Ryker Brenneman: Happy birthday, Harvest Party, and Halloween

I'm three! I had a great birthday followed the next week by a great birthday party. I asked for a Cars birthday party and Mom & Dad delivered. We had a race car cake, cars cookies, and even red (my favorite...like Lightning McQueen) kool-aid to wash it all down. My favorite part was that my family and friends came over to celebrate with me. We raced lap after lap around the house. I wasted no time diving into my presents. Once I got to a spiral cars race set (the one I was asking for) though, I wanted to quit and start playing. I played until after midnight. Yes, my parents were awfully sweet to let me break all the rules the night of my party.
My crazy weekend was just starting with the party. Grammy & Pappy stayed the night and they hung out with us on Saturday. Mom and Dad went to Bloomington to watch IU get pounded by Northwestern. They said they had fun, but I doubt it was anything close to our fun. Grammy & Papaw took us to McDonald's. I downed my first happy meal. Then we got ready for the Harvest Party at church. My brother and I were Thing 1 & Thing 2 from the Cat in the Hat. We got to spray our hair blue and go to the party to get lots of candy. Yum! Afterwards, we came back home and Grammy played play-doh with us, took us for piggy back rides, and played cars. Papaw raced cars with me, too. What a great day!

The next morning we went to church and had a going away party for my best buddy Emerson (and his family). I already miss them and it has only been a couple of weeks and I've seen him both weekends since they left. We sent him out with a bang (and a dozen or so cookies in only an hour's time) by running wild around The Point together. I can't wait to get together with him again soon.

You'd think all this would be enough for one weekend, but Halloween was Monday. I started it with a drive up to see my Grammy. We picked her up and she went with us for my very first dentist appointment. I sat on Mommy's lap and was the best behaved patient for Dr. Melody. She said my teeth were great! She cleaned them with a special toothbrush that tickled. Then she stuck this thing in my mouth that sucked it all out. It was fun! After she was done, she gave me a Transformers toothbrush and I told her I would see her in 6 months. Then we celebrated my great behavior by having ice cream. Aunt Owi even came to share in the fun. It was a great time, but we had to hurry home so that we could get ready for trick-or-treating. We got all dressed up in our Thing outfits, got our hair all crazy blue and headed out for some candy. Our first stop was at the Kernodles. They thought we were funny looking. They got us some cool flashlights that make noises. We stopped by some other houses in the neighborhood. It seemed that with each one I gained a little confidence, being able to strut up to the door by myself and ring the doorbell and say "Happy Halloween." By the end I didn't even need Mom & Dad to walk up on the porch with me. To wrap up a fun night and two giant bags full of candy, we went to the McLarrens. I liked Vance's glow in the dark fingers but the ring pops in my bucket were even better.