A 3rd Birthday!

I still can't believe this little fellow is now 3 years old! His NICU days seem so fresh in my mind and so far away at the same time. We started talking about his birthday, telling him it was coming, and asking him what he wanted to do on his special day. He said he wanted to go to the beach, so we made it happen!

We snuck into his room after he went to sleep (it took several tries without waking him up) to fill his room with balloons. When he woke up we had birthday donuts and then let him open his presents. Cohen really doesn't play with toys very often, so we had to work hard to come up with birthday presents that wouldn't just be wasting money. We went to a local toy story and found him a little shopping cart and an inflatable bouncy dog (helps with balance, right!?) We also got him a little "bug playground". He loves finding bugs so this way he can look at them more closely. We had to go out and find him a bug the night before so he would get what it was for. 

After breakfast, we let Ezra take a power nap while Cohen pushed his shopping cart around the house non-stop. Then we packed up the car and headed out to the beach. It was a beautiful day and Cohen was thrilled. He marched right out to the beach and tromped into the water, shoes and all.

We even had a whale sighting!

Ezra enjoyed finding rocks and eating sand. We packed a picnic lunch, including cupcakes. After the boys got tired of the beach, we put them in the stroller for a little walk and then home for naps.

After nap, Auntie Karen came and got Cohen and took him out for some birthday breakfast. We barbecued up some hotdogs for dinner. We put a candle in Cohen's hot dog and sang to him and he loved it, he made us sing twice!

After dinner we took a trip to Carter's grave to take some balloons then headed out to my parents to light off some floating lanterns. It was a little windy so it made it a bit of a challenge. I'm sure Carter enjoyed watching our antics trying to send him up some lanterns without lighting ourselves on fire. I think Cohen had a fun day and I can't wait to see what this year brings for him!