Who Needs a Tom Tom When You Have a 3 yr Old

Since I was off today I took Caleb to meet his Nana for BSF (Bible Study Fellowship), typically she takes him so this was the first time for me to meet her at the church and I wasn't 100% where it was. Nana had given me directions so I had a general idea of where I was headed and I looked it up on Map Quest right before we left the house so I knew which street it was on. While we were driving Caleb asked if we were going to Nana and Papa's and I let him know that we weren't but that we were meeting Nana at BSF. I told him that he would have to help show me where the church was since I wasn't sure how to get there. It just so happened that we were at the part where I was a little fuzzy on the directions. Caleb matter of factly told me to 'go over the bumps' (aka the railroad tracks), after we crossed them he said 'go this way' and pointed to the left which I knew was the right way, next he said 'turn here' and pointed right but it wasn't the name of the street that I had seen on map quest so I headed up one more street to the street that was provided in the directions I looked up, all the while he is in the backseat protesting I had gone the wrong way. I later realized that the street he told me to turn on also passed by the church. As I was trying to figure out where to park I asked Caleb where does Nana usual park, as I was turning into a space he said 'right here' which is exactly where I was headed, I figured he was just saying that but a few minutes later Nana pulled up beside us. After I told her the events that had just occurred regarding Caleb giving me directions she informed me that where we parked was where they usually park and the street he directed me to turn down was actually the street they take. Crazy! Who needs GPS, all I need to do is start asking Caleb for directions :-)!

Shutterfly

Can you believe that Christmas is just right around the corner! It seriously seems like we were just wearing shorts and hunting Easter eggs and here it is time to start thinking about carrying down the boxes of Christmas decorations from the attic. While I've been super disorganized here lately and am not really sure I'm ready to start thinking about decorating for the holidays I am excited that within the next few weeks I will start finding Christmas cards from friends and family in my mailbox. It may be silly but I LOVE getting mail and especially love the holiday season when Christmas cards start coming in. I love getting to see how everyone's kids are growing up and especially enjoy those of you who are over achievers that include an annual Christmas letter with your cards. One thing that is super fun to me is seeing just how long of a chain of Christmas cards I can make.

For those of you that are a little more organized than I am right now you need to check out Shutterfly and some of the cute holiday cards ideas that they have for the season. They have some really cute card ideas to help you share some Christmas cheer and show off pictures of your family. The best thing is you don't have to fight the crowd or leave the comfort of your cozy blanket you can just put them together on-line and have them shipped directly to you. I love the picture card idea and can't wait to get busy taking pictures in order to create one of the folded Christmas cards this year. Hope you enjoy Shutterflys site and are able to find the perfect design for your Christmas cards this season.

Here are a couple of cute ideas that I'm currently thinking about using:

3 years old

Is it really possible that you are 3 today? I know that people always say that the time goes by fast but I had no idea just how quickly you would grow up. I'm so glad that I was able to take off work today and spend the day with you. I hope that today was a very special day for you and that you had as much fun as I did.

Here is a recap of our day together:


This morning we started things off with a trip to Krispy Kreme where you were able to see them make the donuts and ended up eating two donuts. You asked me for a third but I thought that two was probably plenty. You picked out a chocolate glazed donut with sprinkles and then they gave you a glazed donut for free since the "Hot Now" sign was on.

After we left Krispy Kreme I asked you what you wanted to do next and you said you wanted to go to the bookstore and play with the trains. Instead of going to the bookstore we went to Dilly Dally's where you were able to play with the train table they have set up.

Our next stop was K-Mart. I don't remember signing you up for their birthday club but evidently I did because I received an email with a coupon for $5 off a $5 toy purchase for your birthday. You had fun getting to go up and down the toy aisle in search of a birthday surprise. After talking you out of the First Act snare drum (you already have one but told me that you need 5) you decided on a car hauler. It was fun getting to see you look at all the toys and decide on which treat you wanted.

