Three Little Monkeys: Tanner's Birthday

I realize that it is the beginning of December, but better late than never and I have at least one very important event that happened in October that still needs to be blogged about: my baby turned one!

We had a very mellow first birthday for Tan Tan this year. Since all but one weekend in September were spent out of town and the first weekend in October as well for a wedding, it felt almost indulgent to stay home and play with the boys here around town for Tanner's birthday. The funny thing is, it seemed that the boys almost felt it was indulgent as well. That said, we did want to do at least a little something to celebrate Tanny (and lucky for us, his birthday fell on a Saturday this year). We had been hearing for a while about a family farm a half an hour or so from our house that was supposed to be pretty fun to visit, so we decided to head out and explore....and, since they had a mini steam train that ran the property, we figured it would be a pretty fun treat for our train/car loving birthday boy!

But, before I go into birthday details, I do have just a few cute photos from our niece's wedding the weekend before. Drew was the ring bearer and was so excited to be a part of things!

Trying to get a busy three year old to sit still through most of dinner was a bit of a challenge....

...but then again, getting a busy thirty-something year old to sit still was a bit of a challenge as well. *sigh* Boys.

Beautiful A.J. and her new hubby Ryan

Anyway, like I said, much of the morning of Tanner's birthday was spent at this great little family farm we had been hearing about.

Yep. We popped a ridiculous birthday hat on Tan Tan. I expected him to rip it off a few minutes after we put it on, but he kept it on and actually got upset when we tried to take it off!

The farm is a fun, eclectic mix of all sorts of things. Playhouses, open lawn to run around on, corn maze, a suspension bridge, pumpkin patch, steam train, etc. that all are dispersed on a big sprawling piece of property. It was easy to spend a good portion of our day there without realizing how much time had gone by.

The playhouse pictured above (two photos up) had a secret hatch in the floor that led to this tunnel that popped out in a notch in the hill below the house. We had plenty of runs through this tunnel before we were able to move the boys on to something else!

Collin is starting to act/look like such a big kid to me.

We met up with the boys' best buddies Noah and Nathan and as is usually the case when we get the crew together, I didn't have a chance at the possibility of a non-silly picture! Good thing they're cute!

There are two steam trains that run the property. At one point in the ride, the trains pass which was sort of fun :)

Tanner loved the pumpkins! By the end of the morning, he was a mess, since at this point, he still wasn't walking yet but insisted on being on the ground.

Later that night we had Nathan's parents, Grandma, and Aunt Karen over for dinner and birthday cake.

I always theme the boys' cakes and since we visited a farm for his birthday, a haystack and farm animals seemed fitting for Tan Man....plus it allowed me to make the german chocolate cake I was craving and still have a small chocolate layer cake for Tanner on top.

This little rocking chair has been in Nathan's family for years. It was his Grandma's when she was little and each year when the boys turn one, she brings it over so we can take a birthday picture of the birthday boy in it. I love it! (I guess this is the first picture that it really shows up in, but Tanner knocked his lip pretty good a few days before his birthday and the red bump lingered for a week or so).