It's Party Time!!!

We had a big party for Tristan's 3rd Birthday! The fun (for me) started with this cute invitation. Since he's interested in so many different things these days, we went with a general "boy" theme for the festivities. It was a group effort between James, Renae and me, to pull everything off. The food, the special train cake, the tool-shaped cookies, the party favors, etc.; we were all working into the wee hours of the night to make the day special for Tristan. Yes, I know there are a ton of pictures of the cake, but isn't it great? Renae is mostly responsible for that fabulous creation.



Construction truck stickers on the bottoms of Hershey kisses!



For the most part, Renae made the train cake, complete with marshmallow "smoke" coming out of the smokestack and a load of logs in the freight car.






Even the candles were in the shapes of a train, a dumptruck and a firetruck!

James' Godmother, Barbara Watt, even came to the party. She, understandably, hung out with James' parents. The deck is where adults fled to when they needed a break from the commotion inside the house! :)

Our good friends, Mike and Keelie, who now live in L.A., were also able to join us for the festivities and we were so excited. Tristan always has fun with "Aunt" Keelie and "Uncle" Mike!

Together with a couple of friends, from as far back as Jr. High. We all have children now and probably see each other more for birthday parties than for Happy Hours.

Daddy lights the candles.

The front of the train included a yellow #3, commemorating Tristan's new age (in his favorite color).


Look at that big smile as we sing "Happy Birthday!" Such a happy boy!



Tristan contemplates a birthday wish and gets ready to blow out the candles.


And, of course, there were presents!


His "big gift" from us was a motorized tractor. It had been stored in our garage for about a year and a half because we bought it during a major post-Christmas sale. It was HARD for James to wait for Tristan to be old enough for this. He couldn't wait to give his little boy his first tractor. Tristan loves it!


Consequently, Genevieve loves it too!

Um, are you supposed to be back at the table licking the spatula?

After most of the guests had gone home, Tristan was found looking like this. Apparently, he thought he needed some more cake and took it upon himself to get some. It was a wee bit obvious.