Drew turns 3

Yes, Drew is officially 3. He will proudly tell anybody who asks. "I'm tree!" he'll exclaim.

Last Saturday, we had a party at the house. He had, months before, specifically requested a "Mickey Mouse" birthday party, so we got Mickey Mouse balloons and Mickey Mouse cake and Mickey Mouse plates.

For entertainment, because I wasn't about to try to amuse six to eight preschoolers all by my lonesome, we hired a Kindermusik teacher to come out and have a private music/dancing class with the kids. Then we ate pizza, opened presents, ate cake and let the kids run off the sugar high on our backyard playset.

And now, some pictures of the festivities:

Here are the kids in the playroom participating in dancing and singing with Miss Carol from Kindermusik.

Drew with his Mickey cake. If you look closely, you'll notice something...um...unusual about the "candles" on the cake. See, in our frantic preparations for the party that morning (yes, we'd been planning it for a month or so, but do you really think we cleaned our house that far in advance? no, we did what any self-respecting parent does and we woke up early the morning of the party and started shoving stuff in closets)...well...I sort of accidentally threw away the birthday candles. And then Charles sort of took the trash to the dump before the guests arrived.

So, there we were, candle-less. And we had been promising Drew for weeks that he would get to "make a wish" and blow out some candles. So, Charles dug some matches out of a drawer, and voila! Something for Drew to blow out. Shut up. He never noticed the difference. By the time he's old enough to know, we'll have done something much worse and more emotionally scarring and he'll forget all about this.

Here's Drew opening some of his presents. If you're ever bored and feel you need a challenge, dump a big pile of brightly wrapped gifts into a mob of three, four and five-year-olds, and then tell them only one person can open the presents.

Yeah. It was kind of like watching Wild Kingdom.

Here's Drew's present from me and Charles - a train table for all of his Thomas trains. Charles found a great deal on it on Ebay.

After the party, Drew got to have a sleepover with Alex.

First, we tossed them into the bathtub, to wash off all the sand from the sandbox and cake frosting and whatnot. They found the whole experience quite novel. Alex's mom, Kelly, and I think these will be great blackmail pictures later on.

Then we read bedtime stories together. Yes, Alex chose the Dora Potty Book, which, to be fair, is one of Drew's favorite books. Too bad neither of them will actually use a potty, but they sure do like to read about them.

We put Alex to bed in a pack-and-play in Drew's room, where the two of them proceeded to stay up until 10:30 or so laughing and giggling like two teenage girls having a slumber party.

The next morning we had pancakes for breakfast, and before Alex and Kelly left, they helped Charles put together one of Drew's gifts - a desk/easel combination.

Well, OK. Alex helped by handing Charles some plastic hammers, and a plastic saw. Kelly and I sat on the couch and watched cartoons.

As you can see, Drew also watched cartoons, although he looked like he was helping by standing around holding tools. This is the same technique used by the South Carolina Highway Department during road construction projects.

Happy 3rd Birthday Drew!

Comments

[Nancy Lassiter]

Awww, happy birthday Drew! I can't believe that little baby I held in the hospital is THREE! I'm so glad you and Liz are going through all this stuff first so I'll know what to do (and not to do) with my kids... :)

[Elizabeth]

Happy Birthday Drew! re: presents.. we're mean here in the UK, we take the presents home and don't open them at the party.

The weirdest thing - we don't let them eat the cake at the party. We blow out the candles, then cut it up, wrap in napkins and send home in the party/'loot' bag.

:)

[Mom]

You have pretty much got the essence of the party summed up! It was fun and I think the little ones really enjoyed the music as an extra treat! Happy Birthday my BIG Drew Bear!

[Kelly]

So how long did it end up taking Charles to put that thing together? I hope Drew is enjoying it!