Part 1 of 2... Yippee, I am THREE!

On May 27th, I officially became a three year old! Every year, my parents enjoy looking back at how much I have grown physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially. They love the interaction they have with me now, but can't help to miss those little chicken legs of mine too :) I sure was a little peanut at only 4 lb 13 oz and 17.5 inches long at birth. Although they have commented that whoever made up the saying, "Terrible Two's" spoke too soon (not exactly sure what that means), they look forward to this year for me. They notice my imaginative play in full swing, my reasoning skills, my curiousity, my verbal skills, and they appreciate the fact that I am potty trained! These are all major accomplishments and strides I have made this past year.

We decided to go with a construction theme for my party this year. I love all kinds of vehicles/transportation, so this idea was perfect for my 3rd birthday. Mommy had a lady design the invites and the planning soon followed. She said it was the most fun and easy theme to work!

Jenny (daycare mama) made my birthday extra special! Mommy and Daddy both worked on my birthday so it was a "Jenny" day. She created this cute sign on their chalkboard in the kitchen, and gave me a dilly bar with candles. We had lots of other treats and celebrated ALL day long! Their family gave me a perfect gift... a John Deere combine and cars!!! Thank you Jenny for helping me celebrate turning 3! XOXOXO!

On Friday night, we had a very impromptu birthday party. It started out as a conversation that maybe it would be fun to see if others wanted to join our family to bowl on Friday night. It ended up that we had a great turnout with friends! We bowled, pretended to play at the arcade (why are all kids glued to those things, ugh!) and we ate pizza and cake. I think everyone had a great time, including me! Here are some photos from the bowling party...

We were happy to see our good ol' ramp from our first bowling outing a few months back! This ramp was a huge hit with the younger kids (I am sure the older ones would have liked it too). I only bowled a few frames since there was just so much to see and do.

Cooper and I enjoyed the cupcakes as you can see. Mommy found some bowling cupcakes at a local grocery store. She didn't want to disappoint and not offer a thematic cake, for goodness sakes.

I had a great time with our friends at the bowling alley! It was a perfect way to spend time with our buddies and kick off the Memorial Day weekend.

One of my favorite songs is The Wheels on the Bus. Mommy found a book that sings this and has pop-up characters and sliding gadgets on each page. I just loved the book and of course, already ripped off the wipers on the bus in my excitement.

One of my favorite gifts was a waterski trainer. It looks like a blow-up jetski that allows kids to sit or stand as they are starting to waterski. I have been asking to waterski since last summer, so my parents are going to put me to the test to see if I can walk the walk.

I loved my new life jacket so much that I ended up wearing it the rest of the evening.

The day of my family party was perfect! Mom made dirt cake in a dump truck, and we served hoagies, salads, chips, fruit kabobs, etc... although the food items had different names on them (fruit kabobs were called fruit drivers, chips/dip were called bricks and mortar, etc...) We had construction site tape on the front pillars of our house and we served napkins and decorated with tools, toolboxes, and construction/architect plans.

We attempted a photo of the kids in our construction hats. We each had titles on our helmets to resemble a construction crew (Site Supervisor Sam, Foreman Cooper, Project Manager Caden and OSHA Lexi). Thank goodness Lexi and Sam humored Mommy's attempt to make everything so thematic.

Uncle Bruce, Auntie, Lexi and Sam gave me a two sided easel along with chalk, paints, a smock, and a huge roll of paper! I was THRILLED beyond words since I have only seen these things in schools. I guess this means I really am a big boy.

I badly needed a new bubble lawn mower. Our neighbors gave me an old one of theirs that didn't work, but since I loved using it, they gave it to me anyhow. Uncle Jimmy and Karri bought me a new one and it has become my new passion and career as the lawn boy. Our yard has never looked cleaner.

Grandma and Grandpa gave me this CAT excavator, shipped all the way from Germany! It will go in our garden for now and Daddy is considering making me a sandbox for it.

Mommy's friend Jeannie made this really cute dump truck cake complete with a spikey haired Caden in the driver's seat. We just loved it!

Mommy's cousin, Missy, gave her this special candle when she was pregnant with me. It has a really cute poem on it about lighting it on my birthday, so we have made it a tradition to light the candle each year.

My great-grandparents surprised us all by driving 3 1/2 hours to our house for the party. They
decided to go for a nice Sunday drive (must be an older generational thing) and they ended up in our neck of the woods! We were so happy to see them and I loved playing with Duke, who happily rode along for the day.

I love all of my gifts, but I have to admit that I am spending a lot of time with my inner-Picasso these days. Painting is a favorite activity of mine, which started in preschool this year. Since Mommy "loves" painting (as a Kindergarten teacher, she gets her fill), she put the easel on the deck, which means less mess and more fun with the hose :)

After a busy weekend of celebrating, I capped it off with a snooze on the John Deere. Some things just don't change the older I get. I still love John Deere rides, naps and spending time with my awesome family! Read below for Part 2 of our updates.....

