Virginia Beach: The Final Recap

It's hard to believe the final Virginia Beach recap I'm posting took place almost a year ago to date. I didn't intend for that to happen, but life got in the way of blogging about vacation. I wanted to finish it before this year's vacation, and I hope to be more timely with that recap!

Speaking of this year's vacation, as this post goes live, we will be preparing for our trip to the beach! We're leaving very early Saturday morning, which also happens to be Liam's 5th Birthday. Spending 12+ hours in the car isn't exactly the best way to spend a birthday, but he will be spending the evening of his birthday on the beach! (Hopefully that will make up for it.) We're all looking forward to spending a fun, relaxing week together at the beach!

For now, let's go back to almost exactly one year ago today...it was day seven of our Virginia Beach vacation, and it was Liam's 4th Birthday...

Liam and Lily's 4th & 6th Combined Birthday Party

DISCLOSURE: I received some of the party supplies shown in this post complimentary.

Lily and Liam's birthdays are just two weeks apart, so every year we throw them a big combined birthday party! This year, we only had one free Saturday in a 3 month span, so we had to scale things down a bit. On Saturday, we hosted two very small birthday parties to celebrate Liam's 4th Birthday and Lily's 6th Birthday!

{Birthday Shirts - Cat & Jack at Target}

A combined birthday party doesn't work for every family, but Lily is still agreeable, so we stick with it! I'm sure our family and friends appreciate the fact that they don't have to come to two birthday parties in August, too. We go big for actual birthdays, so both Lily and Liam still have their extra special days.

Usually, we have one big combined birthday party for Lily and Liam, but the timing was off this year. Thanks to school starting a week earlier than usual, which is the week we go to the beach, we had to adjust our schedule. We only had one available Saturday in July, August or September to celebrate Lily and Liam's birthdays with our family and friends.

Instead of the big party that we usually host, we only invited immediate family members to an afternoon party and our closest friends to an evening party. The party happened less than a week after we returned from vacation and two days after school started, so planning had to be minimal. Since there was a very limited guest list, we skipped the individual themes this year and just went with festive, gender neutral party decor!

Although the party was a lot different from what we usually host, Lily and Liam didn't even seem to notice the difference. They both had a great day with family and friends!

The first birthday party was in the afternoon. Our immediate family members joined us so we could all celebrate Liam and Lily's birthdays together! 

We kicked off the party with presents! Lily and Liam took turns opening their awesome gifts, and they loved everything. Since we celebrated Liam's 4th Birthday at the beach, we could only give him small gifts that could travel easily with us. We saved his two big gifts for the party!

(Just look at those dirty little feet holding his present!)

The kids ran off to play while the adults talked, then we finished the party with the Happy Birthday Song and some cake and ice cream! It's always Liam's favorite part!

The first round of guests headed out just before dinner, so we had a few hours in between parties. I straightened up the house while the girls played with their cousin, who was spending the night, and Dylan hung out with a friend. Liam happily dug into his new gifts with his new best buddy!

Meanwhile, the older kids found an awesome friend outside!

Finally, it was time for round two! I really slacked with pictures this year, but for good reason. After two birthdays, three photoshoots, a family reunion, our beach vacation and the first day of school, I literally have a painful callus on my thumb from taking so many pictures! (Plus, I wanted to enjoy the party instead of documenting every second!

We did the usual presents and cake routine, but since our best friends were here, the kids spent more time playing, so I didn't chase them with the camera. I can assure you that they had lots of fun!

{Liam's Shirt - The Hairbow Company}

Our friends stayed very late, and the party concluded with a sleepover. A cousin and two friends spent the night, so the fun continued until the wee hours of the morning!

Even though the party was much smaller than usual, it turned out so well! I was so worried that the kids would miss their themes and all the guests, but the gender neutral decor was just fine and they had so much fun with the family and friends who were there.

The paper table runner, paper placemats and treat cups are from All In The Cards. Their affordable line of party supplies can be found at Target. (And you all know how much I love Target!) I loved the fun, festive colors and prints, and at the end of the party, I just rolled everything up and threw it away!

