It all started when Bauer was born exactly (to the day) 18 months after Briana! When you do a little math, that means their half birthdays fall on one another’s birthdays. In a world when you only have two kids, this is a perfect situation where no one ever has to feel jealous on a birthday because every kid has something to celebrate. This is also back in a world when you were a new parent and you worried about your kids’ feelings and such. So for the first few years of parenthood, Sean and I celebrated our kids’ birthdays and half birthdays. It was just meant to be given their symmetrical-ness (new word Webster)! We would get the 1/2 birthday celebrator a small gift or do something special just for them. What a happy little world.
Then came Bennett and his birthday doesn’t work into the half birthday game at all! His birthday is in November, like his awesome parents, so that counts for something. Oh and he is too young to even know what his birthday is, much less a half birthday. But the other two know about this half birthday phenomenon and have even tried to celebrate Bennett’s for him. We can’t shake this Murphy half-birthday tradition and if it weren’t for the expense and logistical savyiness it takes to remember to do it, I don’t really mind it either.
So all that to say, we celebrated Bauer’s 1/2 birthday today.
On Bree’s birthday, Sean and I surprised him by telling him we were going to take him to Legoland for his half birthday gift. Bauer is loving everything legos these days and really has exhibited some serious focus on building things from start to finish. We love it and figured this trip would celebrate this new passion at the ripe old age of 5 and a half years old.
This Bauer, Mommy and Daddy date would also help us feel better about that other issue of him being the middle child and us (mainly Sean) worrying that he never gets to do anything alone. That part of the plan was short-lived. Once Bree heard Legoland, she quickly wormed her way into the date. And you can’t very well leave the youngest B out mainly because we planned on going in the afternoon during the week and that darn daycare expects us to pick him up by 6pm 
So the middle child date was hijacked, but he was excited nonetheless! And after patiently waiting for mommy to finish her hectic January at work, we headed out after nap-time today to see what this Legoland was all about!
Let’s just say I was impressed. I think we all were. The place isn’t huge and I could see that if it was super crowded (we were one of about 7 total families there today), it might not be as much fun and would definitely be a place where you could easily lose a kid. But we had the place to ourselves and really just could explore and play with whatever we wanted. I was also very impressed by each and every worker at Legoland. They are trained very well and regardless if your kid is the only one there, they make him/her feel like a million bucks. They are strict but fair. I had to fight (as in threaten to ask for my money back) for Bennett to be able to to play in the older kid playland (he is just almost at 40 inches), but other than that there were no issues. The rides were fun and there was plenty of stuff to look at to keep us entertained for the 3.5 hours we spent there!
At dinner afterwards, Bree asked me how much it cost to go to Legoland and I said 13.50/ticket. She stated that she was going to save up her allowance to $27 so she could buy tickets for her and Bauer to go back. Serious heart melting moment!
They really are the best of friends (70% of the time)!
As always, it took Bennett a while to warm up to all the awesome playing opportunities we were offering him. I keep trying to convince myself that his skeptical ways will serve him well later in life! We think he really did end up having fun!
The Star Wars exhibit made Daddy and Bennett very happy!
Bauer was in love with the car racing station. He probably could have continued to race his cars all night long! If I could figure out how to rig this in our playroom, I seriously would!
The whole family really enjoyed the the Merlin ride….the faster you peddled the higher you went into the air. Nothing like burning off some of our competitive energy….
My first partner…
My second partner…
And my last but feistiest partner….
My competition…
Finally a smile from our biggest critic…
Bauer and Bree also really enjoying having the whole police race track to themselves!!!
It was a blast for everyone! Thanks to Bauer for allowing his half birthday present to become a crazy Murphy outing!
Sean and I certainly do love getting to be kids again…
…glad these guys are willing to put up with our kid-like spirit!
