Big Willie turns 2 - Morning celebrations

Mimi sent Big Willie a Thomas the Train tent.  Andrew thought it would be more fun for him to walk downstairs in the morning and see it rather than opening it and then demanding it be set up.  He was so excited and it's sweet b/c Miss M is just as excited. She loves all the stuff he got as much as he did. 

We let him open one present before Andrew went to work.  He knew he was getting a truck so we let him open his dump truck.  He also got a digger truck so he can dig with one truck and load up the haul in the dump truck.  He was excited. He just handed it to Andrew and said "open it daddy, open it".  He's easy to please.  He's my kinda guy.

I had been tracking the weather forecast like I was Grandma D on a normal day.  I had wanted to get a babysitter for Kit-Kat and then take Miss M and Big Willie to the Arboretum for something special to do for the birthday boy.  The weather ended up being perfect. It was sunny and warm but not hot. It didn't rain either so I call it a win. I had never been there so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was amazing. The children's area was enormous. We didn't even see the entire area b/c it's so big. The kids had fun. We got there early enough that we beat the school groups with bigger kids which was good.  We met Helen and the boys and Jill and her kids. Big Willie wanted nothing more than to keep up with the four year olds. He tried so hard.  He did a pretty good job except he was toast by the time we left.  They had all sorts of climbing structures with various ladders and bridges and ramps and slides.

Miss M and Big Willie on the slide.

Jack and Big Willie taking a time out for an applesauce snack. Jack is less than a month older than Big Willie.

Miss M and Ellie taking a time out for a snack of Pirates Booty.  Elizabeth and Helen are chatting in the background enjoying the children resting and being contained.  Elizabeth came by herself to hang out and left her little boy in day care for the day.  The kids were so confused why Elizabeth was there but Henry wasn't with her.

Those boys.  G is in red and S is in blue.

Elizabeth showed will this water globe/ball.  He was fascinated with it.  She knew that you could change the direction of movement of the ball and then it was a hit with all the kids.  They had a fountain area where all Big Willie wanted to do was have me grab the big rocks at the bottom and then he threw them back in. We both got wet and I wasn't impressed. Next time I will pack a change of clothes. For both of us.

Gabe, Miss M, Spence, Big Willie, Ellie, and Jack's shorts.

Those big brown eyes are so amazing.

We went to the cafe and ate lunch with all our friends and met another friend we didn't expect to see.  The cafe has floor to ceiling windows so you can look out over the arboretum. The food was really good and while not cheap it wasn't super expensive.  Elizabeth wanted to be the fun aunt so she bought Big Willie a chocolate chip cookie and we sang Happy Birthday to him.  I would have liked to go back out and explored the arboretum but Big Willie had me a little concerned b/c he was so tired he was acting very out of it and couldn't walk straight.  We bought a membership and so we'll just have to go back.  I think fun was had by all.