Sam Turns Three!

It's hard to believe that my little angel baby (that was just barely born, I swear) is three years old.  So far, I have never had a three-year-old without also having another, smaller baby.  So Sam still gets to be my baby, and I think he enjoys that at least some of the time.  Mostly, though, he is just SO proud to be getting bigger.

On the day of his birthday, Sam asked, "Mom, when is me gonna be big?"  I asked what he meant by "big," and he said "5" was pretty big.  So I explained how many more birthdays he had until he would be five like Ellis.  Then he asked, "When me is big, who is gonna be little?"  This launched a great conversation between Ellis and Sam about how we are probably going to have a new baby soon, now that Sam is three, and when that baby gets big, we will have a new baby who will be little, and the process will continue . . . forever and ever.  Ah, if only it were that simple!

Sam has been planning his birthday ever since Ellis' birthday last September.  Seriously.  Probably at least 4-5 times a week between September and now, he has told me something that we were going to do for his birthday party.  With some careful prodding, he (thankfully) settled on the idea of having a Wizard of Oz party.  I was thrilled, because it meant that I could pretty much recycle the school/PTA party and have Sam's party ready to go! 

Of course, we had to make new cupcakes (although the leftover frosting from the school party was frozen and ready to use). 

 Sam and Ellis helped to fill goody bags with all the leftover treats from the school party.

We had frozen the cookies and yellow bricks, so they were still pretty fresh.  I don't think anyone complained about having leftovers in their goody bags.  

And voila!  The recycled party was ready! 

 Mini versions of the cupcakes were perfect for our crowd.

 Sam with his blue Kool-Aid mustache

 Our house accidentally landed on the wicked witch as the party was beginning!

 The kids had a tornado spinning contest.

 and a Munchkin race!

 Sam was very proud to find out that he would be the leader of the next game:

 "Follow the Yellow Vest Sam!"

 Everyone got to help melt the ice witch in the kitchen sink (can you tell we came up with the activities at 10:00 the night before?).

 Wishes for my sweet boy.

I wish I could explain how much I completely adore this boy . . . just as much as I did the day he was born, three years ago.  He has honestly been an absolute gift, filling me with unspeakable joy every single day.

Ellis' Balloon Party!

Can you believe that this little boy is FIVE years old?  He is just eight days late for the Kindergarten cutoff, so here he is on his first day of preschool.  His face in this picture is so classic Ellis, and it reminds me that four has been a really good year for us.  A year of progress.  I will be the first to admit - three was hard.  Over the past year, he and I have arrived in a much better place.  I can now honestly say that this unique, clever, adorable, stubborn-as-a-mule boy now brings me joy every single day.  Not every single minute, but where would the challenge be in that?  I think I have learned most of my parenting skills because of this boy!  I really, truly, absolutely love my Ellis. 

 And as you know, I express my love in the form of sugar!  

Ellis (thankfully - life is crazy right now) chose to have a "Balloon Birthday Party," which is a repeat from Henry several years ago.  But instead of balloon cupcakes, Ellis wanted cake pops.  Who wouldn't?

The boys helped me put together favor bags with even more sugar.

 Cute, yet simple.  You know what I mean?

Our screen porch had its very first party!  I've decided we need twinkle lights out here for the next party. 

 Let the party begin!  We started out with a reading of "The Lost Balloon" by Ben.

The book was from the Cheerios box!  It is about a girl who lets go of a balloon with a message attached to it. 

 So naturally, we had to make enemies with our environmentally-friendly neighbors by sending off our own balloons.

 But look!  The kids loved it!

Ellis requested a repeat of the great COLOR CHANGING WATER trick from last year's party.  That trick is always a hit!  And yes, this is our babysitting co-op group, so we served chicken nuggets and grapes for dinner (Ellis' choice). 

Balloons on the wall contained the name of each activity:

 Rocket balloons

 Water balloon toss

 (which turned out to be a water balloon fight, to Ellis' delight)

There were more activities: 

Punching ball dance

Balloon stomp (with balloons tied to their ankles)

Hot potato

500 with a water balloon

"keep it up" (don't let balloon touch the ground game)

 Then we went back into the porch for cake (through the doggy door, of course.  What else would we do?)

 Cake pops all aglow

 And the five-year-old wishing away

 Seriously.  Ellis is such an important part of my life.  I don't think I would be who I am without him.  He brings laughter and life and energy into our home.  He works hard and is always a finisher.  And he helps me remember the names of all the people we are meeting - at church, school, the soccer field, etc.  

And isn't he adorable too?  Happy birthday, Ellis!

Henry's Dino Party

Henry has been poring over the Oriental Trading catalogue for the past 11 months, trying to decide on a theme for his seventh birthday.  The winning theme: Dinosaurs!  I thought Henry had passed his dino phase a few years ago, but apparently, he still loves them!  It was a fun party to plan together.

Ellis and I had fun making these volcano cakes today!

Favor bags and games ready to go . . .

The lineup of activities (which didn't take up quite as much time as we were hoping -- thank goodness for Dinosaur Train episodes on Netflix!)

Sticker scenes from Oriental Trading (actually got them with Amazon Prime - yay!)

Junie stayed with Jonah and didn't mind being the only girl :)

In the middle of the dino party, Henry couldn't help but zone out completely do a little work on his "Army of Penguins" sketchbook.  I'm telling you, this kid has an agenda.

Ice Age Dino Excavation

They used knives as chisels, and medicine syringes full of warm water to get them out.  It turned out to be a really fun activity, although I will say that I was on the floor half the time wiping up spilled water.

The reward: a little dinosaur to add to their favor bags!

Ben hosted a "dino dig" treasure hunt.  He had very scientifically-based clues for where to find the dino skeletons throughout our house.  The dino-expert kids only corrected him on three of the facts.

The prize: a skeleton to take home!

Oviraptor Relay.  The oviraptors had to steal the eggs from the T-Rex's nest before T-Rex protected them.  Jonah reminded us that oviraptors ("egg thieves" by definition) have been proven to NOT actually be egg thieves.

Cake time!

Seven candles for the birthday boy (still can't believe it!)

At the end of the day, after a fun party with all of his friends, Henry mentioned that the very BEST part of the day was . . . LOSING A TOOTH AT SCHOOL!!!  What could be better than that?  I'm sure he was the most popular kid in the class today.  

And I'm also pretty sure that the second best part of his day was his birthday party.  At least I hope so!