Last weekend, James’ parents hosted a family reunion at our house. Almost 30 people came, and James’ mom made a spaghetti dinner. His parents also made a poster board of the family tree, and a few guests brought photo albums to share.

It was great that our backyard was done! And finally, we’re getting more use out of our play structure. We also brought out ride-on toys and the boys loved chasing each other and ‘crashing’ into the grass! Zachary was super fast on his trike since he practices daily at school.

The next day, we celebrated Zachary’s 3rd birthday at Kidspark (his actual birthday isn’t until April 6th). Since it was Palm Sunday, quite a few people weren’t able to make it, but we still had a decent crowd. It was great to see some of my HP friends that I haven’t seen in a while! It was really, really nice that it was held at a venue (not our house) and they did all the cleanup.

We had the entire place to ourselves for ~2 hours. The instructors led a few activities (face painting, bubbles, art) and kept the party on schedule. Most of the time, it was free play – so kids had their choice of sports, dress up, puzzles, and even jumping in a bounce house.

This was the first time Zachary blew out a candle for his birthday. I wasn’t sure if he knew how (since he didn’t for his 2nd birthday) so we had some practice rounds the morning of the party. It was also the first time he understood the concept of a birthday. This was the conversation we had. (The slight lie was that I pretended the day of his party was his actual birthday. I thought it was too complicated to explain that we’re holding his birthday party on an earlier, more convenient date. Since it was April Fool’s Day, I figured it was okay.)

Me: Zachary, you’re going to be 3!

Zachary: I’m not 3. I’m 2.

Me: But you will be 3 today!

Zachary: I’m 3 in April

Me: Today is April!

Zachary: Today is April. <pause … smile> I’m 3!

And the best part is that now he calls himself a “big kid.” The next step in my master plan is to convince him big kids use the potty.

Despite his ability to blow out candles and his in-depth understanding of the aging process, Zachary still doesn’t quite get the concept of ripping through a mountain of presents (is he really an American?)  He wants to play with one gift at a time… so we’re having him select presents to open at a rate of 1-2 per week. In fact, today, his choice was to just open a card. Thank you to all those who came and helped celebrate Zachary’s 3rd birthday! (And sorry if the thank you cards are going to be a bit late.)

It’s been a super busy 2 weeks! Started on a weekday with an offsite at work – at a local sports complex with a catered meal from Macaroni Grill.

Then on Saturday, we went to Zachary’s preschool open house. There were a lot of science and art activities for the kids, and we ended up staying longer than we anticipated. Zachary had so much fun, we had to drag him back to the car kicking and screaming. I guess it’s good he likes preschool so much since he’s there full time!

Right after, we drove down to Safari West – a 400 acre wildlife preserve. It was so much fun - Zachary’s current interest is animals, so he was very excited and happy the entire weekend. As the receptionist drove us (via golf cart) to our safari tent, Zachary gasped and said,”Guh-raffe!”  After settling in, we met our tour guide and embarked on a 3-hour safari drive. James parents joined us for the adventure since they lived in the area. We saw wildebeest, zebras, ostrich … all kinds of animals.

After the ride, we had a BBQ dinner and then headed back to our tent. We brought a playpen for Zachary to sleep in, but it was cold so we had him sleep between us … meaning that basically only Zachary slept. Aside from the kicks to the head (Zachary loves to sleep sideways), there was the electric blanket fiasco. It was so cold, I turned it on. A few minutes later, I felt it wasn’t working, so I cranked it up higher. I woke up an hour or so later, still freezing, so I cranked it to level 20 (max.) Ten minutes later, James wakes up in a panic, pulling off his t-shirt, yelping,”Arg! It’s too hot!” I respond with,”Ugh! I was sleeping. It’s too cold.” James realizes that the wires to the electric blanket was crossed! So while I was back asleep, he comes over to check the number on my side … 20 … and cranks the control on his side to the number he thought I wanted it set at. A few minutes later, I wake up dripping in sweat,”Oh my God! It’s too hot!” So finally we get the temperature right, with only a few hours of darkness left. And of course, there’s no sleeping in when you’re on a safari adventure. Even if I could have slept through the animal sounds, there was no ignoring the 2-year-old chattering about seeing the Guraffes.

It was lots of fun – and highly recommended, especially for kids. It’s much more interesting than a zoo, where all the animals tend to be asleep and/or hidden.

We got back Sunday afternoon and had Alex over for a playdate. The weather has been really nice lately!

I’ll catch up and post this past weekend on another night … lots of pictures from the Graeber family reunion and Zachary’s 3rd birthday party! (Yikes … my baby will be 3 on April 6th! He even calls himself a “big kid.”)