The 3rd Birthday Extravaganza!

Colin is 3. He is officially 3 years old. No turning back now. :-) Yesterday was the big day and we hosted a birthday party for him at the rainforest water park that we all love. It has been a big few days around here and I am absolutely exhausted now, but very happy!

The birthday fun started on Sunday with Jer's parents. They left yesterday for a trip to Italy, so we celebrated early with them. We had Colin's annual birthday brunch at Old West Cafe in Denton and then went back to their house for some fun with the slip and slide! I borrowed my mom's awesome camera for the festivities and got some really cute pictures!

My mom and sister Meredith came to town on Monday afternoon to spend the night and attend Colin's party. My sister Alieson came to the house when they arrived and we all had a great evening together. We had dinner together at Mi Familia in Roanoke and then came back home to play. Aunt Alieson, otherwise known as the most beloved aunt in history, took Colin and Jackson for a ride around the block with their scooter and tricycle. They were following her around all night like little shadows. It was absolutely precious! After all the fun, we set up the air mattress in Colin's playroom for Jackson to sleep on. It was around this time that Colin announced that he wanted Jackson to sleep with him in his bed! I was blown away...Colin is so rigid when it comes to how he likes to go to sleep and I never thought he would really go down with Jackson in bed. I decided to give it a try, fully expecting Colin to want Jackson to leave once it really came time to sleep. We got in Colin's bed together and I read both boys a few stories while they got cozy under the covers. That alone was just wonderful and I was soaking them up! After the stories, I turned the lights out to sing Colin his songs and Jackson was the perfect prince...he got quiet and still and listened right along with Colin. I actually think he enjoyed it too, even though he is 5 years old. :-) Both boys went to sleep!! Jackson was still just barely awake when I snuck out of the bed and I kissed him and told him good night. He told me he loved me and snuggled right up to Colin. And they SLEPT! It was one of the best moments EVER! I love that Colin loves his cousins so much!!

Colin and Jackson heading around the block with Aunt Alie

Jackson and Colin! They are pretty adorable firemen!

Colin making a GIANT blue mess with his new sand and water table. We won't be buying blue sand again. :-)

Loving his new present!

Colin's birthday dawned sunny and HOT! We left early for the party, which was scheduled to start at 11:00am. We went by Sam's to pick up the cake and food...and not without the usual comedy of errors that surround any event planned by yours truly. I got a phone call the night before the party from Sam's informing me that they were not going to have my sandwich trays that had long been ordered. After talking to every manager under the sun, we realized that we were basically completely out of luck. At that late hour, the only choice was to purchase meat and cheese trays and a couple of loaves of bread. Lovely. I tried my best to just let it go and not be upset, but I was so angry at them! I have the worst luck when it comes to party planning. The same company lost our big present for Colin and that was a mess, too. Unreal. Anyway, we picked up the modified food and headed over to the water park. The wind was blowing like crazy and we had to tape down all the cute parts of the firetruck table cloths, but at least things were coming together! :-) Colin requested a firetruck/police car theme, but we stuck with firetrucks only after realizing that police decorations are hard to come by! He was super excited about the whole event and talked about it non-stop. I had plastic fire hats and matchbox cars as favors for the kiddos and the cake turned out yummy and cute. Despite all my best efforts, Colin still managed to be pretty overwhelmed once the party got underway. There was a lot of fuss over him from lots of people and he started to retreat into his shell. The whole lead up had him very hyped up and by the time folks started arriving he was getting nervous. He only swam for a few minutes and then he wanted to hide out with Mimi at the picnic tables. He was not quite his usual smiling self for much of the party and even got under the table to hide when we sang happy birthday to him! OOPS! He did get excited to share lunch with his friends and really perked up when he got to cut his cake. Opening presents was interesting...he kept wanting to stop and play with each one and not open anymore! By that point, he was close to being done with the whole thing. He is definitely an interesting little man. I thought that picking a venue that he loves and knows well would help eliminate his tendency to get overwhelmed, but it happened anyway. He has stopped being nervous at most things and has had such a great time at all his friends parties, but when the spotlight turned to him, he got nervous. He did manage to have fun despite some rough moments and I am so thankful for all of my wonderful friends and family who know Colin so well and love him so much. He got the BEST presents EVER from his friends and once he got home, he took each one out and had been immersed ever since! He keeps saying, "My friends got me so many good presents, Mommy!". He wanted to know who gave him each present and why I thought they picked it out for him. :-) It was just a wonderful party!

We spent a wonderful evening together after the party. Colin spent all night playing with all of his amazing presents and the rest of his loot from Mommy and Daddy. We gave him his big present that was from our entire family...a Power Wheels Jeep!! He lost his mind over it just as we expected he would. :-) He also had all of his dreams come true by getting piles of fireman related things...he got a fire station, several firetrucks, firemen, boots and a real fire hat! He made them all go to bed with him last night! It was a very blessed birthday for my sweet little man...I am so excited for the coming year with my BIG 3 year old boy!