get them positioned juuuuust right….

He finally got them right where he wanted them…

But those pumpkins are heavy and it kind of wore him out!

and he just didn’t have much energy left for smiling…

But, don’t worry, he’ll be full of smiles for you when he sees you at Thanksgiving!

We love you, Susu!!  Happy Birthday!

 

Birthday recap

We’ve had some fun birthday celebrations around here the past several days.  It all started on Thursday with Robert’s birthday.  As I  mentioned, I made him a special from-scratch yellow cake with chocolate icing.  We’re trying to recreate his grandmother’s beloved recipe and, while I don’t think we quite did that, this one was pretty good!

The recipe came from Smitten Kitchen – a favorite of mine.  Yellow cake recipe here and frosting recipe here.

I was pretty proud of how it turned out!

The afternoon of Robert’s birthday, Maxwell acted as my sous chef and helped me get everything ready…

He also practiced blowing out unlit candles all afternoon.

We had everything ready when Robert got home – and were particularly festive thanks to a “Dada’s Juice” balloon from Susan!

We had a great little party for 3 and ate our favorite pizza.  Maxwell was doing great…until it came time to light the candles and sing Happy Birthday.  Just like on his birthday, he didn’t like the lit candles one bit and definitely didn’t want to blow them out the way he had been practicing all day!  These 3 pictures that I took while we were singing “Happy Birthday” might by my favorite ever…

ha!  poor guy!  Totally makes me think of Robert’s birthday 2 years ago…

After Robert blew out the candles (please look at Maxwell’s pitiful face!)…

Maxwell got over his fear of fire quickly and devoured some cake!

I think it was a great 36th for Robert!

and just some proof that I was there too!  🙂

On Friday night, Robert and I went out to dinner to Highlands Grill to celebrate our birthdays.  We hadn’t been there in years and it was delicious!  We should definitely go there more often!  (which I’m sure will be happening with a new baby coming in 2 weeks!  ha!).  And, just because I was pretty proud of myself, here’s a pic of me actually dressed up in heels (well, wedge heels!) at 38 weeks pregnant ready for a night out!

Too bad I didn’t get a picture of me and Robert together because he was looking sharp!

On Sunday we celebrated my 34th!  First, a BIG thank you to everyone that made it special!  I loved all the calls, emails, texts, Facebook posts, etc.  Birthdays sure do make a girl feel good!  Susan – the “cu-cake” was delicious and the scissors are so “me”!  I love them!

The day started off right with this post from my brother and sister-in-law.  Please check it out because it is awesome!!  They were at Disney recently and…well…let’s just say I felt the princess love!!  The day also brought some gloriously cool cool fall temps – I love having an October birthday!  We didn’t do anything special, but getting to spend the day with Robert and Maxwell made it the best birthday ever.

Robert and Maxwell gave me some rose gold star earrings – perfection!  And this awesome, pink vest came from Susu and Dodo!  I loooove it!

Maxwell liked it too!  🙂

I also got a great necklace from the Browns and lots of Starbucks cards from others. score!  You all clearly know me well because there is nothing I’d rather have!  thank you!  I think 34 is going to be a banner year.  How can it not when I get to get loved every day by Robert, Maxwell and this new little baby on the way?!

Here’s to a new year for me and Robert!!

birthday!

Today is my birthday!  whoo-hoo!  Welcome 34…I look forward to seeing what adventures you bring!

I’m off to eat some cake!  See you Monday!

Friday Funny and That Face

Who doesn’t love a good corny joke?  You know, the kind you get off of a Laffy Taffy wrapper?  Like….what kind of ears does a train have?  Engine-ears!  hahahahahahaha.

Here’s a list from The Pioneer Woman of some good corny jokes if you need a little chuckle this Friday.  Corny Jokes.

We had a great birthday celebration for Robert last night that included a baked-from-scratch cake with made-from-scratch frosting by moi.  Pat on my back!  The celebration continues with dinner at Highlands Grill tonight in honor of his birthday as well as mine.  Did you know my birthday is on Sunday?  Yep, 34!

Leaving you for the weekend with 2 pictures of my sweet baby’s face…I love that face.

In fact, I’m going to go kiss on that face right now.  Happy weekend!

 

Birthday!!!!

Maxwell, can you read what that sign says?

Let’s see…there’s a P and B and D and…

Momma, the library hasn’t yet taught me what the letters actual mean when they’re together. Help me.

Alright Maxwell, it says “Happy Birthday DaDa!” because TODAY is Dad’s birthday!!

It is?  Oh boy!  I’m going to hold this sign up all day until he gets home so it’s the first thing he sees when he walks in the door!

Yep, I’m just going to hold it up like this all day.

Momma, what time does Dad get home?  My arms are getting tired.

It’s ok bud, you can put the sign down.  We’ll be sure to show him these pictures so he can see it.  We could sing Happy Birthday to him…Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…

Oh Momma, let’s not do that.  You might be a better singer than Dad but…well, that makes me want to plug my ears.

No problem buddy.  What else could we do for Dad that he might like to see on his birthday?

Oh, I know!  Ready?

Roooolllll….

Tide!!

Great idea, Maxwell!  I know Dad will love that!

Happy Birthday Robert!  We love you SO much and can’t wait to celebrate with you tonight (cake!).  Thank you for ALL that you already do around here – and all the more you’re about to do when #2 arrives!

I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend my days and years with.  Thank you for your patience, your attention to detail on so many important things, your level-headedness and, most importantly, for being my best friend and making us the happiest little family in all the land!

Here’s to a GREAT 36th year!!!