Jack's Birthday Survey- 3 years old

I've seen some sites where people do the same survey with their kids each year starting at 3 years old, and I thought it was a cute idea.

These are his verbatim answers (my interpretation is red):

1. What is your favorite color?  Red
2. What is your favorite toy?  Basketball
3. What is your favorite fruit?  Apple & Banana
4. What is your favorite tv show?  Curious George & Max and Ruby
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?  Apple and Banana again
6. What is your favorite outfit?  A red one
7. What is your favorite game?  Soccer
8. What is your favorite snack?  Graham Cracker
9. What is your favorite animal?  Moo.  Cow.
10. What is your favorite song?  The Do Da Song  (Old McDonald)
11. What is your favorite book?  Olivia
12. Who is your best friend?  My daddy
13. What is your favorite breakfast?  Apple
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?  Backyard  (He just likes to play on our back porch)
15. What is your favorite drink?  Apple Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday?  Birthday Party
17. What do you like to take to bed with you?  My Blanket  (I'm shocked he didn't say his dog)
18. What are you good at?  Soccer.  Kick!!
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Cado  (Avocado)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Big

Jack is 3!

Jack turned 3 yesterday, and we were so excited about his birthday since he loves birthday parties.  The morning before his birthday I asked him what special thing was the next day and he said, "My birthday party!!!"  We started his birthday off with chocolate chip pancakes, apple juice, and fruit...all his favorite breakfast items.  After Owen woke up from his morning nap we went over to the mall.  I bought him one of his gifts, we had lunch, rode the carousel, and I bought him a chicken balloon.  Jack had a hard time deciding on what animal he wanted, because they had dinosaurs, zebras, giraffes, miniature dachshunds, and a bunch of other funny animals.  He kept changing his mind, so I steered him in the chicken direction, because he loves making chicken sounds.  He ran through the mall with it shouting, "cock-a-do, cock-a-doodle-do!"

We did facetime with my mom, and I just had to share this photo!  She wore a special hat to say Happy Birthday :).  Jack also was excited to open their birthday card that afternoon, because he loves opening mail.  He took the liberty of opening one of Jonathan's birthday cards last month while I was in another room.

That evening we had Jack's birthday party.  I chose a meal that I knew he would eat so that we didn't have to have any dinner time battles over food and could just enjoy ourselves.  We had chicken tacos with guacamole, shredded cheese, and fresh pico de gallo.  Jack jumped right up to the table to start spooning food onto his plate, so I was so happy he was excited about the dinner.  We even got some birthday plates to make it a little special.  

After dinner Jonathan took Jack and Owen on a walk around the block so that I could do a little decorating for cupcake and presents time.  I hung up streamers he could run through into the kitchen, put some balloons on his chair, set up the cupcakes with his '3' candle, and put his presents on the table.  When he got home he was so excited to run through the streamers and sit in his seat for a cupcake.  The Happy Birthday song was an improvement from last year.  Last year he cried really hard the entire song.  This year he just looked down and wouldn't make eye contact with us :).

One of the many things I love about Jack is that he really loves every present he gets.  He doesn't open a gift and throw it to the side quickly to move on to more presents.  He always plays with each gift before opening the next.  He's a fun person to give gifts to.  

He kicked his soccer ball all over the house the whole evening.  He also played his woof, woof guitar.

Jonathan's friend, Chris, got Jack another puzzle similar to the transportation puzzle he is obsessed with.  Jack and Jonathan put together the puzzle, and Jack was excited to show me the finished product.  He is a true puzzle lover.

His actual birthday is over now, but the celebration will continue through the weekend.  Grammy and Grampy Nichols' gift is on it's way, Chris is getting him something else, and my parents come in town tomorrow to have a fun birthday weekend for both Jack and Owen.  Owen's birthday is on Wednesday, so we have a lot more celebrating to do!!

Halloween with our Pirate and Pumpkin

I'm getting to this post late, but I wanted to get it posted before Jack and Owen's birthdays!  We had such a fun week leading up to Halloween with how excited Jack was.  Jack wanted to watch any cartoon with a Halloween theme, particularly the Halloween Curious George 1-hour special.  I heard "Halloween Curious George?" asking to watch it more times than I can count.  We also did some fun Halloween crafts.  I posted the spider hand print craft on the last post, which are still hanging on our window, but we did a few others as well.  Jonathan and Jack painted a mason jar with a pumpkin face on it (can't really see it in the picture) and put a candle inside for our kitchen window.  Jack and I painted the small pumpkins that we got at Tanaka Farms.  

I found the idea for a toddler Halloween wreath on pinterest, and Jack had a great time with this craft Halloween morning.  I wrapped the wreath in this orange tape-like material that Jonathan had in the garage and bought Halloween stickers and ribbon for Jack to put on it.  It was a super easy craft, and Jack loves anything with stickers.  The wreath has since been pulled apart by Jack and the stickers have been stuck on our sliding glass door frame outside on the patio.

The night before Halloween Jack and Jonathan did some pumpkin carving.  Here is Jack with the finished product:

Jack chose his costume this year, and he chose to be a pirate.  It's fun that he is at an age where he has an opinion on it...opinions start young :).  Owen was a pumpkin, and a cute one at that.  It is so hard to get a picture of them where someone isn't moving.

We were a little nervous Jack wouldn't put his costume on for Halloween, because he refused to try it on in the days leading up to Halloween.  It was pretty easy to get him to put it on that night with the promise of chocolate!

Jonathan told me when we got the pumpkin costume in the mail that it swayed more towards girly, but I thought he was crazy and it was 100% unisex.  Well, little Owen was mistaken for a girl at about 6-7 houses.  We were asked "her" name and if "she" wanted candy, so I guess Jonathan was right :).  I stand by my pumpkin costume choice, because he was just too cute!

Both last year and this year we started at our neighbor's house to get a feel for how to trick-or-treat.  I have a pretty much identical picture (minus the presence of Owen) from last Halloween :).

 

I was the photographer for the night while Jonathan went up to the doors, but I did get one picture of me with the pumpkin:

I've never been big on Halloween, but it is definitely a lot more exciting when you have kids.  It's just fun seeing how excited they are and dressing them up!