Some birthday pictures ...

Yesterday was my 62nd birthday, and at this age birthdays are less than a big deal, and my expectations for celebration and remembrance are very low. Family is complicated, always, but loved and longed for nonetheless.

Kelly-O is very big on birthdays. She loves them; but then she loves life. She loves me too and shows me in many ways that I am special to her. I love her to pieces. 

 She decided that Brendan would be very pleased if he could make me a gift for my birthday, so she got this cute bird house kit from Lowe's, and then Brendan helped to assemble it (nails included) and pick out the paint colors and paint it all by himself.

 I could tell that Brendan was very proud to present his beautiful gift ...

 Look at that happy smile … gah! I love this child.

 Brendan is SO patient with me while I take picture after picture of his darling face ...

 We decided to hang the bird house on my side door, not far from my bird bath and bird feeder ...

 But Brendan was pretty certain that we needed to put seed INSIDE this little house so that the birds could eat at their convenience … so that is what Brendan is doing in the above picture--putting bird seed inside the little house.

 Brendan and Kelly looking at the birdhouse from inside the Beach House ...

 Kelly baked a super delicious angel food cake for my birthday AND brought fresh strawberries that she sweetened up extra special for me PLUS she had a brand new huge can of whipped cream to top it off with. It was yummy delicious. She baked us brownies too, but we were too stuffed to taste them!

 More birdhouse, bird seed pictures ...

 Dylan would have been here too except he was scheduled to have his four wisdom teeth removed Thursday. There were a few complications (like opening a sinus cavity) which necessitated only doing one side of his mouth and letting the other side wait--and Dylan was resting and recouping from his ordeal. Kelly was resting in the main room of the house and Brendan and I decided to play trucks in the playroom.

 We built a nice car/truck wash and got all of our Matchbox cars and trucks spankin clean ...

 We even had a nifty dryer (the small fan) just like a real truck wash!

 The following pictures were taken while Brendan was chillin' out on my porch ...

 He is so easy to photograph ...

 He has the chubbiest cheeks and the most interesting expressions ...

 My camera loves him ...

 I know. This is a lot of pictures of one little fellow ...

 What a sweetheart you are, Brendan. It was so fun to have you and your beautiful mama over for my birthday. Kelly brought a beautiful lunch that we enjoyed very much and then we just played and relaxed together the whole afternoon--wonderful!

Little Fellow's very fun mustache … yikes … what a kiddo.

My first time at the Children's Museum with Brendan!

I had the day off work Tuesday and decided to take my dear little fellow to the Children's Museum because we had never been there together before. Brendan has BEEN to this museum lots of times, and I have been there several times too -- but never together!

I posted a ton of pictures because I took 100's (I did!); but these kind of tell their own story without narration, which is one of the reasons why I like them.

I think by far BUBBLES were Brendan's favorite; again, because he is a cause-and-effect sort of little soul, and he is very analytical and … smart … and loves to figure things out … and he is good at it!

Brendan experimented with all the different shaped bubble makers ...

He was SO INTENSE!

But also very pleased. :)

Brendan HAS to look at things from every angle possible. He has a very L-O-N-G attention span, can play and play and play, re-examine, play some more, and you can see the wheels turning in his little brain with each activity--he definitely gets the most out of any activity.

There was a climbing wall just Brendan's size ...

Brendan did not get very HIGH, but again, he was very scientific about his exploration and caught on how to position his hands and feet in no time at all.

There was a very fun music corner that Brendan got real excited about ...

In the picture below, he is drumming with all of his heart on these pots and pans while singing ...

And then he decided to crawl into a pretend dog house and rest ...

And we watched the bees for awhile ...

And played on this fun slide ...

Ah … but then we went BACK to the bubble place and it was time to get inside the bubble machine to see if he could make a GIANT bubble that surrounded his entire body ...

The trick is that you have to be VERY patient and pull this handle VERY slowly ...

Look at his pleased little face ...

Higher ...

and higher ...

and higher ...

Over his head! A giant bubble!

You did it, Brendan!

He was so careful and so pleased!

He got that giant bubble way above his head ...

Until finally it … popped! 

We spent a long time at the construction zone too ...

Brendan is so interested in all of this great stuff to do ...

And he does not get offended by pushy kids either. He just steps aside and tries another spot!

Because he is sweet right down to his chubby toes.

Brendan enjoyed the cool gas station too … we gassed up a whole bunch of cars!

It was a great two hours and to make the most of our dollars, I put our visit Tuesday towards a year membership so that we can come here on rainy/snowy days and play!