Happy Third Birthday, Hayden!

Yesterday Hayden turned three.  To celebrate, this past weekend we had a small party at the house with two families from our play group and two of Matt's co-workers.  All of the kids had so much fun playing with Hayden's new stuff.  It was fun this year because Hayden actually knew it was his birthday and that he would be turning three.  He knew his friends were coming over for a party and was talking about it for almost two weeks!  I think he really enjoyed the day.

Here he is with his buddy Caroline and "baby" Caleb, as Hayden likes to call him.

Opening presents:

Matt's mom sent Hayden an art easel with a chalk board, white board and rolls of paper for painting.  All the kids had fun taking turns with it and so far it is a big hit!

 Matt and I gave Hayden a new set of trains- Fisher Price Geo Trax- this year.  We let him open the trains first and then showed him the tracks which Matt had set up the night before in the guest room.

 We have lots more track and two more remote controlled trains that we are saving for Christmas so it should be a fun winter!

Later that day we were able to Skype with my family and he opened lots more presents.  I'll have to get some pictures of him playing with those soon.  It is fun that Hayden got lots of new games this year- Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, etc.  I am excited that we are finally at that phase and looking forward to playing them together!

Halloween 2010

This year for halloween Hayden dressed up as a frog.  This was mainly because I found a used frog costume for $5.00 at a consignment sale on base and not so much because he has any sort of special attachment to the amphibians.  However he loves the costume and has been wearing it around the house for weeks.

We signed up to bring a "trunk" to our church's Trunk or Treat and to pass out candy as a family.  We brought Matt's truck so we could sit in the back and it ended up being a lot of fun.  At first I was worried about Hayden not wanting to sit there the whole time and thought Matt and I might have to take turns walking around with him all night, but once people started showing up he LOVED handing out the candy!  He would spot more kids coming from across the parking lot and say "here come more friends" and get some candy ready.  

Speaking of candy, I have been stocking up on good candy deals using my couponing expertise for a few weeks now.  I got ten bags of the good stuff (i.e chocolate) for 1.49 a piece.  I was happy with my purchases and since someone had told me to plan for a little over 100 kids, and we went with almost 200 pieces, I thought we were well prepared.  Do you see the bucket of candy in the picture below? 

The event was scheduled to start at 6:00 pm.  We were completely out of candy BY 6:10!  I had to run into the church to refill our bucket twice before running out altogether around 7:20.  We must have given away 800 pieces of candy.  It was insane.  

But back to my cute little prince disguised as a frog.  Here he is excited about more kids coming to the truck.  He would wave his candy in the air to make sure everyone came his direction.  

I was amazed that he was content giving the candy to other kids and not asking for it himself. 

And then a very nice lady came along and gave Hayden a piece of candy for him to eat.  He said thank-you and I opened it for him right away thinking it was just reward for all of his efforts.  Apparently a light bulb went off in the boy's head and the look on his face was asking me "Hey, we eat this stuff?!"  Well, I will spare you all the ugly details but let's just say we had a few frantic moments of Hayden being very upset to see anymore candy given away to total strangers.  I reminded him that we brought that candy for other people and I told him if he wanted to take a break and eat some of his share Matt and I would do the passing out of candy.  Crisis averted.

Later, Hayden participated in the cupcake walk and when his number won he picked out a very cute pig cupcake.

Camping

This past weekend Matt and Hayden camped out in the back yard for the first time.  It was pretty chilly, but since Matt had been gone for the summer they missed out on the best chances.  And this past weekend was a touch warmer than it had been, so Matt decided last minute that it was either now or wait until next summer.  So they got to work!  It was dark out by the time they got the tent up.  

                                      

Hayden loved roasting marshmallows.  He would hold one over the fire for a few seconds and then say "nice and toasty, mommy" and take it off his stick and eat it.  The boy obviously doesn't know what he's missing!

I got him bundled up in two layers of pj's, two pairs of socks and a hat.  He had fun playing with the glow stick Matt gave him.

Then it was off to bed!  I enjoyed the quiet time inside at first, but I actually was so anxious thinking about how they were doing outside all night that I did not sleep well.  Hayden on the other hand slept from 8:45-8:10 so I guess we can count it a success!

Pumpkin Patch

The weekend before halloween we finally made it out to a pumpkin patch not too far from our house.  Hayden had fun running through and jumping on the hay bales in the hay maze for kids.

There was also a hay pyramid to climb.

And then there were the pumpkins!  We probably did not need to spend $20 on pumpkins, but who could pass this up???

We also got a "mama" pumpkin and Hayden picked out two smaller pumpkins that made their way home with us.  Most importantly a good time was had by all!

Fall Fun

This past Friday we hosted play group at our house.  Since it was the day before halloween weekend I invited everyone to bring their kids in their costumes if they wanted to wear them and Hayden and I made some fun fall treats together.  We ended up having great weather that day so we got the bounce house out and the kids had a great time playing outside.  Everyone looked so cute in their little costumes!

 The owl shaped sugar cookies we made.

 Reese in her lady bug costume.

 Drew, Reese's brother as a pilot.

Selah the pumkin.

 Elle the cat.

Bounce house fun.  There's Hayden in his frog costume!

Hayden's First Day of "School"

This week Matt and I decided to start Hayden on the local Mother's Day Out program here in Mountain Home.  I have heard great things about it from many of my friends and we were looking into starting him in January after the holidays.  When I called recently to get some more info, however, I found out that his class only had one spot left.  We thought about it for a couple of weeks and decided to sign him up.  He will be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-2.  

Monday evening Matt and I took Hayden to Walmart and let him pick his own lunch box.  He was very excited getting ready to go the next morning:

 I realize the back pack in the above picture is too big, but I did not have time to get him a toddler one.
It was cold that morning, hence the hat.
Once at school, Hayden got right to playing while I was filling out paper work and talking things over with the director.  He had no problem with me leaving and I had to talk him into taking a picture with me and giving me a hug before I left.

When I picked him up he was very excited to see me and told me he had a fun day.  The teacher said he did great, like he had been there all along and said he was "a true delight."  I am sure she was being generous ;)

On the way home we had a conversation that went something like this:

Me: Hayden, did you have fun at school today.

Hayden: Yeah, they have trains in there.

Me: They have trains?

Hayden: Yeah, and dinosaurs,  they have dinosaurs in there.

Me: Did you take a nap today?

Hayden: Yes, I left my pillow at home.

Me: Did you miss your pillow today?

H: Yeah.

Me: Do you want me to get you a new one for next time?

H: Yes.

Me: Do you like your new school?

H: Yeah!

Me: That's good.  Do you want to go back again sometime?

H: No.

Me:  Well, maybe in two days.

H: Maybe not two days.  Not two days, mommy.  Maybe not.  Not two days.....

Point made, son.  We shall see how tomorrow goes!

After we got home we made brownies together and waited for Matt to get home from work:

The Little Things

Just a few of the every day moments I was looking forward to while Matt was away...

Hayden's first time flying a kite:

 Breakfast with daddy:

Afternoon reading and relaxing: 

 Enjoying the recent fall weather with some pumpkin bowl soup, complete with biscuits and pumpkin butter.  Yum!