Joel's Third Birthday

It's only taken me a week to get this posted. I wish I had a good excuse but I don't, but at least I'm getting it done now. So Joel's third birthday was last Friday. It was a really fun day. However, by the time everything was said and done I was glad that it was over- TOO MUCH BIRTHDAY makes for a very cranky three year old.

So here's the recap:


The night before Joel's birthday Tj and I snuck into his room and decorated it so he'd be surprised when he woke up. I had made Joel his birthday banner while he played at Nama's house earlier. We think he was excited about his room although we were woken up by the sound of him opening his presents! Silly boy.


More of the birthday decorations. My friend Kimberlee always gets her daughter a balloon for her birthday. I thought it was a neat idea (since my boys NEVER get balloons). So Thursday night I sent Tj to the store to pick one up. He came home with these two. It was a good call because the boys have had SO much fun playing with them. The spiderman balloon is surprisingly still around. The other one was thrown away days ago. These balloons have provided HOURS of entertainment for the boys. Thanks Kimberlee for the idea!


I had made Joel these really yummy muffins. They have strawberries, bananas, blueberries, walnuts and nutmeg in them. They are SO good. So we had these instead of birthday cake for Joel's birthday this year. I put his three candles in his and before we even got finished singing he had blown out the candles. He was so proud of himself.


Joel was fortunate enough to have lots of people thinking about him for his birthday and sent him cards and gifts. He got some clothes, games (Chutes and Ladders & Candyland), plastic horses, sink with running water and a leapfrog recording toy. He was so excited about his gifts. He has really had a lot of fun playing Candyland. It's been fun teaching him how to play games. I am so excited to FINALLY have someone who will play games with me- even if they are juvenile games.


Friday night our ward at church was having an "Unbirthday Party". Joel had a blast. We played musical chairs, pin the tail on the donkey, there was a pinata and BIRTHDAY CAKE! It was the best way to spend his birthday (and I didn't have to do ANY of the planning).

Joel's turn at the Pinata. He had a couple good hits.

When we asked Joel what he wanted to do for his birthday we were not surprised when he said that he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. (Actually his first request was to go to Mickey Mouse's house again aka Disney World but we told him that wasn't possible.) So his birthday celebration continued into Saturday when Pa was home and could go to Chuck E. Cheese with us. We had a nice time. Of course it was they typical crazy madhouse since it was lunchtime on a Saturday. But Joel and Vance had a really fun time. Vance was loving the music and spent the whole time dancing around anywhere he could. Joel got to open his present from Nama and Pa- the sink with running water.

Joel sporting his Chuck E. Cheese mouth.

So I think all in all Joel had a good third birthday. Balloons, muffins, candles, cards and presents all before 9 am. We had a playdate at the splash park with his friends, McDonalds for lunch, party and cake that night. And wrapping up with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese the next day. It was a great birthday. (But I was glad that I have three months to recoup before we do it all over again for Vance's birthday!)