Landon's 3rd Birthday celebration!

The Birthday BOY!

This weekend, we celebrated the birth of a special little boy. I would say toddler, but he's definitely over that stage. He is full-on little boy! I had him pick out a birthday activity, birthday dinner, and birthday cake/dessert beforehand so we could do his favorite things. There is only so much you can do when you are living across the world from all friends and family, so we tried to make it as special as we could.

Main pool of the outdoor pool place

For his birthday activity, we visited an outdoor temporary water park/pool place that is relatively close to our hotel. We can see it from our window every day, but it is a little pricey, so we have only gone one other time this summer. There are four pools with various large, inflatable slides and obstacles that he loves the play on. There is a shallow pool with a soccer field and an area with a swing! He loves the swing because we have not found a park with a swing during our time here in Ningbo, and swinging is one of his favorite things. We picked a hot, sunny day to go to the pool because that way Landon doesn't get too cold. Chinese people go to the pool when it is cloudy or nighttime because they don't really do sunscreen, or being out in the sun, so it was like I rented the entire place out just for Landon. We were the only ones there for the entire four hours that we played! We wanted to go to the pool with Austin for the birthday celebration, but Austin has been very busy at work and so we did our birthday activity without him. Maybe next time!

Landon, his happy meal, and his minion!

Landon identified hamburgers and french fries as his birthday meal of choice. If we were in the U.S., I would make something for him, but as we are in a hotel without an in-room kitchen, we needed to find a place to eat out. I gave him options of different restaurants (both nice ones and fast food) and he chose McDonald's, I think because of the Happy Meal. He got his favorite minion (the guitar minion) as his Happy Meal toy, and he was quite the happy camper. It was raining like crazy the night we went, so we took a taxi to the Old Ningbo area, went to McDonald's, and then walked back through the rain. One of Landon's favorite things to do in Ningbo is go on "walks through the night" after dinner, so it was a highlight for him to splash through puddles, balance on planters while staying under Daddy's umbrella, and just enjoy the time as a family.

Austin liked having a hamburger for a change!

Overwhelmed with all the birthday balloons!

Opening his dump truck

Landon's birthday landed on Sunday this year. We picked out a cake at a nearby bakery the day before and stored it at the hotel. We blew up a bunch of balloons and put them by the foot of our bed because when Landon wakes up he always comes into our room for a snuggle. He opened our doors and was surprised to see so many balloons! He enjoyed playing with them a few minutes later after he woke up a bit. We talked to Grandma Ev and Grandpa Jim and offered to let him open some presents while we were talking. He had made a car on our bed with pillows, and he said that he needed to drive his car first before we opened presents. We had to cajole him into coming over to the living room area to open presents! I guess he has learned and practices delayed gratification :) We spread out present opening over several hours in the morning because after opening each one, he wanted to play with it for a few minutes.

Opening presents with Grandma and Grandpa

Testing out his cake...

Enjoying the singing of "Happy Birthday!"

 We had a little party up in the hotel lounge with Austin's coworkers. He decorated a little crown that I bought at the store and wore it for the cake ceremony. Landon blew out his "3" candle and we sang "Happy Birthday." Landon was thrilled and had the widest smile during the singing! Some of his coworkers got Landon some gifts that he enjoyed playing with as we chatted and ate. He chose a blueberry cheesecake and it was delicious! There was a big layer of cheesecake in the middle, topped with a very thick layer of whipped cream. Underneath, was a graham cracker crust. Blueberries garnished the top.

The king munching his cake

Landon also had a fun time playing with Austin's coworkers. He got a dinosaur puppet and pretended to eat someone's arm and had a wonderful time. He played with a new monster truck. I think overall, he had as good of a birthday as we could muster overseas. I like to make fun cakes for him, so we will have another little family celebration in California when we visit later this year.

He's super excited about this little train set!