Happy Birthday Luke!

Somehow Luke is 3 years old already! Lucky for us his birthday fell on a weekend this year so we got to play all day.

His day started with a red balloon at the foot of his bed - inspired by his favorite book of late, Little Rabbit Lost, by Harry Horse. The first words out of Luke's mouth when he woke up were "hey! it's my red balloon!" as if he knew it would be there for his birthday.

After breakfast, Luke unwrapped the playroom door to reveal his ...


new train table!


Max getting in on the action.



Then we went on a picnic at the school park. Aunt Jill met us there.


Complete with Mickey Mouse shaped chicken nuggets - an impulse purchase at Costco landed 5 pounds of these in our already over-crowded freezer, so I was happy to make a bunch of festive little nuggies.


Aunt Jill gave Luke a new frisbee.


Then Daddy brought out something big, yellow and exciting ...


a new bike from Nan and Pop-Pop!! Patrick picked this "retro" bike because it reminds him of his bike when he was little.


Daddy also wisely slipped Luke's helmet into the wrapping and amazingly, he wore it. We've only had moderate success getting him to wear his helmet in the past.




Cruising.



In the afternoon, we had his party.


For the 2nd year in a row, I made a slightly mauve-ish firetruck cake for Luke! This year we did a "Cars" theme and I was delighted that Luke was able to identify his cake as "Big Red" with no hints or prompting.


Cheeeese!






Aunt Jill gave Luke the coolest lollipop.


Every kid's dream!


Every baby's dream too :-)


To wrap up our day of festivities, we had our first ever Family Movie Night in the basement, featuring "Cars" and mock lasagna. I like that Max is waving in the picture below.


Poor 2nd baby - a lollipop and a movie all in one day :-(








Just before bedtime, Luke opened one more present - - a superhero cape!! Aunt Ann was inspired by my friend Melissa's blog where Luke and Owen ran up and down the hall playing Super Me. Here he is sporting his new look!