Ryan's birthday was on a Saturday this year, and since we had already had his party the day before, I knew we needed to do something special as a family. We gave him some choices and he decided he wanted to go to the zoo (yay! That was my first choice too!) We hadn't been since he was a year and a half, so I was excited to go back now that he is quite a bit older.
We had a great time. The NC Zoo is fabulous for animals (as far as I can tell) - the habitats seem large & comfortable, but that does make it a little less convenient for human visitors... especially when a certain 3-year-old decides his "legs are broken" and he doesn't want to walk at all.
I only took the single stroller, figuring that the boys could trade off and we could have Kaeden in the carrier some of the time and Ryan could walk some of the time. Nope. Ryan spent the vast majority of the day in the stroller or on Daddy's shoulders. Here's Ryan, lounging, (enjoying his birthday boy status) and planning out our visit. He loved the map!
First stop, giraffes:
and then elephants:
(as compared to Oct of 2009:)
One of the highlights for Ryan was the sprinklers they had at various places:
Kaeden got in on the action a bit too :)
Spoiling our birthday boy with some ice cream (in addition to the popcorn, hot dog, etc. - the zoo is not exactly a healthy place to eat!):
... and of course the fake animals that one can climb on are at least as exciting as the real ones...
At least the polar bear decided to play!
The zoo was long & tiring , but we all had a great time and I was so glad to be able to do something special as a family for Ryan's big day.
That night, we got to celebrate some more with Uncle Bret, Auntie, and Atticus. Ryan got to pick what he wanted for dinner (chick-fil-a, of course), we had a special cake for dessert, and he got to open presents.
Here is Ryan's cake:
Last year, he requested an Elmo cake and decided at the time that this year, it would be cookie monster and then big bird and it would just rotate for the rest of his life. So, although he is not really interested in sesame street at all right now, he insisted on keeping with his plan and having a cookie monster cake.
It took a number of tries, but eventually he blew out the candle all by himself:
and then decided to dive right in:
(we did stop him & insist that we cut him a piece first!)
not quite so messy this year:
the answer to how old he is now:
and finally time to open presents:
Birthday, day 2, was a big success - much more so than day 1 :) It was good to see lots of 3-year-old smiles!
We had a great time. The NC Zoo is fabulous for animals (as far as I can tell) - the habitats seem large & comfortable, but that does make it a little less convenient for human visitors... especially when a certain 3-year-old decides his "legs are broken" and he doesn't want to walk at all.
I only took the single stroller, figuring that the boys could trade off and we could have Kaeden in the carrier some of the time and Ryan could walk some of the time. Nope. Ryan spent the vast majority of the day in the stroller or on Daddy's shoulders. Here's Ryan, lounging, (enjoying his birthday boy status) and planning out our visit. He loved the map!
First stop, giraffes:
and then elephants:
(as compared to Oct of 2009:)
One of the highlights for Ryan was the sprinklers they had at various places:
Kaeden got in on the action a bit too :)
Spoiling our birthday boy with some ice cream (in addition to the popcorn, hot dog, etc. - the zoo is not exactly a healthy place to eat!):
... and of course the fake animals that one can climb on are at least as exciting as the real ones...
At least the polar bear decided to play!
The zoo was long & tiring , but we all had a great time and I was so glad to be able to do something special as a family for Ryan's big day.
That night, we got to celebrate some more with Uncle Bret, Auntie, and Atticus. Ryan got to pick what he wanted for dinner (chick-fil-a, of course), we had a special cake for dessert, and he got to open presents.
Here is Ryan's cake:
Last year, he requested an Elmo cake and decided at the time that this year, it would be cookie monster and then big bird and it would just rotate for the rest of his life. So, although he is not really interested in sesame street at all right now, he insisted on keeping with his plan and having a cookie monster cake.
It took a number of tries, but eventually he blew out the candle all by himself:
and then decided to dive right in:
(we did stop him & insist that we cut him a piece first!)
not quite so messy this year:
the answer to how old he is now:
and finally time to open presents:
Birthday, day 2, was a big success - much more so than day 1 :) It was good to see lots of 3-year-old smiles!
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