Celebrating...Jadon!

Jadon turned 3 on Saturday, June 8. Three years before, we had no clue that he even existed. But when we met him 16 days later, it was love at first sight, and we couldn't imagine life without him. We named him Jadon because he is our proof that "God has heard" all of our prayers. He is the perfect kid for us and we are SO grateful for the past three years that we have had with him...and God-willing, we look forward to many, many more!

Jadon's birthday kicked off a week of fun in his honor.
Actually, the fun started the day before on his last day being 2. Wrestling with the decision of whether or not to go back to work next year, I decided to make it a "good mom day"--which is what I call days when I put aside my never-ending to-do lists and multi-tasking attempts and focus all my attention on Jadon and whatever he wants to do. (Sad to say, I don't have nearly enough of these. :( )
So, when Jadon discovered an old can of purple paint (it used to be indigo blue)...and started body painting himself...my gut reaction was to stop him, until I realized that the only harm being done was either washable or in an area of our side yard that never sees anyone anyway. And so the painting continued. By the end he was a ridiculous mess...and a very happy boy! AND, this paint fun captivated him for nearly an hour! (Unless he's watching a favorite movie, Jadon's attention span NEVER lasts longer than maybe 15 minutes.) (If only I could discover more activities like this...that don't make quite as big of a mess! Too bad regular painting doesn't cut it.)

 

 Besides old bikes/basketball hoops/concrete, the only real casualty of this fun was a pair of hand-me-down underwear (don't judge--they were bleached clean, and are perfect for this potty training stage!) :)

 ...and his hair. Apparently, while latex paint washes beautifully off of skin, it doesn't come out of kinky hair so well. But  as much as I loved his beautiful curls, we were already planning on giving him a summer haircut, so this was the perfect excuse for all of our friends who begged us not to :).

The next morning, Jadon woke up to a bunch of balloons (be-yoons!!!) and a couple of small gifts, and then we made his favorite breakfast, waffles.

And then came the gift he had been longing/asking/begging/praying for for the past few months: Legoland tickets! And not just for one day...but for the whole year!

We finally broke down an splurged on the annual Merlin pass, which includes admission not only to Legoland but also SeaLife Aquarium and the WaterPark...and the best part ever, free parking! (At $15 a pop, that part is worth its weight in gold!) Usually the passes are $179/person (I know, ouch!), but military personnel are allowed to buy passes (for friends and family, too) for $137. Woohoo! Obviously, they still aren't giving them away, but I'll take the $40/person savings!
Our friend Kristen decided to renew her pass that day so she and Molly could celebrate with us (her husband George was in the field), and she had 2 guest passes that were going to expire that day, so we invited Jon (Lindsey had to take her sister to the airport) and daughter Emma...so we ended up having a little party together.
Jadon didn't really care about the rides (being a Saturday, the lines were too long!), and just wanted to spend all his time at the dinosaur dig sand pit, the splash pads, and the parks.

Then we stopped for lunch (he got french fries and soda, his favorites), and we had cake balls with his friends (I wasn't going to do a cake, but decided to do cake balls at the last minute, just for fun).

 We ended the day discovering a whole new splash pad with its own mini water park on our way out--and almost never made it out as Jadon discovered a whole new second wind. After Jim retrieved him without getting completely soaked, we promised him to come back soon (since we have passes now!), and Jadon conked out before we even made it through the exit.  

Unfortunately, he woke up as soon as we made it to the car, and remained awake throughout the rest of the day, including another birthday dinner for a friend...at a nice-ish restaurant. That was exciting. (Thank goodness for Curious George episodes on YouTube...and Jim's phone that is finally cool enough to make use of such luxuries!)

As if that wasn't enough excitement, the next day after church, we headed to our county fair--the big Del Mar Fair--with a bunch of families from our small group. Jadon had a ton of fun on the kiddie rides (he seemed to gravitate toward the fun-house type attractions and "scarier" rides than his friends...), and then he conked out while we ate dinner and started going through the Expo (while Jim "generously" offered to hang out with him in front of the jumbotron screen broadcasting the NBA game). We pigged out on cotton candy and kettle corn and corn dogs, but refrained from buying thousand-dollar cookware sets (it was so awesome, though!) and frivolous manicure sets. We had a ton of fun with friends, and left exhausted but happy.

And then, as if that wasn't enough excitement, this last week we spent gearing up for Jadon's birthday party this weekend. I'll do a whole blog post on it when I get the good pictures from our friend who photographed the dat, but I'll just say, I had so.much.fun planning it, and I think Jadon had just as much fun enjoying it. We decided on a construction theme in honor of Jadon's affinity to all things tools/tractors/destruction :), and I'll just end with one picture from the entrance to the party:

May Days

After my birthday weekend and Mothers' Day, our celebrations just kept rolling. The weekend of the 18-19th, Jim's mom came for a visit.
On Saturday, we headed to the San Diego Safari Park. It's a lot more wide open than the zoo, so you don't end up seeing as many animals, but I love all the lush trees and bushes and nature all around you.
I took my nifty new camera our for a test drive, and even though Jim made fun of my touristy appearance, I had fun snapping lots of shots. I'm not sure they ended up any better than my little Kodak point and shoot, but I had fun feeling like they were better! :)

 (Jadon's favorite animal, the lion, aka "rawr" aka "Simba". It was so cool how close you could get to them behind the glass!)

 (Last time I had come to the Safari Park, the splash pad hadn't been open. Note to self: next time bring a change of clothes! Jadon LOVES water and WILL get wet!)

On Sunday, we did the normal church routine, and then in the evening, Sue encouraged us to go out on a date while she bonded with Jadon. They had fun going to the park and stuff, and we went to see The Great Gatsby (Jim's choice!). Baz Luhrmann did a great job of recreating Fitzgerald's classic story, even if it wasn't purely tied to the text, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Thank you Grandma B!

The next weekend was Memorial Day, which we celebrated on Monday by going to the zoo with friends from our small group, George, Kristen, and Molly, and Jon, Lindsey, Emma, and Jeremiah and Lindsey's sister Bethany. Now that we all have passes, we moms look forward to many more of these trips...and the guys were sure troopers along for the ride.