Building, Skating, and a Gymnastics Party!

Today was pretty legendary, in terms of how busy Brian was!  It started off with a trip to Lowe’s for more building fun.  He built a cool Monsters University-themed trunk and decorated it with stickers.  Then, home for a bit, and then Brian and Brandon went back out for skating lessons.  He’s working hard and making progress!  Kendall and I had a pretty laid-back morning by comparison.  (I just love those “Good Morning Mommy” PJs!  They always make me smile.)  In the afternoon, we all headed out to Julian’s birthday party, at the Little Gym.  We were glad to see that Brian wasn’t intimidated by this gymnastics party, and in fact, pretty much owned the place!  (A previous party at a much larger gym was meltdown city, he wouldn’t even go inside!  But then again, he was coming down with strep throat at the time, we just didn’t know it yet.)  The young and energetic staff had a lot of structured activities for the kids, which helped everyone get the wiggles out.  Brian loved flipping on the uneven bars, and the big inflatable trampoline was a big favorite of everyone!  Kendall was too small for most of the activities, so Brandon and I just chased her around the place and kept her from getting in the way of the big kids.  Later, it was time for cake and snacks, and we enjoyed all the food and the shark-themed party.  The kids each got a cool shovel and pail, filled with beach-themed prizes and little plush sharks.  Later, we stopped by the toy store (yes, we were brave enough to do this with two sugared-up, tired kids!) where we picked up some summer water toys (sprinklers, water rockets, water blasters, etc).  Brian picked out a wild outfit for Kendall, with a bright orange top and zebra-stripe pants.  The kids did some more awesome car-dancing to “Jungle Love” and we picked up some Chinese takeout on the way home.  Brian asked me if I knew how to make watermelon into balls, like in Grandpa Steve’s fruit basket.  I told him that yes, I knew how, and even had a tool to do it.  He was so excited, he talked about it all through dinner, and we just had to make melon balls for dessert.  Brian practiced with the melon baller a bit, and after we’d filled up our bowl and it got a little challenging to make more, we just mashed up the remaining watermelon inside the rind to make watermelon soup!  I think Brian found this to be even more exciting than the melon balls. 🙂

(edit:  He actually talked about the watermelon soup for weeks after this!)