Happy 3rd Birthday Vaughn!!!
(August 12, 2008)

August 12th 2008. My baby has finally grown out of the toddler stage and is now a big boy with a little brother to teach the ropes to. Here is a picture of Vaughn taken on the evening of his 3rd birthday. I must say he is quite handsome!!!

We decided that for Vaughn's birthday we would take him to a place called The Bean Museum. No, it isn't a museum that explains the history of beans. It's an animal museum named after a guy with the last name of Bean. So this snake is what we encountered when we first walked in the door. We waited in a relatively short line to get the chance to see it up close and touch it. Vaughn was VERY apprehensive for obvious reason. Who wouldn't be scared of a 20-foot Boa Constrictor?

I guess I wasn't. But that's only because I'd had previous experience with giant snakes when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. I was on a field trip that included seeing a giant snake for some reason. I got chosen along with two or three other kids to let a giant Boa Constrictor slither all over me. It was one of the weirdest sensations I've ever experienced. I guess the instructor was counting on the thing NOT constricting and squeezing the life out of me. So here I am trying to convince Vaughn that he could touch the snake.

Eventually (and I mean after we had toured part of the museum and gotten back in line to try a second attempt at touching the snake) Vaughn got up enough courage to barely touch the snake with the ends of two fingers. I guess he figured this was the safest approach. What a cutie!!!

After (barely) touching ONE snake scale Vaughn somehow became fearless. We left the snake line and found a giant Grizzly bear. Vaughn transformed into a ferocious creature and here's the picture to prove it. Doesn't he (I mean the bear) look scary?!? Did I mention that this museum consists mostly of stuffed animals? (And no, I don't mean the cuddly cute kind you can get in a store!)

Vaughn was very happy to find another bear exhibit, and this time he put away the man-eating bear in himself and let a cute grin come out. Doesn't he look proud?

The zebra exhibit was right next to the lion exhibit. I think I took a picture of the lions, but for some reason I couldn't find it on my camera. Oh well. I'd probably be too scared to look at it anyway. There is one lion there in particular that scares the living soup out of me. All I can imagine is that sucker coming for me and ripping my head off. Yikes! So for your sake and mine, here's a not-so-scared me carrying a one-month-old Dean.

Vaughn quickly found a display with a giant spider. Have I ever mentioned that I am deathly afraid of giant spiders? This one was actually mammoth-sized in my view. I could barely get the courage to take a picture of Vaughn pointing at it. Vaughn is of course obsessed with Spiderman, so any kind of spider, whether living or dead is very cool to him. A pane of glass stood between the killer spider and my son. It didn't matter to me that the spider was dead. I wanted so badly to tell Vaughn not to go near it!!!

There were tons of animals to look at, from wild buffalo to prairie dogs. But this monkey particularly caught my eye for some reason. I think it was the huge nostrils at the end of an elongated snout. Almost pig-like, don't you think?

The rhinoceros is definitely one of my favorite exhibits. Did you know that as a general rule the rhino is a VERY ill-tempered animal? He likes to keep to himself as much as possible. And when he lies low to the ground or hides in weeds or bushes, it's a sure signal to keep away! And did you also know that those aren't really horns? They're actually very hardened fibrous growths! You could have fooled me!

This might be my most favorite of all the exhibits....the Jaguar! I have a collection of old Disney nature shows called True Life Adventures. My favorite of all of them is the one about jaguars and is called The Jungle Cat. I have always been fascinated with the jungle, and a cat living in the jungle is even better! Did you know that jaguars spend quite a bit of time in water? There is a lot of water in a jungle, and the jaguar has to hunt prey that uses water as a protection and an escape method. A mother jaguar will take her young to a swimming hole and actually teach them to swim. I've also seen footage of a giant male jaguar (panther) catching and killing a fish and a crocodile! That's nuts!!!

Needless to say we really enjoyed the experience at the museum! And now onto lunch!

Vaughn loves Chinese food, so after a long tour of the museum, we took him out to lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. Yes, I take pictures of food, so what?! It helps me to relive the moment. It's like tasting it all over again! (We don't eat out much!)


