LR's Third Birthday!

He's 3! And this year Mommy has learned an important lesson. When presents arrive in the mail, she shouldn't give them to him right away. I should save them up and give them to him all on his birthday or party day. Otherwise, LR will think that his birthday is about 3 weeks long. I'm sure tomorrow (and the next day and the next) he'll be expecting more gifts!

I started baking cakes for his construction themed party around 7am since the party was at 11am, but I underestimated how long it would take me to pick up, decorate, feed the kids, dress the kids, shower, and dress myself. I was just stepping out of the shower when guests started to arrive. Because of the rain, any plans to paint outside were scrapped. Instead we played a wrecking ball game using cities built of boxes and balls hung from the ceiling with twine. We also had the kids "construct" their cake servings by taking hunks of cake and putting them together with cement icing. They seemed to have fun, but more importantly, LR had a blast. He had a great day playing with friends, eating pizza and cake, and hanging out with the family. It was the first day in a long time that I haven't had to discipline him. It was just a very easy day and for all the supporting cast that it took to make that happen, I'm incredibly grateful.

I bought a cheap, but large dump truck this week which served as the platter for the cake. I took plain chocolate cake and cut it into cubes and then tossed them in the truck. It looked like rubble and the kids thought it was awesome. The only drawback was that the parents spent time helping the kids construct their cakes and then didn't eat any themselves. Since there were only 4 kids at the party, I have a TON left over.

LR also spent some quality time giving friends and siblings of friends rides on his cool new tractor. It's his present from Yianni and Cookie and he loves it. I haven't had time to put the front loader on it because he spends so much time playing with it.

Oh, and J Frog and Missy contributed to the festivities as well. J Frog clung onto Daddy's head while Daddy cut up fruit and veggies during the pre-party. It's currently one of our favorite "stop-J Frog-from-crying" moves. He likes the view from up there and apparently Daddy uses tasty hair product. Missy's contribution included pulling herself up to a standing position. She just started crawling on her knees last week and on party day she decided to enter the third dimension. She's now going vertical and it's a little scary. She's not sturdy enough, so if you turn your back, she'll fall over.