Happy 3rd Birthday Gavin!

It's hard to believe it, but our first born is 3 years old!  Gavin turned 3 a few weeks ago, and had quite the birthday bash to celebrate.  We rented a bouncy house and all of Gav's toddler friends came over to help him jump and play!  Even the adults got in on the bouncing action!

But before Gav's party, he opened his present from Mommy and Daddy and had a whole day of birthday fun (Gav's birthday was my last day of summer break, so I took Declan to Miss Jeanne's so that Gavin could have a day of Mommy all to himself.  We will do the same thing for Declan on his birthdays.)

Below are a LOT of pics from Gavin's birthday fun!

Gav's birthday present from Mommy and Daddy: Tornado Golf.  A stream of air lifts the special golf balls in the air, giving Gavin a much better chance of lofting the balls into the air.  Here's a great action shot of Gav making contact.  He played with this toy for a good hour and a half in the morning, and took the golf balls with him everywhere we went for the next week.  Now he's over it of course :)  But Declan loves it (he crawls over and presses the button that lofts the balls, and then swats at the floating balls.

 Gavin and Mommy's day of birthday fun began at Panera for birthday lunch, which was followed by a trip to a new place: Make a Messterpiece.  Basically, its a big art studio for kids with lots of different art activities to do, some open ended, some more structured.  Here Gav is trying to glue foam pieces onto the paper.

 Painting.

 Embracing the artistic process.

 This was definitely the coolest activity in my opinion.  Toddlers get decked out in raincoats, pants, boots and goggles.  Then they select two drumsticks and go inside a glass room filled with instruments that are covered in paint.  So as Gav bangs on the drum, paint goes flying everywhere!  Gavin was totally against it at first (only because of all the clothes he had to wear) but he ended up going in two separate times and loved it!

 Action shot.

 My attempt to get a good pic of the crazy outfit.  Gav just wanted to get back to making a mess.

 The glass was practically sound proof, so Gavin would drum on the door when he wanted me to let him out.

 Super excited about the tin foil "alien" that Mommy helped him make.

 Gavin's Shrek birthday cake.  Gavin is still obsessed with the Shrek and Donkey cake toppers, so obsessed that we had to make a bed for them to sleep in so that Gav would stop taking them to bed and then losing them in the sheets at 3 am (meaning a 3am rescue mission by Mommy or Daddy)

 Enjoying some pre-bouncing eats.

 Mommy and Gavin give the bouncy house a test run.

 Gav and his buddy Eli growling at the parents like bears.

 I have no idea why Gav was making this face while we sang Happy Birthday to him.

 A great pic of a smiling Gav and most of his toddler friends.

 Grandpa Gillespie bounces with Gavin.

 Such a cute pic, even if the netting makes it hard to see clearly.

 Deckers and Grandma chilling on the grass.

 With a bouncy house in the backyard, it was hard to convince Gav to open his presents, but he loved them once he finally got into it!

 One tuckered out birthday boy!

 Kids are asleep, time for the "adults" to have some fun!

 The company we rented the bounce house from didn't pick it up until 1030 the next morning, so we got in some early morning bouncing before then!  Here's Grandma Gillespie and Gavin bouncing (Gav was asking Grandma to bounce for the past 24 hours, so she finally gave in!)

Sir Gavin and Sir Declan

So, we're obviously behind on our blogging.  The beginning of the school year combined with a packed social calendar means that we're back to a busy but fun schedule!

Gav's birthday was a few weeks ago (and that blog is next on the list of to-dos), and one of the presents he received was a pretty awesome cardboard castle from Aunt Shari and Uncle Andy.  Here's some pics of Gavin and Declan checking out their new royal digs:

Sir Gavin and his royal subject Blankie ruling over the kingdom.

 Sir Declan approaches the castle gate

 Dec about to sneak in while the guard is taking a nap...

 ...oh, so close!

 Aerial view of the knights

 Declan keeps a close eye on those outside the castle

 Lovin living like a royal!

 Castle window or drive thru?

Summer Break - Santa's Village

Another blog entry devoted to a single excursion, this time its Santa's Village.  Santa's Village is, in their words, an Azoosement park.  Basically, its an amusement parks geared towards little kids, with rides similar to those you see at a carnival or county fair.  There are some more intricate rides as well, but its mainly cars/planes/boats/animals that go around in a circle and sometimes up and down, cars on a track, trains on a track, a roller coaster, a carousel, pony rides, you get the idea.  There are also animal exhibits throughout the park, including a petting zoo.  And of course, there is Santa's "summer" house, where you can visit Santa in the off season.

