On Sabbath, our little Cole turned 3 years-old! We can hardly believe it has been three years since he was born. It amazes me to see how quickly the time has passed, and how much he as grown and developed over the past three years. He is such a smart and bright kid ... he is a constant crack-up and has a memory like an elephant. He is as smart as a whip! We are so proud of him and the good boy he is turning out to be. We are really lucky and blessed to have Colton as our son. He has made our lives so much richer and complete.
It almost makes me tear up to write about this ... I just want to freeze time. But I know that as he grows and changes, only more wonderful experiences and adventures await us.
Saturday, December 1st was his actual birthday. He was pretty excited to wake up to a huge surprise present waiting for him. When he walked out of his bedroom in the morning, in the family room was waiting his very own train table complete with a ton of train tracks and trains and track decorations. The train table was made for him by Grandpa Heinrich and Daddy ... and I sanded and stained it. So, it's a nice piece of forever furniture to keep in the family for a long time. He was thrilled! He immediately wanted to play with the trains that "drive themselves" (they are battery operated). He bi-passed the table full of presents and went straight for the goods! That's what we have been holding out for--we wanted to give him a train table when he could really appreciate it and would be super excited about it.
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| Some presents for birthday morning! |
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| The train table before it was finished--all built and ready for some staining. |
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| After the first coat of stain ... looking good. |
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| Finished and ready for the Birthday Boy! We were happy with the way it turned out. |
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| Billy found all of those trains and accessories at a garage sale. There are several more tracks and accessories in a bag, too! |
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| The birthday boy was so excited! He wanted to play trains right away! |
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| Having fun! |
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| Happy Boy! |
Once we could get his focus away from the trains, he sat down to open his other gifts. If it was even possible, he was getting more and more excited at the opening of each gift. He got Lightning McQueen slippers, Thomas Train books and e-reader, puzzles, outfits, Madagascar DVDs, Cars 2 DVD, cars from the movie Cars 2 (and Cars, the original movie) ... he finally got his The King and Chick Hicks. He was thrilled ... and everyone who sent him gifts that arrived by his birthday, he was very happy to have each and every one. Thank you all for thinking of him!
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| Present time! |
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| Lightning slippers! |
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| He was happy about those. |
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| Took them out for a speedy run around the loop! |
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| Puzzles |
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| Opening a gift from Grandpa and Grandma Reynolds. |
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| Cars 2 DVD! |
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| CARS! |
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| Awesome puzzle! |
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| Mario Kart! |
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| Chick Hicks and The King! Something he's been wanting for a long time. |
After presents, we got ready and went to Sabbath School. This was Colton's last Sabbath in Cradle Roll A. It was bittersweet. He definitely needs to move up to the next Sabbath School class, but it's sad that we won't all be together on Sabbath anymore. He got to hold a cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. Then he blew out the candles. He felt really special. He, also, got to choose a birthday gift from the grab box. He chose a soft baseball.
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| That sweet 3 year-old face! |
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| Getting sung to at Sabbath School! Last day in Cradle Roll A. |
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| A special ice cream sundae treat at Red Robin ... he, also, got sung to by the waiters. He liked that. |
That evening, we had birthday blueberry pie. He was pretty thrilled to have blueberry pie. He ate a big piece. When I put it in front of him to take a picture and have him blow out the candles, he said, "Mom! This is the best cake I ever had, because I thought about it all night long!" What a nut! Koki was even so excited ... she said, "PIE, PLEASE!" when she saw Colton getting his piece.
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| Someone asked for blueberry pie for his birthday ... request granted. |
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| Happy 3rd birthday Big Boy! |
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| Blew out his candles and made a wish! |
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| We watched Madagascar 3 (a movie from Grandma and Grandpa Bourland for his birthday) and had hot cocoa and marshmallows. What a special treat! |
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| He had a pretty great day! |
On Sunday, all of Colton's friends (well ... not everyone could make it but some friends made it) and some family came over for a birthday party.
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| Mario Kart ... for his 3rd Birthday celebration! |
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| Shopping on brother's birthday. She found Daddy's hat on the floor and decided it made for a nice shopping outfit. This girl is going to love playing dress-up! |
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| In case you can't tell, it says "Colton". |
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| Mr. Mason wearing one of the hats I made for the party. There was also a Luigi hat. |
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| I made that 3 and decorated it. I like it a lot. It's hanging on his door now. |
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| I made Mario and Luigi cups ... I love those straws! |
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| This is the rocket (or bullet). Colton LOVES this guy! |
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| Gwendy sporting the cute mustache favors I got to put on the sodas. Mario mustaches for everyone! |
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| I thought they turned out so cool! I love them! |
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| Yep, he's 3! |
It was Mario Kart themed. Colton absolutely LOVED the cake.
He was excited to have a Mario Kart birthday. Everyone played the Wii and enjoyed the food. There was a lot of good food ... all of the names were based on Mario Kart characters. Here's what we had:
Princess Peaches (peach cups with crowns drawn on top)
Fireballs (cheese ball puffs)
Flower Power Chips & Salsa
Toadstool Pizzas (pizza stuffed mushrooms)
Mini-Mario Pizzas (little mini pizzas)
Mario Karts w/ Fruit Dip (apple wedges with grapes as wheels)
Koopa Troopa Veggies w/ Dip
Cheese Stars & Crackers (I used a star cookie cutter to cut shapes out of the cheese)
Mario & Luigi Mustaches (sugar cookies shaped like mustaches)
Mushroom Pops (toadstool mushroom cake pops)
Banana Peels (just some fresh bananas)
Rocket Juice (all the drinks were in bottles so we could use mustache favors on them)
One-Up Water
Brown Sugar Cake with Dark Brown Sugar Frosting (made up to look like a race track)
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| All of the food! Tasty! |
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| I made these mushroom cake pops. They were good! |
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| The Mario and Luigi mustache cookies. |
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| Cute idea! They are Mario Karts ... made out of apples and grapes. LOVE! |
It was a lot of fun for me to come up with those ideas. Billy thought up the peaches idea, though. I liked that one a lot! It was the first time I had ever used fondant on cake as the entire frosting. I was nervous, but it turned out pretty good for my first go around. I was pleased! I had racing decor and Mario-ish balloons. I, also, made a rocket out of poster board and card stock, because that's Colton's favorite from Mario Kart. He had a great time with his friends! When the party ended, we were all walking away from the door, and he said to me, "Mom, that was so much fun!" That right there was the reason I did all that I did to make that party a success. All I wanted was for him to have a great time, and he did. Success.
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| Ready to blow out the candles. |
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| Blowing them out! |
He sure got a lot of great toys from his friends and family, and it was really fun to hang out with them. He seems most excited about these sharks and a diver he got from a friend from MOMs Club. He plays with those and his Cars cars a lot. We have watched some of his movies, and he LOVES them! Even Billy is enjoying some of his gifts, too. Thank you to everyone. We are truly blessed.
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| Sis enjoying the party ... holding on to a gift for herself, I see. |
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| All of the kid party guests! |
Now, I have a three year-old little boy ... and I am trying to wrap my mind around that. Sure makes me nostalgic for that newborn baby boy.
Happy Birthday, little one! We sure are proud of you!
