Graham's Birthday

We were so excited to have everyone here for Graham's birthday... it made his day seem a lot more exciting than what we would have had planned, which would have been probably just presents and cake, haha. Graham has been waiting for his birthday for at least two months. He really has wanted to be three for forever and was convinced that most of his problems (like being too small to go to preschool or taekwondo or soccer) were because he was only two. When it was Lucy's birthday last month, he was so disappointed that it wasn't his birthday too. He keeps telling me now, "I like three! I don't like two! Two is so little and three is the biggest!"

Tommy took the day off and we spent the day going to Fort Worth and visiting the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where they print half of the nation's currency; the only other one is in D.C.) and the Fort Worth Water Gardens. Those may seem like weird activities for a three-year-old's birthday, but this was the best day to go somewhere big and I didn't think he cared much where we went anyways. And funnily enough, he has been talking about "the money place" a bunch of times this past week since we went, so he did actually like the Bureau of Printing. I asked him what he liked about "the money place" and he said he liked seeing "the money things moving," or the money printing machines. We couldn't take our phones or cameras into the building (because they don't want people trying to break in or counterfeit money) so we have no pictures of going there but we all really thought it was interesting and fun.

But we started the day with birthday cereal and presents for the birthday boy! He had been asking for Lucky Charms for weeks.

He got way spoiled, of course. 

His big present was this sit-on digger for their digging spot in the backyard. (Is it really white trash to just let them dig up our yard under the trampoline and to just leave their shovels and buckets there all the time? I don't really care because they love it so much and spend hours out there.) He LOVED the digger, although it's just slightly too big for him and our dirt is a little hard. We are thinking about re-filling our sandbox with sand for him to use it in if he wants to.

Graham with all his presents. 

After the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, we had lunch at In-N-Out. Everyone's favorite.

I love Lucy in that hat.

Of course Graham wouldn't wear the hat. But they were so pleased because since it was Graham's birthday we let them get shakes. BEST DAY EVER!

Grandpa was so pleased because Lucy voluntarily went to him! This was the first time she wanted anyone to hold her and she let him hold her for at least five minutes walking around the restaurant.

Then we visited the Fort Worth Water Gardens! They are super fun for the kids to run around and explore. I really like them too. 

I was trying to follow Graham around with the big camera to get some cute pictures of him (since it was his birthday and all) and it was hard to do. He does not like smiling for the camera or looking at it for more than .24 seconds. 

After we got home, we set up a little obstacle course for Dane and Graham in the backyard and they had a fun time running around and doing it. I was thinking it would be a "superhero obstacle course" but they both didn't want to wear the masks or capes I got at Hobby Lobby. Haha!

And then we of course had the cake and ice cream. I had to laugh so hard at first picture of him with his cake where he's screaming. He kept yelling and yelling at us all day like that. "NO!!!" about everything. Even when we sang happy birthday to him he yelled and said he wanted us to sing "Happy Birthday to Dane!" I don't know if he likes being the center of attention, or if he was just super tired and grumpy. He also threw a ton of tantrums this week with the Leiningers here, which was so pleasant and fun to deal with. He has been the sweetest and cutest two-year-old, and I think there are signs that he may not continue to be so sweet and easy as a three-year-old, which is a little sad. But he still has SUCH adorable moments which help to make up for the crazier ones, and we still love the heck out of this guy. Happy birthday to our finally, finally, FINALLY three-year-old.

Leiningers visit, part 2

We were really efficient this time with our visitors and sat down and planned out all the things we wanted to do with them here, and we actually were able to do most of them! We (or at least some of us) did an escape room, a night at the drive-in movie theater, the Dallas temple, swimming, eating at Babes, Torchy's Tacos, kolaches, and BBQ, the Fort Worth Water Gardens and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, a bonfire at Little Elm Beach, watching Dane's soccer practice, and lots of time playing in our backyard or at our park. It sounds like it was really busy, but it felt like we had a lot of down time still (naptime is great for that!) and we were able to spend a lot of time talking and playing lots of board games. We also discovered that we can play Just Dance on our Apple TV with our iPhones as remotes, and we had a really fun time doing that too on our last night. 

Graham and Kenzie watching some cartoons together. Graham decided that Kenzie was his buddy this week, while Dane attached himself to Kiki everywhere we went.

Kiki loved reading to the boys.

For FHE we talked about King Benjamin and Graham acted out as King Benjamin on the tower for us.

They managed to escape from the escape room!

We saw Ready Player One at the drive-in movie theater, and it was one of the coldest and windiest nights of the month. Most of us lasted for about half of the movie completely bundled up in blankets, and then we moved inside the cars. I really liked the movie (although it was totally different from the book, of course!).

One of my favorite things we did was a little bonfire at Little Elm Beach. Little Elm is only about 25 minutes from our house, and they have Lake Lewisville right there, with this beautiful sandy beach for swimming. I've only gone there once because it seems like way too much work with now three kids (and I hate crowds with worrying about my kids drowning), but I think we should go back with Tommy sometime on a weekend. It seems just like a real beach, but without waves, which is like the best case scenario when you are there with toddlers. 

And now for a billion pictures of Lucy at the beach, because she was sooooo dang happy running around and trying to dash into the water and eat as much sand as possible.

Literally trying to get her mouth right on the dirty beach water. She's sick today... maybe she got some germs from doing this.

She wanted to get into the water as far as she could and was offended we would let her get in past her knees. So rude!

I didn't really expect the kids to get in the water (duhhhhhhh) so I didn't bring a change of clothes for them. Whoops.

Making s'mores at the beach!

Lucy finally let Grandma and Grandpa hold her at the beach! She did not love all these visitors around and only warmed up to them all after almost a full week.

Some ducks came by and were trying to eat our food.

I love this picture of Tommy and Lucy in the water. So cute.

Aunt Kiki.

Dane and his buddy.

This was the best picture we got of us. It's cute except for Lucy... maybe I can photoshop her head from another picture on.

We took everyone swimming at the fun club one morning too.

Graham loved jumping in to Grandpa.

Look at this cutie girl. She was so pleased getting to ride in this little car for the first time.

We went to have dinner at Babe's Chicken Dinner House (one of our favorite places ever) and in the middle of our dinner, we all started to get notifications on our phones (and everyone around the restaurant did too) about a tornado warning. I hate those warnings: "Tornado Warning in your area. Take Shelter Immediately." It's pretty nerve-racking. There was apparently going to be tennis ball-sized hail, so Tommy and Kurt and Kristen ran out to move the cars to the library parking garage down the street just in case. But Dane and Graham heard us talking about what to do and they both got so scared and started crying and wanted me to hold them. Neither of them like tornadoes at all, and Graham knows what the tornado sirens are and every time we hear them he flips out. So I was holding all three kids crying in the restaurant (because none of them would go to Grandma) and I wish I'd gotten a picture of the pathetic sight we were making. But, of course, the storm passed, we were fine, there was only a tiny bit of hail, and the kids were happy playing out in the rain afterwards while we waited for the cars. So all's well that ends well, and I only regret not getting that picture of all three kids crying on my lap in the restaurant.