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Wesley turned three.  You know that by now.  And not just because I’ve written about it on this website, but also because he’s been talking about turning three since Jillian’s birthday in August.  For months now he’s been asking if it was his birthday and then given the response is always “no” asking when is his birthday.  And finally it came.  And it was over.  But not really.  He got almost a week worth of birthdays.  He deserves it.

We started on the morning of his actual birthday by opening a few presents.  He likes to open presents.  And then continued celebrating by going out to lunch, all four of us, even though it was a work day.

Kind of excited.

That evening we opened a few presents.  The next day of course was Thanksgiving.  And that means a party and to Wesley every party is especially for him.  Especially when the party comes with juice boxes and dessert.

On Friday he got to hang out with me all day since I had the day off.  Not to toot my own horn or anything, but to Wesley that is fun, maybe not as fun as a party, but still fun.

On Saturday we prepared for his real party.  We decided that instead of doing a big elaborate cake which would be both time consuming and hard to get to the park we would let Wesley decorate cupcakes for his party.  He had a blast for at least the first 15 or so.  The last few took a little coaxing to get him to finish.

Decorating cupcakes.

Too many blue sprinkles.

I'm three.

The original plan was to meet up at the park and then walk over to the fire station for a tour and afterwords come back to the park and have the party.  Remember that it was 80F on Thursday.  Saturday of course turns out chilly and then as we are at the park setting up it starts pouring.  So change of plans, no preparty.  Instead we met at the fire station.

I had my concerns.  Our group was pretty young, the oldest are in Kindergarten, and I’ve been on tours with other groups of kids that were a little academic.  Luckily, the firemen were great.  They pretty much let the kids run amuck.  On the trucks, in the trucks around the garage.  It was great.  The kids had a good time and even came away with some hats and stickers.

Ready for action.

New recruits.

We thought we might have to have the party in the back of our Subaru, but luckily it had dried out by the time we were done with our tour.  So we set back up at the park and had a nice little party.  Wesley opened more presents, blew out candles (even though it was too windy to get them lit) and ate cupcakes.  All in all it was rather nice and much less stress than our usual birthday celebrations.

He didn't notice they weren't lit.

More goodies.

After the party we played with his new toys.  And for no real reason took turns dressing up in his new chef’s outfit.

Wesley is goofy.

Dad too.

And Jillian...

And Mommy too!

We didn’t forget that it was Wesley’s birthday on Wednesday.  We are just saving the big post for after his birthday party Saturday.  In case you can’t wait, here is a photo.

Even though his party isn’t until Saturday we’ve still had some fun.  He has opened a few presents and I came home from work mid-day and we all went out to lunch at Burger King.  Later in the day he spent some of his birthday money shopping with Amber and Jillian and got himself a stuffed orca among other things.

Last Saturday we went to Annalise’s first birthday party.  All of her family came down from Waco for the party.  It was great to be around all of them.  But it did make me miss our family…

Mom made us wear these matching outfits...cute but silly.

Saying hello to the birthday girl.

There were a lot of toys outside to play with and the always fun bouncy house!

Mary Ann and Nicholas

Keeping busy while the big kids bounced.

They were working together to stack the pumpkins.

Then we had cake and opened gifts.  All of the kids were super cute and had a blast playing together.

They were a good team.

This is his first time with the party horn.

She thought it was so fun to use!

The birthday girl.

And then we needed a new outfit…

Thank you Grams for the shirt... and it does not!! :)

Playing with Annalise's gift from us. Jillian is playing with Lillian who is 1 month younger than her.

We all had a wonderful time.  Annalise’s official 1st birthday is on the 29th…so Happy Early Birthday!!

We had Jillian’s 1st Birthday party this past Sunday.  Lots of kids and lots of parents were there to help us celebrate her first year.  She arrived to the party late - she over slept.  But once she joined her friends she enjoyed every minute.

She had her first juice box.  It was apple juice and she LOVED it.  So it being her birthday and all, she got this second one.  She carried it around all over and would not let it go.

The kids and the adults had a great time jumping in the bouncy castle, playing in the sandbox and making bubble snakes at the water table.

Jillian got lots of help opening her gifts.  But once they were opened, she liked to keep them in one big pile on Amber’s lap - so they would all be close to her.

Next was cake time.  Here we are singing her Happy Birthday.

She enjoyed the yummy cake.

And the ice cream too

We all had a nice time.  It was great to hang out with our friends, but we really missed all of our family.  We thought about you the whole day.  Hopefully next year we will be able to celebrate with family.

We can’t wait to see what Jillian does in this next year.  She makes us laugh everyday.  And we hope seeing her puts a smile on your face too.

Happy Birthday Jillian!