Charlie's 3rd Birthday

Our little boy turned 3 years old last Tuesday! He was very excited to be 3, although it is true that he keeps telling us he is “actually 8.” We spread his birthday throughout the day. We came in and sang Happy Birthday to him in the morning to wake him up, handing him his first present to unwrap – a pack of Cars stickers. Then we brought him downstairs where he saw his brand new art easel. That thing has been very popular with him, and has already seen a ton of mileage!

I let him open a new present at morning snack, one at lunch, one at afternoon snack, one before dinner... We had a lot of smaller gifts for him to open so that he could enjoy the thrill of tearing paper. To our surprise, he is not much of a paper tearer. He is very gentle when he unwraps gifts, and has to be really encouraged to rip at it. Makes me laugh that he is even methodical about opening his gifts!

Charlie and I went out to Michael’s and Borders in the afternoon. When we walked back to the car from Borders he was screaming to everyone he saw, “I am just so happy! I’m happy!” It was making everyone smile. It was really cute.

Charlie requested hot dogs for his birthday dinner, and then we went in to open the rest of his presents. He got a ton of stuff. Lynnae really wanted to be able to get him a lot to open, and she succeeded. I told her she could spend up to $20, and imagined that she might be able to get him 2 things with that. But, no. It all started when I found a Buzz Lightyear doll at the Disney Store for only $8... Then she still had $12 to go. She ended up also getting him Candyland and 4 Hot Wheels cars. Those presents were among his favorites! In addition he got wooden trains and a book from Grandpa Kovar, a Percy lego set and a book from Grandma Boyce, and a set of books from Great Grandma Hayman. We also gave him stuff to go with the easel and a Little Einsteins drum set... Which he also loves.

Then we had cake. I would love to say that Lynnae decorated it, because the handwriting looks so bad... But unfortunately, that is not true! I bought canned decorating frosting because I was out of time, and found that it is nearly impossible to hold one of those cans while squeezing the tip and trying to write nicely. Poor Charlie. At least he got a bakery cake with better writing for his party several days later!

We had so much fun with him on his birthday, and we are really enjoying the personality that is jumping out of our not-so-little boy. I am pretty sure that this was an excellent birthday for him as well!