Our little football fan...

Now that golf season is over we've started to introduce Adam to the wonderful world of football. He has his VT jersey for Saturdays and his Redskins jersey for Sundays. We're working on teaching him the rules and explaining who he should cheer for and when, though he pretty much just seems to cheer for whomever is running with the football. Looking forward to lots of football Saturdays and Sundays to come and hopefully a lot of Hokie/Redskin victories!!

September Birthday Club

I love sharing my birthday with Adam, but I also love that I get to share my birthday month with so many other great members of the family-Mom, Lee and Andrew.  While it isn't always easy to get us all together at the same time (ok, who am I kidding, it's usually pretty easy to get us all together, just not when we are actually trying to celebrate something) once we settle on a date, our September Birthday Club celebrations are always fun and festive.

This year we did a BBQ luncheon with make your own sundaes for dessert (my personal fav!)  We then opened presents and oohed and aahed at all the nice things everyone got.  Adam was especially happy with his new clothes from Grandma and Grandpa, exclaiming "Oooh, so cute" and "Ooooh wow, pretty" it was very entertaining and oooh, so cute. ;) 

Adam even found some time to read Olivia one of his new books.

So happy birthday to Mom, Adam, (me), Lee and Andrew!  September rocks! :)

A very happy birthday...for me!

I suppose I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the great birthday that I had.  Adam was so sweet wishing me a happy birthday every chance he got.  I think he thinks it's pretty cool that we Adam and Mommy share a birthday...and so do I.

Andy did a great job, as usual, to make the day special for me.  He made braised short ribs and mashed potatoes for dinner and even added in extra carrots as he knows how much I love cooked carrots!  He also made me an awesome ice cream cake for dessert (note to self, we need to buy birthday candles.)

 
I was then gifted with an iPad, which I LOVE.  Though I think Adam might love it even more!  He loves looking through flash cards and doing FaceTime with Grandma and Grandpa.  It's adorable to see how well he knows how to use it!  Meanwhile, Adam does let me use it from time to time, which is nice of him. ;)

It was a great day and I look forward to making the most of my last year as a "20-something!"  (YIKES!)

All aboard!

Yesterday we headed to Burke Lake Park and Adam got to go on his very first train ride!  He was in heaven.  The train even went through a tunnel, just like his Thomas the Train set does!  The ride lasts about eight minutes and I don't think Adam stopped grinning the entire time.  Bonus, it was only $2.50 to ride on it, what a great bargain! 

After the train ride Adam got to experience another first, his first ride on a carousel.  He thought that was so fun and loved waving at Daddy every time we saw him.  I have to admit I was getting a little dizzy myself, but Adam was all smiles!  Ticket price for that ride was $1.75, again, what a bargain! 
 

We will definitely be going back and perhaps we'll even take Adam on the haunted train ride next month!  So fun!

Adam's Birthday Party

We invited family and friends over on Sunday to celebrate Adam's birthday.  Adam loved having his friends Reid, Ava and Blake and cousin Olivia to play with.  The kiddos had a blast running from one end of the house to the other and were thoroughly exhausted when all was said and done.  Definitely the sign of a successful party! 

Andy and Greg grilled up yummy and colorful kabobs and the kids enjoyed baked carrot macaroni and cheese (gotta get the veggies in them somehow!) We then topped it all off with a dark chocolate cake with butter cream frosting.

It was a great celebration of one awesome little buddy.  We can't thank our families and friends enough for yet another year of babysitting, fun gatherings, vacations, picture taking and memories that have helped shape our son. 

Look who turned 2...

How fast a year goes by! Our little guy turned 2 on Saturday and we spent every minute of the day celebrating! We started the morning by greeting Adam with a balloon and the first of about 100 performances of "Happy Birthday!" He was kind enough to quickly reply, "happy birthday Mommy!"

We then spent the morning gearing up for the first Hokie game of the season.  We cooked up some buffalo chicken dip and turkey legs and we all got our orange and maroon attire on to cheer on Virginia Tech, who provided Adam with his next birthday present, a 66-13 win over Appalachian State.  Go Hokies! 

After an afternoon nap, Adam awoke to his next set of presents.  It was so great to see him actually open a present and see his face light up when he saw that we had given him some new Thomas trains and best of all, Harold the Helicopter!  He wasn't quite as excited by the outfit I'd gotten him, but what could I expect?! :)  We then told him to close his eyes while Daddy wheeled out his big present, a tricycle!!  He was so excited, cheering "Bike! Bike!" 

After taking a few spins around the kitchen on his new bike and playing with his new toys, it was time for cake! Of course his real cake was for his party, but we did whip up some yummy zucchini muffins, which he loves, so he got to enjoy one of those after he blew out his candles!

What a sweet, smart, funny, loving, adventurous, eager, adorable, stubborn, but in a good way, playful, imaginative and wonderful two year old you are Adam!  We love you more than we could ever put into words, try as we might! 

Our (not so) Beachy Vacation...

For six months we planned and looked forward to our annual beach trip to the Outer Banks but sadly, Hurricane Irene had other plans for us.  However, we didn't let the storm and canceled beach week get us down, instead, we made the most of it!

While we didn't get to play on the beach, we still got our toes in the sand...

We didn't catch any waves, but we still caught some air...

There weren't any seagulls, but there were some birdies, and almost an eagle...

Instead of sand buckets we mostly used sand wedges...

Best of all, instead of swallowing a bunch of salt water, we found ourselves enjoying a lot of Virginia wines...

Who's ready for Beach (or unBeach) Week 2012?



Happy (Belated!) Birthday Uncle Mark!

(Disclaimer...yes, I know I'm way behind, but I'll try to make the wait worth it!)
A few weekends ago we were able to get the whole family together to celebrate Mark's birthday. Dad grilled steaks and Andrew and Adam helped shuck the corn.

After dinner we opened gifts and Mark got to enjoy his favorite, sherbet cake! Adam was loving the singing and the blowing out of birthday candles, exclaiming after all was sad and done, "again?" Lucky for Adam there are lots more birthdays to celebrate in the coming weeks/month!

So albeit extremely belated, wishing one very awesome brother and a super uncle a fantastic birthday! :)

(PS: Thanks to Lee for snapping the pics of Mark and the kiddos opening his gifts!) :)