After a hearty meal Vaughn was given the customary fortune cookie. I wish I could say his fortune was something incredible and mystic, but in reality it was so boring that we just threw it away. It was something like, "...you are true to yourself...." BORING!!! I mean come on. They used to actually somewhat predict the future. (You can tell this really means a lot to me).

I guess it didn't bother Vaughn too much to not have a cool fortune. He was very happy with his meal and his smile proved it!

Late that afternoon, after recovering from the museum and eating out, we made our way over to Brian's parents' house in Springville. Some of Vaughn's cousins were there to meet him, and they immediately went out to play on the new swing set/playhouse that Brian's parents had purchased. Vaughn was totally delighted when his older cousin Alex let him sit on her lap and they did a two-person swing!

I was so happy that Emily brought Autumn and Prairie over as well. (Bubby was sick that night). Autumn and Prairie really enjoyed playing in the playhouse as well. They built the playhouse in their backyard right in front of a window so you can just sit inside and watch the kids from the TV room. It makes it so handy when you just want to relax. It's also fun just to sit there at watch the kids play. Kids have so much energy!!!

We let the kids get out as much energy as possible. Then Dean let out a wail, almost as if to say, "Where's the cake and ice cream? Where are the presents?" So we called the kids in for the party! Actually, this is one of the saddest pictures I've ever seen. This is how poor Dean spent the first six months of his life...miserable! I'm so glad that we finally figured out how to help him and he is now eating well and feeling so much better!

It was very obvious that we had to have a Spiderman theme for Vaughn's birthday. I don't usually like the cake designs I see in stores, so I opted to design my own Spiderman for the top of the cake. I picked out a face a liked, printed it out and used it as a guide for decorating the cake. I was really happy with how it turned out, and most importantly, so was Vaughn!

When we called all the kids in, they all came and sat around the island with Vaughn. There were Spiderman balloons, a Spiderman tablecloth, the Spiderman cake.... Vaughn couldn't help but shoot a Spiderman web from his wrists. It was the only way he could express his excitement!


We decided to open presents first because Amy and her kids had to leave. So McKay excitedly handed Vaughn the present he had brought for him. I love the look of anticipation on McKay's face as he waits to see how Vaughn will react.


Vaughn actually was so excited about this Star Destroyer that he didn't want to open any other gifts! (Vaughn doesn't let excitement show in his face when he's really excited. He concentrates and spazzes). Here's McKay showing Vaughn how to push the buttons that make noises. It was a great gift that Vaughn still enjoys playing with!

I was in Wal-Mart and saw a pair of Spiderman shoes that lit up when they touched the ground. I had to get them for Vaughn, mostly because they were on clearance! The first thing Vaughn did when he saw them was point to the spider webs on the side. (Vaughn has decided to greet people now by stomping his right foot down to make his shoe light up. He doesn't have to utter a word. You wouldn't believe the number of people that have stopped to ask him about his shoes. I've met more people in the last several months since his birthday than in the last several years combined!)

Autumn and Prairie brought some very special gifts for Vaughn. I also can't find the picture of the drawing that Autumn did for Vaughn. It had Donald Duck on it, and it was so precious! We put it up in Vaughn's room where he could look at it whenever he wanted. Here is Prairie very anxious to see Vaughn open their present to him!

You can see Vaughn holding Autumn's drawing and they also gave him some Otter Pops. Those are the BEST on a hot summer day, and Vaughn asked if he could have one right away. I had to try to explain that they needed to be frozen first!

THIS is the look that Prairie gave when she saw the Otter Pops! I LOVE IT! She loves Otter Pops, as is obvious by looking at her expression. She also gave a little scream to go along with her cute look!

Autumn had a more reserved approach as she watched Vaughn read her card and look at her drawing. I loved seeing the satisfaction in her face as we all took turns looking at her great drawing. Autumn knew Vaughn liked Donald Duck a lot, and took great care in designing the card for Vaughn. Thanks Autumn!!!

