Little Guy celebrated 3 years of life in October. It was a fun birthday. We had a couple family friends come over and join us in celebrating his birthday with his favorite dinner items and cake.
Playing with his remote control fire engine after Fixitman resoldered the connections.Coincidental that it happened on his birthday he could use it again, but he was thrilled!
He ask for a dragon cake. Since his favorite movie is "How to Train Your Dragon" wings were the most important feature. I used the Wilton Dinosaur pan and added chocolate wings. (My awesome sister's suggestion)
After eating salad, mac & cheese and hot dogs, it was time for cake!
After cake he opened his presents.
Photobombing by a family friend.
Haha I cropped the photobomber out of this picture.
These two boys are good friends. Dinoguy loves to hold babies also.
Love this picture. :)
In trying to figure out what to get the three year old boy who has everything (because he has older brothers!) I thought of getting him a pet fish. So we went to the pet store and he picked out a baby beta fish. I have never had a pet fish and as soon as we got home and started to set it up, the lunacy of this started to settle in. I had taken responsibility for another life again! Ack!
Sometimes his fish' name is Wendy, sometimes it is Peter Pan. I guess it depends on if he believes it to be a girl or boy fish at the time. The good news is the fish is still alive, almost two months later! Hooray!
This year all of the kids came when we visited the children's barnyard at the local university. The kids enjoyed holding baby chicks and seeing other animals. There wasn't free ice cream this year though. Just animal crackers. Oh well. It was still a great (and free) experience.
Little Guy was afraid of most of the animals. He wouldn't get near them. I touched him with a baby chick and he ran away.
Here I am showing Princess how to hold a baby chick.
These two LOVED holding baby chicks.
He wanted to touch all of the animals!
Checking out the sheep
The wonder of a baby chick was fun.
I think Trainboy stayed with the chicks almost the whole time.
Princess observed the animals quickly.
She spent most of the time playing in the sawdust floor with her friend.
Photo op best picture
Well despite the lack of free ice cream (which was really all I wanted) we had a good time. Kids got to see and touched some farm animals!
Yay for free tix to the state fair! We rode the train down and had a blast. The kids loved seeing the animals, going around the pretend farm and trying some of the fun foods. Super super tired after all that fun!
Elsie the Borden cow
Look a giraffe!
Mr Ostrich wants food for his picture!
Hmm, maybe we'll skip trying to take a family photo while y'all are hungry.
Let me down! I've got to get to work on the farm!
Would you like your egg back Ms chicken?
Let's see, I put the dirt in the watering can right?
They gave me fruit snacks!
Mmmm...sugar!
It's a sheep!
You wouldn't take my chicken fried bacon would you mom?
Big Tex and the boys
Why use the backpack when I can sit on Dad's shoulders?
I'll take this minivan to go please. I mean, are the boys done playing in cars yet?
As part of the very cool Kids Club membership that we were given to the Museum of Nature and Science as a Christmas present from Grandparents, we were invited to a special event as part of the new Safari area at the Zoo.
The highlight was feeding the giraffes. They come right up and pull the lettuce out of your hand. Trainboy wasn't ready for how fast the giraffe took his lettuce.
There were also lots of crafts and activities. One pavilion has an elephant behind that when you hit it, it farts. Can I tell you how long we were there because that was the funniest thing in the world? The boys enjoyed painting their own faces and Trainboy personalized his paper bag lion by making it into an elephant instead.
Even though it was the evening, it was hot. Munchkin rode around in the stroller and would not share the water bottle. She really wanted to go into the enclosure with the elephants and was disappointed I wouldn't hop the fence.
If you ask Dinoguy what his favorite part was, it was the music. The African drummers had children participation and he really enjoyed it and kept going back for more. Here's a nice loud video showing some of his personality in drumming. Then my camera battery died.
I'm not kidding when I say this was a fast trip in June. 24 hour drive, 36 hours in Idaho, 36 hours in Utah, 24 hour drive. That's how our 5 days were structured.
In Utah, we got to see my brother's new home, meet my sister's fiance finally, my other sister's boyfriend and the boys got a up close and personal meeting with some sea creatures. I got to prune some roses and reminisce about how much I enjoyed caring for roses.
We had a water balloon fight too.
There is a law about water balloons. You can spend hours filling them up and getting ready, but there will never be enough when it is time to play with them. The disappear quickly!
The kids loved the trip and I think Munchkin expresses our feeling about only being able to visit for such a short time best here:
