Grant is 3!

We all had a great time celebrating Grant's third birthday! On the evening of the big day, both sets of grandparents came over for dinner and gifts. He was totally thrilled with the many gifts he got, but the big winners were the fireman costume from Grandmom and Grandad, the Batman costume from Grandma and Grandpa, and the (possibly ill-conceived) drum set from Mommy and Daddy.


No, the drum set isn't actually all that hard to live with. It's in the far corner of the basement, so not all that loud from upstairs. Besides, he LOVES it so it's totally worth it :)


We waited until two days later for his party, so that our very special friends would be able to join us. Waiting until Sunday also meant we avoided horrible weather on Saturday and were rewarded with an absolutely beautiful day for the party. Win-win! While Daddy and the kids and the grandparents went to church, I stayed home to make the cake. A Pinterest-inspired, M&M-covered, number 3. I was happy that it actually turned out the way it was supposed to!


We chose a superhero theme this year, because even though Hope and Grant are just now becoming interested in superhero cartoons, Grant has always thought that the superheros are "cool." Instead of goodie bags like we usually do, I ordered these ~adorable~ capes and masks for all the kids. So they could suit up in superhero style :)

It turned out that three of the families we were planning on having at the party couldn't come at the last minute, so we ended up with half as many kids as we were expecting. I worried that the party would be a flop, but Grant couldn't have had a better time! As much as I'm sure he would have enjoyed having more friends there, he partied hard with the friends that were there. He was in hog-heaven with all the attention and people to talk to. He is becoming a real social butterfly!

Hope had a great time too, of course. She loves her brother and really got into the superhero theme.


We cooked up just one 'game' for the party, that involved Daddy being the "villain" who was out to steal the birthday pinata. The superheros had to stop him, save the pinata, and drag the villain off to jail. Some of the kids weren't into it, but Hope and Grant and Maddie were WAY into it. And Grant has been talking about it ever since :)

Here's Hope and Maddie, looking very proud of their super-selves having just stuffed the villain in the "jail" under our deck :)

The pinata was saved from the villain alright, but what we hadn't counted on was that it was the pinata that Just. Wouldn't. Die.

The kids whacked it and whacked it and it wouldn't budge. When it had gone on long enough, we finally just laid it on the ground and beat it open!


When it was time for dinner, Grant was good and worked up. But somehow he managed to eat a decent meal in between silly faces and laughing and being a silly little ham.

If he weren't feeling special enough already, then we brought out his cake and he joined in as we all sang the birthday song. It was pretty cute how he serenaded himself :)

And of course Daddy let him blow out the candles three times, for his third birthday.

He was so wired from all the fun and attention and sugar that bedtime came late that night. But we enjoyed every minute of it, celebrating our hilarious and sweet-hearted big little guy!