Jack's Third Birthday Party

Whew! Prepare yourself for picture overload!  I figured since I caught up on Ryan's birthday party, I should probably do the same for Jack's!  We had a construction themed party a couple weeks after his birthday (so we could space out the partying at hour house!) and it was great to celebrate with friends and family!

 

Here is a family picture before the fun started!

And the birthday boy!  He was so excited - I do think turning 3 is when it all is real and they "get it"!

And one more - love this one!

I thought this was a cute picture of him taking the balloons back up to put next to the front door!

Katie was so excited to help get things ready for the party.  She actually made some signs that she put up - here are two examples.  I laughed so hard when I saw this first one!  And it is true - it is important to watch out for Jack! ha!

And another one.  She also did a sign to show where the presents were to go.

And we had his chair ready with the caution taped mantle...and you can see that other sign Katie made :)

And the yummy spread!  I loved the road running underneath the food!

And another view - you can see we still had the anchor hand towels up from Ryan's party :)

The cake!  The same sweet lady made this cake and it was just as delicious!  I also love how it turned out!

One more view of the food area!  

And I am so glad I thought to borrow our neighbors' tent for the deck...it was a rainy day!  And I had planned to let the kiddos play with dumptrucks and bulldozers in pools of sand and dirt!  So they still had fun and were undercover (which actually was a good idea regardless - it could have kept the sun off of them too!).

The sand was a hit!  The dirt - not so much.  Who knew!  I figured the dirt would be more fun but they loved the sand.  Maybe they were pretending to be at the beach :)

I couldn't get Jack to stop to actually smile and look at me, so this was as good as it got.  He loved it!  The perfect party for him for sure!

And yay that Tanja and Nick could come - they were out of town for Ryan's party, but they were back for Jack's!  Think he was excited? :)

The boys sure love Tanja!  She was surrounded!

And then one with Nick in there too :)

All the goody bags were out and ready! I had Katie help me assemble them - amazing idea!  She loved it and it was one less thing I had to do!

Jack with his buddy Carter!  Sweet friends!

And then we got one with the mommas in there too!

And yay! I got one of me and my favorite Jack (I have to be careful about saying favorite boy - ha! I can say favorite girl with no issue...but I have to be specific with names for boys!)

And Katie had to get in there with Tanja and Nick too!

I definitely did better taking pictures at Jack's party.  Well, I did better and then Tanja took a bunch too!  Here is Katie with Avery and Olivia - such fun!

And after some playing, it was cake time!  I'd say Jack was excited! 

Everyone sang and then it was time to blow out the candles!  We just won't think about how much of his spit we consumed on the icing :)

I don't know whether he was ready to eat the cake or play with the bulldozers on the cake, but he took them off almost immediately after blowing out the candles!

Happy THREE year old.  Wow.

And a few pictures of some family and friends!  Brad aunt and uncle and momma and then my mom!

And Kara's whole crew!

Not too bad of a picture of me and Brad! I'll take it!

And one of us with Nick and Tanja!

Nanny and Papa! 

And then the kids were out playing in the sand some more.  Whew - sand ended up EVERYWHERE on the deck and in the sunroom.  Every once in a while I'll walk to the train table or to get a kid a book and feel sand under my feet!  Must mean they had a good time :)

Then it was pinata time! Daddy was showing Jack what to do...and we made sure all the other friends backed out of range of getting whacked.

This may be one of my most favorite pictures ever.  I am so glad I caught such a sweet moment!

Katie had a turn at the pinata too!

All the kids had several turns at hitting it...I think after this one, Brad took care of it and then it was a race to get the candy!

There was an audience!  Obviously the sun did come out - thank goodness!

And one more of this wild man!  Love that grin!

It is so fun having friends that I grew up with at my own kiddos' parties!  Here is Tanja, me, and Kara!

And here is a picture that Tanja made - a collage of us now paired with a picture of us from high school! Amazing!

 

After some quiet and naptime happened, Jack got to open his goodies!  Everyone was so generous and he was so excited to have new things to play with!

I am glad I had the boys' parties separate this year - they each had a blast!  With that said, I am looking forward to planning one party for the two of them next year.  And not having it at my house! ha!  Since their birthdays are a week apart and in the summer, it only makes sense to have a joint party...until they start having their own groups of friends when they get a little older!

 

 

Ryan's First Birthday Party

Since Ryan is now officially 15 months old, I guess this would be a good time to go ahead and post about his first birthday party!  Looking at these pictures makes me realize, once again, how quickly time is flying and how much these kiddos are growing and changing!

 

We had Ryan's party at our house and it was so fun!  It was anchor themed - and I may have gone a little crazy with the décor.  But shhhhh....I may have also returned about 95% of it afterwards!  Yay! :)

 

This is what was at the front door as friends and family arrived...

And this was the entry table - I had a chalkboard looking poster out with some fun things about him at that age and stage along with a basket of goodie bags!

And the area in front of the fireplace - presents, anchors, and his chair with balloons on it!

And the kitchen island ready to go!  I was so excited with how it turned out! 

And the cake....ohhhh, the cake,  It was so cute and SO delicious!

And the infamous smash cake!  I love how it had its own look but still matched the big cake!

We also had a few cupcakes to make sure there was enough for all the folks - I'm glad we did because it meant we had cake left over!  YUM!  And then the cute anchor bulletin board with different baby pictures on it!

And some more anchors and teeny baby Ryan pictures out too!

And I had his pictures from newborn to 12 months clipped up on some burlap in the kitchen!

The most important - the birthday boy!  When we brought him downstairs from his nap, he was so overwhelmed at all the people.  Once he warmed up, he had a blast!

And the best we could get of all three crazy kids!  Love that they all were sporting their anchors!

And the moment of truth - he looks like he is staring down the cake and ready to go to work on it! This was when everyone was singing happy birthday to him!

When he first got the opportunity to dig into the cake, he was not so sure.  Brad had to give him a little help and entice him with the yummy icing!

Then he got down to business...there is no telling how much sugar he consumed...he clearly loved it though!

Just look at the cake!  Once he ate a lot, he started just tearing into it and smashing it around!

Here are a few more action shots that I got on my phone.  I love the last one - he's looking at us and probably thinking -- "What? You don't want me to shove this cake and icing in my ears? You mean like this?" Ha!

And a final shot before being all done (whether he liked it or not)!

I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures at the party of all the guests and friends, but I did manage to get one of Ryan and Carter together!  They stuck to playing on the deck once all the crazy big kids were playing in the sprinkler out in the yard!

And we did manage one family picture - Katie and Jack were clearly ready for water play!  And even I was sporting an anchor shirt!

We had such a great time at the party and being able to celebrate Ryan and his first year!  I also decided after planning two separate parties for the boys (because I felt like Ryan at least needed his own first birthday party) that they will be having joint parties for the foreseeable future :)