a boy and the sea!

As per Miles request, he got his square chocolate cake, balloons, and a beach trip. He also got an OMSI date with dad and a special visit and Ice Cream date with his Grandma Sharolee and Grandpa Don. He was a happy kid. 

So on the day of his birthday, while I was taking Charlie to preschool, (with Edwin in tow) Max whisked Miles away for an one-on-one OMSI date. I don't think Miles has been to OMSI without having to go wherever his big brother ran off to so this was a treat. 

Later in the day, he got to watch his favorite show while eating lunch (and while Max had to make a conference call) He was thrilled! Shortly after I got back home with my biggest and littlest boy, Grandma and Grandpa came by with some gifts for Miles. and then they whisked him away to get ice cream and play at the play place at McDonalds. He loved it! While he was away, Charlie and I started baking his square cake, And our oven was broken so we had to use the oven of the rental next door which happened to be vacant...(random detail but whatever...)

The rest of the day was spent eating dinner and decorating Miles' cake...(And if you didn't know already, I'm pretty good at baking but my cake decorating skills are non-exsistant...) So here's what i came up with then the boys finished the decorating...

And that was it for his birthday! But as promised, a couple days later, we made our first beach trip of the year to celebrate our Miles. The weather looked like it wasn't going to be great so we researched indoor things to do. As we were parking, the sun was out and it looked warm, then huge winds and a hail storm hit. I sat in the car and fed Edwin and by the time I was done, the storm was over and we were back to sunny skies.  It was still a bit chilly but once we were out running around and digging, it wasn't so bad.

And this was also Edwin's first beach trip. He saw the beach for a good 10 minutes then slept in the Moby wrap for the rest of the time

 

We were constantly seeing storms in the distance but we didn't get much rain hitting us.

And we didn't attempt the sand dune climb this time.

My happy kite flying birthday boy!

Flying a kite and digging...pretty talented!

 And Charlie had his turn at kite flying!

I spy Max cooking hot dogs...

We decided to not build a fire and just cook some hot dogs on the camping stove...

And both boys dropped their hot dogs at one point...

And I'm never in photos so here's a selfie

More stormy skies!

 

The wind started to get really strong and it was almost time for us to go, Miles started panicking because he was ready to get in the car and go but Charlie had buried one of his flip flops and still hadn't found it. He was worried about leaving without the flip flop. 

(Sidenote: Charlie and I were digging holes a lot trying to find the flip flop that was lost the moment he got there, right as we were leaving Max went to check if he could find it and it was found within 30 seconds.) 

After the beach, we loaded up the car and made our way to the temporary cheese factory, the real one is being renovated but the temporary one was still pretty great.You just can't see the actual factory-part.

This bus is dangerous, Miles slid of the really high (and slippery) seat multiple times and Charlie was somehow injured too.

The longing for Tillamook Ice Cream.

And then the temporary factory closed so we started on our drive home!
And that is how we celebrated our pretty great 3-year-old!

Celebrating Miles

We did it! Miles made it to his 3rd birthday. Miles has actually been a pretty easy child. He has always wanted to try and listen to me. He is thoughtful in his actions and is usually aware of his surroundings. He was very specific of what he wanted for his birthday celebration. He wanted, balloons, a square chocolate cake, and a trip to the beach. So easy to please! He loves being outside but has a limit (so different than Charlie who would be outside all day and night in whatever weather if we let him.) He loves to make people laugh! We have to be careful and not laugh at things we don't want him to repeat or else he will repeat them a lot. For his 3-year old photos, we made our way down to the Portland waterfront, in hopes of seeing the beautiful cherry blossoms. We didn't see any, and found out later, they were much better up river. Oops. Anyway, we still had fun.

And this is at our house before we left. He's a clown.

Miles is a very grateful child, he says thank you to everything. Whether you are giving him food, or buckling him, playing with him, he usually thanks you. One time we were mentioning something about it raining outside and Miles said. "mom, thanks for telling me about the rain"

An exciting accomplishment for Miles is that he has gone through the whole Harry Potter series. Max read it out loud with him starting a little over a year ago and they finished the last book the night before Miles' birthday. A lot of the reading was done after he had fallen asleep but Max continued to read out loud so I'm sure he is already absorbing his love for Harry Potter.

Some Miles quotes over the last year...
Miles comes up with interesting and thoughtful things to say everyday! I haven't been very good at documenting them but here are a couple I remember.

"Tea is a yummy thing, and T is a letter, that rhymes!"

"I'm eating because there is nice cheese"

We had a family lesson on service, and shortly after that, I asked Miles to pass me Edwin's binky, this was his response. 
"Yes, I can serve you and Edwin"

"You're a nice girl, but I don't want you to button it." I think I was asking him if he wanted help buttoning his pants

"Your heart is my treasure"

"Mommy, you're not a good Spanisher...but you're a good Spanisher with Ur-menian"(My personal favorite)

"Charlie is learning me how to talk"

After a little girl at the park asked me if Miles could talk, he spoke to the little girl and said "You have one purple boot and one green boot, they are not the same!' Which was completly accurate!

Bohemian Rhapsody came on the radio, I turned it up and said Miles, this is a good song. He said "I don't like it can we listen to the instrument music" (classical)

Miles: "My penis is hurting me." Mom: "What happened to your penis?" Miles: "It broke, it broke off"

"You are a beautiful Christmas queen, you have christmas lights on you!"

After throwing up, in a calm voice he said..."I kinda dripped"

And of course, a birthday interview. This took quite a while to complete and there was a whole lot of silliness!

Name: Miles

Nicknames: Barles  , Everett... (I don't even know...it was just his answer...)

How old are you? 3

What is your favorite color? Gray

What is your favorite animal? Lion

What is your favorite book? The Cat in the Hat

What is your favorite TV show? Little Einsteins

What is your favorite movie? Little Einsteins

What is your favorite song? "We're going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship, climb aboard get ready to explore, little einsteins, little einsteins" (The Little Einsteins theme song) 

What is your favorite food? Brocolli

What is your favorite drink? With the red water bottle.

What is your favorite snack? Z bar

What is your favorite treat? red vine

What is your favorite outfit? The clothes that I'm putting on. 

What is your favorite game? "The one that has a fishing pole in it."

What is your favorite toy? "The one I'm playing with, my new train"

Who is your best friend? "It's only Edwin"

What is your favorite thing to do?"Rolling cookies"

What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Run around and try to catch Charlie"

What is your favorite holiday? "You're a holiday mommy!" I then explain what holidays are and Miles responds "My birthday"

What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "My monkey I got from the library with Grandma Sharolee at the zoo."

Where is your favorite place to go? To the beach for my birthday

What is your favorite restaurant? The restaurant that has pizza and pancakes

Where do you want to go on vacation? "Maybe the beach"

What do you love?  "I love Pizzas"
What did you do on your birthday? "I go to the beach, and play with my sand toys."

What do you do really well?"Hopping around"

What makes you laugh?"Charlie does"

What are you afraid of? Um..a scary bear"

What do you like to do with your family?"save scary things"

What do you love to learn about? "I like to learn about...umm..treats"

What is your mom good at? "Ummm...jumping jacks"

What is your dad good at? “Ummm...going at home"

What is Charlie good at? "pushing you"

Tell me a joke? Silly robot....silly robot, I'm a silly robot!"
What is something you learned this year? "flying home"
 What makes mommy laugh? "Being silly"
 What's a nice thing you have done for someone?"Tell if there is a bad giant in our house.

And there is a post about our Miles. I'm sure I'm forgetting some details but we just love our Miles so much. 

Pictures of a square chocolate cake and beach trip coming up soon...