Calvin's Birthday Breakfast and a Trip to Fairyland

 The Bean turned 3!!

We had done a little birthday celebration with our cousins on Easter Sunday, but of course we wanted to make Calvin's actual birthday special too!

Birthday Breakfast is becoming a big tradition for our fam. I always want to make it special, but this time I think I took it pretty far with party decor since we didn't throw Calvin a party with his friends this year. Calvin was still on his mushy mush diet following his palate repair surgery, so we couldn't do any of our usual birthday breakfast goodies. Instead, I made a big batch of smoothies for Calvin, Henry, James, myself, and our cousin Hartley (who took the pics for us). I even taped three birthday candles to the ends of three drinking straws so that Calvin could blow them out :)

Birthday Breakfast! Smoothies all around!

Calvin checks out his birthday gifts. He was especially excited about the bubble machine!

And then he found his new tricycle!!

Calvin loves his new ride! His feet do reach the pedals, I promise! I realize it doesn't look like it in that pic, ha ha :) The bar attachment allows a grown-up to push him and help him steer while he gets the hang of it and it can be removed when we don't need it anymore. He has a helmet too, which is a hand-me-down from his friend Sagan.



Speaking of Sagan, he and his baby brother Izzy and their mama joined Calvin and Henry and me at Children's Fairyland in Oakland to spend Calvin's birthday among the storybook characters and magical creatures there.

Entering Fairyland, welcomed by a yellow dragon and an elf blowing bubbles from his mushroom perch.

Children's Fairyland is an amusement park for littles with rides and playgrounds and displays that help tell folk tales and fairy tales like The Three Little Pigs, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Pinnochio, and many others.

Sagan and Henry as two of the three little pigs... Calvin didn't want to go into the houses! You can see the house of bricks in the background. Maybe Calvin is the wolf?

These little blue boxes accompany each different story area. You can get a special key to use on these boxes to hear the story and a song. Calvin is listening to Snow White sing "I'm Wishing" from the Disney movie.

Riding the Gryphon on the Alice in Wonderland carousel. Henry is asleep in the Ergo. I feel like this pic makes it look like my arm is in a sling, but it's Henry's head under the Ergo hood.

Crawling through the tunnel into Mr. MacGregor's garden in the Beatrix Potter neighborhood.

A ride on the Jolly Trolley! 

Rachel, Izzy, and Sagan in the car next to us!

I know Calvin was exhausted by the end of our day at Fairyland, but he didn't want to leave! He just wanted to hang out with this elf on the mushroom and chase the bubbles around! He still says the bubbles were his favorite part.

He may be tiny, but he is looking more and more like a big boy every day. He is as curious and independent as ever. He has such a sweet and open heart. Always thoughtful of his baby brother and friendly to others. Being a toddler is not easy! Sharing is hard, having grown-ups set limits is hard, learning new skills is hard. Going through surgery and recovery is most definitely hard! But Calvin's sunny charm shines through all of it, and God's love shines through him.

Happy 3rd birthday to our Bean, and many many more!