Archives

This morning we celebrated Gran’s birthday for the first time and Matt’s birthday for the last time (this year, obviously).  Here are some pictures from the morning:

Reading with Greatdaddy:

Reading with Greatmama:

“Where’s Liam?”

“There he is!”

More reading:

Birthday Boy:

Birthday Girl:

Liam was convinced that Matt’s Mister Rogers card was all for him:

“You can never go down the drain…”

“You’re bigger than the water, you’re bigger than the soap!”

It wouldn’t have been a 30th birthday celebration for Matt without a little Wii:

Liam shows Greatmama his trains:

Checking out the weather with Gran:

Fruit pizza!

Shoulder ride from Dad:

Fin.

Because no one in this family can celebrate an event/holiday fewer than three times, I bring you the second installment of Matt’s birthday extravaganza.

Today’s installment was brunch at Grammie and Pop’s house and featured Guest Stars GGMom, GGDad, Aunt G. and Ean.  Here are pictures from the day:

Playing cars with Grammie:

It’s a well-known fact that helicopters can’t get you if you put your hands behind your back while inspecting them:

Liam realizes the photogs are out to get him again and obliges with a “cheese!”

Grammie joins in:

Let the cheeziness continue:

Cheddar, anyone?

A boy and his Pop:

“Oh, yay!  Power tools!”

Hilarity with Aunt G:

Playtime:

A boy and his Aunt G:

Boy meets ball, ball meets…

…bush!

Boy meets ground with ball under bush:

Pensive moment:

“Man, I sure wish that ball was doing something more exciting than just sitting there like that…”

“Dreams do come true, it can happen to you, if you’re…”

A boy and his GGDad:

Caught red-handed…

Fun on the trike (with help from Grammie):

Pop takes a turn:

Southern Lady In Repose:

“But I’ve got these sacks…”

A boy and his GGMom:

Liam joins in the Bocce fun:

Liam takes his turn with the jack:

Lynne gets serious:

Liam’s ready for his turn:

What an arm!

Strategizing with Grammie:

Williams’s compete to win.  Always.

Here comes the cake:

Sheer determination:

Cake…strawberry…cake…

Strawberry!

Mmmmm!

Lest you think he ignored the cake…

Strawberry + cake = contentment

Hide…

…and seek:

Grilling is a blast!

Mmmm!  Grilled potato chips and deep fried ice cream!

Wii concentration:

Southern Gentleman In Repose:

Intergenerational Wii battle:

Fighting to the death:

Proving that, in fact, anyone can Wii:

Now it’s time for cake-eating session #9.  Oy vey.

As requested (and requested again and then requested once more for good measure…) here are the pictures of the renovation.  There are still shelves that need to be hung.  There are still artwork decisions to be made.  But the most important thing is that my house is once again mine to live in as I choose.  My child can nap when he needs to (without having to endure power tools and the loud grumbling of construction workers who shouldn’t have told his mother that she was free to be back in the house because things were going to be pretty quiet a week before things actually got quiet).  I can nest with wild abandon.  Things are as they should be, hallelujah and praise be.

Before:

Looking towards where the half-wall is now:

View from the entryway:

Where the pantry doors are now:

From inside the old ‘bonus’ room:

From the old ‘bonus’ room looking out into the kitchen:

During:

The view from what is now the back of the pantry looking out into the dining/kitchen area:

The view from inside the ‘bonus’ room:

Door to the garage and the backside of the new pantry:

Chair mold and door to garage:

Pantry!

After:

View from kitchen:

View from entryway:

Pantry:

Pantry (the organization makes me unreasonably happy)!

View from the old ‘bonus’ room (hereafter known as the ‘new space’ until we can think of a better name) looking into the kitchen:

Looking into the new space from the dining area:

Dining area, new room, and part of pantry:

And now, boys and girls, the renovation story on our house is complete until we have two children who both sleep through the night.

The End.

In honor of Matt’s birthday, Liam spent most of yesterday running around wildly in circles screaming variations on the theme: “Birfday Cake!”  “Presents!”  “Gonna blow out da candles!”  “Happy Birfday, Dad!”

We started the day by heading to Southern Sweets because my husband loves a good carrot cake and unfortunately I’ve never made one.  I didn’t want to risk it for such an important occasion, so we headed to Decatur to get one from the experts.

From the minute we started talking about going to the bakery, Liam was talking about eating cake.  I kept trying to tell him that we were going to pick up the cake, but we couldn’t eat any until Matt was home because it was his birthday and his birthday cake.  At some point I think Liam picked up the concept (after much repetition) because from the back seat he quietly said something like “Dad gotta blow out da candles, Liam gotta be patient.”  He was slightly confused (but happily so) when the lady at Southern Sweets gave him a sample of the old fashioned chocolate cake (my favorite) for being charming.

After grasping the concept of waiting for Dad to come home to have cake and presents he went about the business of running all over the house waiting “patiently” for Daddy to “COME HOME…RIGHT NOW!!!”  This included ‘helping’ me wrap the presents and sprawling himself at the bottom of the stairs intermittently shouting “I think I hear him!  I think Daddy’s home!”

Needless to say, by the time Matt arrived home, Liam had reached fever pitch (a state in which he stayed right on through until bedtime).  We went ahead and opened presents and had cake at 5pm because it was clear that Liam really wanted to participate.  Here are pictures of the cake experience:

“C’mon, Dad.  Are we really just going to sit here right next to this cake and not eat any?”

“Okay…I get it…here’s one cheesy smile for you, Mama”

First attempt:

Second attempt:

Liam becomes a little worried that it’s all a cruel joke and that he’ll never be allowed to eat any cake:

“You swear this isn’t a trick candle, right…?”

Liam thinks:  “I think maybe he’s got it this time…”

“Yay!”

Liam whets his whistle while Matt takes the first bite:

Finally!

Thumbs up?

Thumbs up!