Matthew is 3!!!!

January 23, 2011 Matthew turned 3! We started off his day by singing to him as he was waking up. He's like his mom, it takes him a few minutes to get out of bed. Then we came down stairs and had the house decorated with a Mickey banner and balloon and some presents. He opened his new dump truck, excavator, truck sticker book, and John Deere book. Then we got ready for church.

After church we went to Starbucks as usual but since it was a special day we went inside instead of driving through and Matthew picked out a chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. Then we went to Target so Andrew could buy his brother a birthday present. Then the toy store finally opened so Matthew could pick out a special present. In the meantime it started snowing so Matthew was pretty excited to have a "white" birthday. At the toy store it took him a while to decide but he picked out a Playmobil Harbor Crane.

Then we came home for lunch and played with new toys. We even got to take Matthew's new trucks outside to play in the snow. Drew made a ramp down the stairs of our deck by piling up a lot of snow so the boys were able to sled too. Then it was nap time so we could be well rested for Matthew's Mickey party at Grandma and Poppa's.

The party was perfect. All the cousins and aunts and uncles were there. Grandma decorated with all kinds of fun Mickey decorations and even balloons that said "Matthew" on them. Matthew got some great gifts. He got a John Deere Mighty Trike from grandma and poppa, a McDonalds drive through from John, Christina, and Josie, and an M&M slot machine from Pete, Jill, Kiersten, and Kaitlyn. He chose Lion's Choice for his birthday dinner but of course none of the kids ate a thing, they just wanted the Mickey cake! The adults enjoyed his dinner choice though.

Matthew's birthday week continued with treats to school on Monday. He took yellow and green truck cookies in honor of the theme of his next party, John Deere. Unfortunately, the birthday boy woke up at midnight Wednesday/Thursday burning up. He came in bed with us and was tossing and turning all night. We watched four Mickeys:).Molly had been running a low grade fever Wednesday too so I decided to take them both in Thursday morning. I dropped Andrew off at school (it was his half birthday) with Star Wars cupcakes and headed to the doc. Matthew and Molly both ended up having a virus that had to run it's course but it wasn't a total waste of a visit because he gave me a prescription for Molly's excema.

Luckily Matthew recovered and was fever free by Friday. We laid low Friday and enjoyed some fresh air with temperatures in the 40s!!! Saturday we spent preparing for his friend party because we were going out and I wanted to be as prepared as possible on Sunday morning. We had a really fun night out on Saturday. A sitter came and stayed with the kids while Drew and I went to Trivia Night at the boys' school. It was so much fun. The theme of the night was "Super". Our table decided to decorate with a Superbowl theme so we had all kinds of football gear and appetizers around the table. I haven't laughed as hard as I did that night in a long time. The event was really well done and no one could believe that it was the first year the Little School had a trivia night. There was also a silent auction which Drew and I contributed to nicely:) We got home to the birthday boy still awake, not wanting to sleep until mom and dad got home...that makes for a fun party day:)

Sunday morning was a little rough after such a fun night but we rallied. We had to get up super early, which isn't hard in our house, so we could get the birthday cake before 8am mass. After mass we grabbed a few things I forgot and some balloons and headed to Matthew's heaven. Matthew's party was at Erb Equipment in Fenton. It is a John Deere equipment rental facility full of every piece of construction equipment you could imagine. We invited the boys in Matthew's class and two of his four friends could make it. The numbers worked out well for Matthew because having too many people would be overwhelming to him. One of the boys in his class also has a brother in Andrew's class so it was nice for Andrew's buddy Danny to be there too.

After playing on all of the equipment we went inside. There is a simulator for an excavator that the boys were able to play on. The dads were dying to join in! Then we went up for lunch, presents, and cake. I had found John Deere balloons, plates and napkins at the John Deere store we visited in Oklahoma so we were set. Matthew really enjoyed his third birthday party and needless to say he was exhausted by the end...we all were! Thanks David and Louis for making the trip out for Matthew's birthday, he's still talking about it. And a huge thank you to Greg and Kay for opening your business to us on your day off!