How I spent my birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. Since birthday activity options for a stay-at-home mom of three kids are fairly limited, I decided to plan activities that would be fun to do with the kids. (See how I'm embracing my place in this world and my stage of life and all that crap? I'm a saint.)

My wonderful parents took us out to lunch at Chili's, after which mom and I met my sister in law at a local indoor amusement park/activity center place for kids. Josh has been dying to try roller blades since he's heretofore used only 4-wheeled roller skates. I've been telling him I wasn't sure if he would be able to do it . . . I must have forgotten to whom I was speaking. When that boy decides he can or wants to do something, he does it. (Swam unassisted at 3, swam to the bottom of the deep end at 4, rode his bike without training wheels before he turned 5, etc.) So, here's the skating part of the day:

Josh on his roller blades:


Ethan making his way sloooowly around the rink, but never wanting help:


Two of my nieces:


All the cousins (minus Lauren who was on the carousel):


Lauren had a blast running around the skating rink in her socks (which she insisted on changing into since the other kids did), but I finally took her out to do the carousel and swings and such. Here she is on the big swing for the first time. (I took some pics as it was spinning, but they're all blurry.)



After the skating fun, mom and I took the kids to see Space Chimps. (They enjoyed it, but it was not a great flick.) Then, more skating since the wristbands were still good for another hour. After that, mom took Josh to spend the night at her house, and Ethan and Lauren and I headed to Target. This is what they looked like within 2-3 minutes of leaving the Target parking lot:



While in Target, I picked up some window paint bottles and let the kids decorate a few windows while I put stuff away. They had so much fun doing this:





I know it's hard to tell what the point of this picture is (and it's hard to see . . . sorry, best I could do), so let me tell you. I had been showing Ethan how to use the paint at first, and since David was sitting on the back porch, I wrote "Hi" backward so he could read it from the outside. A few minutes later, Ethan said, "Mommy, come see how I wrote my name." He had written it perfectly backward - letters in reverse order and facing the wrong way. For a 4 year-old kid who can barely write at all, I was very surprised and impressed: