Happy Birthday Liam!

Today we celebrated Liam’s first birthday party with a “Very Hungry Caterpillar theme!”

Liam’s amazing birthday cake…I think this is one of Nanny’s best creations ever!  Thank you, Nanny!

I made a caterpillar on the wall to display Liam’s monthly pictures.

The birthday boy!  He was happy as could be since we gave him free reign over the snack table!

The smash cake!

Goodies for the kids…butterflies filled with Trix cereal, and a bag of gummy caterpillars!

The big excitement of the day was Liam learning to walk!  He’s taken a step or two in the past week, but this weekend he really started to move.  Check out the video of him walking at his party!

The little prince is ready for some cake!

Wow…that’s a big cake for a little boy!

I have been looking forward to Liam’s first cake for weeks.  He is a big fan of eating, hence the “hungry caterpillar” theme.  I thought he would absolutely go crazy with that cake in front of him.  But the funny thing was that he was more interested in squishing it than eating it!  Oh yeah, he really went to town on that poor cake!

He got some wonderful gifts and just had a great time visiting with family and friends at his party.  A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Camenga for all their help this weekend!  Thank you to everyone who sent Liam best wishes on his first birthday!

Twelve

I’ve thought often about the day I would take these pictures, but I never dreamed it could come so quickly.

Liam, you are a precious gift to our family.  Our sweet “Baby Brother,” you bring us so much happiness and have taught us to slow down and appreciate the simple things in life.  We love your giggly face, squishy belly, sweet hugs and even your grumpy pouts!  Happy First Birthday, my littlest love. 

Oh, and the 12 didn’t stand a chance!

TKD

To kick off fall, Seamus decided he wanted to start Tae Kwon Do.  There is a school very close to where we live, and a couple of school friends also attend.  The program is great – he can attend up to 3 times per week, it’s year round, and he earns stripes on his belt for “good deeds” done at home.  Love anything with an incentive like that!

He was SO excited to receive his uniform and head off to his first class!

Concentrating very hard on balancing!

Learning some kicks…

The “horse rider” stance…

Check out the height on this jump!  (And that face!  Hilarious!)

Every single move he makes in class is accompanied by an extremely loud “Hi-ya!”  The teachers encourage the yelling! 

Gracie goober showing off her moves.  She started Irish step dancing this week and loves it!  Hopefully I’ll be able to get some pictures in the studio to share.

Oooh.  I wouldn’t mess with them! 

First Day 2011

Here we are again…the first day of school!

Here’s my handsome first-grader…looking a little nervous…

Ah, there’s that smile I love!  Seamus was so excited to go to school.  He had a fantastic first day.  And the “big kid” uniform…I just can’t deal.

It absolutely poured so I wasn’t able to take my traditional in-front-of-the-tree shots.  No worries, I’ll have a re-shoot!

My sassy kindergartener!!  She is always posing…

Couldn’t even get her to stand still for the pic!  She was a little nervous before going to bed, but she also had an amazing first day!

And Liam really wanted to go to school with his big bro and sis.  So I let him wear the uniform.

I figured I could just plop him in the Pre-K drop-off line and no one would even notice!

Three cheers for a successful first day!  Hope everyone else’s went just as well!

Winding Down Summer

We celebrated Labor Day weekend by heading up to the beach at Lake George, one of my very favorite places.  It’s so calm and lovely, and the kids have so much fun here.

They love jumping off the dock!

Liam enjoyed himself so much, splashing in the water and knocking down every sandcastle that his siblings tried to build!

The weather was great and it was the perfect way to say farewell until next summer.

We also headed to the track one more time. On our last visit, one of the jockeys gave Seamus and Grace a couple pairs of real jockey goggles, so of course we had to bring them back and try them out!

Seamus picked a winner!  Here he is with his winning ticket!

We squeezed a ton of fun into this holiday weekend and now we’re getting ready for a big week with school starting!  Kindergarten and First Grade…here they come!