John's Third Birthday Parties

We woke John up on his third birthday with a big day of fun planned! He got dressed in his special "3" t-shirt and waited for the day to begin.


Of course we had to start the day with "don don's" and chocolate milk, so we went to Dunkin Donuts and had a special breakfast out.




In the past we have gone to the waterpark on John's birthday, but baby Shannon is too small to be outside for that long and we all wanted to be together on this special day so we decided to do something a little different. We went to Build-A-Bear workshop to create a special little friend for John.

We got there just after they opened and were the only ones there so we got lots of special attention. John was allowed to pick any animal he wanted and he decided on the multi-colored frog/dinosaur. They walk you through the whole process of making a stuffed animal from filling it with stuffing, noise maker, and heart and then sealing it with a kiss!


Then we got to pick out clothes for him (which by the way is just a little bit more expensive than what I spend on JOHN's clothes, nicely played B-A-B) and John wanted to be sure that "Dinosaur" had a "lightnin-queen" shirt. After Dinosaur was made, "washed" and dressed we got to create a birth certificate for him. The whole process was really lots of fun!




Then we came home, let John nap and got him up with the promise of his special gift from Mommy and Daddy. For weeks we had been waiting to give John his very own "iXL" game system. John knew all about it from spending nearly hours playing on the sample version of it at Target.




John LOVES this "puter"! He plays on it for hours and hours and hours. And it is SOOO much better than playing on an old iPod, this thing teaches him lots of fun things and he doesn't even realize he's learning! I'm convinced that this game has really helped him recognize lots of new letters. He plays on it here, there and everywhere.








Later that night we had family over to celebrate John's big day. It was lots of fun having everyone over to our new place.

John, Uncle Andy, Papa, Aunt "Toria", Bert and Scarlett


My Mom, my kids, and me. Love this one!


Cousins! This was the first time the girls "played" together like this, it was really fun to watch them interact!


Showing Bert and Grandma Lolus his new game.


All around the dinner table, yummo!!


Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you . . .


Happy Birthday dear JOHN, Happy Birthday to you!


Happy family!


Yummy cake!


After dinner John opened all of his presents. He especially loved the singing card "You're Unbelievable, Ohhhh". It's always the little things right?


Showing off his gifts to Uncle Kurt, Uncle Andy and Aunt Toria


Proud Grandparents!


Grandma Lolus got John a very fun camping tent and John wanted to put it together right away!


Looks like lots and lots of fun!!!


One final photo for the night!


The next day all John wanted to do was play with his "puter" . . .


and play and play and play.


That night he wanted to sleep in the tent, here we are reading "I love you Stinky Face" before night-night.


And then it was time for John's big birthday party. We've had the party at the same place the last three years and I always get a photo of John in front of this one tree. I can't believe how much he's grown up!!!


We brought along chalk for the kids to play with and Grandma Lolus added this festive wish!


John was waiting on his friends to show up and drew his first "happy face" I was really so impressed since he only ever drew circles and lines up to this point!


Here were the party favors for all of John's friends.


One quick photo before everyone showed up.


John had said he wanted a Cars cake right up until we got to Publix to order it and then he switche his mind to Diego, I think it turned out great!


We also brought along some bubble guns, it was lots of fun!


Baby Shannon and Baby Joseph only one week apart!


Great Grandma's Doris and Betty hung out by the fans to keep cool!


John and his best bud Emma playing in the playground.


Then it was time for cake, John was acting a little under the weather at this point and was only interested in eating the cheese puffs, since we never let him eat them at home, so we just moved them closer to the cake!


Happy Birthday to you!!!


All the kids digging into the cup cakes, yum!


Shannon slept the day away, so sweet.


Love these girlies!!


Papa tried to get John to eat some of his cupcake but all he wanted was cheese puffs!


Then John caught his second wind and went playing in the water area with his other best bud Sammy Mac!


All the kids loved running around in here!


Sammy and Bridget grabbing some goodies before heading home.


Aunt Janet wanted John to open his gift right then, John was absolutely happy to do just that! He loves Aunt Janet!!


Right before we left we got some good family photos!








It really was a very special wonderful day!

I still can't believe John is three years old and my no-longer-a-baby-big-boy.  Its amazing how fast time flies past when you try to slow it down, the harder you try the faster it goes. Each year with John makes life better, sweeter, happier than we could have ever imagined! Life really is good these days!