Ephram's Third Birthday Party

With Ephram's third birthday approaching, we decided that it was time to give him a "friend" birthday party.  When he turned one we were in California, so he had a family only party.  When he turned two he was a bit shy and overwhelmed easily, so we opted for a special play date with his best friend.  But now, with three on the horizon, Ephram felt that he was ready for his own party.

He knew exactly what theme the party should be - Cars.  Until the day we were buying things, at which point he spent a small period of time upset that it wasn't going to be an Angry Birds or a Bad Piggies party.  And then he briefly gravitated to the Mickey Mouse section.  But, in the end, he was thrilled with the Lightening McQueen and Mater theme.

We invited people of all ages to Ephram's party, so we had it set-up to reflect that.  We took out his car rug with a bunch of Hot Wheels, set-up one of the boy's Hot Wheels tracks (they have 3 sets),  and took out about half of our Duplo Legos, which include quite the selection of Cars-themed bricks, for the little kids.  For the big kids we had a few tables set-up with regular sized Legos, sorted out by parts so that they could make cars and other creations.  Then there was coloring for all kids and adults alike.  Add in some room decorations and lots of balloons, and we had one super-excited boy before the party started.

Then the people started arriving, and everyone started playing.

 

After awhile, it was time to sit down and open presents.  This is when Ephram's stage fright came out in full force.  He really doesn't appreciate the center of attention.  (In this way he is more Andy's son then mine.)  He started crying and it took awhile to recover.  Even when we were unwrapping, he was timid and overwhelmed.  In the end he had fun, and some of the older kids were good at getting smiles out of him.  He got a lot of very nice presents from everyone.

Then we had cake.  Somehow I managed not to get any pictures of him sitting down with it, but I do have before pictures.

His performance before presents was just a precursor for the cake.  He had a big smile on his face until everyone started singing.  Then he ducked under the table in embarrassment for the song.  He did resurface to blow out his candles.

Once everyone was gone, Ephram opened right back up and started playing with everything.  Some of the kids left behind some pretty neat Lego creations.  And Charlie and Ephram had fun building more.  For Ephram, I think the fun was mostly in the sorting.  He loves to categorize things.

Then we headed back over to the kitchen table, which still held his cakes.  Ephram ran around gathering his favorite balloons, and then we pulled off the Lightening McQueen and other car off of his cake and played cars while eating some more.

At the end of the night, Andy helped Ephram with an experiment.  They wanted to see how many helium balloons it would take to get a Lego car with a Lego man to float.  Six.  And the six balloons floated up to the top of our vaulted ceiling to usher Ephram to bed that night. 

Ephram had a great birthday party.  He felt so special and so big.  Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate it with him.