3 year olds are the worst at keeping secrets

Today we celebrated Chris' 31st birthday!  And considering how last year's "celebration" went, we decided to keep it low key ... just us.  It was great.

We started the morning with french toast topped with fried bananas for breakfast.  And let me just say, bananas fried in coconut oil are, um, amazing!  Then we surprised Daddy at work late morning and took him out to lunch at Qdoba.  This evening we celebrated with Chicago style deep dish pizza and ice cream cake.  Whew!  Let's just say mama needed to change into her stretchy pants to finish out the evening.

That is the mother of all pizza servers.  Seriously.  It's the size of my hand.

And in the midst of all the food binging, Chris opened presents.  Which is the funny part.  Yesterday the boys and I went shopping for Chris' gifts.  Brooks decided that Daddy wanted a squirt gun.  So that's what we bought him.  Then to have a few more things to wrap, we also bought him a candy bar (definitely a rarity in our home).  When Chis came home for lunch that day, the first thing out of Brooks' mouth was "Daddy!  We bought you a CANDY BAR!!"

(::slaps forehead::)

Brooks, sweetheart.  We want Daddy's presents to be a surprise.  We can't tell him what we bought for his birthday.

Brooks:  Oh, ok.  So I won't tell him about the squirt guns we got him.

Right.  Don't do that.

I had also made Chris some of his favorite granola for his birthday.  I was pretty excited the he would have at least one surprise gift.  Before Chris even opened any presents tonight, Brooks made sure to remind him that there was a candy bar and a squirt gun wrapped up.  But then I, proudly yet foolishly, declared "But you don't know what's in this one".

To which Brooks replied, "That's granola.  Mama made you granola and put it in a jar!  I helped wrap the jar with Mama.

(sigh)  Moral of the story?  If you want to keep anything a secret ... DON'T tell a three year old!  We both had some really good laughs and Chris still liked his gifts, spoiled surprise and all!

my boys

Strap some cymbals between his knees and this kid's a "one man band".  Let's just hope he goes farther than playing on a street corner with an open guitar case.

In other news .....

Carter discovered pockets!  He was thrilled.

Music Man

I've always told Chris that I want at least one of my children to be musical.  I don't care if they play an instrument, piano, or sing, but I want music in my house!  Well, I think Brooks just might be that kid.  My music man ... in a lot of different ways.

He loves to listen to music.  All kinds.  Hawk Nelson and other punk rock varieties. Classical (or violin music as Brooks calls it). Marching bands (Wisconsin, of course!)  The wiggles (yes, we listen to the Wiggles).  And he has an amazing ear to hear the different instruments in the music too.  Kid can pick out an oboe out of an entire orchestral piece.

He loves to learn about music.  I picked up a book from the library that describes all the various instruments in the orchestra as well as several composers (or "confusers" as Brooks calls them :)  I can't even count how many times we've read through that book and listened to the CD that came with it.  And I know all kids have their different interests, but folks are a little taken back when he can tell you the difference between a violin and a viola, which instruments are in the wind and brass sections and, most impressively, can pronounce "glockenspiel" correctly!

He loves to play music.  Chris set up his keyboard a few weeks ago and Brooks "plays" it almost daily.  He'll plunk around, playing with the different sounds for sometimes over an hour.  He even figured out how to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" all by himself.  He makes instruments out of anything he can find - a kitchen funnel is a horn, the kitchen table is his drum, and his sunglasses are his tuba.  Not sure how that last one works, but ... whatever.

So because he obviously loves music so much, I decided to surprise him and take him to the orchestra!  The South Dakota Symphony has a youth orchestra and their spring concert was this last Sunday.  I bought tickets, we dressed in our "fancy" clothes and headed to the orchestra.  He loved it!  My only regret was that  since everyone was sitting on the same level, we couldn't see all the different instruments in the orchestra - just he violins sitting up front.  But he still enjoyed the music and he was particularly thrilled to see the double bases (his newest obsession) in the back.  I wasn't sure if he'd make it through the whole concert,  but with a small intermission and a bag of snacks, he did great and sat the whole hour and a half!

And to remind me that he's still just a three year old boy, the first thing he told Daddy about when we got home was the cookie he ate at the reception afterward! :)

My handsome date and I