Andrew's 3rd Birthday Party

Nicole and I have always believed that our kid's birthdays should be a big deal--after all it's their day. Since we will be leaving Utah soon, this was also our last big party that we hosted here so we went all out. Nicole and I (mostly Nicole) had spent a lot of time planning and preparing for Andrew's party. Finally, the day for Andrew's party arrived and we knew that it was going to be a busy, but fun day. Thanks to Nicole's Aunt Cecille we had a great location for the party in her back yard. It is a huge back yard and easily accomodated all the people that came. With help from my Dad, Sister (Carolee), and her kids we got everything set up over at Cecille's, so we were ready to go. Nicole had some great ideas for decorating. We had an overall sports/balls theme. Nicole found some blow-up balls that we used for the center pieces on all of the tables with some little candy balls around them. We got a baseball pinata and stuffed with all sorts of different balls.

Guests started arriving a bit before 3:30pm, and we finally got the party started around 4:00pm. Nicole had some great ideas for activities. She got stuff for "party hats"--they were foam visors that the kids were able to decorate how they wanted to. They all seemed to like their hats. We then played a sporty version of musical chairs where the kids ran around the yard with music playing and when it stopped they had to be in one of four sections (Soccer, Baseball, Football, and Basketball). Nicole then picked one of the sections and whoever was in that section was out. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and Nia won the game. After that we played "Stick the Football on the Field". We separated the kids into teams (Red and Blue) and began to play. All of the kids had fun, and even Rory got into this one and always wanted to have a sticker in her hand. The Red team ended up winning the game.

(This is the Red Team)(This is the Blue Team)

After that we did the pinata, which ended up falling out of the tree, so Nicole's cousin Devin just beat the thing open on the ground. Once everything was dumped out the kids ran in and got the goodies.

After all of the games it was time for food. Nicole and I have found that Macey's Deli has some great party platters. We have got them for several of our parties and they have been a big hit. Andrew was not in the mood to eat much--he just wanted to play.

After everyone ate, we began to open presents. Andrew was very excited about all of his presents, but was also quick to move onto the next one as he said, "Dad, I want to open another one."

(We always make sure that our kids get one present when it is the other one's birthday, so they don't feel too left out. For Andrew's birthday Meemaw bought Rory a Fawn doll from "Tinker Bell".And Andrew got Terrence from Meemaw too.)

After opening up all of his presents we moved onto cake and ice cream. Andrew got his own cake--it was a soccer ball. And for everyone else we had basketball chocolate cupcakes and baseball white cupcakes. They were really good looking and they tasted delicious too.

I want to thank everyone who came to celebrate Andrew's birthday with us. And a special thanks to aunt Cecille for letting us use her house and yard; to my dad, sister, and her kids for helping set up; to my mom for helping us get food cut up and ready; to Cami who pretty much single-handedly cleaned up all the food; and to Suzie and her kids for helping us clean up and get tables and chairs put away. Thank you.