Happy 3rd Birthday, Reid and Happy Graniversary to Me!

We celebrated the 3rd birthday of my sweet Reiderbug a couple of weekends ago. The fun part of a 3 year old's birthday is that instead of guessing what they would want because of what they are interested in like the first or second birthday parties, they have definite opinions. Reid is SO into trucks and construction, the theme was obvious. It was easy to pull off and cheap because he has tons of trucks and all 3 year olds really want to do is play, anyway. Party activity complete.

A friend of Meg's is an architect and he gave her some old plans that we used to make the envelopes for the invitations. We used the larger plans to make trays for the sandwiches and chips. We already had tables and horses to use for the party set up. I took a dive into my plethora of junk I keep stored in my attic for such occasions and found an old water cooler and lunch box. No need for plates for the kids, just sack lunches with pb and j sandwiches and some chips. We went a little nicer for the adults and did ham or turkey sandwiches. They got the added bonus of dip, too. Canned drinks in a tub for the bigs, juice boxes for the littles and were were done-zo. The only themed food we did were popcorn balls to use as "boulders" in the bulldozer (if that's what that machine is, I didn't ask Reid what it was called before I wrote this).

Lunch break!

Meg made the cake and construction vests for everyone, even the 8 week old. We printed the names on some adhesive sheets, cut them out and stuck 'em on the back.

I think Papaw and I had the best gift, if I do say so myself. We brought down a truckload of dirt. Gift/party activity all in one. Reid thought is was great and spent about 3 straight hours out there, moving dirt and jumping off the mound. All the other friends did, too. They went tearing out there the minute that saw the dirt and trucks. Well, all but one. There was one girl there and she walked out, took one look and turned away in disgust. She chose to sit inside with me for a while and have a little lemonade.

I've always said the amount of fun a kid had can be judged in direct correlation to the severity of the fit thrown when the event is over. We hit it out of the ballpark with this one because his fit hit about 9.5 on the Richter scale. WORST. EVER. Like "drag the kid out of the party kicking and screaming and put him to bed" kind of bad. If there was a toddler Hall of Fame for fits, Reid's picture would be in a gilded frame.  In his defense (because that's what grandmas do) he was up late the night before at the hotel with me. There was a fireworks display outside our window so I got him up to watch. He also didn't eat lunch because he was having SO MUCH FUN. Then there's the 2.5 hour nap time, which was missed. Put all that together and then add a car transporter that is hauling monster trucks as a gift and your best friend trying to pull it out of you hands and you have trouble.

The car transport of doom.

Meg was mortified, but I told her I bet most parents were grateful. Unless their kid's head spontaneously bursts into flames, they can always feel better because another kid has thrown a worse fit than their kid.

Happy birthday, Reid! You have filled my life with sunshine.