7/18 - Aiden's 3rd birthday party

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On Friday night, Brad and I got to go out on a date!! Our neighbor, Ryan, was nice enough to watch the boys for us. We went out to St. Johns Town Center and had dinner at a nice italian place (Maggiano's). It was delicious. We walked around for a while and also got some ice cream. It was an awesome date night.  

On Saturday morning, we got the house ready for Aiden's birthday party. He wanted to wait until daddy came home so we did. We decorated the house with Car's themed stuff. The party was not as large as I thought but it actually worked out perfect (funny how God knows what we need more than we think we do).

Aiden was so excited for his 'friends' to come over that he didn't even take a nap. I did make him stay in his room so I could get stuff done. Brad was gone during nap time to deliver meals to some families that just had some babies. Aiden was running around the house before our guests got there putting out fires with his invisible hoses. Eli was jealous of me taking pictures of Aiden so he plopped down in my lap for his picture.

Stephanie, Harold, and their 3 kids and my friend Crystal and her husband (Ian) were the only people who ended up coming. It was perfect. Brad blew up some balloons but Eli and Blaise didn't quite understand they needed to hold on to it so it wouldn't float away. I tied Eli's to his pants and he didn't like that at all.

The kids had a good time. We just ordered pizza and had some chips and fruit. 

We got a cool Cars cake done at Target. I was gonna make Aiden's cake when he originally said he wanted monster trucks but I didn't feel like I could pull of Cars (nor did I want to spend my precious time with my family baking/cooking too much at this point). Aiden loved it.

This is the first year he didn't cry at his birthday!! He even blew out all three candles by himself!

We tried to take a family picture but the boys really just wanted to eat cake and didn't care about smiling at the camera. I promise they were having a good time! haha

Aiden got to open a few presents. He got a spy jet (from Cars 2) from Crystal and Ian and was pretty excited about it. He's never met Ian before and took right to him. He even gave him a hug.

Ms. Stephanie and her family got Aiden a backpack with a Cars sleeping bag in it. He was pretty excited. It worked out great because Bronco ate the straps on his first Cars backpack and I was waiting to get him one without wheels. The even cooler thing is we've been talking lately about going camping and even letting Eli sleep in Aiden's bed and Aiden can sleep on the floor in his room and they can have a sleepover. Now he has a sleeping bag for that. Papa has also talked to him about camping. We will definitely be using that pretty soon.

He got a few other random Target dollar bin toys and two Cars from the new movie. He had a great birthday. Everyone stayed for a bit so it was a great time for Brad and I too.

I had to take a picture of Eli because at 21 months, he drinks like a champ out of a big boy cup. He's growing so fast. Unfortunately, he still likes to use his hands to eat way more than I would like.

I believe Blaise was originally sitting in the Cars chair and chunky monkey Eli came and pushed him out and then sat in it. Blaise didn't fight it too much to my surprise. We are gonna need to keep our eye on little Eli; I don't want him becoming a bully.

The boys were sad to see Stephanie and her family leave so Aiden followed their truck down the block to the stop sign. It had been raining out so there were lots of puddles. They had a blast walking down to the end of the street to the stop sign and then coming back.

You can't see it very well in this picture but Eli was crouching down like he was going to sit when I asked the boys to stop at the STOP sign and say cheese. It was too funny.  I just added a picture where you can see Eli crouching.

Eli got a little tired on the way back so Brad gave him a piggy back ride. He was enjoying it but it seems Brad was in a little pain.

I was shocked that Aiden wanted to play in the puddle. He got a little sidetracked and had an accident while he was playing in the puddle. That's only the 2nd or 3rd accident he had since he started potty training. He does a great job, even during nap time. He still needs a pull up diaper at night but other than that, he's potty trained.

I forgot to take a picture of Aiden by his big Lightening McQueen balloon. Look at how big this is!!

On Sunday, we went to church as a family which was so awesome. While Brad was getting ready in the morning, he was doing push-ups and the boys started to copy him. It was too cute. Aiden talks all the time about exercise and it cracks me up. Some people would think I have brainwashed him but he's actually gotten it from an Elmo DVD.  Aiden even tried to bend his arms to do push-ups. I was shocked that Eli could actually support his body weight too.

Eil decided to not eat his lunch (he hasn't been eating much lately) but when he saw Brad's leftovers from the italian place, he made a bee-line to Brad's lap and was like a little bird opening his mouth for food. He was loving it though.

I also had to get a picture of Eli with the balloon because it was so big. He had a blast with it.

Things have been going great. Brad went back to work today and is bringing home a lot of clothes to be washed tonight. I dropped the boys off, went to the store, and then got a workout. I've been doing some work and am getting ready to work on my bible study. Make sure you enjoy the time you have with your loved ones because you never know when it will end. Every day is a gift from God and I am so thankful for the family I have right now.