Andrew turns three!!!

And it would only be right to have three celebrations for this three year old boy!

Celebration 1 was at Grammie and Grandpa's house. They would not be in town for Andrew's real birthday, so we went over and had presents and cupcakes. (These were hostess cupcakes, so we defintely took the easy route there).

Andrew was tickled to receive a brand new fire engine. He was so taken with it he really did not want to look at me while I took a picture of him...

Oh well, what can you do? At least he turned his face to me... Can you blame him for keeping his eyes on the fire truck? It has lights and sounds and the ladder spins around and there's even a little fire fighter guy. This is quickly becoming a favorite. I love it when he gets new toys that he loves, because then, we can get rid of a bunch of other toys he owns that he never plays with! It is so great!!

Celebration 2 occurred at Andrew's request. When we asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said, "Go park. Want friends." So, that is what we did! We invited a bunch of little boys and girls he enjoys playing with to come to the park with us for a picnic lunch and cupcakes. It has been beautiful here, such lovely fall weather, so it was the most perfect day for playtime at the park. I love the expressions I caught on Andrew's face today.




Some of these pictures were just so funny... Andrew and his friend to each other, like they're saying, "My swing's not working, is yours? How do we get these things to work? I don't know! Do you know???"

Hmmm... it has something to do with my feet maybe???


Here's a fun trivia question... how many three year olds does it take to operate a water fountain at the park?

The answer is: Two! With one two-almost-three year-old supervising. These boys were proud of themselves.

So later on, we sang Happy Birthday...

And ate some cupcakes...
Pretty much impossible to get so many children who are eating cupcakes to look at the camera all at the same time. But we tried.
After lunch and cupcakes, it was time to go home. So we left the park, presents in tow. (We did not mean for friends to bring presents and were not expecting them... the nice weather, the park, and friends were gifts enough.) The birthday boy didn't have to take a nap, so we went to see Chad at his school and then went to register him for preschool which began the next day. We got to see his classroom, and he's been so excited for preschool-- everytime we drive past it, he says, "that's my preschool!" And when we ask him when he's going, he usually says, "two minutes" which I think, is his hope. So, when we finally got to see his classroom, he was so happy! He did not want to leave. But we told him he could come back tomorrow, and he was okay with that.

We passed the afternoon away doing whatever Andrew wanted. Aubrey came home. We played. We watched a movie. We wrapped a present that had come from grandma in India. It came straight from Fisher Price (not India) and inside the box was the gift we were going to wrap and about a zillion packing peanuts. I should have remembered from last year's birthday what fun could be had with a box full of packing peanuts, but I forgot. So, later on in the afternoon, I see this, making the clutter-meter in my brain go haywire....
Oh my word, they were everywhere!!! The birthday boy and probably his all too helpful older sister decided to throw a party in Andrew's room, with packing peanuts for confetti. I am still finding them everywhere. I left them there for a while hoping they would magically disappear. They didn't. There were still there when Chad got home. And the temptation proved even too great for Chad, who came right in and joined in the fun: he turned the fan on, and threw the packing peanuts up into the fan so they could reach an even greater radius of Andrew's room. It was raining peanuts! The children thought this was hilarious. I knew who would be cleaning those all up later, so guess who wasn't laughing? Just kidding. Only kind of. I did laugh. But I left the room because I couldn't stand it any longer!

When we asked Andrew what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner, it took him a very long time to finally decide on eggs, cinnamon rolls, and syrup. (Just add pancakes, apparently.) However, the aforementioned helpful (and now enterprising) older sister saw a way to snag a Happy Meal out of the deal. I'm not sure what happened after he declared his desire for breakfast for dinner, but shortly thereafter, reneged and became adamant for cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate milk. Oh well. We've had him on the Happy Meal diet for quite some time now, (for the reason being that Cheeseburger Happy Meal=550 calories=over half of Andrew's daily caloric intake if he eats it all), so we were more than happy to oblige that request, even though it may just have been a little bit more his sister's idea than his. And then he got nuggets instead.
At home, we opened presents. (and somehow he lost his pants, as you can see in the pictures below). He got a fun Cars geotrax set that has a remote controlled Lightning McQueen that goes around the track. He was so excited! As soon as he took the wrapping paper off and saw what it was, he kept repeating, "open it! open it! open it!"

We gave him this train table, which, although meant for trains, was really quite handy for his new cars. And some other Cars things...

We ate cupcakes, again (good for Andrew, not quite so good for me...)

All in all, I think he had a good day. I am glad, because he is such a good boy. We love him so much! I am amazed that my youngest child is three! So weird!