Happy 3rd Birthday Trace!

I can't believe it, but it really has been 3 years since Trace was born. Seems like just yesterday, we were going to all of our doctor's appointments watching the little guy on the ultrasound. Now he's a 3-year-old big brother.

Ever since the calendar turned June, Trace has been excited about his birthday party. Out of his friends, he has one of the later birthdays, so he's been to a lot of other people's parties. Now it's time for his. Ashley tried to help him understand how many days were left before his party with a calendar she put together for him and printed out countdown sheets. It seemed to work, either that or he just got tired of us telling him his party was still a few days away.

For the party, we went with the theme of his favorite movie Toy Story (Thank you to Jenny for a great logo and invitations!).

With Toy Story 3 coming out the week before his party, there was no shortage of Toy Story decorations or snacks to be found (but just try to find a Toy Story pinata a few days before the party. Impossible).

Toy Story 3 opened up Father's Day weekend, and as part of my great Father's Day with the family, we brought the boys see it. Trace liked it and has asked to watch the new Toy Story a few times since. His favorite part of going to the movies though is eating lots of popcorn. With about 5 minutes left in the movie, Ashley and I realized he was still eating his bag of popcorn:

With his birthday falling on a weekend (this past Sunday), we got to have his party on his actual birth day. Trace woke up that morning and knew right away he was the birthday boy. We let him open a couple of presents right when he woke up, and he even had one from his brother, Fisher.
We decided to have the party at his favorite park near our house, and it was a huge success. While it was a hot day, we beat the usual summer rain by a few hours. Trace had a great time playing with his old friends from day care and all of the other friends and family who came.

To go with all the Toy Story balloons and decorations, Ashley made an awesome Buzz Lightyear cake and delicious Toy Story cupcakes:

We had pizza delivered from Pizza Planet (or Domino's with a Pizza Planet Logo on the box) and a snowball stand to beat the heat:


To top things off, Buzz Lightyear even payed a visit to sing "Happy Birthday." Trace wasn't too sure what to think at first of "Buzz." He didn't recognize me and wouldn't even come near me. After I took off the hair cover, he realized who it was and let me hold him. He tried to push the buttons on Buzz's suit, but still wasn't sure what to think.

After we sang "Happy Birthday" and cut the cake, everyone had a few more snowballs, played some games and enjoyed the park a little more before the heat did us in.

So we loaded up all the presents and headed home for Trace to spend the next hour or so opening them. It was fun to watch him open his presents; he got so excited for everything he opened (even the clothes from Maw Maw, especially his new suit so he can dress like daddy does when he goes to work).After each thing he opened, he would check it out and ask if he could play with it. It was tough to get him to go back and open something else. He now has more Toy Story toys than we know what to do with and lots of other cool stuff like a Star Wars Play Doh set, tee ball set, books, games, etc. But the grand finale was his new Woody and Buzz toys. These had to be taken out of the box right away. They ended up taking a nap with him later, and haven't left his sight since.

It was a great day, and we know Trace felt so loved by all of our friends and family. Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes and for being a part of our family. We look forward to many more birthdays with the boys, but hopefully they don't grow up too fast. Before we know it, we'll be throwing Fisher's 1st birthday party and planning for Trace's 4th.