Jay's Birthday

On Saturday Jay Alvin turned 3, and we actually celebrated.

(Last year we ended up doing absolutely nothing for his birthday.

I'm not even sure why, but there were no presents,

no cake and ice cream and no party.

We're lame, I know.)

 In true Reber fashion we made Jay eat breakfast with his presents sitting on the table to torture him.

 He was pretty excited about the watermelon.

 We let him open one present after breakfast.

 This is the moment he unwrapped it enough to tell that it was a soccer ball.

He was pretty excited, and he and Leo have been fighting over the ball ever since.

 After breakfast we went down to Cannery Row and rented a surrey.

What you can't tell from the picture is that it's absolutely freezing outside.

When we left home it was nice and sunny, but by the time we rounded the bay we were in a cloudy, windy mess.

We ended up riding for about 5 minutes and turning around.

We took the surrey back and went to Ghiradelli for ice cream instead.

(Funny story:

One of the workers at Ghiradelli had a laser pointer.

My kids totally chased it all over the floor like cats.)

By the time we finished our ice cream the sun had come out so we went down to the beach for a while.

  We climbed out on the rocks and found a little tide pool.

 Leo and Ty even found some hermit crabs.

 And then Leo fell in and got soaked up to his waist.

 Once we got back home Jay promptly made a mud hole in the back yard and proceeded to dirty up his snowmobile. (Making mud is one of his new favorite things. He generally uses the water from the fridge instead of the hose, so there's always a lovely trail of mud from the back yard to the kitchen. It's awesome.)

And then he got to open his other present:

New clothes and Skittles.

We ended the night with cake and ice cream and remembered why we hadn't done anything to celebrate the year before. Having a birthday is hard work! Especially when it's not your birthday.

Some of Jay's favorite things:

This outfit:

 He finally fell in love with those fire pant and wants to wear them all the time.

He does not love sitting on Ty's bike, but how can we not put him there when he's wearing those pants?

Riding his bike.

Holding babies.

 As long as they're babies that "come to our house and then go away."

He's not on board with getting a new baby of our own.

Having his picture taken.

He always wants to make this face though:

I have to trick him into making this one, which is just so much cuter:

 (Funny story: Whenever I take his picture I say, "Jay, smile!" And he says,

in his most gravelly voice and with a straight face, "Smile.")

And, of course, burying toys in mud.