Celebrating February 5th!

Stephen's off day from work happened to coincide with James actual birthday, so we were thankful to be able to celebrate James' official birthday together as a family of three (I recognize that we won't have tons more "just the three of us" moments and definitely not another birthday celebration before Jude makes his debut!). We asked James what he'd like to do on his birthday, and he requested the McWane Center (his very favorite place in the world, I think!) where we purchased a family membership with his birthday money last year and have used so many times this year! It was a rainy day so it turned out to be the perfect choice (fun fact: it has truly rained every single year on February 5th since the day he was born.) He really "gets" his birthday this year and we just had the best day! When we were leaving the McWane Center I picked him up and he hugged me and said "Mama, you'll always be my friend." That's all the affirmation that a Mama needs in the world to know that her little one felt special on his birthday. Here is a little recap of the day in pictures:

We started out the day with chocolate chip pancakes!

The McWane Center has a new exhibit called Animal Grossology. It was extremely educational (and factual) but it does feature all the gross things about animals from burping, to pooping, to blood-sucking insects and more. We were not acting extremely mature (and were being so silly), but it honestly was a fun thing to do with "my boys" for James' birthday. We just laughed and laughed until our stomachs hurt. 

Sliding out of an eel's belly!

I think this was a tapeworm... I know, I know... (but it was educational! right??!)

Stephen smelling a skunk's spray. This was after he came and found me and asked me to smell this smell (without the answer revealed) along with fox's urine. I about threw up - not the nicest thing to do to your pregnant wife!

This was a fun little game called burp-a-baby where you shoot ping pong balls representing baby frogs to keep them from predators. James loved this game!

James wanted me to slide out of an eel's stomach too!

Match the animal to the poop game with the view finder...I seriously am not making this stuff up!

Pumping up a leech with "blood"... (Nana, are you still reading this post?!?)

James' reaction to "it's your birthday right now!" We set an alarm for 4:27 (EST). 

Dressed like Clifford and playing drums in the Clifford Exhibit. 

Taking a short nap (with Popcorn Douglas the stingray) on the way to Izzo's Illegal Burrito for his birthday dinner. 

Opening up his gift from Mama and Daddy at home - a Little Einstein's playset that we found on eBay. It's definitely not the most expensive or "wow" present we've ever gotten him for his birthday as far as size/price but he absolutely adores it. It's priceless to him! 

Closing out the day singing "Happy Birthday" one more time with a cookie cake!

We also picked up our new-to-us van the night of James' 3rd Birthday (they were waiting on a part to service it at the dealership for about a week!). He was so excited about picking up "Scooter" and believes that our car transformed into the van (just like Rocket on Little Einstein's). He also thinks that we bought him this van for his birthday. Daddy said that won't likely happen again until his 16th Birthday. More details on God providing a van for us on the blog soon... :)