Choo Choo! All Aboard!

We had a fun weekend celebrating Gavin's 3rd birthday.  

Friday morning, Gavin woke up to a big surprise-- his birthday present from mom and dad.  Yes, we were two weeks late on giving it to him, but our schedules have been so hectic since we got back to Saudi, that there weren't many opportunities to put it together nor give it to Gavin when we were both home in the mornings.  Gavin walked down stairs and immediately found the blanket that was hiding something.  Brooks helped him uncover it and there he saw his Choo Choos, as he put it.  He was so excited!  He actually raised his arms up in a victory sign he was so excited!  He played and played and played with the table all morning.  He looked at every single part of it, inspected it, learned every sound it makes, and was simply in awe of his table.  The main reason we got this train table for his birthday, is because his best friend Cade had one.  They always played trains together and it was a memory we will always cherish that Gavin and Cade had together.  We wanted to let that memory stay alive by having a train table in our house.  Gavin was very grateful for the present and on his own omission ran and gave me a big hug!  He kept telling Brooks and I thank you, thank you!

After spending the morning together as a family, we started getting things ready for Gavin's Birthday Party.  We threw him a train themed party filled with trains, trains, and more trains.  We actually threw Gavin two parties.  The first party was for Gavin and all his young friends.  We set up the bounce house, put together a Thomas the Train tunnel, and had train tracks put around for all to play with.  Everything went great.  The kids had a fun time and Gavin loved playing with all his friends!  I think Gavin's favorite part was singing Happy Birthday to himself.  Thankfully, he only asked to blow the candles out once.  

By the way- thanks Aunt Anna for making the train t-shirt.  It was perfect!  Every person who walked in the door Gavin said Welcome to my Birthday Cake!  Look at my choo- choo shirt!

Gavin was blessed with lots of fun gifts and he was extremely grateful for all of them!  He got puzzles and trucks, and craft activities and clothes.  He got a neat Handy Manny figurine with tools, and some great sports activities (basketball goal, dart board, etc).  My parents got Gavin a LeapPad before we left so one of our neighbors got him an App Card to download games to it.  (If you haven't heard of the LeapPad, it's an IPad for kids.  It's really cool and very durable. It's very kid friendly and was perfect for the airplane ride and traveling!)

Look- there's Gavin's friend, Peyton, from Houston!  The Acords, our small group leaders from our church, moved to Saudi back in May.  They live about 45 mnutes from us so they got to come celebrate Gavin's birthday with us.  Peyton had her 3rd birthday party last week that we got to spend time with them there, too.  We love having the Acord's here and love that Gavin and Peyton get to continue their friendship together.  Those two have known each other since they were 8 or 9 months old.   

Gavin has been asking for a scooter ever since last April when all the big kids around our compound got motorized ones.  We decided he needed to learn how to ride a bike first.  He's still been asking for a scooter and he had one in the states at my parents house and LOVED it.  So, of course, who else but Aunt Steph and Uncle Micah would get Gavin the scooter he's been wanting.  Stephanie found one here and actually got him the size up from what we originally thought he needed and Gavin did awesome riding it.  Like, literally, awesome.  He has taken that scooter everywhere this week and goes fast.  Brooks and I were pretty amazed with how fast he picked up riding a two wheeler.  

Did I mention we had two parties for Gavin on Friday?  Well, we did.  Not to spoil him, but rather to make things easier.  I really wanted a little kid party.  One where kids under the age of 5 could play together, enjoy the bounce house, and have little kid activities without the hectic and crazyness that all the million older kids, who are always around, would bring.  Living on a compound, you get close with a lot of people.  So having parties and dinners, makes it really hard to exclude people, because you are so close to so many.  We decided we'd have a little kid party in the afternoon, then invite all our friends with older kids, who we knew would want to celebrate Gavin's birthday with us, over for dinner that night.  Gavin got more presents and got to sing Happy Birthday and blow his candle out one more time.  The 2nd party went great!  Everyone was there (another plus about living on a compound)!  No one has anywhere else to be so you generally never get any no RSVP's.  Gavin had fun with all the older kids- they laughed and goofed off a lot.

 I'm pretty sure it's safe to say our little man had a very fun, filled day, all about him!  Brooks and I enjoyed watching the smile on Gavin's face and will cherish the memories we made celebrating his day! We can't believe he's already celebrated TWO birthdays here in the Kingdom.  Wow-- that's a crazy thought!