Birthday Boy

Although this post is more than a month overdue, the memories of Ryan's 3rd birthday are recounted with just as much love today as they would have been had we shared them immediately following his special day! (By the way, finding the time to blog more frequently is turning out to be more of a challenge than I expected. Where are the little house elves that pick up all the toys and endless clutter, clean bathrooms, dust, vacuum, and do dishes? And, what happened to the laundry fairy - she's fallen behind in washing and folding the seemingly endless loads of laundry?! If they just did their part, I'd have more time and energy each evening to blog about the day's events!)

We hosted Ryan's birthday party on August 29, 2009, at Bounce With Me Inflatables, a local indoor warehouse filled with inflatable bouncers, slides, and obstacle courses. Family and friends from preschool and the MOPS group we belong to all turned out to help Ryan celebrate his birthday.

In years past, since Ryan was too young to express his opinion, Mommy and Daddy got to select the theme that we thought was most appropriate and fun for his age at the time. This year, since Ryan has his own opinions and ideas, we tried to involve him in the party planning as much as possible. We especially wanted the theme to reflect his current interests (which are many and range from fire trucks to race cars) so we took him to the local party store several weeks in advance to see the various party theme options and choose which one he wanted. As soon as he saw the Diego party supplies, he excitedly exclaimed that he wanted an "e-a-go" party (at the time he didn't pronounce the "D" at the beginning) and immediately began filling our shopping baskets with invitations, thank-you notes, plates, napkins, stickers, and toys for the favor bags. On the day of his party, we surprised him with a bouquet of orange, blue, and green balloons, a Diego mylar balloon, and a Diego birthday cake (courtesy of Giant).

I really struggled with the party plans for his birthday this year. It was the first year we hosted his party somewhere other than our house. And, for the past two years, I ordered custom birthday invitations, return address labels, and thank-you notes; stayed up late creating and crafting homemade party decorations, and baked and decorated his cake (all with Mike's help of course!). I was overcome with guilt because I felt like I was taking the easy way out - slapping down the credit card for pre-made party supplies felt so impersonal. I worried that Ryan would feel like his birthday was overshadowed by Gavin's birth. During my less emotional and more rational times, I reasoned that with the hours I was keeping, I couldn't possibly get the house in shape to entertain guests. Plus, did I really want 10 or more rambunctious 3-year-olds running around the house?! In the end, his party was wildly successful and he had a wonderful time.

The morning of his party, I got the boys bathed, dressed, and fed while Mike picked up the balloons, cake, and deli platter. Around Noon we piled into the car to go to the bounce place before the guests started to arrive at 12:30 pm. Ryan greeted all of his family and friends while the staff reviewed the rules for anyone who wished to bounce. Then, all the kids rushed into the inflatables room for 90 minutes of bounce time. From what I could tell, the adults had just as much fun as the kids. I even went down the superslide with Ryan and Mike a few times and raced Scott through the inflatable obstacle course. The previous times we visited the bounce place I was not allowed to jump since I was pregnant. (I'm not sure if that was for my safety or if because they feared I'd damage the inflatables since I was so freakishly large!) After 90 minutes of bouncing, everyone reconvened in the party room to sing "Happy Birthday" to Ryan, eat cake and ice cream, and watch him open his gifts. Mike and I were amused at how obviously naive we were about hosting a kid's party. Mike cut ridiculously large pieces of cake that I'm not sure a grown adult could finish let alone a 3-year-old, and I forgot to offer everyone utensils and asked all of the kids what flavor cake and ice cream they preferred (not wise given we had limited quantities of each and kids that age can be indecisive). And, the gift opening was near disasterous. Apparently, kids that age like to "help" the birthday boy open his gifts. In the mayhem, cards got separated from their gifts and wrapping and tissue paper were strewn everywhere. This made it difficult to determine who gave him what, which proved to be somewhat problematic when it came time to write thank you notes!  Once all the guests left, we took our tired little boy home to continue the birthday celebration among family and to celebrate Mike's birthday. Although he was exhausted, I think the cake and sugary icing started to kick in because he caught his second wind and was able to power through unwrapping the rest of his gifts and entertain us with his reaction to everything he opened (especially the dress socks from Mom Mom!). After a long, but fun-filled day, Ryan fell fast asleep while Mommy and Daddy reminisced about his birth and marveled at how wonderful the past 3 years have been. Having him has enriched our lives in so many ways. He has brought so much joy, love, and laughter to our lives. We feel so blessed to be his parents and to play such an important role in raising him and shaping him into the man he will become.

