Wednesday Weekly Recap - Happy 3rd Birthday, Dylan!!!

Dylan turned three years old this past Saturday. We continued the Chicago celebration for the whole week!! JoAnne, Jeremy and Quentin came into town on Friday. We had a great time playing outside!! It's nice that even though we don't live in the same city, we've gotten to spend a lot of time with the Turner family. D absolutely lights up when they are around and loves playing with Quentin!

One of D's favorite pastimes...throwing balls on the roof!!

Teaching Q about baseball!

Teaching Q about colored baths!

Making cake pops for the party on Sunday!

On Saturday morning, D's actual birthday, we went to music class and then met Namma at Chick Fil A :)

Aunt Beth, Uncle Dennis and Alyssa gave Dylan a Ford F150 power wheel for his birthday! We put it together on Friday night, and finally it was charged and ready to go after nap time. D is a little hesitant while driving it, but I know he will spend hours in it once he gets the hang of it!! A huge thank you to Beth, Dennis and Alyssa!!!!




We headed to my parents' house for dinner on Saturday night...D's favorites spaghetti and meatballs and, of course, cupcakes!!

Q could get used to all of these swing sets!

Papa got new squeeze icing! The kiddos loved using it!!

One of D's favorite new toys! A putting machine that returns golf balls!!

Annie O came for the weekend!!

Finished cake pops for the party!! Jeremy tried one to make sure they were good :)

On Sunday, we had a birthday party for Dylan at Deanna Rose (a local farmstead). I was a bit nervous planning an outdoor party for April 1st...I figured we could have anything from three feet of snow on the ground to 90 degree weather. As luck would have it, we got mid-80's and sunny!!! A huge thanks to everybody who came to celebrate with us!! Dylan had a blast and it is so nice to be surrounded by so many people that love us!!

A little Diego pre-party...note Q is much more interested in watching D. Every time D would do something, Q would mimic...it was adorable!!

Feeding the baby goats!! I think all of the animals were in a bit of shock with all the people around (it was opening day at Deanna Rose). The baby goats usually attack anybody with a bottle...on Sunday, it was hard to find a goat that wanted to eat!!



Fishing at Deanna Rose was great!!! I would say we averaged catching a fish every few minutes!! Including a few of extreme size!!!

My first fish!!!

The extremely big fish that Emily caught!!

The extremely tiny fish that Andrea caught!! I'm not sure it was even two inches long!! Although, impressively, she managed to save the worm!!

Enjoying the tractor races!!





D has been excited about riding a pony at Deanna Rose for the past six months! You have to be three to ride on the pony and he's been talking nonstop about it!!! We had Ella go first to show him that it wasn't too scary! Unfortunately, once it was Dylan's turn, he froze. We waited in line a few times (D kept wanting to go back), but the closest D ever got was sitting on the pony. He's already talking about wanting to go back and ride the pony! I'm sure by this summer D will be riding like a true cowboy!!

Emma riding!

Feeding the big goats this time!! Luckily, these goats were plenty hungry and D loved feeding them!!

Sharing with Emma! Future Hawkeyes already hanging out??

Lars feeding the goats!!

After enjoying a few of the sights, we headed back to our party area for pizza, cake pops and presents!

I love how kiddos all flock towards presents!! Luckily, D had no problem letting others help him open his presents. And got the hang of the whole, these presents are for me theory, quite quickly. In fact, by the end, he would open a present and say, thank you, what's next. It was cute!

Kristen and Baby Grant!

Feeding the fish!

Playground action!!












D refused to nap after the party...I think he was just too revved up! Namma came over to plant flowers, so Dylan decided to join her in the garden. The flowers look great, and Dylan loves checking on them every day!



Of course, we had to try out some of our new presents!! D actually wanted to open and play with them all, but I'm making him pace himself!!

Playing with my new tennis racket!

Two cake pops in one day?!? I wish every day was my birthday party!!

D got this baseball toy where the ball pops up and you swing!! D actually did a decent job at hitting the ball (I didn't think he'd be able to hit any!). I also took a turn and know that we will be playing with this toy a lot in the future!!

Kicking his new soccer ball and sporting his new cleat shoes (yes, real cleats) that Felicia, Andy, Emily, Madison and Jessica got him!!

I'll post more about what all D is up to at the old age of 3 soon! He continues to bring such joy to my (and many others) life! He is one of the cutest, sweetest, smartest boys out there and I'm proud to be his mom!!