What Rhymes with Orange? BIRTHDAY!

My littlest guy is just a little bit bigger, now.  Three years bigger.  He still seems so small compared to his Amazon siblings until I look back to his newborn pictures.  Who WAS that precious little bundle of blob?

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It was gorgeous outside!  A beeyooteeful day to celebrate!

He had the best time romping around the yard with his manly little toolbox and, um, purse . . .

. . . as he gathered nature (I guess that's why he needed a purse?) . . .

. . . and repaired it.  Naturally.

During his nap-that-wasn't-really-a-nap-at-all, a sneaky little family full of smiles crept into the house and scattered around.

One even tried to show him how you're SUPPOSED to nap.

I originally chose a "tractor" theme, but it turned into "trucks" when I found THIS cake and fell in love with it.  (And, um, also when I couldn't find one with tractors.)

It wasn't until after I bought the yellow and green decorations to make everything tractor-esque that it occurred to me that I should have bought ORANGE decorations.  Chase is allll about the colour orange right now.  Miss Vee had the brilliant idea to buy as many orange SNACKS as possible.  So: goldfish crackers, orange slices, cheese slices, large Cheese Nips, those . . cheesey poof ball thingies, cheese potato chips, carrots, orange bell peppers, etc.  I was shocked at how pretty it all looked displayed on the table. And I FORGOT to take a picture.  I had the orange slices all fanned out and strawberries in the center - things like that.  I just don't DO that kind of thing.  I'm usually a "throw the potato chip bag in the middle and grab what you want" kind of person.  I even served all of this on. . . get this . .  REAL plates.  So just take my word for it.  It looked purdy.

I feel that I need to mention at some point my sister.  It was difficult without her.  It was damned difficult.  My sister was all about family and family parties.  She came to allll of the birthdays.  Her absence was glaring, and it hurt.  It hit me hardest when I picked up the cake, of all things.  It was adorable, and she would have loved it.  On a "normal" birthday Saturday, she would have been on the way down to my house, or preparing to, and I would have called her to tell her all about how it looked and she would have reminded me of all of those last-minute details.  I broke down right there in the middle of the parking lot.  And I realized later that I had focused so much on the petty details of theme and food that I totally overlooked planning  for PEOPLE.  Not until the food was prepared and the decorations were put up did I realize just how few guests were going to be able to attend.  If I'd been thinking straight, I would have at the LEAST invited his BEST BUD whom he plays with just about EVERY FRIDAY????   I don't even know what to say about that.

BUT . . . the show must go on - idiot mother notwithstanding.  It wasn't my day, after all, it was the Little Man's.  Thank goodness he is too young to notice or care whether the house is bustling, or not.  When is a house NOT bustling with a new 3 yo, anyway?  And what we lacked in numbers we made up for in love.

So . . here is his big sister, taking the "truck" theme to a whole new level.  "Trucks = pregnant redneck, right?"  I'm still trying to figure out whose genes to blame for this one.  You'll be happy to hear that the birth went well  . . . the baby just popped right out, really . . . and was adopted into the Smiley family before Grandma arrived.  Whew.

Chase most certainly knew the day was special and all about him, and he loved every minute of it.  Although he still insisted whenever you asked him that "nonono, NOT fwee!"  Sneaky guy is already lying about his age.

Now he doesn't have to bother carrying his blankie around everywhere.  He can wheel it around in his ginormous shiny new Tonka truck!

When all of the excitement calmed down and the guests returned to their homes, the food was put away, the wrapping paper crumpled and tossed, the leftover cake covered and left out to taunt me at all hours - he clutched his newest friend and perhaps the whisper of a few lifelong memories as he drifted off to sleep.  Sweet Dreams, Master Chase.