In the days leading up to their birthday we had a lot of discussions about what happens on somebody's birthday. We decided that there was supposed to be balloons, presents, cake, candy, and a birthday adventure. They are at the age when it is still difficult to understand terms like three more days, so it was a bit exhausting explaining it a bazillion times!
Somehow though the day snuck up on me and the night before I suddenly realized I had not baked them their cakes or even bought birthday cards! I felt like a horrible mother and immediately grabbed a Betty Crocker mix, put hubby in charge of baking the cakes and blowing up the balloons. I rushed to a 24-hr drug store to get the birthday cards and ice cream!
In the morning they were greeted with balloons all over, so as soon as they came down the stairs they were very excited! I truly hope they are always this excited when they see balloons for their birthday!
I imagine it must be pretty difficult for Sam to understand that it is not his birthday too! But we explained it as best as we could and hoped that he would still have a fun day.
After the balloon fights had calmed down a bit we had Ben & Carlee exchange their gifts to each other. This was so cute that I had to include it! And yes, it made me teary to see that my kids are using manners and gratitude without me coaxing them to!
After a yummy breakfast we headed out to a local fall festival. We started by picking out little pumpkins to paint.
No surprises here. Sam is painting with red, Carlee is painting with pink, and Ben picked up two brushes! I love the look on Carlee's face - looks like she is thinking that she cannot believe he is doing that!! And I love the look on Ben's even more, just like he was meant to be painting with two brushes, maybe he was trying to get green!
The boys completed the hay bale maze.
Then we went to walk part of the 5 acre corn maze. We let the kids take turns leading the way. We soon found ourselves hopelessly lost!
At one point, after being lost for some time, I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get back out. I casually asked "How are we going to get out of here?" Sam's reply was, "Just a minute, let me check my GPS!" Now that was funny and I nearly lost it!
It didn't take long before Carlee was close to a meltdown so this became her mode of travel for awhile. Sure changed her attitude in a hurry! Thankfully all the time Daddy spent in the jungle seemed to pay off and he managed to lead us out of the maze!
After escaping the maze we stopped in at the petting farm. I love the look on Sam's face in this photo. He was saying "Don't worry Baby Cow, your Mama will come back soon and let you out of jail" Haha I had a lot of laughs that day!
Ben & Sam figured out how to work the hand pumps quickly, Carlee not so much.
The highlight of Ben's day was riding behind a real John Deere tractor during our hayride!
Sam was the only one brave enough for a pony ride.
The last stop was at the SoyBean pit, the kids sure had fun. I did have to strip them down when we got to the van to empty all the beans out of everywhere!
After a really fun birthday adventure at the fall festival we headed home for cake and more presents. I did feel really bad about not making them a special cake, but once I saw how much fun they had putting on their own icing I felt much better! Carlee wanted purple icing, so I started with blue food coloring but when I went to put in the red she nearly had a fit! Something about red being Sam's favorite color. She seemed to be happy with the blue icing that was more a shade of gray!
Happy Birthday Ben & Carlee!
This was right before she stuck her hand right into the cake!
Ben enjoying his cake! It was a truly great day!
1 comment:
What sweet kids! You are forgiven for taking so long to update the blog -- at least you were taking pictures and videos during the break. :)
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