Happy 3rd Birthday!

This past Saturday was the boys 3rd birthday! Rylan wanted a farm party and Jacob wanted a construction party. So, I put on my thinking cap to try and combine the two and we landed here...Click, Clack, Moo by Doreen Cronin. If you have not read these book, go to your library TODAY! They are outstanding! Very well written and illustrated and so funny.
To welcome our guests, we asked each of them to autograph the boys favorite Cronin book.. Giggle, Giggle Quack for Rylan and Dooby, Dooby, Moo for Jacob. We started this last year and the boys LOVE their special birthday books. After the party, I glue in a family photo to the front cover.

These were the favors! Each child (and adult family) got a Cronin book. I also enlarged several characters to decorate the house. The boys still love playing with them and pretending to be the books.

The cake! This came off of Betty Crocker's website. It turned out really cute, If I do say so myself! :)
Our family at the party...

As the kids came in they each got a construction hat. They added star and farm animal stickers to their hard hats.
Jacob was very meticulous about placing each sticker in just the right spot! :)
Then we watched the Click, Clack,Moo DVD. The kids were spell-bound. Jacob, Kamri, Annelise and Rylan. These are the girls that the boys say they are going to marry one day. All the parents are in complete agreement... now we just need to get it in writing! :)
Cousin Evan, Aunt KK and Uncle Justin were able to come down and spend the weekend with us. It was such a treat for them to stay at our house. Our visits are usually so rushed, but this seemed to be calm, even with the party! This is Evan sporting her hard hat!
Then we went into the backyard for the first game. Heather and her kids helped me paint and build the barn while Jason was out of town last week. It turned out perfect! Notice the brand in the middle? That was Heather's idea! We got the hay from the local feed store. Then I hid little hard plastic animals in the hay and...

the kids hunted for the animals! BIG HIT!!!



After we searched for the animals, I read another Cronin book - Thump Quack Moo. Then the kids used inflatable hammers to build the barn and markers to decorate the barn like the animals in the book.
Brotherly love!
Jacob was once again in deep concentration.
Heading back inside for...
the reading of Giggle, Giggle Quack - Rylan's favorite book!
The kids drank Capri Sun while I read the book. The hammers and juice were favorites!
In the book, the animals convince Farmer Brown's brother to buy them pizza for dinner...seven pizzas to be exact. So we did a relay carrying seven pizza boxes (thank you Domino's). As much as the kids liked carrying the boxes, I think they liked throwing them more! hahaha
Then we played "pin the pencil in Duck's hand" - also from the book. This is Jacob.
Now it's Rylan's turn. This was probably the overall favorite game. The little girls did it about 4 times each!
Rylan was waiting to throw the rings at the cow bottles. He squealed and squealed at this game. he thought the cow bottles were hilarious!
What do you think? :) Thank you Daesha for painting the bottles!
Then it was present time...organized chaos to say the least! The pile of gifts was overwhelming. They got lots of games, play-doh sets, Little People stuff, puzzles, toys...you know, overall GREAT FUN!!!
We got them a grill. It was a HUGE hit! They use all their new wooden food on it and pretend to be Daddy. It is precious. This is all the cousins having BBQ fun.
The party was a great success! All the kids had fun and Rylan and Jacob had a wonderful time. It was fun to celebrate them! :) happy birthday to my two precious boys!