We kept the food simple, too. The parties fell before and after dinner, so we had snacks and appetizers. Lots of chips and dips, cut vegetables, and cheese and crackers. And no party would be complete without one of the kids favorite snacks: Teddy Graham Trail Mix! It's just Teddy Grahams, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips, and kids love it!

My mom usually makes each child a cake, but didn't have enough time this year. A small combined birthday cake (with Down syndrome awareness balloons) and mini cupcakes was plenty!

Saturday's simple combined birthday party proved that parties don't have to be big and fancy in order to be fun! Lily and Liam had so much fun celebrating their 6th and 4th birthdays with a few of the people they love most!

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Liliana at 4 Years Old

Just a few short weeks ago, Lily turned 4!  In less than a week, she's heading to Pre-K.  Here's a glimpse of her life as a 4 year old:




Liliana Kathryn
Age: 4
Stats: 36 lbs and 40.5 inches



1. FAVORITE COLOR? Blue
2. FAVORITE TOY? My Barbies
3. FAVORITE CHARACTER? Daniel Tiger
4.FAVORITE SUPERHERO?  Cat Woman
5. FAVORITE FRUIT? Apples
6. FAVORITE VEGETABLE?  Corn
7. FAVORITE BREAKFAST?  Broccoli Soup
8. FAVORITE CEREAL? Lucky Charms
9. FAVORITE LUNCH?  Spaghetti O's
10. FAVORITE DINNER? Hamburger Helper

 

11. FAVORITE DRINK? Iced Tea
12. FAVORITE SNACK? Granola Bar
13. FAVORITE RESTAURANT? McDonald's
14. FAVORITE TV SHOW?  Paw Patrol and Team Umizoomi
15. FAVORITE MOVIE? Hocus Pocus (or as she calls it: Pocus Pocus)
16. FAVORITE ACTOR/ACTRESS? Skai Jackson on Jessie
17. FAVORITE SONG?  Come Little Children from Hocus Pocus
18. FAVORITE SINGER/BAND? Idina Menzel (of course!)
19. FAVORITE BOOKS? My Elsa one with all the books inside the box
20. FAVORITE BOOK SERIES? Ummm...Cinderella.  Cinderella.  Yeah.  And the Frozen Fever. 



21. FAVORITE OUTFIT? My Elsa dress with all the sparkles on the front
22. FAVORITE GAME? Hide and Seek
23. FAVORITE SPORT?  Soccer
24. FAVORITE ANIMAL?  Baby Reindeers. Them are so cute!
25. FAVORITE PLACE TO GO? My friend Lily's house
26. FAVORITE THINGS TO DO? Swing outside
27. FAVORITE SUBJECT? ABC's
28. FAVORITE STUFFED ANIMAL?  My Little Pony ones
29. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK? Friday because I like when we go to Nina's house and I like when Daddy comes home.
30. FAVORITE MONTH? August



31. FAVORITE SEASON? Summer when we can swim and I like snow.
32. FAVORITE HOLIDAY?  Christmas.  And Halloween. And Easter.
33. WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND? Lily. Charlie. Victoria. Jack. And everybody.
34. WHO DO YOU LIKE TO PLAY WITH?  Everybody because I love them and I love to play with you and I love you, too.
35. WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY?  When someone cheers me up.
36. WHAT SCARES YOU?  Trains and I'm scared of when I see a ghost.
37. WHAT MAKES YOU SAD? When someone is scaring me and nobody comes to save me.
38. WHAT DO YOU WISH FOR? I wish I had a lot of Elsa dresses. 
39. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY?  Going to Jack's pool.
40. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?   I want to be Elsa. 
41. DISLIKES?  I don't like scary things.



There you have it...the thoughts and dreams of a 4 year old captured in a list of questions.  She has QUITE a personality! Watch out world, here she comes!



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Lily's Best Birthday Ever

Our sweet baby girl is officially 4 years old! 

(Excuse me for a moment while I cry!!!) She had, and I quote, "the best birthday ever!"  She kept telling us that all day long!

