My baby turned 3 today and we partied!
I feel so much love for this little boy and his big self.
Gage is the boy that tells me to stop what I am doing and look at him.
The boy who lights up any room that he walks into.
The boy that makes jokes and is a crowd pleaser.
He is the boy that lives and breathes his routine and if I don't give him his vitamin when he wakes up he goes ballistic.
He's the child that I have had to negotiate the most with. He will argue with me all day that he is taller than me, which he is not.... yet.
He is the boy who loves me so much and says sorry when he's done something wrong even without me asking him to because he can read me like a book.
The boy who works just as hard as the other kids around this farm and my personal helper when it comes to collecting eggs everyday.
He is so spoiled and it's so wonderful.
He is genuine and true and I love that he doesn't pretend to be happy if he's sad and he doesn't hold grudges. This kid is angel boy or monster boy and sometimes both in the same 5 minutes.
He is our favorite fourth and we all love him so, so much!!
Happy Birthday Gagey!
Gage waiting so patiently last night at his birthday party combined with Kate and Braxton's
They even all took turns opening gifts and he waited so nicely each round for his turn.
Boy was he happy to receive his granola from Auntie Melissa!
If nothing else, four kids has taught me that when your sister invites you to her daughter's October birthday party you hop right on and combine both of your October kids in there too.
And when your mom asks your two year old what he wants for his birthday and he says, "A popcorn cake!" you let your mom make it for him.
The party last night was so awesome and all I really did was make homemade salsa for the tacos and homemade pumpkin pie.
The first thing he said this morning when he came down the stairs was, "I'm three now!"
And all day he continued asking me, "mom, am I two or am I really three?" It was so much fun.
He asked to eat his granola for breakfast with yogurt.
After we got the kids off to school Gage and I played with some of his new toys. We read his books with the computer from Bama and Umpa. We set up with marble tower and tried to put all 400 marbles down it. This boy is so funny with his gift requests but Bryce and Chelsey and Lesha and her family came through with the marbles he asked for and they are his new thing.
Then we played with the trucks he got from Auntie Angela and Auntie Rebecca and cousins Baylee, Joe, and Ole.
After we played in our jammies for a few hours and read all of our favorite books I asked Gage what he wanted to do. He quickly responded, "make more popcorn cake!" But since he already had a popcorn cake that his Bama made him I asked him what else he wanted to do. Next he said, "eat at my restaurant." I said, "you have a restaurant?" He answered, "yes, the pig slop one is mine!" Ha, that's my aunt's restaurant in front of our property and we are lucky to get slop from there for our pigs. His perception was cracking me up.
I said how about we go pick apples and he loved that idea so we drove to our neighbors, Bellewood Acres and got busy!
It was a rainy day so we bundled up before we left and got rained on the whole time which was half the fun. I drove the golf cart out to the orchard and I would have taken more pictures except that every time I took my hand from his grasp to shoot the camera he would say, "give me your hand back," so I decided to hold his hand rather than to take a bunch of pictures.
Here is my little apple picker with the only apple he actually picked. He was all about picking out the apples, pointing to them, and then having me actually pick them. Which worked for both of us.
After we picked our apples Auntie Rebecca and Ole and Uncle Bryce and Aunt Chelsey met us at Bellewood for lunch and Gage ordered a burger. It cracked me up how specific he was. First of all, he never orders burgers. Today though he said, "I want a burger for lunch, mom." It was like, "now that I am big and three I am going to eat burgers." Then when I ordered the waitress said, "without cheese?" and I replied, "that's fine," to which Gage interrupted, "no! that's not fine I do want cheese on my burger!" Cracked me up the whole thing.
After lunch Uncle Bryce and Aunt Chelsey came back to our house and played with Gagey and his new toys and then Chelsey got to lay him down for nap.
This Gagey guy is so loved. He is funny and full of whit and he is constantly making us laugh and roll our eyes with what he comes up with.
Jeff laughed that I put a candle on a big football plate with our dinner which consisted of carrots and crackers and tuna fish. I am not a pro at this mom thing and I am certainly caught off guard everyday with my children and their various needs but today I figured that playing with Gage and his new toys all day was more important than making a big dinner. And none of the kids even noticed that we didn't even eat cake.
There is nothing quite like seeing your kids love each other. It's just really the best thing ever.
Braxton wrote on the chalk board his own message:
Happy Birthday Gage
The best football player ever!
