Three

This weekend, my little Zachary turned three years old.  How old, buddy?

To help celebrate, lot of family came into town:  Parti, Parta, Nonna, Pop, Aunt Sarah, and cousins Kayla, Angel, Bailey, and Brielle.  Zachary LOVED driving them around in his Jeep.

I had a lot of trepidation leading up to this party.  We were lucky that a neighbor offered to bring a bounce house from work, and one of the moms of the kids invited to the party offered her gigantic water slide, but  these activities required great weather.  Thunderstorms were in the forecast.  I had no idea what I would do with all of these kids inside my small house.

We had invited Zachary's buddies from daycare, Matthew and  David (a.k.a. Bestest Buddy of All Time)

At 9am when the forecast still called for party-time thunderstorms and the bounce house was canceled, we did the only things we could do:  We warned the parents to expect chaos, decorated to the hilt, and stocked up on fixings for cocktails.

After raining all morning and into the afternoon, it finally stopped, and the party-time forecast changed to 75 degrees with a 0% chance of precipitation.  Game on.

The water was so cold that it took a good 15 minutes to talk Zachary into getting into the pool.

Once he got in, he had so much fun that there was a near meltdown when it was time for him to get out despite the fact that he was shaking from the cold.

Samantha and Conor, on the other hand, had no qualms about the cold water.  Both of them wanted to sit and play in it.

When we finally tore the kids away from the water, we ate corndogs and chips, and got ready for Mickey Mouse cake and cake pops.  Here's my boy, so happy before blowing out the candles.

He took a deep breath, got ready to blow out his candle, and (I'm not going to name any names here, but)...

...MATTHEW...

...leaned over and blew out the candle.  My sweetie only stared at the candle, and then me, in stunned silence. 

Then he took out his frustrations on the pinata.

4-year old Bailey ended up knocking it off the rope, the Husband started attacking it to rip it open, and the kids swarmed (poor Lightening McQueen).  Zachary picked out two toys, and waited for the chaos to subside.

The party ended up being so much fun -- not just for Zachary, but for the adults as well, who enjoyed good company, laughing children (and cocktails).  I have rarely had the experience when I think that a kids' party was over too soon, but this one really was.

Happy third birthday, my sweet, sweet little man.  I love you more than you will ever know.