Goldilocks & the 3 Bears Party

Last weekend was the big birthday party.  We had a Goldilocks and the 3 Bears party.  It felt fitting.  The boys were so excited about having a party and Noah kept telling me, "I had a great time with my friends" when it was over.  That makes all the craziness of planning and preparing worth it.

 The birthday girl and her Papa (my dad).

 

 Noah

 

Reese

Aiden

None of them wanted to stop and take a picture.  They were playing a game where they had to find the hiding Goldilocks.  These were the best pictures I could get!

 The overflowing present table.  New toys save my sanity when the weather cools down and we aren't outside as much.  I only give them a couple toys at a time so that we have new toys all year long. 

 

 

The smash cake!

 

Bear paw cupcakes

Blowing out their candles.  I almost cry looking at this picture.  How did they get so old?!?

 Devyn ate her cake like a dainty little lady.

 

Aiden

Reese

Noah (by far our messiest eater)

I couldn't figure out how to turn this picture, but it's a picture of our first funeral.  That's right.  One of the birthday fish left this world after a couple of short weeks. 

 

The last couple of weeks have been busy,  which is why I didn't get around to posting these picture until now.  We've had dr. appointments.  We did the 3 year check-up.  Remind me to never let them have sugar before going to the dr. ever again.  Aiden and Reese are somewhere between the 25th and 50th percentile for height and weight and Noah is in the 75th!  They are doing great developmentally and even gave her a hug at the end of the appointment.  We also had Noah's allergy check-up.  The allergist laughs at me because I come with a long list of questions on a bright index card.  I keep the card in a binder with a detailed allergy plan and pictures of what his first reaction looks like.  He reminds me that I'm prepared and it will be okay and that I can call him at any time.  I always leave feeling much better.  We also had a sick Devyn.  She still seems a bit off, but it could be teeth too.  She'll be 14 months on Wed and still has no teeth.  No teeth!  Poor child.  Aiden is losing toenail from dropping something on his toe.  Just the usual.  Who knows what this crazy week will bring!

The big birthday weekend

Here is your first look at our three 3 year olds.  It's the best I could do.  Trying to get them to hold still long enough for a picture was no easy task.  When they woke up and went downstairs they saw that we had hung streamers in the dining room.  The excitement level was through the roof.  Then we let them open their first birthday cards.  They actually squealed.  This is why I LOVE birthdays.

 

 

After they opened their cards Nate surprised them with mickey mouse pancakes.  He even used chocolate chips to make a face.  When someone asks what they got for their birthday they tell them, "A mickey mouse pancake!!" 

 

We let them spend the day digging in the dirt while we worked on our backyard (more to come on that another time).  At the end of the day we took them pick out their birthday present.  They each got a goldfish.  They love to feed the fish and even just watch them swim. They named them Goldfish (Noah's), Big (Reese) and Little (Aiden); although yesterday Noah renamed his purple.  

 After we picked out the goldfish we got them a special supper.  We went to Wendy's.  As if that wasn't exciting enough we let them eat while watching their favorite show, Mighty Machines.  This has never happened before and will only happen on birthdays.  Big stuff right there.

 On Sunday the fun continued.  After church we dropped Devyn off with my parents and took our brightly colored bunch to the zoo.  We had a little picnic in the grass and then walked through Lincoln Park Zoo.  They ran around the whole zoo and never complained about being tired.  A lot of the animals were either not out or asleep, but they still had a great time until.....

 it was raining on and off the whole time.  We were leaving and it started raining again so we decided to run to the van. Such a fun time.  That is until Noah stopped.  Aiden and I were holding hands and running and ran into Noah.  We both went flying (embarrasing. thank you for staring, everyone).  He hit his face, hard.  He screamed and was full of gravel and some blood.  We cleaned him off and drove him.

 Here he is today.  Not as swollen, but all scabbed over.  He told someone yesterday that I hit him in the face. Um???  We had to have a little chat about telling the right story.  All is fine now.  He'll just have some more awesome scars.  He already has one embedded in his eyebrow from cracking it open on his bed.  He also has a nice scar right under his lip where his teeth bit all the way through..twice.  He is going to look really rugged. 


I was thinking this morning about how on this day 3 years ago I was discharged from the hospital. We stayed until late because I was having a harder time that I expected leaving them.  I was holding Noah and crying because he was so small.  In reality he was much bigger and healthier than many, if not most, of the other babies in the NICU.  As I held him a baby one bed over was not doing well at all.  They called in the mom and grandma to say goodbye.  As the mom and grandma held the baby and cried, I sobbed.  I cried for the young mother, who probably didn't even plan on having a baby, let a lone losing one.  I cried for the grandma because she had to help her daughter through such a difficult experience.  I cried for my babies.  Mostly I cried because I had 3 healthy babies.  I felt so selfish for being so blessed.  What an incredible miracle to have a healthy baby.  What an almost unbelievable miracle to have 3 healthy babies.  I hope a day never goes by without remembering what an incredible gift they are.  Happy 3rd birthday to my precious little boys.