3rd Birthday

I started off our weekend with a baby shower for my good friend, Whitney.  Somehow the four pictures that were taken with my camera were fuzzy, so I don't have anything to share from it. Hopefully, someone will forward me a picture, and I'll post it on here.  She got TONS of good stuff and looks so cute.  We can't wait to welcome that precious baby girl to the world!

Sunday was William's third birthday.  We started out the day with a trip to the donut shop. William picked out a glazed donut with white icing and sprinkles.  It took him ONE HOUR to eat the whole thing, but it was his birthday, so I didn't push.  He opened presents from Mom and Dad that morning and played until nap time.  We had a family birthday party Sunday night, which might sound small, but our families are so big, we had 24 people.  It was fun but absolute chaos!  William was completely wound up and did not sit still for one millisecond.

Ardie and Tattoo were such sweet troopers to come.  Mom had a party at her house the night before and Dad had been duck hunting all weekend with the Tedfords, so I know they were tired!

No, she's not my child, but everyone tells me she could pass for it.  She's my precious niece, Arden Clare, who is Ellis' youngest.  I have to admit, she really does look a whole lot like I did at that age, but her Mom and I looked a lot alike at respective ages, too.  She is the daintiest, girliest little thing you've ever seen, I could just eat her up.

William's tractor cake (from Mickey's, of course, the best cake place EVER).

William loved it when everybody sang Happy Birthday to him.  He even managed to sing a good bit of the song to himself.

MiMi and Grandad were so sweet to drive up from Texas, even though MiMi has practically been on the road for the last three weeks.  I'm sure she loved being in the car for 5 hours, but we sure were glad she and Grandad were here!

William has the best cousins in the world.  Really.  On both sides of the family.  Just to give you an example...Christopher (the one behind William with the orange hat on) won a giant tiger at the State Fair a few weeks ago.  You know those things are a treasure to any kid, I don't care how old you are.  Christopher wrapped it up and gave it to William for his birthday...along with a few baby lions.  William was sooooo excited, and I'm just so impressed that an almost 11 year old is that thoughtful.     

The picture doesn't do justice, but when I said it was pinata time, William, Mary Ellis, and Arden Clare were literally jumping up and down they were so excited to get candy.

I tried to blow up this picture of John, but didn't have much luck without distorting it.  The expression on his face is priceless and hysterical-if you can see it well enough, it really speaks for itself.  I think he gets the award for the most damage done to the pinata.

Scrambling to pick up the candy.

Loving my new tricycle!

And here is where sweet little Tollie spent most of the night...hand, chips, whatever she could get in the spinach dip.

This picture was at the end of the night, can you tell??  By the time the last person left, William said, "Momma, can I have a piece of my tractor cake now?"  That's right.  I didn't even give my poor child a piece of birthday cake at his own  birthday party.  It's not as bad as it sounds, though.  While everyone else was being served cake, William was opening presents, so he was distracted.  He managed to gulp down about 4 bites of cake and ice cream at 8:00, and then he was back to playing with all his new goodies.  We finally got him down after 9:00, and we were all pooped to say the least.  It was the best 3 year old birthday ever.  He is such a joy to us and has set the bar pretty high for the baby coming in February.  They just don't get much better than you, William, you've sure made your Mom and Dad proud!  Happy Birthday, Peanut, we love you!