The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

A birthday post!

Does everyone know what today is?  Oh yes, it’s GJ’s BIRTHDAY!!!!  Happy Birthday GJ (or DD as Maxwell has been calling her lately)!  No Aspen this year, but with all the traveling from FL to AL to AR you’ve been doing, something tells me you’re happy to just be at home today!

You’ve been carrying the weight of the world (well, at least the weight of most of our family!) on your shoulders and we want you to know how much we appreciate all that you do (really, really appreciate it!) and how much we LOVE you!  I simply don’t know what we would do without you.

As a little reminder of your birthday wishes in the past, check out 2010 and 2011.  For this year, Maxwell once again wanted to send you some happy birthday wishes…

 Hmmm, I can’t wait to give GJ a big hug for her birthday!

Unfortunately you don’t get to see her in person today, buddy.

Whaaaat?  That’s not a nice thing to say Momma.

I know buddy.  I wish we could see her too.  But, we’ll see her in just about 5 weeks when your baby brother is born.  Until then, let’s show her the great birthday sign.

Fine.  Here you go.

Oh, come on bud.  Let’s show GJ how much we love her and how excited we are that it’s her birthday!

Alright, Momma.  You’re right…how’s this?

Much better!  Now, how about a big smile?

You got it!  Cheese!

Oh boy, GJ’s gonna love that!  Can you give me an even bigger smile?

Anything for GJ!  Cheeeeeeeeeese!

Now that’s a big smile!  Ok, how about a cheer for her birthday?

Hip Hip Hooray!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Hooray for GJ indeed!!  Happy Birthday, GJ!  Hope it’s a GREAT day!

We love you!

A Year in Pictures

Happy Friday!  To round out the birthday posts (yes, I know his birthday was a week ago!), I wanted to put together a little (err…big) collage of my favorite photos from the past year.  Just a little photo walk down memory lane of the past year with Maxwell…

Clearly I have no ability to narrow things down!  I can’t help it – I just love to see how much he’s grown!  Which one is your favorite?

Have a great weekend!

 

School birthday!

To celebrate Maxwell’s birthday last week, I sent cookies up for his class to enjoy at lunch.  I just made sugar cookies (this recipe – the best ever) with yellow icing of course.  All morning, Maxwell was so excited about his “lallow ccckkkkies” and I kept having to explain to him that they were for school and not for breakfast.  Well, needless to say, he couldn’t wait to get to school!

As soon as he got to his classroom, he walked in and immediately sat down at the table ready for his cookie!

ha!  It was precious.  Beyond precious.  I had to break his little heart and tell him that cookies didn’t come until after lunch!  He was fine though and immediately started playing with some trains and said “Bye Bye Mama!”

His teacher then sent me some pictures that afternoon of the day…

It looks like he had a GREAT day and everyone enjoyed their “lallow cccckkkkies!”  He was very proud of his birthday crown when I picked him up!

Thank you Ms. Juli!  She also sent this AWESOME video of everyone singing Happy Birthday to Maxwell.  Wait until you see what he does at the end!  TWO!

Happy Birthday Maxwell

(if you can’t see the video, click here)

Maxwell is obsessed with this video and he’s probably watched it 75 times over the past few days!  I don’t mind, I can’t get enough of that cute little TWO at the end!

Happy Birthday buddy!  Here’s to many more fun school birthdays!

Happy Birthday Maxwell!!

TWO!!  How is my baby two years old already?!  What a fun two years it has been.

Maxwell has gone from this tiny, helpless baby…

To this chubby cheeked, dimpled, curly headed, giggling 1 year old baby boy….

To this funny, chatty, energetic, sweet and happy, running around everywhere toddler!

I love him so much and am constantly amazed that he’s mine.  I cannot wait to see what adventures we have together in the years to come!

Like last year on his birthday, I have one small request.  Would you leave a comment wishing Maxwell a happy birthday?

If you cheered him on for his first day of school…

If you got a little inspiration….

If you enjoyed our continued adventures to the park…

If you got a kick out of his yummy Halloween costume and our Halloween parade...

If you caught the whirlwind 24 hour trip to Disney part 1 and part 2...

If you like a good game of peek-a-boo…

If you liked seeing the house all decorated for Christmas…

If you read about his first haircut…

If you wanted my lovebug to be your Valentine…

If you felt sorry for his little broken leg…

If you got excited about our big news…

If you thought this bunny was scary looking (I did too!)…

If you liked any of the Friday Favorites like these awesome shirts…

If this made you want to say “all aboard!”…

If you just liked to see him smile for the camera…

If you liked seeing us make new friends and visit old friends…

If you sang along to The Itsy Bitsy Spider…

If you found these Travel Tips useful…

If my Olympic swimmer made you laugh (and, really, how could he not?!)…

If you liked seeing us try to be models in the fall or summer…

Or if you just love this sweet little boy smiling or not...

Won’t you leave a comment and tell him Happy Birthday?  You don’t have to say much – just “Happy Birthday!” or tell me your favorite post, picture or story. Or even just say hi!  Whatever strikes your fancy. I’d love for him to know all of the fantastic readers that have been following his adventures over the past year! A big thanks from me to you!

Now, I’m off to spend the day with my sweet TWO YEAR OLD!!

 

More 2nd Birthday Party!

Continuing on with the 2nd birthday party coverage…

After a yummy hat-wearing lunch Maxwell got to open all of his super fun presents!

His first stop were the two packages from Mrs. Susan and let’s just say they were a HIT!

She got him some Superman pj’s with a detachable cape!!  I think someone might have been a little jealous!  🙂

She also got him an AWESOME fire truck that lights up and makes fire truck noises.  Maxwell LOVED it and had to go get his fireman hat immediately!

He got lots of other sweet and wonderful gifts from everyone like new clothes, Dr. Seuss books, a VTech computer, a giant sticker book, new toys for the sandbox, DVDs and even a ride on bumble bee!  This little boy is fixed up in the toy department!!

After presents it was time for cake!  I got the cake from Olexa’s again and it was worth every penny!  yum!

Maxwell has been practicing blowing out his birthday candles for weeks now.  He’s been so excited about it.  I guess all the excitement was just a little too much though because when I came out with the lit candles and everyone was singing to him, his little face went from pure excitement to fear!  He didn’t want those candles anywhere near him!

Poor buddy!  I think it was all just a little overwhelming.  After a little hug from Dad, he was doing much better…

We were happy to see a smile again!

I cut up the cake…and here’s my 32 week bump in all it’s glory if you’re curious!

While Maxwell didn’t want to blow out the candles on his cake, he sure did want to eat it!

I think everyone enjoyed the cake eating part of the party!

After lunch, the cousins played with the new sand toys in the sand box for a bit…

and then it was time to bounce off all of that cake!

Please note that picture in the middle of his face smooshed up against the black netting!  cracks me up!

After lots of energy was spent, it was time to say “bye” to everyone!

Or maybe that’s actually more like “help!”  🙂  Either way, it was a GREAT day and we’re so happy that so much of our family could be there to celebrate the big TWO!

Maxwell, I hope you had the best birthday party a little boy could hope for.  We love you so much and can’t wait for another year of adventures!!

Bring on the terrific two’s!!