The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

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!!

 

First Day of School!

Monday was Maxwell’s first day of school and it went great!  His new teacher, Ms. Juli, couldn’t be sweeter and I think he’s going to love his new class. As a reminder, click here to see some pictures of his first day of school last year.  He’s grown a lot!  Here he is ready for his first day this year…

first day of school

Sweet boy!

Luckily we didn’t get any of this when I dropped him off…

He wasn’t quite so sure about going into a new room at first, but then he spotted the awesome train table and he couldn’t get out of my arms fast enough. I don’t even think he noticed I left!  When I went to pick him up, he was the last one there!  Oh no!  Bad momma!  I was still 5 minutes early but I guess everyone else just got there even earlier.  whoops!

If you’re curious, we decided to go on and hold Maxwell back now instead of later.  Being an August 30 birthday, he could have moved on up into the two year old class this year as the cut off is September 1st (meaning you have to turn two by September 1).  However, Robert and I knew we didn’t want him to go into kindergarten in a few years as the very youngest so, instead of having to keep him in pre-school when he’s 5, we decided to go on and hold him back now so he’ll go through all of pre-school with the group of kids that he will go to kindergarten with.  It was a tough decision as he’ll always be the very oldest in his class but I think it was the right one for us.

Here’s to a great year of school!

See you tomorrow on Maxwell’s BIRTHDAY!

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!!

 

2nd Birthday Party!

We had a big weekend around here and we’ve got a big week coming up!  First, today is Maxwell’s first day of school!  Let’s hope he does great in his new older toddlers room with his new teacher!  Second, Maxwell’s 2nd birthday is on Thursday so lots of fun birthday posts to come this week!  Third, we celebrated Maxwell’s birthday on Sunday with a family party centered around – what else – yellow construction trucks!!

Here’s the invite I emailed to family…

dump truck party invitation

And here’s my sweet birthday boy ready for his party!!  Boo-boos on his chin, knee and shin and all!  My rough and tumble little 2 year old!  🙂

I got his shirt off of Etsy and it came in about two weeks ago and Maxwell has been SO excited to wear it!  Every day he would want to peek into his closet at his truck shirt…but he knew it was off-limits until his party!  He couldn’t wait to put it on that morning!!

Like last year, I had to make things festive and I like a good theme to center the decorations – some yellow construction hats, orange cones and plenty of balloons of course!

dump truck decorations

I even got some special eating utensils for Maxwell…

So cute, right?!  I think he might be eating every meal with those for a while!  I did forget to hang the awesome “Happy Birthday” banner though!  darn!  remind me to hang it next year, ok?

We gave Maxwell this truck that morning and it barely left his hands all day…

and the proof is in plenty of the pictures!

The only thing that took him away from his truck were the balloons of course!

He was a happy little boy!

We loved having most of our family over but definitely missed Mary Beth, Holland, Keath, Jen, Delaney and Nate!

Before lunch, we had one more surprise for Maxwell…

A bounce house!  Those 3 cousins bounced and bounced and bounced in that hot sun…

until they were red-cheeked and ready to eat!

When it came time for lunch, fortunately everyone got into the hat wearing spirit!  What can I say?  I definitely think hats make a party more fun!  🙂

But the Birthday Boy looked cutest of all in his hat, of course!

I think that’s enough for today.  Party coverage continues tomorrow!  Until then, I leave you with this awesome family photo that we captured…

ha!  Hey, it was his party – he could do what he wanted!!  🙂  See you tomorrow!

BBB2 in 4D!

Just like we did with Maxwell, Robert and I went up and did one of the 4D ultrasounds for BBB2.  And, just like with Maxwell, we got a GREAT result!  Let’s just say that I think BBB2 is going to be yet another Robert mini-me!  🙂

I’m 31 weeks and 4 days and they said that he’s measuring a few days big – 32 weeks and 1 day.  We’ll see if he actually makes his debut early or not!  They estimated him to be 4 lbs, 4 oz right now and he’s VERY active.  He didn’t stop moving during the whole ultrasound – no surprise to me!!  He’s been doing somersaults every day!

Warning – just like last time, some of you might find these pictures a bit freaky…but I think they’re really cool!  It’s amazing how great the technology is…and even how much better it’s gotten in the last 2 years!

Sweet little baby boy resting his chin on his arm…

a perfect little ear…

and a perfect little foot!

He even opened his eyes for us…

showed off his hand…

and scratched his cheek!

He then started to get a little tired and yawned…

and clearly indicated he wanted us to leave him alone!  I think he flipped us the bird!!  🙂

Ha!!

Now for a little comparison.  This is Maxwell on the left and BBB2 on the right…

Pretty darn similar, huh?  I think the noses are slightly different – BBB2’s looks a little more turned up to me – but the mouth, cheeks, and face shape are all the same!  Can’t wait to meet this little guy!!

In other news, we have a VERY exciting weekend ahead!!  Maxwell turns TWO (what?!) next week so we’re having a little party this weekend.  Family, cake and dump trucks…what more could a little boy want?!  See you next week with lots of fun birthday posts!