I feel like every birthday keeps coming faster and faster... How is my youngest turning 3?!?
As usual, there was no snoozing once they were both up in the morning. This morning was extra special fun because we bought Henry a new bed! He hasn't slept in his current "Big Boy Bed" for months - he much prefers the Elmo couch on the floor. We figured part of the reason might be because his mom and dad can't hang out with him on his bed, so we decided to buy him a twin sized bed like his brother.
But we couldn't get him a boring bed while his brother has a super awesome Lightning McQueen bed...
So we got him an equally cool super awesome Jeep bed! We convinced the boys to have a sleep over in Thomas' room and installed the Jeep bed in Henry's room after they were asleep. Then we decided to be brave and move both of the sleeping boys into the Jeep bed. Amazingly, they stayed asleep and were super excited when they woke up in Henry's new bed!
First order of the day was donuts for breakfast! Henry went straight for the sprinkled donut and immediately started eating the icing off the top. When I pointed out to Henry that he was only eating the icing he looked at me and said "Well... Yeah!"
How does one argue with that?
We decided to have a party around lunch this time since it was Sunday and I might need the afternoon to recover. Since it wasn't an all afternoon affair, I even managed to talk some of my new friends at work to come join us. There may have been some cajoling involved because Kathryn made the mistake of mentioning that Ben has a hidden talent of making balloon animals! The kids were obviously entranced by his skills!
Look at Henry's monkey in a tree! Way better than some of the more recent balloon creations we've received. Ben did an amazing job with only some minor technical difficulties with his balloon pump, so I offered to give him my balloon pump. Everyone was confused as to why I even had a balloon pump, but it saved the day! :)
This Spiderman might have been my favorite. Look at the "webbing" balloon coming out of his hand - such attention to detail!
Lunchtime was tasty, but the real excitement came when it was finally cake time! The boys were helping me scroll through Pinterest one day and Henry saw a Donut Cake, which he decided wanted for his birthday. Shortly after that, it morphed into him wanting a Ninja Turtles Donut cake. At some point we realized he had changed it slightly to be Minion Turtles Donut cake. I told him that he had reached the end of his options, but he would definitely get a Minion Ninja Turtles Cake.
I think I pulled it off quite well!
Everybody is ready to get singing! Matt lit the candle and Henry let out a very excited "Ooooooooooh". Remind me to keep an eye on this kid around matches in the future...
This guy was super excited about his cake and first taste of rainbow sherbert, but probably ate the least amount of cake among everyone at the table. He is unpredictable with his eating habits.
Then it was piñata time! I didn't intend to buy one, but there was kinda a Ninja Turtles theme going and Henry and I have been arguing about whether or not he likes pizza - he doesn't! But he insists he likes pizza - especially once I said he couldn't be a Ninja Turtle because they like pizza. So it not only fit the theme, it made me laugh to buy my pizza-hating son a pizza piñata. ;)
Everyone got a turn at the pinata! I don't think some of them had ever whacked a pinata before, so we weren't making much progress! But they were happily cheering for each other anyhow.
Thomas clearly knows what he is doing, but even he didn't put a dent in it...
Abby certainly was hitting it the hardest, but it mostly just flew in magnificent circles on it's string...
Finally Matt decided to help the kids out. Turns out this piñata was made with some pretty sturdy cardboard. Henry was still *technically* hitting the piñata, but he obviously has a lot of help...
We finally got that darn thing open and the kids were running around getting all the goodies. My last minute addition of these tiny foam rockets was their favorite part.
Once the kids kinda moved on to other things, the adults may have grabbed the rockets and starting hit each other across the room. Apparently we grow older, but we don't grow up.
On an unrelated note, there is all kinds of drama in the kids clothing world these days (drama everywhere these days, honestly). Anyhow, some retailers have been very responsive to the parent's complaints about clothing options (mostly for girls clothes, but some for boys.) Target just started selling these "Strong Like Mom" shirts in the boys department and I definitely had to show my approval by buying them both one. :)
Present time! Henry was definitely excited about presents all day. I let him open his presents from the Larson's early to keep him from ripping into all of them, but he finally got to go crazy! He got quite the haul - Legos (a family favorite), Superhero sheets, a TMNT dvd for the original show (not the new weird looking turtles) and more Star Wars toys.
Thomas seemed to be a little confused who the presents belonged to, but given they share all of their toys, he's not completely wrong. ;)
When the kids convinced Ben to go for round 2 on the balloons, I asked for one too! I didn't even know what to ask for, so Ben made me a butterfly. Matt decided that my awesome butterfly needed to fly and tried attaching one of his paper airplane motors to it. Shortly after he told me his plan, I heard a loud pop... Turns out the prop on the motor popped my magnificent balloon.
But you can clearly see who was most upset about Matt's miscalculation. Thomas stared at his dada with disapproval for the longest time... I'm pretty sure there was even a disappointed head shake.
Ben made me a new balloon that was pink and gold and just as awesome as the first. :)
After the party and much needed naptime, Henry woke up and wanted to watch a movie with his Nonni. And you can see one of his new presents - a big eyed sea turtle to make up for the fact that Thomas and Henry have been fighting over from a big eyed wolf that Thomas got as a baby. Since Wolfie was causing so many fights, Nonni bought Henry this cute little guy.
Henry promptly named him Wolfie... Ha!
Happy Birthday Henry, can't believe we've had your awesome little self in our life for 3 years already! Love you whole bunches!