The Party!

Luke has had a great birthday and it's not over yet, folks! This morning he woke up in a chipper mood and submitted willingly to his diaper change. Then I told him that there was something special on the dining room table for him because it was his birthday. He trotted out there and before I could click my camera he was tearing into his present! Such a change from last year. No coaxing needed for the three-year-old. This is a present and he knows exactly what needs to happen.
After the first present of the day, a bowling set, we introduced Luke to the Bangsund Family Birthday Train. This is an awesome wooden animal train set that Lynne bought in Europe. It is super cool. I let Luke pick out the animals that would be in his birthday train. He chose the camel, the giraffe, the elephant and the zebra. He gets four because three of them hold candles and one of them holds the number three. Anyway, the tradition was supposed to involve putting in candles and lighting them, but Luke was a little too rough with the train, so we had to put it away. Maybe next year the candles will make it!

The party started at 11am and it was a huge success. We had a stretching and warm up time. Hilarious. I tried to imitate Coach Bob from the community center. I don't know how he does it! I explained that we were going to do some warm up running. They should run until I said stop and then run again when I said go. They all ran toward me, and I said, "Stop!" Then I said, "Go" and they all ran in different directions!! It was crazy fun.
Other party highlights included the fact that Paul was content to sit in his highchair for the bulk of the party. He was so well-behaved. Eventually our wonderful neighbors, Tim and Taryn, took over on Paul and he got to eat a bunch of cake. :-) It's okay. It was a recipe from that new cookbook where you sneak vegetables into everything...so it was good for him, right?
Luke did a great job opening his presents. He was excellent about not stopping and playing with everything. By that time in the party, I seriously just wanted him to get through them all in one sitting. Did I mention that we are having a heat wave literally? It's currently 97 degrees, but earlier it was only 89 or so. Whew!


These are the two coolest cakes I've ever seen! Lynne made the one on the left and my friend, Becky, made the one on the right. So fun. Our theme was Balls Balls Bonanza! I stole that name from a class we took at the community center. The idea came to me as I contemplated trying to have a Jonah themed party, Luke's other favorite thing this summer. We have learned a lot about God's compassion and mercy by seeing the Veggie Tales movie a few times (gross understatement). But I was not prepared to figure out games and party favors to complement the disobedient prophet. I'm lazy.

The birthday continues this afternoon. Luke awoke from his nap ready to play with his new toys. His very favorite at this moment is the family of animals that Tim and Taryn bought him. There are tigers, giraffes and elephants. They are the type that are realistically rendered and Luke adores them. He's also enamored with his "real" basketball. He really wants to learn to dribble like the bigger boys that play down the street. We are in the playroom while Daddy and Paul nap. I'll post a few pictures. I only took seventeen, but Lynne took some and so did another friend, so I'll have more tomorrow and the next day.