David's Birthday Outing

I realized at the end of the day that I hadn't gotten pictures of everything, but such is to be expected when Dad's on duty & Mom is going solo. We started the day with a very special breakfast for our 4-year-old birthday boy. David got to pick his own sprinkle donut and chocolate milk!

Not knowing what time we were going to be able to go to "the surprise," we went to the big library first. We returned our books & as soon as we got into the bathroom at the library, we got the call, so we quickly found some new books about sharks, worms, the space shuttle, and all things interesting to a little boy. Amazingly, we made it out without stopping at Story Time or in the play area, but we did have to stop at the fish tank.

Next we drove over to the surprise. When I parked the car, David said, "Are we at the park?" No... "Are we at Getzendaner Park?" Guess he was wanting to play. Or maybe he remembers that we went to Getzendaner Park for his birthday two years ago?

I told Dad to stay back until I got David out of the car. When he saw Dad, his face lit up & he said, "Is Dad a fireman?" which he always says when he sees Dad in uniform.

Dad took us up the fire escape-like stairs on the outside of the building up to the roof of the fire station. They had patio furniture & grills up there! Then Dad gave us a tour of the station. This was our first time to visit this station.

David was interested in seeing the poles. So many of the children's books show firemen sliding down the pole, but he's never seen one in person before. We took the safer route down to the engine bay.

Then Dad demonstrated the pole for David:

That sure was a lot faster than going down the stairs!

When we left the station, I let David pick where we went for lunch. He picked "Old McDonald's" and asked if they had Speed Racer (he must have seen a commercial for a Happy Meal or something, because I didn't know they had Speed Racer toys!) and if he could play.

After lunch, Elizabeth was very tired, so I figured we'd better head home. We traveled in a pretty bad thunderstorm, through construction, but had a nice ride home.

.

This evening we joined Grandma & Grandpa for half price burger night at Sonic and after Elizabeth went to bed, we played Hi Ho Cherry-O and read some of our library books. David asked me to snuggle in bed with him, so we snuggled for a while and thanked God for a fun birthday. Then suddenly, David remembered, "We didn't have any candles!" I told him we'd have those at his birthday party.

.

How long do you think it feels to a 4-year-old to wait until Saturday for his birthday party?