You might have noticed we did the cupcakes at his school a day early - which was because we had fun plans for his actual birthday that didn't include school!
I bought a handful of presents for Thomas because we always find ourselves muttering "Why are there so many toys in this house?!?" at least once a week. So I was a little surprised when Matt got in the present game and bought him this super awesome balance bike. I think someone at Tom's wedding was talking about how amazing they were and their kid went from balance bike to pedal bike in no time at all.
I can at least claim credit for the Thomas shirt and sweatshirt. :)
Henry did have to go to school for a little while after a late breakfast at the bagel shop. I gave Thomas a few options for his birthday and he went with seeing his first movie in a real theater. We didn't figure Henry was up to a movie, so he got to hang with his other buddies for a few hours.
Thomas seemed pretty excited about the movie. We had a total of one option (Home) and it wasn't that exciting, but he sat through it like a champ. There may have been a slight incident with his jacket and the red Hi-C he was drinking, but it came out in the wash (whew!).
Back home after a short nap, Thomas was ready to tackle the balance bike. I figure the learning period might have it's fair share of falls, so we went proactive on the safety gear. Also note his new shoes - that was unplanned. We just happened to walk by the shoe store after the movie and his dad couldn't pass up these super cute Vans. He's now referring to them as his "skateboard shoes".
He's so proud of himself and his new balance bike. Lovely day for his birthday too! :)
And my best contribution to the day - his birthday cake! I sat down with him and looked at cake photos to let him pick out his favorite. He couldn't really choose between of two of them, so we ended up combining them for his awesome #3 racetrack cake. He was so concerned when I was putting the two cake rounds together - he was worried that I was giving him a 8 cake and not a 3. I promised him it would be a 3 once it was decorated!
The second cake Thomas liked was a combined "3" bundt cake covered in M&M's. So I figured I would just cover the sides of his Cars cake with M&M's. Waaaaaay more tedious than I planned... I didn't even get it finished before I had to go get Henry. Thankfully I had back-up and Brittney finished it off for me - so good to have friends with the same interests/talents! :)
Thomas loved his cake! He was still not convinced it wasn't an 8, but he was super excited about Mater and Lightning McQueen. (What are the odds the cake we copied had the exact same two cars?) And he did a great job of blowing the candles without spitting all over the cake - progress!
I'm so glad that Thomas loves chocolate cake. Because it's my favorite and I'm selfish like that. :)
Henry lost his shirt for cake time. It was a proactive move because he was wearing his super awesome shirt and he's not the neatest eater. He's learning to use a fork though, so that's exciting!
See what a cool shirt he was rocking? We got both of the boys Hawaiian outfits while we were there and they both seem to like them. They haven't worn the shorts yet, but they are rocking the shirts. As a side note - he looks huge in this photo. It's not misleading, the little guy is not so little these days. He's been screaming through all of Thomas' old clothes. They are going to be wearing the same size pretty soon... "/
Full disclosure, I suck at wrapping presents. Like I'm really, really bad. I had 4 presents that weren't completely covered. But it was late last night and I pretty much didn't care. I don't think Thomas even noticed. So to anyone who think my cakes look awesome, just know that my presents look awful. We all have our talents and limits!
Thomas was so cute opening his presents this year. He would open a present and then give the present giver a hug. Ok, there was a little bit of prompting, but he was super in to it. I'm not sure he wasn't too exuberant with Aunt B...! She did give him some pretty awesome presents, so that might be why. :)
I'm not actually sure who was more excited about the punch balloons that Aunt B brought. Henry was carrying this thing around for most of the evening. It was waaaaaaay too inflated though - it popped later when Abby was playing with it. And she wasn't even fazed my it - she's a tough kid!
I think that the highlight of the evening was the play food. I bought two sets of play food in the post-Christmas discounts and have had them hidden in the closet since them. All three of the kids were so excited with all of the fake foods. The ice creams were the most popular, but the tacos were a close second. They were holding them up and yelling about "Taco Tuesday" - a reference to the Lego Movie that Abby was the first to mention and was repeated over and over and over...
All-in-all I think it was a great birthday and Thomas seemed pretty worn out from all the fun. I'll take that as a success. I can't believe he is already three, he's growing up way too fast! Though to be fully honest, I love this stage. He is full of questions and random thoughts, but still wants his momma and dada more than anything else. I'll take that as long as it lasts! :)