Happy 3rd Birthday, Sean!!

There he is!  My 3 year old.  Eating chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream on top to start his magnificent day.  Does it get any better than that for a 3 year old?  

Despite this being the first year he's had to go to daycare on his birthday, we made a joint effort to make his day extra special starting with this breakfast feast.  We let him open a Hot Wheel car and a Nalgene water bottle that had working trucks on it.  Of course, the Hot Wheel was his favorite!  Daycare let him pick out a special treat that they made.  All the kids sat around the table and helped sing Happy Birthday and Sean got to wear the special birthday hat.  

We picked him up as soon as we could after work and brought him home to open more presents, order pizza and breadsticks in for dinner, and eat cupcakes!  He played out in the yard since we've been having such unusually warm weather and ended the night by getting to watch an episode of Bubble Guppies before heading to bed.  I think he enjoyed his day!

Yesterday, the birthday celebrations continued with his 3rd birthday party at Three Cedars Farm in Northville with 30 of our friends and family!  The 6:30am storm complete with thunder and lightening had us a little worried that the weather would put a damper on the party, but the rain held off the rest of the day.  Our biggest challenge was keeping the kids dry and mud-free while playing outside, but eventually, I just let them have at it!  

We paid to have a tent with 8 picnic tables underneath it and the cost included a hayride, cider, and donuts for all our guests.  I snagged some tablecloths at the dollar store during the summer that I thought would fit the "farm" theme and ordered the cow print balloons off Amazon.

I scored these awesome ceramic pieces from Hobby Lobby on clearance during the summer as well.  The tractor came in handy to fill with pita chips and we also had a wheelbarrow and barrel as well.  The food was light and simple since the party was from 10am-noon.  Cut up fruit, veggies with dip, pita chips and hummus, salami and turkey rolled up, slices of cheese, and crackers.  The bottled waters were put in a wheelbarrow we brought from home filled with ice.  Using mini water bottles was the right choice since we had so many kids.

I picked up some mini bales of hay and brought Sean's Melissa and Doug barn and animals to use as decor at the cake table.  I also framed his invitation on the table.

For the kid's tables I found packages of coloring pages that were supposed to be used as placemats at Michaels's that were ridiculously cheap.  12 pages for $1.  Each kid got a placemat and I set their goody bag on top of it to keep them from blowing away.  The goody bags were little cellophane bags filled with homemade pumpkin pie spiced playdough in a ziplock bag and tied together with a halloween cookie cutter.  The playdough was really easy to make and 2 batches yieled 16 individual bags of dough that was a decent-sized ball.  And it smelled delicious!  

Each kid also got a mini red solo cup with a lid and a red and white striped paper straw.  I put a sticker with their name on their cup so we wouldn't have kids drinking out of someone else's cup.  All the tables had a mason jar filled with artificial sunflowers and 2 cow print balloons tied to it.

And now my favorite part...the cake!  Monica's Cakes made this gorgeous marble cake with buttercream frosting and chocolate buttercream on the inside.  It fit our theme perfectly!!  Too bad Sean was not a fan of us singing to him and had a mini meltdown mid song.  

Otherwise, the party went off without a hitch and the kids had a blast playing at the farm all morning!  It was hard to peel the boys out of the cornbox!  I'm still finding dried pieces of corn all over the house...

It's a relief to know that after months of planning and hard work, the party is over, Sean is as happy as can be with his birthday celebrations this year, and we had a fabulous morning spending time with our closest friends and family.  Thank you to everyone who came out!

And now as I look at all these pictures from this past week I can't help but feel proud of Sean.  He can be stubborn and strong willed at times, but he is so smart and so funny.  It's hard to stay mad at him for being too aggressive or pushing his brother when he has some witty comment that comes out of his mouth during time-out.  He is so spirited and truly beings such joy to our lives.

To end this birthday post, here are a few things facts about Sean at 3:

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

2. What is your favorite toy? Cars and trucks

3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples

4. What is your favorite tv show? Bubble Guppies and Paw Patrol

5. What is your favorite movie? Cars and Madagascar

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? Skeleton undies

7. What is your favorite animal? a scary monster

8. What is your favorite song? "I like to move it, move it" from Madagascar

9. What is your favorite book? Where the Wild Things Are

10. Who is your best friend? Sydney and AJ

11. What is your favorite snack? Chocolate Graham Crackers

12. What is your favorite drink? Milk

13. What is your favorite breakfast? A waffle with peanut butter or chocolate Cheerios

14. What is your favorite lunch? Grilled cheese

15. What is your favorite dinner? Spaghetti 

16. What is your favorite game? The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game

17. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Cars

18. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

19. What do you sleep with at night? Blankie and all my buddies

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A fireman

Happy 3rd birthday, Sean!!!  We love you so much!