Tate's 3rd Birthday Party

This past weekend we celebrated Tate's 3rd birthday with family.  He was so excited to have his party!  He talked about it non-stop the entire week leading up to it.  We went over who was coming many times a day.  He loved listing off all the names: Papa, and Gramma Jeannie, and PAT (always said loudly), and Charley, and Auntie...  and so on.  :)

I have a love-hate feeling about decorating the kid's birthday cakes.  I love the idea of making the cakes but once I start decorating them I hate the job because they never turn out quite like I want them to.  Plus the frosting of the cake drives me batty because I always push too hard and get bits of cake pulled up through it.  Things went a lot smoother this time and I wasn't too unhappy with how the cake turned out.

Tate sang with us as we all sang him 'Happy Birthday'.  He loves singing that song!

Tate seems like such a big boy sometimes.  He can blow out his candles all by himself, which seems silly to say as a three year old but when you compare it to Tenley on her first birthday (and Tate, too) it feels like a big accomplishment.

Time to open presents!  Tate's favorite place to play is in his sandbox and the grandparents know it.  One set got him a set of sandbox toys and the other set got him a front loader and dump truck set for digging in the sand.  He hasn't stopped asking to go play in his sandbox since -- hurry up warm weather!

My grandma gave Tate a few special gifts.  One was this little rocking chair and doll dressed in John Deere clothes. Tenley took it upon herself to promptly remove the doll and seat herself in that chair.

When I was a kid my grandma bought her first knitting machine. She made all of us grandkids sweatshirts with the tummy section removed and a knitted panel sewed in.  I think mine had teddy bears on it.  She moved to town this past summer and in all of her cleaning she found some of those sweatshirts she'd made but had never given out.  Tate ended up being one of the lucky recipients of those sweatshirts for his birthday - he loved the semi's on it!

My sister totally knocked Tate's present out of the park!!!  She went to Goodwill and found a small table that she then painted and glued Lego panels onto for a Lego table!!!  How perfect since we gave Tate his first box of Legos for his big day?!?

Food-wise, I made Brisket, Cheesy Shells and corn. Super simple and it totally hit the spot.  And holy smokes was that brisket delicious!!!  Ree really knows her stuff and she helped me impress the heck out of everyone with that incredible recipe!  I also made homemade ice cream with the ice cream maker Andy gave me for Christmas - so fun having that special treat!

It was a fun night celebrating our special boy.  Happy 3rd birthday, Tatie Tot!!!