Kid's Day 2009

Background:

Richard's brother, Gary, was always a kid at heart. He loved to have fun and was always smiling. After Gary passed away, at the young age of 31, the Worth family decided to honor him on his birthday by celebrating "Kid's Day". There are no rules, really, about how you celebrate Kid's Day. Just, have fun. Richard and I like to make it a day all about what the kids want. We don't say "no" to them, we feed them what they want when they want, we give them presents, etc. And we always try to ride a carousel because that was one of the things Gary liked to do. There is a great series of pictures of him riding the same carousel and doing the same pose (reaching up with one arm to try to grab a ring at the top of the carousel) at several different times in his life, young and older. You can learn more about Gary on his website.

We started our Kid's Day with some presents waiting for the kids and a healthy breakfast of Lucky Charms.

Here's Daddy prepping his new Nerf gun (the grown-ups get presents, too).

The boys quickly figured out that I wasn't going to say "no" to anything when I didn't yell at them for eating on the floor. Within seconds this had escalated to eating in the family room in front of the TV. And they ate Lucky Charms on the family room floor, while watching TV, for at least an hour after that. Refill after refill. (Tomorrow morning is going to be a battle after that one!)

Here's Naomi coloring with her new crayons.

Alex (the babysitter) and I took the kids to the pool in the morning. That was their request when given the options of zoo, aquarium, or pool. Have I mentioned how much I love Alex?

After the pool we went home for a healthy lunch of Kraft Mac N Cheese (at their request, of course) followed by naptime. I thought about letting Naomi and Asher skip naptime, but Mommy needs her sanity in order to make everyone's wishes come true all day long, right?

Here's the boys playing in the sandbox with their new "dumptwucks and diggews".

In the evening, Richard met us at the mall for a carousel ride and dinner.

Isaiah enjoys the carousel but always has a very serious look on his face while riding it. Like he needs to study it and absorb it all.

Here's a great shot of Naomi in a pose much like Gary's famous one.

Asher prefers to sit in this bench seat that just nicely rocks back and forth. Daddy joined him.

Then we ate a healthy dinner of "Fre fries chicken" with a side or two of chocolate milk. Here's one messy, happy face. (Isaiah actually threw up a little just after this. It was a classic parenting moment where Richard was rough housing and picked Isaiah up and flipped him around and just as I said "You're gonna make him throw up!", he spewed. But at least he was happy and bonding with his Dad, right?)

And here's the whole happy crew.

Then Richard took the kids home to bed while I got to stay at the mall and buy myself some Kid's Day presents. What do you think of my new shades? Too bug-ish? Too trendy? Yeah, I think so too. But they're fun. And Kid's Day is all about fun!