when super enzo turned four

super enzo and his favoritest sidekick-turned-cape, super blanky "beebee"

 birthday mornings tend to be special for our family. made-to-order breakfast ("gwuten-fwee donuts wif chocowate fwosting, peese!"), singing, and presents first thing. the drum set was a joint gift from both sets of grandparents. people seem to think we are crazy for bringing that noise maker into the house, but it seems normal to us.  my dad and brother both play, so maybe i am used to it. family band in the making!

and  then he came to the dinner table with his hair slicked back with 1/2 a can of mousse, so he could be fancy on his birthday night. tears rolling down my face in laughter with this one. all.the.time.

a couple days later we hosted a low-key superhero dance party for a few family friends. glow sticks for the win! (really the only extra thing we purchased, other than food.) spidey-bat-man had a super time.

i may still be in denial that he is FOUR. long days and short years for sure.

in my attempt to make up some lost documenting of our daily life, i will be sharing photo posts of important moments from the past year; big & special and little & mundane, but all important. the perfectionist in me cringes at the thought of this belated out-of-orderness, but the story teller in me would rather have them recorded than forgotten. enjoy!

there was a little boy

 

There was a little boy,
Who had a little curl,

Right in the middle of his forehead.
When he was good,
He was very good indeed,

But when he was bad he was horrid.

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(with slight gender changes)

i love this boy, but we had a day. and i am mighty glad it is over.
the end.  

i am joining the nester and will be blogging every single day in october! 

full list of posts here.

our trip to houston (a brunch fit for a trooper)

remember when enzo turned 3 years old?
okay, it was totally last november.
i may be almost 11 months late on sharing this, but enzo has 6 whole weeks left before his next birthday, so there's that.

i think this post is proof that you can throw a party on the road with limited supplies but unlimited coolness.  we were in houston last fall for a wedding and thanksgiving.  enzo's birthday fell right in the middle of that week.  it was so fun having usually far away family with us to celebrate.  

this combination of our little guy's fav-o-rite things turned out so good.  all he wanted was troopers and pancakes.  voila!  we pulled off a pancake brunch fit for a trooper, complete with yoda heads (croissants), leia buns (cinnamon rolls), and mimosas for the jedi masters (party guests over the age of 21).  i found the pattern for the trooper snowflakes here.  and the highly sought after trooper hat was bought at our local target. 

i am joining the nester and will be blogging every single day in october! 

full list of posts here.

time for a tailgate

the littlest hart turned two in late november and we celebrated tailgate style.  our boy LOVES playing ball and zooming his trucks.  mama loves vintage-y plaid goodness.  we all loved eeking out the last remnant of fall weather in the backyard and spending an afternoon surrounded by friends and family in honor of sweet enzo.

cheesy but cute invitations.

as our guests walked up the driveway, a hot cocoa station greeted them - in a tailgate, of course.  served in vintage thermoses (thank you to our kind neighbors for the loan!) and complete with mini marshmallows to top off your cup.

on the menu
two kinds of chili (and the veggie version was ah-mazing!) and toppings
cornbread
hot dogs
nachos
veggies with dip
apples, clementines, and fruit salad
bottled root beer
bottled "adult" beer

the cake topper, part of a secondhand football trophy, was found at one of my fave local places - the I.D.E.A. store in champaign.

the handmade pinata was made using this tutorial.  it was a labor of love.  and a fun project to take on with luca.  good thing it came in handy as a great photo prop, because the amount of time it took to make compared to that needed to beat it apart is crazy silly. :)

you can read how we incorporated operation christmas child into the festivities here.

i had no clue the back of the cake was so wonky until sorting through the photos.  frosting at 11pm the night before might account for it.  oh well.  :)

enzo was very shy during the singing but was excited to blow out the candles.  look at those lips!  in the end, he needed a little papi help.

curls, eyes, cheeks, fingers - j'adore this photo.

and a couple other cakes for the rest of us.  it was out of the box cake mix, but the homemade frosting was so tasty, no one could tell the difference.  (even the friends who have tasted my from scratch wedding cakes.)

other than general frolicking about in the backyard and eating lots of yummy food, we had a mini trampoline and a bags set available.  there was even some climbing on the yet-to-be-completed tree fort.  i had hoped for a game of flag football to start up, but there was only so much time.  in the future, i need to remember to assign those kind of tasks. little brothers (aka cool uncles) are good candidates.

it has been quite a year for our family and this party felt like a way of saying we are not defeated.  that might sound weird, but it was such a joy to host and be with those who make us smile.  it was a joy to celebrate the precious life of our not-a-baby-but-i-will-keep-calling-him-that boy.  so thankful for him.

we love you, enzo!!!