Goodbye 2s!

Well, I'm a little late getting to blogging about it, (because I have been having technological difficulties), but my baby boy said goodbye to the 2s recently.

I know I say it with every boy every year, but I just can't believe he is 3 ALREADY!

Honestly, I feel like it was just like last week that I first laid eyes on the little fella.

Now he's a walkin', talkin', laughin', runnin', smilin', chattin', cruisin', bruisin' little wonder of a boy.

O-Man picked out a dinosaur themed birthday, specifically Dinosaur Train.  So, I used brown and green and found some cute dinosaur paper for his birthday banner.

Worked out pretty good since we were planning on taking him on a train ride!

Giving his ticket to the "ductor".

Watching the view go by on our 4 hour trip.

my 4 very cool dudes

We had a stop at a ranch where we looked for horses (unfortunately, it was lunch hour and all the ranch hands weren't around, and the horses were all out of sight), but we had a nice little picnic lunch on the banks of the Hudson River and got to stretch our legs a bit. 

Owen's a funny little boy.  For some reason, though he LOVES things sugary and sweet, he does NOT like cake.  I discovered that last year after I went to great pains to make him a Wonder Pets Fly Boat cake, and he didn't eat any of it!  So, I had to be creative this year.  He likes ice cream, so I decided to make an ice cream cake, though it did limit me.  

I put a layer of chocolate chip ice cream in a pan (one container), refroze it, and then added another layer of mint chip, and froze again.  I flipped it out onto a bigger, shallower pan and then decorated it.  I used baking cocoa whipped into Cool Whip for frosting.  I made a rock formation by piling coconut marshmallows on the cake and then covering with more frosting.  I found the cute Dinosaur Train at ToysRUs, as well as a couple extra dinos from the show.  I used green piped frosting to make a track, write the birthday wishes, and surround the cake.  And we had a couple little trees from a train set already, and added them onto the cake.  Oh, and behind the cake is a pond, made of blue sprinkles.  It was not a fancy cake, but he loved it.  But not enough to eat any of it.  :(  New idea next year, I guess.  The rest of us enjoyed it though!  Yum.

O-Man's favorite gift was his new Hot Wheels motorcycle bike from his Grampa and Gramma.  His little legs are just long enough for his feet to touch the pedals, so I guess he'll be able to use it for a long time.

We ended the birthday with fireworks.  Aren't I just the coolest mom?  Hahahaha....ok, I didn't arrange for the fireworks.  But, we did go down to the village at the Yacht Basin and enjoy the fireworks display that our town puts on every Wednesday night during the summer.  I realized then that it was the first fireworks display any of our boys have ever seen in person, (other than peering to see them out of their bedroom windows).  The first blast took O-man by surprise, but he loved them. 

It was a fitting way to end his day.  Owen has been a firecracker in our family.  His entrance into this world was as surprising to us as that first blast was to him.  But, like him, we loved it! And each day his little fireworks display his personality and charm, and we love it.  It is hard to think 3 whole years have gone by since we first held him in our arms,

and brought him home to his brothers.

But at the same time, it's hard to remember life without him, because like a firecracker leaves it's mark in the darkness, Owen leaves his mark daily on our family, and we love it!

We had a wonderful day being together as a family, that's how we made O-Man's birthday moments matter.