It's easy for the third child in a family of four to get lost in the shuffle.  Especially when the youngest sibling has special needs and gets a lot of attention. Lily, at such a young age, handles it with so much grace.

Grant and I firmly believe that childhood birthdays should be extra special and that the birthday child should feel like the most important family member on their birthday. When we hear that it was the "best birthday ever" we consider that a parenting win!!!

Lily's birthday celebration technically began the day before her birthday.  All she ever asked for was a trampoline.  Grant and I didn't want to buy a full-size trampoline (can you imagine the ER visits with Dylan's track record?!?), so we compromised and bought an 8 foot trampoline for Lily and Liam's Birthdays.

Lily's birthday fell right after an extra busy week, so there wasn't any time to build it. Thankfully, our friend helped us build it in the dark on Saturday night!  Grant got a big promotion at work, and was starting his new position on Monday morning (Lily's Birthday), so he wouldn't be home until evening. Grant really wanted to give her the trampoline early, so he didn't miss the big moment.  As soon as she woke up on Sunday morning, we surprised her!  She was THRILLED!



Lily got the first jump, then invited her siblings to join her!




Liam, the other recipient of the trampoline, loved it, too!



 It was very obvious that the trampoline was a big hit!



Before we knew it, Lily's birthday eve arrived.  As a mom, it's always bittersweet to say goodbye to a year.  It just means your child is one step closer to adulthood, and it's both exciting and sad at the same time!



We said goodnight to our sweet Lilybug, and I got everything prepared for her birthday!



On the morning of her birthday, Grant wished her a happy birthday as he headed to work.  It was enough to wake her up, but she crawled into bed next to me, whispered something about her birthday, then fell back asleep until 11:30 AM!

We stuck with our regular birthday traditions.  Lily woke up to a new outfit, a room filled with balloons, streamers hanging in her doorway, and a decorated house!



Lily immediately ran to her spot at the kitchen table to begin her birthday celebration!



She had her traditional doughnut breakfast topped with her birthday candle, and she smiled as we sang "Happy Birthday" to her!



After that, she got to open round one of the gifts from Dylan, Lexie, and Liam. Can you tell Lily loves My Little Pony?!?  I love how she was completely thrilled with items from the Target Dollar Spot!



After breakfast, Lily got dressed, then got a second gift from each of her siblings.  Liam didn't want to give up his gift to her!









Lily had some time to play with her new toys and jump on her trampoline before Grant's mom stopped by for a visit!




Later that afternoon, Lily chose to go to the park for her birthday activity.  After we arrived, Lily spotted a hopscotch board on the basketball court. She immediately found the 4!






Unfortunately, she didn't get to play very long.  A storm rolled in, so we had to leave.  Lily decided she wanted to wait out the storm at Chick-Fil-A!



Finally it was time to head over to McDonald's to meet Grant for Lily's birthday dinner!  We told Lily to choose a restaurant, and that's what she chose! Thankfully, the torrential downpour stopped and the kids were able to play on the playground for a little while after we ate!

After dinner, we headed home for Lily's mini birthday party! My parents came over with cake (made by my mom!) and a gift, and we celebrated our sweet 4 year old!




Lily did get the trampoline for her birthday, but since it was for Liam, too, Lily got 4 small gifts (and her special card, of course!) from us. She was SO excited about the My Little Pony doll (which was found on clearance for $4...shhh)!



 


Lily's Papa took her on a birthday shopping date on Friday, where she got to pick out a few gifts, but they still gave her a card.  She was super excited about her "long monies!" Too bad those "long monies" will be saved!





My parents headed home, the kids jumped on the trampoline, and we, the incredibly exhausted parents, managed to grab a quick birthday snuggle with our most favorite 4 year old!  Time sure does fly.



We let Lily watch Netflix on the iPad and curl up on our bed to end her birthday.  Once again, she declared it the "best birthday ever" and promptly fell asleep! 




We had such a special day with our sweet baby girl! The best Lily ever deserved the best birthday ever!

Happy 4th Birthday to our ADORABLE Liliana Kathryn!




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