A Busy Half Birthday

The buddies are 3 1/2 years old today!!! I've always thought it would be a fun day to celebrate, but because their day falls during Halloween week, I am usually too busy preparing for parties and putting finishing touches on our costumes. I'll be busy tonight...

After a fun morning at school, the buddies came home to find a half cake for each of them. We took turns singing to each buddy and then they blew out 3 1/2 candles each. They loved the celebration but barely touched their cakes.

Afterwards, we headed to our driveway for a fun and educational activity - ice treasures! I learned about this activity from the blog of an over-achieving mom and knew we had to try it. I worked on our ice treasure for a week, freezing small toys in layers. The buddies were very excited to test out several different excavation tools: spray bottles with water, salt, and toothbrushes. Ace even decided to try his own excavation tools: the wheels of his tricycle and his toy dump truck, but that made Ben mad. They worked long enough for me to plant a yard full of pansies. Hooray!

Sadly, all of that effort only yielded them one monkey and a cheap toy car, which snapped in half when they yanked it out. Ace almost freed Shrek, but gave up before his backside was released from the ice. When they'd had enough, I popped it back into the freezer for another day.

PS - Go Phillies!!