Playing outside
Helping daddy with leaves
Reily got these blocks for his birthday. One of Gavin's favorite things to do is build a wall so that daddy can't join him on the porch. The wall usually lasts 30 seconds before someone comes crashing through and then demanding that we rebuild it.
Here's Reily talking on the phone to his papa. My boys love to call grammy and papa to talk on the phone. They're getting better at it--well, Gavin is anyway.
Typically, they ask the birthday person to get on a saddle and they sing a really loud, obnoxious song at them before they give them a free sundae. Ben absolutely refused so my mother, yes, Linda, got on the saddle (sort of) for the whole restaurant to see. This is one sight I never thought I would see.
For lunch, we took the birthday boy to "Donald's", nearly his favorite place on earth thanks to Grammy and Papa. Before he could get in the car, he had to drive himself there. He didn't get too far.
"More, daddy, more!"
Dinner was a toddler friendly meal, which neither of my toddlers touched, but the adults all ate plenty.
Opening presents...Gavin did really well handing them to Reily and not tearing into them himself. Reily was enthralled with each gift he opened, so much so that he refused to open a new gift until we removed the old one from his hands. Next year, we're thinking about just getting him one gift (yeah, right).
Papa had to help a bit to peak Reily's interest. He's a goofy one (Reily that is, though Papa is too, sometimes).
Reily loved his raincoat and the "hammer" (hanger) that it came with.
Grammy got some bricks for Reily that had to be assembled. All the adults took their share and put them together. Then, towers were built and happily knocked over.
The big gift from mommy and daddy was a train table which, of course, we had to set up for play before we presented it. Can you say: spoiled kids?
Car cakes racing around the track.
My favorite moment of the evening was Gavin spontaneously belting out the "Happy Birthday" song to Reily. It was quite cute and definitely caught on video camera. Wish I knew how to share that here...
The cake was delicious!
Kacey was a cute little lion--no ferociousness here.
While we were out, we encountered lots of cute puppies. This beagle was dressed like a bee--which went perfectly with Reily's pot of honey costume.
The "experience" part came in with our mode of transportation. We actually rode this golf cart throughout Chris' dad's neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Katie chauffeured and Chris, Kelly and me all held a kid between houses. Like I said, it was an experience.
Here they are enjoying the spoils. You might not be able to tell, but they all have treats in their mouths and they thoroughly enjoyed eating their treats.
They also sang a few songs for the parents. Gavin actually participated a little bit and was quite adorable.
Snack time after the program was great, of course.
The cake, made my Auntie Kelly and Auntie Mary, was delicious.
Presents...
Reily got a new "ho-pane" (airplane) that is cute, but mostly just makes a lot of noise. It was a perfect boy toy!
Kacey got a couple of strollers, which prevented fighting over them. My boys liked them just as much as, if not more than, Kacey did.
We asked Gavin what he wanted to see at the zoo and he said, "Jaf". So, we saw the giraffes, real and fake.
We also saw some monkeys. This one was playing with Gavin through the window, but I didn't catch the greatest shot--he was kind of playing "hide and seek".
The Conservatory was lots of fun and smelled wonderful. Gavin kept telling us how "neat" all the plants were.
Throwing money into the fountain.
While we were visiting the MN Sculpture Garden I happened to see a flier that talked about the 1st Saturday of every month being free and kid focused at the Walker. So, we walked across the street and took part in a few of their free, kid-friendly activities.
These are some cool glasses the boys (well, with LOTS of help) made.
