Aidan's 3rd Birthday Party

Aidan's birthday wasn't until September 25, but since we were surrounded by so much family in AZ, we decided to celebrate it early. I don't regret it one bit. I could tell he felt so loved, and he was so, so, so excited for it.

Jayze helped out a ton with the decorating, thanks to a silent migraine on my part, plus he's just awesome. My sister and sis-in-law helped out with cutting it into the "3" shape, too. 

Since it was an actual birthday party and Aidan's old enough to play games, I decided to have a couple games available. Aidan wanted a Lightning McQueen themed party, so we had "Pin the Tire on the Car," and "Sally's Cozy Cone Ring Toss" (guess I forgot to take pics of them). They were half and half successful, haha. I think the kids were more interested in running around. :) I still had fun putting them together.

Not going to lie, I'm so proud of this banner I made. It's literally from card stock and baker's twine. My sister and I colored the black squares ourselves, and I was so pleased with how it all turned out.

We did cake and ice cream first since we celebrated at kind of an odd time between lunch and dinner. We didn't want to spoil the kids' dinner (or ours), so we did the dessert first so we could run and play it off before dinner.

He couldn't wait to play with, "Cruz, the yellow car."

He was so excited to blow out the candles.

He received about a bazillion more presents than he would have if we had celebrated in Kansas. It was fun to see him understand the concept of opening presents a little better than the previous two years, although I think next year he'll be a little better at it. He mostly wanted to play with the presents he had already opened instead of going on to the next one. I still can't believe he's three years old now.

Both sides of the family were there, which was so great. Pam helped Aidan play with his new baseball mitt and ball. All the cousins had a blast running around the stage and huge cultural hall. Kimball of course got ahold of the trash can and wheeled it around most of the time. And the adults enjoyed relaxing and visiting.

It was so nice having everyone's help and support. I can't even describe how it felt being able to celebrate Aidan's birthday with extended family. He's so loved.

Spontaneous three generation picture. .

Aidan's brought so much joy and love to our family in the past three years. More than I knew was possible. I'm excited to keep getting to know him and watching him learn and grow. He has such a sweet disposition, loves to problem solve, can play outside all day long if there are cars and dirt involved, is so helpful, and is getting better at talking every day.

I love my handsome boy so much. Happy three years, kiddo.