Below are a few photos from Ryan's birthday party:

He may have been the guest of honor,

but we put him to work helping decorate

the party room before the guests arrived.

Ryan poses with his Diego balloon, which

was nearly as big as he is! 

Mommy and Daddy join the birthday boy on the

inflatable superslide!  Most of the adults played as

hard as the kids - it reminded me of Jimmy Buffett's

song, "Growing Older But Not Up!"

Ryan and Connor, his closest friend from preschool,

were inseparable at the party. 

A picture of the Diego cake before it was devoured

by a room full of starving kids!  It was delicious (half

chocolate cake and half yellow, topped with buttercream

icing), but very sweet - I'm sure the parents did not

appreciate us sending their children home over-tired

and on a sugar high!

Look at those heavy eyelids!  Ryan was so exhausted

from bouncing that it was all he could do to not fall

asleep in his birthday cake!  A rousing rendition of 

"Happy Birthday" and a table full of presents to 

unwrap re-energized him though! 

Although we held back many of our little gifts for his actual birthday, we wanted to give him his "big gift" on the day of his party. Since he has been doing so well riding his little red tricycle, we thought he was ready for his first real bike (outfitted with training wheels at first of course!) And, in the spirit of his Diego-themed party, we got him a Diego bicycle. We debated whether to get him a character bike since his interest in Diego may fade by next summer. But, the orange and blue color scheme looked nicer than the other bikes available and most of the Diego decals are removable, so we ultimately decided to get it.

The look on Ryan's face when he opened his eyes

and saw the Diego bicycle was priceless!

Ryan can't take his eyes off his new bike

long enough to pose for a family picture!

Since "super fast" is Ryan's phrase du jour
(e.g., "Daddy, why you driving superfast?" or

"Mommy, me only take a superfast nap!"), we

had a license plate made for his bicycle that reads,

"SPRFAST!"

This year Ryan graciously agreed to share the birthday spotlight with Daddy since Daddy's birthday often gets overshadowed by Ryan's birthday extravaganza. But don't feel too sorry for Daddy; he got two birthday cakes this year - a banana Smith Island cake from Mom Mom and one lovingly baked and decorated by Ryan!

Daddy's homemade birthday cake was nearly enough

to send everyone into a diabetic coma!  It was spice cake

topped with cream cheese icing and decorated with red

and green sugar crystals, rainbow colored confetti,

and sprinkles!  After some clever negotiating on my part,

I convinced Ryan that the cake was beautiful just the

way it was and that we did NOT need to put the

Christmas tree sprinkles on the cake too! 

Note the emblem of a ram on Daddy's shirt. He wore
it as a tribute to Ryan on his birthday since Ryan's

initials are RAM.

Ryan helps Daddy blow out his candles. He looks a

bit stunned at how many candles there are to blow

out and is probably wondering if he has enough air

to extinguish all 33 of them!

Although I think he may have found it a bit confusing to celebrate twice, we wanted to acknowledge his actual birthday in some way. So, we rented the movie Cars, treated him to dinner and ice cream sundaes at Friendly's, and gave him a few token gifts to open.

Ryan was excited to receive a birthday e-card from
Nana and Pop Pop.  He wanted to watch the singing,
dancing monkey birthday gram over and over again!


Mommy and Ryan spent his birthday staging
animal rescue missions all over the house.  We hid
the animals, relied on Click the camera to tell us where
the animals in trouble were, and used the appropriate vehicle
to rescue them.  The Diego balloon accompanied us on all
of our rescue missions.  When the Diego balloon wasn't rescuing
animals,it joined us at the table for all of our meals.  Ryan was
sad when Diego finally deflated several weeks later!

Although it was his birthday, we did insist that

he eat dinner before dessert.  The birthday boy

enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich and two scoops of

chocolate ice cream for his birthday dinner.  He was surprised

and thrilled when the waitresses came to our table to seranade him.

I bet he's thinking, "Come on guys, hurry

up and take the picture.  Can't you see there

are presents to be unwrapped...What do you mean

I have to open the card first?!"

Happy 3rd birthday to our super fast, silly goose, little puppy!  We hope you have a year full of amazing discoveries and exciting adventures.  We love you so very much!