AJ Turned 3!

AJ had his 3rd birthday back in the beginning of April. Though that was a few months ago, I had to get this posted before Elizabeth turns one! We had a really fun birthday marathon for him...every year there seems to be multiple parties no matter how I plan. Here are some of the highlights from his actual day and his kid-party...

On his real birthday, Andy and I gave him his gifts (like the Plan Parking Garage, pictured to the left) and he was most excited about his new bike! The bike is a Glide to Ride. It has no training wheels. Instead, it first has no pedals, so he can push and then glide along. This helps the child to get used to how it feels to balance on a moving bike. When they get really comfortable gliding, then you can install the pedals and the transition is supposed to be really easy. (We'll see!). So far, he really loves gliding along and has gotten pretty good at it!

Here's AJ right as Andy rolled the bike into the room.

Next, they got it ready to ride...

Then AJ got to try it on for size before heading outside...

...with all his safety gear! Except for his helmet, that he's apparently outgrown already.

Go, AJ, go!

AJ had a little celebration with his educational playgroup friends and my friend Laurie made cookies for all the kids to decorate, and then they sang the Birthday Song to him. Those kids are all so precious!

Next, we had a small kids' party for AJ at home, and the theme was Dinosaurs!

AJ's friend Violet shows off her Triceratops Tattoo.

Thanks Nancy for running the tattoo parlor station!

Izzy smiles sweetly in front of the T-Rex...

...and Jack gives us a "Raaahr!"

AJ wore his train costume with the pocket-watch so he could be the Dinosaur Train Conductor taking us through the "time tunnel". Here he is "Taping the Horn on the Triceratops".

Emilio got silly and decided he needed a horn on his own nose!

We had a somewhat anti-climactic volcano eruption too, but the kids still seemed to like it. (Hey Jeff, next year we'll use Mentos!)

The kids had lunch with AJ's fancy volcano as the centerpiece.

Here's their Dino-tastic lunch. Dino cookie-cutters courtesy of our friendly neighbor. :)

Here's the "before" picture of the Stegosaurus Cake.

Someone kept taking the cookie armor-plates out of his back. I think we all know who that was...

Maybe the birthday boy, who was not surprised in the least when presented with his cake, even though it was missing half of it's plates! Ha!

Still delicious!

And surprisingly, the mint chocolate chip ice cream was in high demand too.

Lizzy just hung out with the dads. Talking sport, having a brewski...

After the party was over and AJ had his nap, he was very excited to play with his cool presents. They were all a HIT!

We also had a family birthday celebrations, but for some reason I have no pictures of them!! As a mom of two, somehow I am pretty distracted and need to work on keeping the camera in hand. Sorry. :( But thanks to all our family and friends who helped us to celebrate and make AJ's third birthday so fun. We love you all!