The STEM areas were first on the list and the family had a great time experimenting with the interactive exhibits. We played with magnets, built structures with blocks, and learned about the different types of energy. Daddy was, of course, fascinated by the music exhibits and spent a lot of time exploring them. Meanwhile, Mama and Rowan found the ocean exhibit. They decided to don manta ray costumes and had a blast pretending to swim through the museum. Rowan particularly enjoyed flapping his fins!

After the STEM areas, we headed to the farm to kitchen exhibit where they learned about the farm-to-table process. Rowan drove a fork lift, a delivery truck, and a tractor! Then he collected eggs from a chicken coop, and even got to harvest some plants. Rowan rushed them to the grocery store and finally joined Daddy in the kitchen to do some cooking. Mama, the family gardener, was so excited to see Rowan taking an interest in where his food comes from.

The water area was the family’s favorite part of the museum. Rowan had a blast playing with the water table and even did some play fishing. He caught a plastic fish and was overjoyed with his success. Daddy and Mama enjoyed watching him play and were amazed at how much he was learning through play.

After a morning of exploring the museum, the family went for a walk in Centennial Park. They took in the beautiful scenery and enjoyed the sunshine. They even stumbled upon some street performers and stopped to watch their show.

Lunchtime had arrived, and the family headed to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for some delicious barbecue. Daddy and Mama ordered a rack of ribs, a pint of Mac and Cheese, and some excellent sweet tea. Rowan enjoyed a quarter chicken and some mac, too! And of course, we had a treat of cookies and sweet potato pie. It was definitely the perfect way to end our fun-filled day at the Atlanta Children’s Museum.

Regardless – a birthday is just that, a birthday! And every birthday should be a celebration. We are so fortunate to have been able to spend a great amount of time during Rowan’s birthweek doing just that!

We knew we were going to have some missing family for Rowan’s scheduled birthday celebration – but we were so surprised and happy to see Uncle Justin, Aunt Kayla, Jacob, Lilly, and Reese on Sunday for some good quality time together (and of course, prezzies!). And then right after Uncle Cody and Uncle Alec came to visit, too! We spent the night with our sweet new Chase truck and blowing bubbles from our lawnmower bubble machine. Sweet!

And then Rowan, Mama, and John got to spend Rowan’s birthday day together exploring the amazing animals and activities at the Atlanta Zoo! We went last year, as well – and it’s interesting to compare year over year. I don’t think Rowan was particularly interested in the animals either year, but he was super excited about the train this year! And he also absolutely loved running through the park and seeing all the people. He’s such a big ole extravert! Mama figured out right at the end that giving Rowan a snack to hold while he walks around keeps him at a regular human’s pace. Whew!

Next we hit up an old haunt for Mama and Daddy in Midtown Atlanta – Fellini’s Pizza. It’s so fun to get back to some places close to where we used to live in Atlanta. And, ironically, while we were there we remembered that we went to the same place for lunch after the Zoo last year! Hah!

Birthday day finished up with an absolutely huge surprise! We knew that we were going to hang out with Grandma because she couldn’t make it to the birthday bash on Saturday. But little did we know that Cousin Laura drove all the way from Greensboro, NC to have birthday dinner and festivities with us! WOW! It was such a great surprise and so much fun to see Laura and have her be a part of our little family party. Rowan and Kenzie were probably the most excited (New people, oh em geeee!).

Ahh, Birthday Day finally done. What a huge success! It was so much fun to be able to have some great adventures together and then to top it off with such an awesome surprise and great company with Laura and Grandma, we couldn’t have planned a better birthday day!

But little did the Young Lord know that in just a couple more days time we would be getting together for the “official” birthday celebration! We were so glad to see so many family members and friends come out to celebrate our little guy. It was a joy to see all the little folks having so much fun together and just to have a great spirit of energy and love poured out for Rowan’s sake. He’s such a light in our lives and we love to see him light up with surprise and excitement – and there seems to be nothing that does that better than being around lots of people!

We had so much fun together – and even more importantly, Rowan had so much fun with everyone! We had gone from worrying that not enough people would be able to make it to having such a great time together. Mama lent her skills and aesthetics with some beautiful decorations, despite the Hurricane Ian-adjacent winds (it was super gusty on Saturday!). But mostly, it was great to get together with such amazing family and friends in celebration of little Rowan’s third year of thriving! We can’t wait to see what wonder, amazement, and chaos he brings to this next year! We love you, Rowan!

I mean, the initial plan was going out on Deb and Jared’s newly purchased boat… but as it happens, Jared already gets the opportunity to do some serious boat repair – apparently he’s going to rebuild the carburetor. Wow! But as plans may sometimes go sideways – good friends, fine company, and a lakeside dock will almost always certainly provide a great time. And it definitely did!

At first, Amy and I tried to set up along the shoreline with the intent of letting sweet Rowan do the “lake experience” as he always has – by walking directly into the water from shore and doing various exciting things like taking handfuls of mud and dirt to wash off in the water and, of course, the favorite “Throwing rocks” fun.

We quickly realized, however, that the area near the edge of the lake was just too muddy to really enjoy like some of the other beaches around Lanier. We needed to change our method and introduce something new to Rowan – being comfortable swimming in the deep!

Truly – he handled it better than we had expected! His little life jacket certainly did the work we had hoped for but he almost exclusively wanted poor Meagan to hold him! They had only met a few times prior to this – talk about building some quick trust! In fact, he was so adamant about Meagan being his only protector that he was often throwing up his hand and saying “no” to both Amy and I. Bah!

It was totally okay though – Meagan was a fantastic sport and was clearly understanding of the plight of a soon-to-be three year old. Her sweet daughter Lyla had just turned three a few weeks ago! It did get a bit dicey at the end of the time – another lesson learned for Mom and Dad. Don’t be in the water too late when it’s mid-September!

Ultimately the cold was a bit more than we expected – it wasn’t that terrible in the water. But as we tried to get out, Rowan desperately wanted to get back in and then we had to make the long trek up to the house to get him dry and warm again. We definitely had a parenting lesson on making sure the kiddo stays warm after getting out of the water! But youngsters are resilient and things ended up just fine – even better when we were able to move on to some fun games and great food and company. Our many thanks to our great hosts, Ms. Freeda and Deb – seen below in Ms. Freeda’s favorite spot. We are so grateful to have spent time at their home and hope we get to visit again soon!