I have no idea what Laura was saying to Autumn here, but I really liked the expression on Autumn's face, so I thought I'd add it in here!

Next Vaughn opened his card from Grandpa Poopa and Momma Isis. Contained inside were some truly awesome treasures for Vaughn. (How do grandparents know how to spoil their grandkids so well? It seems to come naturally to them!) Vaughn couldn't believe his eyes when he saw this GIANT "Spiderman Black" (as he called it) sticker.

Brian tried to explain to Vaughn that he really was seeing what he thought he was seeing.
(I think Vaughn was in a little bit of shock.)

It took a minute or two of staring, and Vaughn finally let the excitement show ever-so-slightly in his face. If you look closely you can see just a tiny hint of a smile there!

Then of course, Vaughn had to show everyone his new sticker. It was so cute!

If Vaughn was slightly shocked when he saw the "Spiderman Black" sticker, he was in definite shock when he pulled this one out! Yes, that is a look of pure anticipation on his face. He couldn't wait to see what was on the other side.

And here's his reaction to seeing all those COOL Spiderman window decals! What an awesome present Momma and Poopa! (And by the way, Vaughn LOVES to put these decals EVERYWHERE. We watch many a movie with the decals on the TV screen. He loves to put them there because it makes the decals look like they're moving.) Oh! Momma and Poopa also included some balloons in with the stickers. We used them to decorate for the party. Thanks Momma and Poopa!

Grandma and Grandpa Higginson also gave Vaughn a gift, but for some reason I don't have any pictures of it. They gave Vaughn some containers of Play-Doh and an interactive learning CD to play on the computer. Vaughn has spent MANY hours playing with both since then!!!!

And finally we move on to Vaughn's last gift. Brian was really excited for Vaughn to open this one, because he took a lot of time to get it made for him!

Yes...that's a giant poster of the front of the 200th issue of The Amazing Spiderman comic book. Again, Vaughn doesn't show a lot of facial expression when he's super excited. And he was definitely SUPER excited when he saw this poster!!! He could barely allow himself to touch it he was so excited. In fact....

....when Brian held the poster up for Vaughn to get a good view of it....Vaughn gave him this look! It was as if he was saying, "Are you kidding me?!?!" It was a perfect reaction!!!

Laura had to leave right after that, so we got a quick picture before she left. I really like Laura's hair with the bangs like they are here. I think I need to take some hair-styling tips from Laura because (as you've already noticed) my hair looked horrible! I think I need to be on Oprah on one of her extreme makeover shows. Can I just saw that Laura is GORGEOUS?!?! Two of my favorite features about her are her bright eyes and her perfect teeth. Yep. I've got a supermodel for a sister.

We decided to end the party with cake of course. And before we cut into it I was able to get Vaughn to take a picture holding his cake. It was a great gift to me to see him so happy about his cake because I had worked so hard on it!

I couldn't resist putting in this picture of Prairie! I adore that girl. I get the biggest kick out of her mannerisms. She totally attacked her piece of cake and I love her for it! (For some reason this reminds me of a certain gal named Laura when she's eating a Hostess cupcake!)

After cake and ice cream we let the kids each pick a balloon to play with. The kids spent a good amount of time in the kitchen hitting each other with the balloons and letting out screams of pure joy! It was the perfect way for them to get out all their energy without killing each other. Balloon fights are really fun because there's always that chance that a balloon will pop and scare the socks off of everyone!

I'll leave you with three of my favorite pictures from that evening. The first one is of Prairie, that little cutie! If I remember correctly, she was just about to get her own balloon here.

Here's the same picture I put at the very beginning of this entry. Vaughn just looks so grown up here. I can't believe he's already three! I think this really captures his personality. What a handsome young man!

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of all time. Autumn looks positively stunning here! She has grown into quite a beautiful young lady with a very sweet heart. I can't get over those eyes!

Thanks to everyone who made Vaughn's birthday such a great experience! Oh! I almost forgot to thank Uncle Jared for the awesome tablecloth and cool Spiderman balloons!

Love, Lisa