August 8th, Happy 3rd Birthday Sam!!!

We had Sam's birthday party today. Officially, it's his birthday tomorrow, but we just simplified things for him :) Sam attended William's birthday party in the spring and LOVED his Lightening McQueen cake...and wanted one for his birthday. So, I borrowed the mold from my friend Marian and gave it a whirl...Keeping with the CARS theme, I made a race track cake as well (since we needed lots of cake for our lots of guests!)





We served brunch. Last year, I spent the whole time setting up the food while everyone else swam. This year, I (and my dear friend Christie) set up before the other guests arrived and we *only* missed half the swim time carrying everything back to my apartment :( I'm excited to host a big party and not have to truck stuff around :)



So, my plan of attack was to bake and freeze on Tuesday, take Sam out on Wednesday, cook the meat and eggs on Thursday, decorate the cakes, assemble treat bags & cut fruit on Friday, then today, I just assembled the little sandwiches and baked them, reheated the pancakes, cooked some ham, and set up (Christie prepared the melon tray).





Party time! After getting this picture of Xander, I all but gave up taking photos...the light was pretty much as bad as it gets.
















After lunch, we had some more cake...Sam wanted 'the wheel' so, black icing...


He's also been practicing his new age...





Sam took a long time to settle down for nap...he's so excited with all his new things!


Sam got so many wonderful new toys and books and food. I won't comment on all of them, but here's a snip-bit of my toddler (??? is he still a toddler???) and his friend's reactions...

Sam's been borrowing Max's big firetruck to go with his own set of cars, which are undoubtablly his favourite thing right now. Rachon found this smaller version of the firetruck in a set of soft cars. So now, Sam is sleeping with 9 cars plus the big firetruck :)


Shannon is one of Sam's favourite friends, the first girl who he became friends with. Sam is one of her favourites as well. She dictated the sweetest birthday note and made a card with lots of stickers on it for Sam. And she picked out Sam's birthday gift, the boy version of one of her favourite things right now. She had it in her mind that she would bring her girl puzzle today and they would play together, and, being as head strong as Sam, she was VERY difficult to convince to leave her puzzle as home. She was fine all through the party, until Sam opened her present and she remembered that her puzzle was at home! Anyway, we now have a date with Shannon to come play with Sam this week :) It was such a great glimpse into the (yelp!) pre-schooler mentality...toys are okay but it's the friends playing with you that make for the most fun :)


Other cute stories, along with a chalk spray painter and some books, Xander and Zachary gave Sam some freeze dried apple slices (something he ALWAYS bums off of Zach). While he was playing after lunch and I was tidying up, I offered him a bag and reminded him that Zach and Xander gave them to him. When Sam's face totally lit up, Adam said something about how his friends' gave him such great presents. Sam said, "and such great food!" It was hularious at the time, not so funny as I type it now...



Videos to follow!