March 22, 2016-Happy (early) Birthday Whitman!

(click here for today's pictures)

• The kids were all up again in the same order as yesterday and this trend will probably continue for the rest of the week.  The first thing that I was asked was if we were going to have a special breakfast since it was Whitman's birthday.  His party was today but that did not call for a special breakfast since his real birthday is in a few weeks-so yogurt, applesauce and cinnamon toast was served.
• I then had the kids do a few chores-the main chore today being narrowing down their candy stock piles.  Honestly, I feel like we do eat a lot of candy around here but the kids seem to always have a zillion pieces in their bags.  Not anymore-they were allowed to keep their Easter candy and about 15 other pieces that they picked out.  The kids didn't seem to mind too much and the candy they put in the get rid of pile, I picked through and filled some of their Easter eggs to Sunday's big hunt (which I hear is going to be very rainy)
• I changed Whitman's clothes over to his summer clothes with Keaton's help.  She really worked hard emptying drawers, separating clothes and reading the numbers on the sizes.  It took me about an hour to do his clothes and my hope is that I will be able to knock out the girls summer clothes change over sometime this week.
• Next up was some work in the school room.  I pulled out work for April while Keaton and Campbell worked on their desks.  It does sound like Keaton was doing a ton of work today, don't worry, the others will have their turn tomorrow and later this week.  
• I quickly made it quesadillas for lunch and then Robby came home to work and watch Whitman while the rest of us picked up the Wilsons and their cousins for some fun at Big Rock.  Today's spring break activity was putt putt-and I can adequately say that there is no Tiger Woods in our Dennie bunch. 
• They all had so much fun.  The boys played in a group in front of the girls.  The boys seemed to move faster at each hole which makes me think that they were improving.  My girls struggled to hold the golf club but they also did improve and Campbell even made a hole in one.  Everyone enjoyed playing and afterwards we even rewarded them with Sonic drinks and a few minutes at the playground there.  Playing putt putt was warm in the sun but the playground was cold and windy so we didn't stay too long.
• When we did arrive home, the kids had showers and we turned right around and headed to Whitman's birthday party.  We first stopped and picked up some balloons to make it a real party and then on to Denny's for supper.  Denny's? Well, Whitman's first birthday was Whitman's chocolate theme.  His second was Thomas the train and his middle name is indeed Thomas.  So now, year 3, he needed a Denny birthday to match his last name.
• Grannymom, Grandpa, Dana, Lilli, Cash, Jason, Nonna, Pops and all of us were there.  Whitman sat in the middle of the table and seemed to enjoy his little birthday party.  My kiddos enjoyed eating whatever they wanted off of the menu and were tickled that the waitress kept their drinks refilled (we will probably have more than one wet bed in the morning!)
• Whitman opened up lots of presents-puzzles, a map of the zoo (what he had requested), lots of orange presents (his favorite color), trains and a big truck.  He was so happy with everything and all o the times that we had worked on saying "thank you" really paid off-he happily thanked everyone tonight.
• After presents, we had a big cookie cake and he loved blowing out his candles and when we sang Happy Birthday, he would sing Happy Birthday to me!  I do believe that he had a very good birthday and left as a happy 3 year old!
• Once at home, we ushered everyone to bed and I laid out the presents so Whitman can explore them all tomorrow.