The Birthday Extravaganza

Ayden's birthday ended up being a 2-day event.

We started on Thursday night by making cupcakes for him to take to school. He had fun helping and was telling me which ones were for each of his friends. Friday after school, we Skype'd with Aunt Sarah, Uncle John, and Gerret & Anneke so he could open his gift from them. Technology just amazes me!

And it was.....his very own digital camera. He LOVES it!!

For dinner, we headed to John's Incredible Pizza (it seems it's becoming an annual tradition) with Grandma & Grandpa Frank and Uncle Matthew & Aunt Dominique.He was even tall enough to go on the Frog Jumper!He got home to find a great surprise....a new "big boy" bike from Grandma & Grandpa Frank. He got to ride it for a couple minutes in the dark before it was time to go to bed. (Don't worry - I went to get his helmet right after I took this picture)Saturday we got ready for his pirate party!We had lots of family over and Ayden loved the attention. He was trying to "read" each card as he opened them and guessed at who they were from. He had us cracking up!With the loot! Trying out his scooter from Grandma Newton! A cool pirate ship pumpkin that Uncle Matthew carved....excuse the face, it was the end of the night and he was done being cooperative.

A Rainy Pumpkin Patch

I took the day off last Monday to chaperone Ayden's preschool field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Here in the Sacramento area, THE place to go is Bishops, about 25 minutes from us. Normally it is super crowded, especially on the weekend, but there was no one there on Monday except for a few crazy school groups like us. We made it through our hay ride, picking out pumpkins, and a train ride in less that an hour. We still had lots of fun, even though we were so soaked!

3 Years Old!!!

Wow - 3 years old! I can't even believe it! We are loving most aspects of being 3. Ayden is independent, cute, funny, helpful, loving, and stubborn. We loved how these pictures turned out. They totally captured his personality and it was so funny how impressed the photographer with his cooperation.

At three, here are some things Ayden is doing:

• Singing songs....he makes up songs, sings songs from school, sings along with the radio
• Doing things "all myself"....he can get pick out his clothes, get himself dressed, go potty, play in the backyard, play on the computer
• Playing....."I Spy", board games, card games, guessing games, giving "clues" to tell us what he wants to do or what he sees, building
• Drawing....he loves drawing and writing - He likes to draw people & he's working on the letters in his name and will color anything if you give him a pen - I'm constantly amazed at how quickly his fine motor skills are improving.
• Learning....and school. He loves his teacher and his friends at school. He comes home every day singing a new song, talking about a new book they read, showing us a painting, or telling us a parable from the bible they learned about during "Jesus time." I am constantly surprised when he sees something and tells me what letter it starts with and the sound it makes. I never though my 3 year old would know all of his letters & sounds....I love it, though :)

3 year old stats

I took Ayden to the doctor for his 3-year check up yesterday (after going to the pumpkin patch in the rain-post on that coming soon).

Aside from me being super paranoid about him touching anything and using about a bottle and a half of purell, the appointment was great. He was really good and even thanked the nurse for taking his blood pressure - that was super cute! The doctor said his verbal skills seem pretty advanced (which we already knew) and he is one healthy and happy little boy!

He weighs 36 pounds and is 39 inches tall - 90th percentile all around, as usual.

The best part was no vaccinations needed until after he's 4, except that I need to take him to get the H1N1 vaccine, which I'm sure he'll be thrilled with since he freaked out when he got his regular flu shot a couple weeks ago. I'll have to bribe him with lollipops or something.

Everybody Dance Now!

My sister-in-law has been asking for this video for like a year now (since she gave him the dance cam last year for either his birthday or Christmas - I don't remember which). Well, it had dead batteries for a while and the other day we finally replaced them and I happened to have the camera upstairs too....this was the result. Someday he will kill me for not editing out the end, but I thought it was cute :)

Girls Weekend

The women in my family (and a couple guys too) headed up to Reno to celebrate my aunt's 50th birthday. We had tons of fun and decided it's something we should do more frequently. It was great to get away, even if it was only for one night!

My cousins decorated their mom's hotel room door & room (she was mortified!)All the girls at dinner... Slots!!

The BIG $5 margaritas By the time we got back to the hotel at 2am, the heels had to come off

Outdoor Fun

We've been enjoying our beautiful fall weather lately! Ayden just loves to play outside and we are so lucky to have a great neighborhood to play in!

Computer Nerds

I had to do some work when I got home the other day so I told Ayden he needed to play by himself. He said, "Mommy, I need to check my email too." and grabbed our old laptop that we let him use sometimes. He joined me on the bed and played his Playhouse Disney games while I did my work. It was so great that I was able to get my work done and spend time with him too! He's getting so good at using the computer, it's scary! When Ken got home, I told him to grab the camera and Ayden said, "Daddy has to take pictures of me checking my email."
*Disclaimer - please excuse the fact that I look like death - it had been a long day at work and Ken was supposed to take some pictures of just Ayden and he didn't, so you're stuck with me too*