After K-Mart we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up a cake mix and stuff to make dinner. On our way there you asked if we could wash the car and since it was your day to pick what we did we stopped by Boomerang Car Wash and drove through the tunnel and washed the car.

You were a big helper in the kitchen this afternoon and helped me make your birthday cake that we enjoyed later tonight with Nana and Papa.
After Daddy got home we went to Chuck E Cheese where we cashed in your birthday coupon for 20 free tokens that we received for being part of their birthday club. You had a lot of fun running around playing and at the end of the night cashed in your tickets for 3 mini dum dum suckers.

Nana and Papa met up with us at Chuck E Cheese and afterward joined us at our house for taco soup and cake and ice cream. It's kind of funny that we started off the day with a chocolate glazed sprinkled donut and ended the day with a cake shaped and decorated like a chocolate glazed sprinkled donut.

Happy Birthday Caleb! Daddy and I love you lots and lots and hope that you have had a very special birthday. You are so full of life and energy and are such a joy and blessing to us.

Right Choices Corn Maze

Today after church we met the Keys and took a road trip to Missouri to the Right Choices Corn Maze. This was our first time to go so we weren't exactly sure what to expect.

We started out by first checking out the pumpkins.


Here the boys are trying to pick up the pumpkins.

The boys enjoyed getting to ride down the slide on potato sacks.

They also got to check out some of the animals on the farm.

It was a little warm out so the boys had to stop and get their sip on while we waited for the tractors to come back around for the hay ride.

Caleb loved the tire swing and probably would have been content riding on this for the majority of the afternoon.

I really thought Caleb's favorite event of the day would be the cow train but I was surprised when it ended up being the corn box (get it sandbox, corn box). He LOVED playing in the corn and literally threw himself into it and swam around.

At one point we looked over and he had taken off his shoes and was using it as a shovel. Definitely all boy and I have to give him props for his inventiveness.

Then he decided it wasn't enough to just have his shoes off he now needed to take off his socks.

We finally got him out of the corn box to go and take a ride on the cow train. He picked the very first cow right up front after the tractor. I asked him if he wanted to ride by himself or if he wanted Mommy or Daddy to ride with him and he said he wanted to ride by himself.

Of course no family outing would be complete without a total melt down and fit. This one occurred at the very end of the day and in case you didn't know it even corn mazes have a "time out" spot. (This picture totally cracks me up and is sadly one of my favorite. How pathetic is it that we made him set in time out at the corn maze. Hey it's all about "Right Choices" remember.)

Thanks Keys for letting us go with you!

The Little Gym

Today was Caleb's first official day in the Super Beasts class at The Little Gym! He has gone to The Little Gym before for a couple of other activities but this was his first day in class outside of the intro class we went to before we signed up. I had a little chat with him before we went about how he needed to listen to the teacher and that he wasn't going there to just play but that he was going to class. I'm not really sure he totally absorbed the whole listen to your teacher part but he evidently caught part of my speech because when David asked him how it went today Caleb responded by telling him that it was not play it was class.

He did a great job through the opening activities but there was really no gaining control once the teacher released him from the red mat to learn and practice some of the gymnastic exercises on his own. Overall he really enjoyed the class and I was very proud that he put up the shakers and balls when the teacher asked, although he was a little shy about it he told the class his name and my name when it was his turn, he participated in the activities with the parachute, for the most part did the warm up activities at the beginning of class and he at least tried 2 out of the 3 gymnastic activities when the teacher called and asked him to come over where the rest of the class was. I guess I'll cut him some slack on how he just ran around the last half of class since it was his first day and this is the first class of any kind that we have enrolled him in but I'm hoping that things get better as the weeks go on and the excitement of all the distractions in the room wear off (crossing my fingers really, really hard).

Here are a few pics from his first day in class:

-Playing with the toys before class starts-

-Practicing his forward roll

-Catching bubbles in one of the closing activities