Clark's 3rd Birthday Party

Fire truck cake!

We had Clark's 3rd birthday party today. It was incredible. We rented a room at our local Fire Department and invited our friends to come eat yummy foods and a fire truck cake!  The kids played in firetruck costumes, with fire truck toys, in a fire truck popup house, play with a fake burning city,  colored, and got to wear firefighter hats! We even had a tour of the fire station by Fireman Dan!

I don't know why we are laughing, but we are. This non-Greenwell is Mary, and her daughter Josie who is 3 months older than Iris and considers herself Iris' babysitter/keeper/bestfriend/2nd mom.

Little Fire Truck House and friends.

Kids playing "nicely"

Owen playing sweetly by himself. Driving fire truck over to burning city to save the day!

Mr. Precious! (that's John Paul over in the corner. Hasn't he grown?!!)

Lots of friends. Will Clark and his mom, Katie are in the front.

Fireman Dan demonstration

Fire station tour.

Watch how fast he gets dressed!

High Fives for the Fireman!

Happy Family!

Touring the ambulance.

Checking out the Ambulance. That girl in pink is little Bernadette!

Clark drives a firetruck with Iris by his side!

I'm driving the truck!

Happy Birthday time!

Blowing

Blowing

Gone!

We did 3 candles with 1 to grow on. This was an Averill tradition, but not a Greenwell one. It turns out about half of our guests did it too, and half didn't.  If you watch the blowing out the cake photos, Iris is blowing too!

We've been talking about this firetruck birthday party for months, and I'm so glad the day was finally here. It completely fulfilled all of my own dreams for an awesome birthday party and I'm pretty sure Clark and everyone else loved it too! 

I'd like to thank "The Cake Boss" for inspiring our fire truck cake. I'd like to thank Tom for buying and prepping all of our delicious gluten-free food. I'd like to thank all of our friends who came to have fun with us today. Finally, I'd like to thank Clark for making my dreams come true by being my baby (although he would say, "I'm not a baby, I'm a boy!"), and for turning 3 and allowing us to have this awesome party! 

An interview with Clark

An interview with Clark about the Meadowside Nature Center Preschool Field trip on Tuesday where we played in an indoor outdoor exhibit featuring caves with a slide, eating lunch outside, and playing with dishes.  

Clark, tell me what you did today.

Today, Kathryn said no pushing. I push Owen. No pushing. 

Tell me what we did today. 

We saw Owen and Emily and Kathryn and Sara and we went down the slide.

Where was the slide? 

In the dark cave.

And then what did we do?

Lunch. We ate lunch outside. 

What did you do after you ate lunch?

Sticks with Owen. We picked up fireworks. We collected fireworks. (referring to firewood. Then he sings) What's gonna work? Team work! What's gonna work? Team work! (because they worked together to move giant sticks)

Anything else?

Mommy, then I chopped fireworks for you. Then I made some coffee for you. Then we went down the slide. Then we hit. No hitting. 

Preschool

Here are some photos from the co-op Preschool I do with my friends Sarah Berry and Kathryn Farmer. Sarah is Emily's mom, and Kathryn is Owen's mom. These photos are post-lesson, during "crazy time", what some real preschools call "free play". We each lead a lesson about once a month. This lesson was about night time. Clark wore his pajamas. He is getting opinionated about his clothing and loves the many pairs of spiderman pajamas he has.

And Owen, he loves Owen too!

Pictures finally!

I tried to load some photos using Firefox instead of Explorer and it worked! This is Clark and Bernadette enjoying some yummy gluten free chocolate cupcakes. I found him a birthday candle (kind of) like the one my brother had when we were growing up. You light it each year and let the candle burn down to the age. I got one for Iris too!
Here are Clark and his cousin, Jordan, having fun at the Postal Museum! It was awesome to have her here! Jo-jo, we miss you already!
Here is Clark and his new bestie - Owen Farmer.

Here am I with my babies at the Nature center.
Here's Tom with the kids. Clark loves to hold Iris. He is a wonderful big brother!

Ball Pit

Clark and his friend Owen played in a fun indoor playground earlier this week. I took some video from my phone and we'll see how it comes across on the blog. It would be super sweet if I could load these straight from my phone like I do with pictures quite often, but since they are so short, they do load quickly from the computer.