The boys turn 3!

On Friday, September 2nd, Papa and Grandma arrived from Kansas and with that commenced a weeklong celebration of the boys' third birthday that we called birthday gras (kind of like mardi gras).  Saturday was relatively low key, but on Sunday the 3rd we had a birthday party for the boys.  The boys' birthdays is on the 9th, but since Labor Day weekend is the weekend before, we traditionally have celebrated over the long weekend instead.  For the event we rented a 16' water slide, put up two tents, and had over 19 kids over along with over 20 adults.  This is the first in a series of blog posts from birthday gras.

The boys relaxing before their big party.

Nathan wanted Cars characters on his birthday cake while Christopher wanted bulldozers on his cake.  The result?  Two cakes.



The 16' slide.



Christopher going down the slide with his friend Abbey.

The food for the party catered by Ye Ye and Nai Nai.

Nathan decided to eat first before enjoying the slide.

For those not ready for the 16' slide, we had alternative arrangements. 
Here is the boys' friend Tessa enjoying the drier option.

This is Brooke, in a pensive moment.



Ansley trying to decide if she likes the slide or not.



Christopher decided to take a break from the slide for some dinner.

Phoebe was great about taking some pictures for us during the party.  We didn't see this until after the party.  We thought it makes a cute little sequence.

Here is Nathan hanging out with his friend Haley in what the kids dubbed, the "hot tub."



Not sure where this was headed.



Christopher decides to join in the party.

Christopher has this look of, oops..did I interrupt something?

 Here are a series of pictures of various people going down the slide.









Taking a break from the slide for cake time.

The cake was good, but afterwards, everyone was ready to go back to the slide.

 

No leftover cake available thanks to Christopher who decided to make tracks with it.





Even Valerie and Bob got into the fun of the slide.



As you can probably imagine, the boys had a great time, and we did too.  Thanks to the help of Papa, Grandma, Ye Ye, and Nai Nai, clean up was relatively quick.

More pictures to follow of the day after.