Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Role Playing and Playfully Rolling

My friend Sarah had the best idea for a 3 year old birthday party... starting the day with a tour of her local fire house followed by pizza at kid friendly restaurant next door.  How could 3 year olds not love a restaurant that has a giant chicken statue on the top of its delivery trucks?

 Isn't it every kids dream to sit in the driver's seat of a real fire truck?  I was very impressed with all that the firefighters let the kids do.  They were very patient, helpful and excited to have us there.

 Mehandis and the birthday boy, Daniel, sitting next to the real driver of the fire truck.  When asked if there were any questions, Mehandis raised his hand to say "Our smoke detector needs new batteries".  Which he knew because it started beeping the day before... can't keep any secrets these days I suppose.

 The truck that was housed at this location was a "water" truck, versus the ladder truck that Mehandis had pictured on his shirt, so everyone got a turn hosing down the street. 

The following week the boys got the opportunity to try out some different roles for a Halloween party.
 Shiver me timbers, quite a fierce pirate Mehandis was. 
Thank goodness he was excited to be something other than a couple of earlier suggested side characters from Thomas the Tank or Cars movies!

Abera went through two cow costumes that day... good thing we have multiple bovine apparel at our house.
 While Abera was able to join in on the festivities at the costume party... he never did make it to the real deal on Halloween.  He ended up falling asleep in the above exer-saucer while the rest of the house were getting their costumes together.  The baby calf then slept in his crib from 5:30 until 1 in the morning when he realized he needed his "feed".

Michael and I have not carved pumpkins in years.  Mehandis enjoyed his handy-work with sticker decorating while Michael and I took suggestions as to what needed to be carved.  Mine is the biggest jack-o-lantern... attempted a spider.  Think I could use more practice!
 Halloween night was a very fun time.  We stayed warm by the fire pit, which Michael moved to the front yard.  Mehandis enjoyed collecting candy with a couple of his different friends - a dinosaur, cow, Tigger and a fairy.

I re-purposed a bridesmaid dress from my friend Kerbie's wedding.  Mehandis had fun calling me "Queen of Hearts" and sometimes "Queen of Parts" throughout the night.  Hmm... what to be next year. 

Everyone enjoyed a lazy morning the next day, while getting a chance to visit and share a apples and banana pancake breakfast with Erin and baby Elisa.  Well, most everyone was choosing the lazy route... Mehandis was quite wound up (perhaps we can point blame at the candy consumption that began before 9AM?).

After saying goodbye to our guests we traveled to Lapham Peak for another family hike.
 As usual Abera was a good "rider" for the walk.

And we figured out the trick for making the hike more fun for Mehandis... rolling down (and up) the trails.


Sometimes I complain that 2 of my 3 boys are a bit too busy (movement or event-wise)... but I love all of the activities that I get to enjoy because of it!
 

1 comment:

Jess said...

Looks like a really fun weekend!