Read Every Word-This Took Me Forever. Oh, and, Happy Birthday Henry!

3 years old!

We celebrated Henry's Birthday yesterday!!! Okay, maybe not yesterday but it's taken me a few days to get this done. I'm not as good at coming up with interesting stuff to read at the last minute like I was in high school. Plus, I don't have my mom to type for me. Besides, this is a bit more important than some paper about the importance of the independent voter. Sorry, that paper still haunts me. I digress. Okay, I was never good at coming up with interesting stuff.

Anyway, here's how the whole thing went down. I had convinced myself that I was NOT going to throw a party this year. Why should I have to have a party EVERY SINGLE YEAR? I am not about to start that cycle. I figure, as long as my son has low expectations of me then he will constantly be amazed and never disappointed, right? Anyway, I thought that a nice family dinner would be a wonderful way to celebrate his birth. Okay, hindsight, I suppose from the perspective of a three year old that is probably as exciting as boiled beets (which, by the way, he USED TO love).

Anyhoo, Christmas Day he was opening his mountain of presents. When we get half-way through, he says (and I am not making this up), "Oh I am going to share all of these toys with my friends at my birthday party!!". Okay, after my heart melts, I ask, to no one in particular, "Who told the short one about a birthday, much less a BIRTHDAY PARTY??!

Then I looked up and saw this... Okay, I caved.
Here's the gist of the email that I sent out on Monday for a party on Friday:

Birthday Dinner for Henry. Spaghetti and Meatballs. There may be juice boxes, there will definitely be wine.

NO PRESENTS!

On a side note, there was a lot of wine as, 10 minutes before the party, Billy asked, "Did you get bread?" To which I replied (in my sweetest ever voice...), "No, I asked you to get bread and wine." To which he replied, "Oh, ha ha (nervous laughter??), I thought you said RED WINE!"And so begins another typical Carter dinner party.

Welcome to the family, Henry. God help you.
So, let's back up.

Birthday morning.

Yes, he wanted to wear a dinosaur top and Thomas pants. Which brings me to another humorous story. But first, pictures!

Happy Birthday Little Pookie! He has the first two Pookie books and requested the other two. Another Thomas book! Shocker!

Below is a picture of the beautiful birthday cake. Yes, that's a giant chocolate kiss in the background. Okay, here's the story on the cake. When I asked Henry what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he said, "Chocolate Cake! Chocolate frosting and chocolate ice cream too! I asked him again about a week later, just to make sure. Well there is something that I'm learning about this son of ours; if you ask him the same question more than once, he goes a little nutso. He has even been known to say, "Aaargh, that is so frustrating!" I'm not kidding. Anyway, when presented with the question about his cake again, he replied (after pounding his little fist on the table), "CHOCOLATE CAKE! CHOCOLATE FROSTING! CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!! NOTHING ON TOP EXCEPT FOR CHOCOLATE! Okey dokey...meanwhile, Nonnie is saying, "And what is the problem?"

By the way, don't think the sass has escaped me, I will get into that later (another post), Let's just enjoy his birthday.

So, we go to the bakery. I decide that since I'm throwing his party "on the cheap" that I would splurge on the cake and go to a legit baker (No grocery store cake here-only the best for the best!). Plus, I had a coupon! haha!

Anyway, on to the bakery. Henry decides to fall asleep in the car just as we get there so they actually take my order from the phone after they brought the book out to me. Long story short, I order a beautiful chocolate cake, Henry wakes up in the car, we pull in the driveway and he announces, "Mommy, I got a birthday cake with dinosaurs on top!" So lucky the car was in park. Silly me, I actually think that he will forget by morning. Oh no. Next morning, Henry runs in to the kitchen, "Daddy, Mommy got me a dinosaur cake for my birthday party (which is in one day)!" By this time I'm rummaging through his toy box pulling out all the dinosaurs which, until this time, he has shown zero interest in!

So in between teaching (you know, my other full-time job) and massage clients, I run through AC Moore and get some plastic palm trees, more dinosaurs-strike out on the plastic volcano but realize I can bite the top off a big chocolate kiss, throw on some red icing and make it into a volcano! I take all the generic crap back to the dollar store and get dinosaur stuff at the party store. Actually, Billy got the dinosaur stuff (my hero-ok, he had no choice if he wanted to live). So, Happy, Happy Joy Joy, let's party!

Beautiful cake before...

The Dino's are starting to descend... Taa-daa, we have Jurassic Cake! (minus the breath-taking edible roses it probably took someone 5 hours to make). Also, I can't take credit for the volcano (because she reads this blog-darn it). Thank you to Jamie for the wonderful volcano!

...aaaand, he loves it!

Henry and Nick enjoying some fine dining. Nick prefers red. Henry goes for the box variety.

Happy Birthday, Henry

Don't listen to him, Henry!

That would be Dean, our fun-loving neighbor (lives right behind us) who responded to the email invite with, "...I will be bringing red wine, a drum set and ear plugs!" That's okay Dean, when Henry has his teen-age parties, we'll turn the speakers in the direction of your house.

Tee Hee!

Goodnight, Aunt Ruth!

Because I am not normal, here are the party favors that I sent home-housed in a nice magnetic frame for all to enjoy!

The Cherwek Family. That's Dean in the middle-HA HA!

The Haworth Family-dancin' a jig!

We missed Gorgeous Georgia at the party who was home helping Mommy and Daddy with her new baby sister. This one turned out great so I thought I'd post (Stacy, feel free to rip-off).

Henry Pan and Georgia Bell The Family Pilonieta
Henry and his favorite Auntie Troll!
Mom-yours is on the way!

Back to Christmas for a minute

Here it is, the coolest gift of the season!

Thank you Nonnie!

Apologies for the crazy seizure-inducing video. I'm not sure what is wrong with this camera, but I have a feeling it is actually me with the issue! That said, I have just enrolled in a, "Take Your Camera off Auto-Mode" course. So, from February on, watch out-my photog skills will amaze you. For now, bear with me...

Oh yeah, Happy New Year!