The Non-Birthday Moments of July

We celebrated the 4th with a themed breakfast. The night before we went into town and watched the fireworks. The show lasted about 45 minutes, and I had to cover Brek's ears the entire time. 

Mid-July we had to go down to Denver for a few days and stayed with Joe's Aunt and Uncle. While Joe was resting, I took Brek to this Bouncy House place. It's fun to see him try new things and learn that he can do hard things, even if it is just climbing up for a slide.

At the end of the month Joe was asked to come play some music for a "Rock-n-Stroll" 5K race and concert that our town was putting on. Brek went along to help. They were at the finish line, and even made it into the paper, tho Joe says it was a "staged" photo-op. I came by to capture some pictures too.

That same evening we met up with our friends Hannah and Hunter and Kyler for the town rodeo. It wasn't anything like we had expected, but then again, we had never been to a rodeo before. Our friends said it was nothing like any rodeos they had ever been to in Texas, where they are from. Gotta love Nebraska. The kids had fun playing around, tho we were asked to calm them down once or twice because they were scaring the cattle

Brek's 3rd Birthday

Brek's birthday was quite the multi-even celebration. With friends in town and from church it seemed like too big a group to handle all at once, so we decided to split up the festivities.

We started with a party at the zoo with all of Brek's church friends and their families. Our time was split between the water park and the actual park, and I will admit that we didn't even go and see the animals, tho some sweet old lady bought Brek some food to feed the fish. We celebrated with chocolate cupcakes with yellow frosting, which is what Brek had requested months earlier. He decorated all of them with a variety of sprinkles.

A few days later we had a party at the local park. We made a "cake" out of a stack of doughnuts and had some juice. And then the kids played.

Opening a few presents from friends

 We came home and kept playing with his huge bubble wand

Then he helped me make his actual birthday cake. He of course, had the most important job.

Morning of his actual birthday, we had "fancy breakfast" in bed. The menu included orange julius, pancakes, and bacon.

Happy Birthday Boy!

His stack of presents:

I think he's happy about his fruit snacks.

Presents from Grandma Jensen

Scripture stories

Lightning McQueen flashlight

Chuggington book

He's learned from his daddy well-appreciate the gift before moving on.

And finally, the piece de resistance:

He had to remove every last piece of "wrapping paper" that was touching the bike

Lightning McQueen balance bike

Birthday Boy with his bike

Taking it for a test ride. It didn't go well. But hey, it's the memories.

 Time for cake and singing

Later we received gifts in the mail from Aunt Tracy and Grandma and Papa Biggs, as well as a card from Papa Great and Grandma Great, but I didn't get pictures of those.

We had lots of fun with all the celebrations and sharing it with friends. We're grateful for our little boy and all of the excitement he brings to our family.