My Big Boy is 3

Well, it is official...Jase is 3! I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, crying tears of joy the first time he said ma-ma and da-da, clapping with triumph the first time he walked. Now he is running all over the place and talking non-stop and we are just trying to keep up! He has brightened every day of these last 3 years by just being.

So, since he already had his party, it made since that on his birthday we play with all the toys! As soon as we got home from church he took his Grave Digger remote controlled truck outside for a test drive.

After everyone in the house woke up, he cranked the music up on his Yo Gabba Gabba dance pad and boogied down!

From the time he woke up that morning he was asking if Joy could come over and cook his new McDonald's food with him in his new kitchen. So he helped Daddy put his the kitchen together and I went and got Joy.

And as soon as the last sticker was applied, the two chefs got to cooking!

After a while, they went outside and played for hours on the swing set. It was so awesome watching them play. The top of the platform was Jase's house and under the platform was Joy's house. Joy would get on the see-saw (their car) and drive to Jase's house to pick him up. They would get back on the see-saw and drive to Walmart. Then they would get Jase's wagon and use it as a shopping cart to shop around the yard buying all his toys. I had never seen him be so creative with his pretend play before. I guess he decided he was 3 now he needed to step it up! HaHa!

Last but not least, we put together his new golf course. They played this while I was cooking and although they both said they were hungry, neither one of them wanted to stop playing to come in and eat.

Judging by this huge smile Jase had on his face nearly the entire day, I think he liked all his presents and really enjoyed his day!

Party Time!!!

To make it easier for Jase's out-of-town guests to attend his birthday party, we celebrated it a day early. He wanted a Monster Jam party, so that is just what we gave him!

He even got to pick out the menu all by himself! Which is why I was at the grocery store the day before buying 40 bananas!!!! Other menu items included watermelon, pigs-in-a-blanket (Jase's "mini corn dogs"), deviled eggs, chips, and McDonald's chicken nuggets. Yes! We bought 200 McNuggets for the party!!! With all kinds of dips to dip them in!

The first half of the party Jase and all his friends played on the playground in the back yard. He has such a wonderful group of friends. The bigger kids helped the little ones and everybody looked out for one another.

I hated having to make them all stop playing cause they were having such a great time...but we had some cake and ice cream to eat and some presents to open.

Our neighbor's extremely talented sister made just an amazing Monster truck cake.

Jase just thought it was the coolest cake ever! It was really a hit!

We all sang Happy Birthday to him...

Then he blew out all the candles.

I love how every body in this picture is helping him blow the candle! Too cute!

Next, following tradition, I helped Joy read Jase's birthday wish. Way back when I was pregnant with Jase, everyone that came to his baby shower wrote a birthday wish for him on a piece of ribbon that was tied around a candle. Every year now, he gets one of those candles out and uses it as his good luck candle. It is really cool because every year so far the wish he received was from someone who wasn't able to be at the party. This years birthday wish was from his Auntie LaLa (Lorrea).

Then it was time to dig in! I nearly killed me having to take the cake apart and cut it. But Jase enjoyed it even more after he started eating it than he did when he first saw it.

After cake and ice cream, Jase opened his presents. He loved all his gifts, but it took everything Rob and I had to keep him at the present table focused on his gifts because all he wanted to do was go back and play. When he first started opening the presents, all the kids were sitting around and helping. By the time he opened the last one, Joy was the only one still there.

I guess he is giving Joy the money he got to thank her for staying and watching him. HaHa!

The last thing we did before before people started heading home was the Pinata!

Jase had found an itty bitty stick while I was getting the big stick and started hitting the pinata with it! How flippin adorable is he?!?!

The birthday boy got to first...

Then they all took turns.

Jozi had a turn.

Tyler gave it a real good whack!

Kyle hit it so hard it broke off its hanger!

Joy was the first one to strike candy!

Poor little Jonathan had quite a time considering the stick weighed more than he did!

Allyson had a turn, too.

Jase got one more turn in before the Leapley version of Denis Anderson took control and caused some real Monster truck damage.

Jacob had no mercy for Grave Digger!

The kids quickly swarmed in to claim their loot.

That pinata didn't stand a chance!

We couldn't have asked for a better day. Jase truly had one of the best days of his life. The last of his friends didn't leave till a little after 8 pm. The whole evening he kept running up and giving me hugs saying, "Thank you for my party, Mommy!" Made all the hard work so worth it!

I want to thank Karen a Julie for being my photographers for the day and sharing these great pictures with me.