Ka-Chow!!

As much as Tyler loves his trains, he love his cars, too! Maybe more, even. :) When the time came last year to pick a theme for his party, he wasn't really old enough to get it and be able to tell me what he wanted. He had yet to discover "Thomas" or "Lightning", but he was into cars and trains, so I chose a simple transportation theme that had a little of everything and made a cute little train cake for him.


This year however, it took him less than a nano-second to tell us he wanted a "Lightning McQueen" party. It's amazing what an opinion a little three year old can have!! I started asking about 6 weeks before his birthday and asked him several times through the course of a few weeks. Each time the answer was a resounding "Lightning" and once I even heard him say "M-o-m...I told you I wanted a McQueen party!" This year, he kept reminding me that he wanted a "race-car" cake. That was that and I got to planning. Of course I made the invitations and Daddy found some REALLY cool party decorations and supplies, that he ordered on-line. We are so lucky that he is such a gread Daddy!! He did a wonderful job.


I'm not sure who was more excited for the party...Tyler, or Mommy and Daddy?!? I had a lot of fun designing his invitation and Daddy did great with the supplies and decorations. It was fun to decorate the house with all the neat decorations. We started outside with cool flags lining the driveway
and continued inside with an awesome backdrop of a CARS scene,
and some balloons and banners.

Unfortunately, I failed to think of taking the photo before a few of our guests had to leave. :( I'm actually impressed with the success of this photo, considering there are seven, three-year old boys in this picture.
The day was perfect!! The weather was beautiful. (It can be kind of hit or miss in June...hot, humid, stormy, it's a toss up...but low 80 degree weather, with an ocean-like breeze, now that is nearly unheard of.) The party was a lot of fun, too. With the weather being so beautiful, the kids were very content to be outside playing in the moon bounce, on the jungle gym or with one of the handful of ride-on toys that we own. Turns out they came in very handy!!


I am so thankful that the weather was so beautiful, because I am not sure our house could have held up to the energy of 13 little kids. The three sweet little girls wouldn't have been a problem, but 10 boys, hmmm!!

We were inside for lunch (which turned out SO well...I decided to make brisket for the adults -- something I've never attempted before and my husband thought I might be a little crazy for taking this on. He is from Texas afterall...and a connoisseur of BBQ! Apparently it hit the spot for everyone, though...because there were not even a few straggling pieces left!! Darn it...I was REALLY hoping for leftovers for dinner. Guess I'll be making that again soon.) and made it through that without any major incidences,

but I did decide to return back outside for the eating of the cupcakes!! That was, maybe, the best idea of the day.

After burning off a little more energy (and sugar from those gobs of icing with cupcake), it was time for Tyler to finally open his gifts.

It was a struggle to convince him that we did not need to open every single gift right when he opened it, and to move on to the next gift. But eventually we made our way through them all. He got some really neat gifts, most of which we have already played with!!

I said before that three was hard for me, because my baby is growing so quickly and fastly. But this means that he is beginning to understand so much more and makes days like these so much fun!!