Tate's day

Tate's turns three in a couple of weeks but Glenn thought it would be nice for him to have a party here with his friends before we leave. I didn't have any desire to plan a party right now, but Glenn wanted to and he did a great job. He decided to throw him an African animal party.
He planned tons of fun games, got prizes, and enlisted the help of a few of the dads. It was amazing and Tate loved every minute. It was way more fun than last year because Tate actually understood the activities and really enjoyed playing. We may have gone a bit overboard with the actual number of activities planned...but given their attention span for each activity, it all went pretty fast.
We started the party with a little "safari". Finding tiny plastic animals we hid around the room. Then played "musical chairs" with animal pictures on the floor and Lion King music playing in the background.

Everyone got an animal nose as a prize. The kiddos loved them less than we did.Next came the big event. Glenn wanted the party to be like going to the zoo and visiting different animal exhibits. He recruited some of the dads to be the animals and planned games around each exhibit. It was hilarious.

The first exhibit was a fish tank in the bath tub where the kids caught little fish and rubber duckies with a net.

Next was an elephant exhibit. Glenn was the elephant. And the game was to put peanut butter m&m's in his trunk. Because that's what this elephant liked to eat. The kids loved it. They were intimidated by the elephant's trumpeting noises for just a second and then couldn't get enough of shoving candy down his trunk. So, so funny.The next room was a rhino, courtesy of Ken Johnson. And the game was a ring toss on his horn. And then a few of the kids got brave and started to climb on the wild beast for a ride.

Lastly, we found a cheetah, (Dan Purdie) who had lost his spots and the kids went around the room gathering them and sticking them back on the cheetah. Another huge hit.

Then they threw parachute animals, which was one of their prizes, off the gang plank. And then of course there was a lion pinata. Lion cupcakes with candles for the birthday cake. Tate could hardly wait to blow them out. He saw them coming and started smiling and blowing immediately. We need to work on blowing them out from the side, however, as he's bound to end up sans eyebrows if this blowing position continues. His friends, and our friends, are the best. They all gave him such thoughtful presents. Things he loves and could not wait to play with when he woke up from his nap and every morning since as well.

After cake and presents we had a showing of Tate's latest favorite movie, "African Cats". We bought it when Nanna was visiting and have watched it many, many times since. He can't get enough and has started being different animals, acting out scenes, and quoting the narrator. Hilarious. It was funny watching him view it with friends. He could not stop talking, telling everyone who each animal was ("That's Sita, she has baby cheetah cubs." "That's Fang, he's the daddy lion.").

A very full and very fun party planned and executed entirely by my honey. Thanks, honey. Tate absolutely loved every second. He would have been happy with much much less, but it was so fun to see his sweet face loving every surprise.

I'm glad we threw a party and our boy had such a fun morning with all his friends before we leave.

After his nap we made a quick trip the zoo one last time. We've made so many great memories at the zoo here. It's a wonderful zoo and it was sad to go for the last time. Tate was just as excited to go as always. Running to each exhibit and telling us which animals he would like to see next and what they were likely to be doing. What a lucky little boy.