3rd Birthday Party

So, this particular birthday party started off on a fairly humorous note. After making the cakes, Mommy made a very poor judgment call.... I proudly showed the boys their completed vehicle cakes and then placed the sweet creations on a low card table. What could possibly be wrong with putting the cakes at eye-level for a 3-year-old? :) Jaden and Cody were very excited about their cakes and loved looking at all the details.

With a warning to "be sure not to touch the cakes!" I turned around to finish some other food preparations for the party. Our guests were arriving soon, and I was feeling a bit behind. Of course these hungry, excited birthday boys would listen to Mommy's simple direction, right?

Well, I turned back to look at the boys just in time to see Cody leaning over the top of his garbage truck cake. He smiled at me, displaying a green-tinted tongue. Jaden was pushing all of his candles deep down into his bus cake so that only the top of the wicks were visible. At the time, I was not at all amused. Now, however, I wish that I got a picture of these little culprits in action... Thankfully, the cakes were easily salvageable, Mommy learned her lesson, and we completed our pre-party pictures.

Jaden, Cody-- happy to be THREE!

Our TALL birthday boys! (Cody on L; Jaden on R)

The boys aren't looking at the camera but have much more
 realistic smiles, thanks to cousin Ian!

Once all of the family arrived, we began the party activities. First, the boys decorated some wooden cars with markers, crayons, and stickers.

Both of my boys stick their tongues out when concentrating! :)

Jaden

Cody

Not surprisingly, the younger boys were done with their car-designing after just a few minutes. They practiced racing their newly decorated cars, and then other vehicles, down this homemade ramp.

Here are the boys with their completed cars (and a few extra cars as well!). It isn't easy to get a good picture of this bunch!

Ian, Cody, Jaden, Ryan

Our first party game was a colored parking lot activity. The boys all listened quite well to the game directions.

The object was to find hidden vehicles, only two at a time, upstairs...

bring the cars downstairs (still only two at a time)....

...and then place each car on the parking lot square that matched its color.

There were enough hidden cars for each boy to run upstairs at least four different times. They all got so excited about this game and could complete it independently.

Here was our colorful parking lot at the end of the game.

Next we played a matching game. I had printed off a dozen or so pairs of vehicle-to-driver clipart pics. A few examples are shown below.

The boys had to match each driver with the correct vehicle. We played with the cards face-up since there were so many matches. Once the parents had the cards turned face-up, I think that all the kiddos could make the matches mostly all on their own.

Ian, of course, had no problem at all finding his matches. He was very willing to participate in all the games, even though they were much more geared towards 3-year-olds!

Our last activity was going through a series of six Car Challenge stations. We had asked Ian and Ryan to bring a favorite car from home so that all the boys could complete the station activities with a vehicle. Jason was the creative mastermind behind these car challenges. The first challenge was to take the vehicle through the tunnel.

Next the boys had to drive to certain buildings on this car mat based on what their adult "caller" told them to find. This car challenge got noisy quickly!

For the next two challenges, the drivers sent their cars down the homemade ramp and then rolled the vehicles through various obstacles (like under this chair).

Then, Jason and Matt created "snow in Texas" by tossing ping-pong balls into the air. The drivers' goal was to avoid the falling snowballs.

Finally, Jason created a mini-driving course outside with cones.

But as soon as Jason mentioned the car wash at the end of the course, the boys wanted to skip the track and go straight to the car washing! Each of the cars found a parking spot on the grass...

...and then Jason surprised all the drivers by getting THEM wet too! :)

While a group of the adults were preparing dinner, Chelsea and Kim each read a car-themed book to the boys. We love Aunt Kim's tradition of ordering books based on the party theme and then having all the guests sign the front cover. What a great party memory! Chelsea read Go, Go, Go, Stop (one of the boys' favorites from the library this year). Even Nathan and Isaiah got in on this party activity! :)

Kim read Trucktown's Race from A to Z.

Finally, before the food was served we played a quick slideshow video for our family. The slideshow was a compilation of the many ultrasound pics we have of our boys. Seeing their in-utero growth from month to month is a fun reminder for us all of God's amazing miracle of life.

Then, dinner was served! I couldn't find a lot of car-themed food ideas, so we just made a bunch of the boys' favorites-- pulled pork, baked beans, lots of fruit, chips, and pasta salad.

We did have one vehicle-related food item, these super-easy apple/grape cars.

Cody and Jaden were hungry and ate well.

When it was time for birthday cake, we sang happy birthday to each boy separately...

...and then re-lit both cakes for another chance at the candle-blowing.

At the end of the party, Cody and Jaden opened their gifts from the family.

Ryan and Ian were great helpers with this process. :)

The boys got quite a variety of generous gifts. Thanks so much, family!

Before this birthday, the only family member that had ever been able to attend any of the boys' parties was Grammy. What a treat it was to have SO many family members celebrate with us this year! Here are a few miscellaneous family photos...

Cody and Isaiah

Jaden, Cody, Chelsea, Nathan, Ian, Ryan

Grandpa and Grandma with their SIX grandsons

Nathan and Grandma (Nathan even wore
a dump truck shirt to the party!)

Jon and Nathan

Chelsea and her Isaiah

Jaden and Cody were a bit overwhelmed with all of the gift-opening at the party's end. At one point, they both said, "No more open presents!" We are sure that their attitudes will change dramatically by next year! :) So, we ended up saving a few more family gifts for the boys' actual birthday a few days later. This gift-opening was quite a bit calmer...

sooo excited about some Curious George
videos from cousin Abby!

All in all, it was a fun and memorable 3rd birthday! 

We love our little 3-year-olds!