Evan's 3rd Birthday!

It has been 3 years since August 5, 2011.  The day I gave birth to my son and the day I became a mother for the first time.  What a fun ride it's been!

I'll post soon with all the latest things that Evan's up to, but for now I wanted to recap what we did today to celebrate his special day.

It started with John and me decorating the kitchen a bit and leaving out one wrapped gift for him on the counter to find when he woke up.  I love how he gasps when he sees something he likes.  He did just that as we were walking downstairs.  He gasped, and then said "what is that?" and then he started talking about it's a birthday!  He knows balloons and banners mean birthdays I guess!  He saw the present right away as well and tore into it.  It was an airplane that hangs from the ceiling and spins (or "flies") around in circles when you turn its propellor on.  Evan loved it!  He kept calling it his "special new toy" and you could tell he was already excited about his birthday.  

We got dressed (Evan wanted to wear his favorite shirt…Thomas!) and then we headed into Denver then for our first ever visit to the Denver Children's Museum.  I'd looked at it online and was pretty excited about the different activities it had to offer and knew Evan would love it.  He sure did!  He bypassed the fire truck/station area near the entrance and went straight for the kinetics area where they have "marbles" (lightweight plastic balls) that you can have run down a variety of tracks.  Some of the tracks are set, but have knobs and levers you can turn and pull to move them differently, others allow you to build the track.  There are tracks on the ceiling as well, and tubes that suck the balls up to reach those high tracks.  Emma even had some fun with the balls.

Silliest "say cheese" smile I've seen him give us yet (left)

After the kinetics area, Evan found the rocket blast off area.  John and Evan made a paper "rocket" and then John taught Evan how to launch them.  Evan paid close attention and learned how to do it on his own really well!  It is a multi-step process: put the paper rocket on the launcher, push the pressurization button, then hit the launch button.  Evan learned where he could pick up used paper rockets and he eventually started gathering more than one at once and heading over to launch them all off.  He even shot one through Jupiter!  

He went and played with bubbles for a bit, and then danced in the kid "rave".  He climbed around in the young kid area (where Emma crawled and played around for quite a bit with me), and then wanted to head back to the kinetics area once more.  

After this it was well past lunch time, so we had to gather him up to head out.  However, as we were leaving he saw the fire station area and wanted to play in it now.  He got dressed into the hat and jacket and immediately climbed aboard the truck and wanted to drive.  As he was about to climb on the fireman pole, he got clocked in the face by a kid who was already up the pole coming down (I ran to him telling him to get back but didn't quite get him the message in time).    He didn't cry and we hope it won't leave a bruise, but I think he got pretty lucky that it wasn't worse.  

We got some burgers and ice cream for lunch at a drive in, and then headed home for naps.  Of course, Evan didn't nap, but at least Emma did (she missed her morning nap because of the museum outing and was exhausted!).  I made Evan his favorite for dinner: spaghetti.  And then we did presents and cake.  He got lots of neat gifts from Nanna Louise…including a spiral air race toy with Dusty and Ripslinger! He loved it!  

He also loved blowing out his candles.  When I told him it was time for cake, he wasn't too interested, but then I mentioned he needs to make a wish and blow out candles and he came running!  I think he might have been a little full from the late lunch and dinner, but he still managed to eat most of his cake and he did a fantastic job blowing out his candles all in one puff! 

At bedtime, he kept talking about the pole that the balls went up (i.e. kinetics) and the rockets blasting off.  I think he definitely had a good day, and so did I.  Happy Birthday Evan! :)