Ryan's Birthday: Morning

Ryan's birthday was on the 5th, and he had been looking forward to it for quite awhile now. Okay, so mostly he just wanted the cake, but he was pretty excited to be turning 3.

After a breakfast of toast and eggs (his favorite!), he got to open up a gift:

Birthday boy needs a new birthday shirt!

Modeling his new tow truck belt and his new age :)

Funny story: Ryan is learning sign language, and his favorite thing is the numbers. He will correct you if you do your numbers wrong, so beware! Here is is showing the correct way to sign '3'; at our church's auction, people would ask him if he was 3 now and hold up their pointer, middle, and ring fingers (you know, the usual way to show 3). And he would tell them that that was 6, and he's not 6, but he's 3 and would hold up his fingers just like that.

It's cute to see, but sometimes frustrating. He bumped his head a couple weeks ago, so I held up my three fingers (pointer, middle and ring) and asked how many fingers I was holding up. He said 6. I worried he had double vision, so I held up 4 fingers. He said 4, so I went back to the 3 fingers. He again said 6, and I said that it was really 3 fingers. He said it was 6, and then held up his thumb, pointer and middle fingers and said that that was 3.

Sometimes that kid is too smart for his own good...

But back to the birthday!

We asked Ry if he wanted to go to the aquarium or to the zoo, and he said sharks and fishies! So we packed up lunches and went to the aquarium in Niagara Falls :)

Now, don't get me wrong, I love the aquarium. But I hate getting there. We have to cross over Grand Island, and the bridge to get to Grand Island is not the best thing for people who are claustrophobic. Both bridges (to and from the island) are really big, but the one to the island is partially covered, and it's bad enough that I start to panic.

When we got to Niagara Falls, I was kicking myself because I had meant to grab the kid's birth certificates to go to the Canadian side to show the kids the falls. Oh well, there's always next time, right? We were able to see the spray on the American side:

The Falls

We timed our arrival at the aquarium just right; they were getting ready to start a harbor seal show, so we were able to get a pretty good spot so we could see the show. The kids love watching the seals perform tricks and watch them get fish for treats. The trick they like best was watching the seals spin around because we've taught our dog Mason to spin as well!

Waiting for the show to start

First stop was to see the penguins! Last year when we were there, one of the penguins was losing his feathers, and he'd stand there right in front of the window acting like he was the prettiest bird ever. There were no bald penguins this year (much to my disappointment; they make me giggle!), but they were still fun to watch.

Then we went to see all the fish and sharks:

Here fishy fishy fishy!

Nate loved this shark

Paige liked the big cat fish

Tropical fish

Turtles!!!!

Hmm, those penguins look familiar!

Ryan loved seeing Nemo fishies in their anemones

We were hoping to stay for the sea lion show, but Ry was crashing and wanted to go home. We stopped in the gift store and picked up some birthday gifts for Ryan from my grandparents (we got him a stuffed crab that we named Mister Pinchy, a floor puzzle, and some under the sea creatures), and Paige and Nate each got to pick out something small.

Once we got home, we put the kids down for a short rest. I'll post the rest of the day's festivities tomorrow!


Have you been to an aquarium before?

Side note: We have a membership to this aquarium; we pay $50 a year, and get in free every day. If we weren't members, we'd be paying $38 to get in once. We also get into the Seneca Park zoo in Rochester free, and the Buffalo Zoo for half price. If we go two of these places once, the membership pays for itself. It was cheaper to go this route than to get a membership at either of the zoos. If you're looking to get a membership to your local zoo or aquarium, make sure you check out what other benefits it includes; you might be able to find a great deal!