My parents took me here when I was little (although I think its changed quite a bit since I was a kid), so I wanted to take Gav and Dec here to check it out.  I'm glad we did because the boys had a great time and we will definitely go back.  I firmly believe in the correlation between the length of Gavin's nap and the amount of fun he had, and he took a 4 hr nap after visiting Santa's Village, so I would say it was a definite success!

Here are our pics from Santa's Village:

Our second ride of the day, the speedboats.  All four of us (me, Dec, Gav and Grandpa) rode on the carousel first, but I didn't get any pics of that.  Dec loved the carousel, even though we had to stick to the lame benches :)

 Grandpa and Declan enjoying the day.

 Self pic of Gav and I waiting for the hot air balloon ride to start.  Gavin loved this ride, which goes up pretty high, and swings around pretty fast.  Mommy and her dislike of spinny rides did not like this ride so much.  I spent the entire time looking at the floor of the basket praying that I would not be the mom that lost her cookies on a kiddie ride!

 Gav and Grandpa riding the monster truck train ride (and that devil balloon ride in the background!)

 Any ride that involves pretend driving is a hit with the Gavster.

 Self pic of Gav and I on the plane ride.

 Dec enjoying some time in the shade while we took a break for lunch.  

 Gavin driving the car with Grandpa working the gas.

 This was always one of my favorites as a kid...

 ...and its clearly a Gavin favorite as well.  Look at those smiles from both of the boys!

 I've taught Gavin not to pet animals near their heads, but apparently I should have also told him that butts are off limits too!

 Hard to capture in a still pic, but Gavin was doing a "goat happy dance" as he called it.

 I remember this from when I was a kid as well.  Its just a 2 story slide, but it is always a big hit with the kids.  The minute Gavin caught sight of this he leaped out of the stroller and said "I go on this" and didn't wait for approval before climbing up the stairs.

 Loving it!  I didn't keep count, but I'd say Gav went down this slide 12+ times.

 Gav gets a very serious look on his face when he is on any type of driving ride.  Its good to see he is such a focused driver.

 We ended our day with a trip to Santa's house.  Gavin listened very carefully to Santa, and told him "Ho Ho Ho!"

Summer Break - The Shedd

This weekend our family of four got to join Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Kyle and Aunt Allison at the Shedd Aquarium!  The Shedd is a Gavin favorite; its where I took Gav for his 2nd birthday last year.  This year Dec got to join us, and one of the reasons I love the Shedd is because its engaging for even the smallest kiddo.  So many of the tanks are close to the ground so that little ones can toddle up, and the fish/whales/sharks/otters/etc are exciting for even babies to watch.  Plus they have a Polar Play Zone where kids can interact and blow off some energy!

We took a LOT of pics at the Shedd, so I figured it deserved its own blog entry.  Here are our pics:

Enjoying a snack at Uncle Kyle and Aunt Allison's before we head out.

Checking out the giant fish and turtles in the Caribbean exhibit.

Gav and Daddy are really excited about the otters!

A great family pic with the skyline in the background.

We told Gav that he had to stay behind the railing, and here you can just see the struggle: obey the rules, or get closer to that penguin?

The answer was get closer to those darn penguins!

Across from the penguin exhibit is an area where kids can climb and slide and in Gavin's words "play like a penguin."

Gavin was paying attention when the guide said that penguins hop from place to place :)

Penguins slide head first but toddlers slide feet first (for now!)

Gavvy and I in the play submarine.

Watching the dolphins.  Gavin kept saying his catchphrase "Oh my baby."  We don't know where he got this from, but he always says it when he's super excited.

Watching the mommy and baby dolphins.

Dec loved the dolphins too.  It was really neat to watch him track the dolphin all over the tank.

Grandpa and Gav watching the dolphin swim upside down.

A major plus of being 3 feet tall: cutting right to the front of the exhibit and sitting under the signs :)

Gav and Uncle Kyle checking out the sharks in the Wild Reef.  Gavin told me this was his favorite part.

Dec modeling the 3-D glasses we wore to watch the Ice Age 4D movie.

I decide to join in on Dec's fashion statement.

Dec enraptured with Daddy.

Declan loved the movie, except for some of the 4th D (I kept trying to figure out what the 4th D in 4D was...I quickly figured it out when I got poked in the back and had water shot in my face...the 4th D is messing with the audience, and ticking off babies)

Declan and Uncle Kyle watching the sea otters.

Aunt Allison watches Gavin try to dismantle the anemone (probably not spelled right, but I'm not looking that up :)