happy 3rd birthday, manning!

we hit the road early (around 5am) and this time we had the kids sleep in their clothes instead of putting them in the car in their pjs and changing when we stopped for breakfast. this worked a lot better. apparently, maddux was cold when he went back to sleep.

we stopped for some birthday donuts at a small store with a long line of work trucks in the drive thru. and it just so happened that they had "yellow donuts"! manning was pretty excited and everyone agreed that the donuts were excellent.

spending your entire birthday might not sound like much fun, but manning did enjoy that he got to pick all of the movies the kids watched during the drive.

i had been trying to figure out how to make manning's birthday special and when we saw that build-a-bear had minions at the mall, i had my answer. we stopped in ashville, nc for manning to continue his "yellow birthday" at build-a-bear. it was his first time and between riding in the car, being tired and not quite sure what was going on, he was on the quiet side.

he was willing to fill his minion's heart though...

passing the hug test

getting cleaned up

so excited to have his minion to take home!

we had brought the left over cupcakes from the night before and enjoyed them in the food court where there just happened to be a nice little play place for the kids to burn off a little energy.

and then we were back on the road. manning got all snuggled up with his newest friend. he is having a great birthday after all. love.