Look at me!

I'm Three!!!

It's is hard to believe how fast he is growing up. Three years ago we were holding a squishy little infant that, in all honesty, we barely knew. Now, we have this awesome three-year old that has a personality all his own. This post is all about him, and why we feel we have the coolest little boy around!

Levi has been such a blessing to our family. He is smart, funny and very in tune with everything that is going on. He has a mind like a steel trap. I mean this kid doesn't forget a thing! He has an impeccable sense of direction for someone his age. He knows his right from left most of the time too. I could go on and on, but I know that I am the only one that could tolerate this for much longer.

(He was actually really excited about the balloons)

We let him decide what to do on his birthday and he chose Monkey Joe's and Chick-Fil-A. I bought a very small cake and three balloons to celebrate with and he loved them. He wanted to take the balloons everywhere we went. We convinced him to leave them in the car instead of bringing them in everywhere. We went to MJ's first and then met Grandma Judy at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. (Levi really likes to play at the play place at the Carmel Chick-Fil-A because they have a toy car you can crawl in). We ate lunch, sang "Happy Birthday", ate cake, and opened presents there, then went home. He crashed about 10 minutes into the ride home...that's when you know it was a success :)

It's a bird, it's a plane, no its Super Levi!

Forgot to take a pic before I started cutting it...oops

Here he is with his favorite gift from us. Cars are still a pretty big deal in this house. The movie Cars hasn't been requested in several weeks, but the toys get played with almost daily.

He ate some cake before opening presents...good thing too because once he opened presents...

~~The cake thief seized her opportunity to snag an extra piece as soon as all the adults were distracted with the gift opening...she later made her parents pay for this by being on a sugar high that lasted until about 3:00 that afternoon! Keep on the lookout for this bandit at your next birthday party.~~

(This has been a public service announcement)

It was so nice that both of the kids' birthdays fell on Tuesdays this year because we were able to spend their actual birthdays together as a family. We did have a relatively small birthday party the following Saturday. He got to invite three friends and the rest were family. I made cupcakes that he requested (funfetti) and I took him to the party store and let him pick out all the decorations. Most didn't match, but it was Levi through and through.

Levi and Daddy were in charge of decorating the cupcakes.

There was cake...again

and presents

and more presents

and even an after party where the guest of honor got a little silly

But all good things must come to an end

and no one really likes when their birthday party is over.

The days that good memories are made of

The month of October was spent doing nothing productive and everything fun! I have to back-track and catch up on Rachel's birthday party and the end of September then I can give a small play-by-play of the events of October, of course ending with Halloween.

We had Rachel's first birthday party the weekend following her actual birthday. We invited family and a few friends. She did well with the day and sort of played with her cake. She also enjoyed her presents. She got some baby dolls and clothes which were much needed. I also carried on the tradition of giving her a piggy bank and having everyone that attended the party sign it. We did the same thing for Levi. Her pig is a metallic pink. Anyway, the day went great and it is hard to believe that she will be 14 months in just a couple weeks...I still haven't gotten her 1 year portraits taken, eeek!

Round 2: success!

I've got my gifts and am ready to roll

So, on to October

We spent every weekend doing something fun. We went to Monkey Joe's, Stony Creek Farm, Tuttle's Orchard, Conner Prairie, down to Columbus, IN to visit Aunt Melissa and the boys, and of course we went trick or treating dressed as Tigger and Piglet. The month went by at a nice pace and gave us some great time with our kids. Rachel is getting big enough to participate in some of the festivities. I can only imagine that these types of things will become even more fun when they are old enough to anticipate them and look forward to them like I do.

Monkey Joe's

Stony Creek

Bumping into the Summerfields was a great surprise.

Who says pirates can't drive tractors?

Levi being a big brother and helping Rachel pick the perfect pumpkin.

Crazy Cousins

We also had the pleasure of having Jeremy and Amy's kiddos over for an afternoon. The kids are starting to get to the age where they play really well together and watching them is more fun than work :)

~Funny Story~

Levi came over to me and said, "Mom, will you help me put

this [crayon] behind my ear like Hanny Manny?" (Handy Manny)

(note the pencil behind his right ear)

Now if only he could fix things like Handy Manny...

HALLOWEEN 2010

Levi and I had some fun carving our first pumpkin. We usually just let him paint one, but last minute, I thought it would be fun to scoop the goop. I was not disappointed. While we were scooping we discussed the insides of a pumpkin.

Here is what I learned (thanks to Levi for the enlightenment):

Pumpkins are full of cheese and seeds. The stringy stuff (cheese) should taste like mango...upon tasting a piece it was discovered that it in fact did not taste like mango. Aslo, the seeds sound good in theory...but only in theory.

The finished product!

Tigger was such a helpful friend

Tigger, Piglet, and the loot