Part 2... Prepping for Summer

Congratulations to Mommy's job-share partner who delivered a healthy and beautiful girl on June 2nd. Hadley arrived and even made a Kindergarten debut on their last day of teaching! Mommy is excited to buy girls clothes for once :) To help Heather out, Mom worked the last week of school and is preparing to teach the first 6 weeks in the fall (meals and wine appreciated says Mommy).

Busted! I bet after seeing my little brother with a beer makes him not as angelic as you originally thought. We went to Maggie's graduation party yesterday and Cooper just loved digging in the tubs of beverages with ice. Out he came with a beer and coincidentally, he made this face. Apparently, my parents feel the same way about MGD.

Before the poop hit the fan (aka, Mommy worked the last full week of school which meant "bye bye" to housework, yardwork, and technically our Mom who was a zombie when she got home) we did our usual routines.... cleaning the house on her last short week of work. I found these rubber gloves under the sink... another feat that I have accomplished is opening the child proof cupboards in our house. Way to go Caden! Mommy came around the corner to me clomping around with the rubber gloves on my feet. I even smiled pretty for the camera with these fancy new feet.

The picture above is not the greatest of quality, but Mommy felt like a champ handling two busy boys in Sports Clips for the first time while we had our haircuts simultaneously. This will become our monthly routine since we both have thick, fast-growing hair, thanks to our parents.

For Mother's Day, we gave Grammy a new garden. Oops, I reversed the pictures here.... the above picture is the end result of what we did. Grammy had this rock area with the plumbing door for the cabins and weeds. For a few years, we kept talking about sprucing it up. We finally did this for a gift to her and we are excited to have created an area with perennials, vegetables, and herbs. We even installed a mini-sprinkler system in the garden so that she only has to turn the knob on the spigot (I googled that spelling :))Cooper cheered on the hard workers in the garden while I pretended to be a firefighter and sprayed everyone including myself right in the mouth.

Before photo of the garden....

We had a playdate with Lucy and Lily at the park. Cooper and Lucy were like two teenagers in love. Lucy grabbed Cooper's head and gave him a huge kiss. You definitely can't stage that with a baby... OK, I admit I think it is cute.

Me on the other hand, I was busy playing. I hardly even noticed the kids all around until we left in the car and told Mommy I wanted to play with Lily! The park has this super long tunnel slide that mostly big kids go down. I went to the top of the stairs, sat on the slide, and zipped right down. Mommy quickly snapped a photo of my "deer in headlights" expression as I reached the bottom. To everyone's surprise, I went down over and over again!

I tried the teeter-totter this time with Mommy and Lily. It was fun for about 10 seconds and then I was off to climb, slide and swing. Mom loves to see how much I have grown and changed since last summer when we were at this park.

Cousin Kristin came to the graduation party (beer photo at the beginning of the post) and we scheduled my 3 year pictures and Cooper's 1 year pictures. The pictures turned out great...we received a "sneak peek" of a few of them already. Of course, I had to play silly with Kristin which she humored and we all agreed that this was the EASIEST photo session to date, yeah! We had all of our photos taken in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard since it was a nice day and they have it beautifully landscaped.

This photo was just a silly one we had to throw in since Cooper loves Mac and Cheese; he most recently has started to think he is super hilarious by putting his food on his head and face. What a weirdo.

Papa and Grandma Sharon returned from Florida, so we hit the river with them for a day of boating. Uncle Jimmy and Karri joined us too. We loaded the car full of sandtoys for the beach and what do you know... darn river is SO high that the beaches and sandbars were completely underwater. We decided to just cruise the river and enjoy the sunny day. Luckily, we have several months ahead to have fun on the beaches and dock at the restaurants along the way.

Cooper and I had to learn to take turns driving the boat. Cooper sat well in Papa's lap and carefully turned the wheel. I mostly annoyed everyone on the boat by taking control of the throttle and honking the horn. Papa was more tolerant than he should have been. I am sure I burned through twice as much gas as usual, oops.

Mommy's long week of teaching ended up being the HOTTEST week on record. It hit 100 degrees, so as soon as we got home, we cooled off in our pool and played with water. Cooper is SO close to walking on his own. He stands for a good amount of time and pushes anything on wheels, including my new bubble mower, HEY!

We are excited that our garden is officially planted. I was a good helper (well, not really)... I "helped" Mom scoop dirt around our veggies. My parents are hoping the garden will trick me into eating vegetables this summer. I mostly comment on the "cute" baby tomatoes and enjoy scooping and throwing soil into our neighbor's lot.

Tune in next week as Cooper turns ONE ; we are sure to have lots of photos of the cute stinker (minus the beer).