Matix's 3rd birthday party!!

Today we had Matix's 3rd birthday party! His real birthday isn't for another 2 weeks, but with the changing due dates and everything, I didn't want him to feel left out since we have been talking about it forever. Here is the invite.

So, Paul and I stayed up late for our date night last night (not as romantic as other date nights have been :) blowing up balloons, cutting out dinosaur footprints, baking cupcakes, sorting party favors from the prizes, and so on and so on. We got everything ready and then early this morning we headed out to the dinosaur park. It already has climbing structures that are dinosaurs, and everything is green (which is one of Matix's favorite colors, so I was informed about a few weeks ago), and it is shaded, and it is completely fenced in. Perfect for a dinosaur party, right? :) Paul, my very patient hubby, hung up the nearly 30+ balloons all around the little pavilion. Then I set up the cake, gift bags, and cupcake decorating materials while Paul sweat it up with the boys running around and playing on the playground.

Then was the hard part. Waiting for his friends to show up. :) Luckily we had TONS of candies and things to keep the boys busy.

Friends started coming and Matix told them all "Thank you SO much for coming to my dinosaur party!" or "You're my best friend at my dinosaur party!" or "It's my dinosaur party today!" He was SO excited. In these pictures are Kenny (his new best friend), then Ana (his older wannabe girlfriend), and Sister Garcia (his nursery teacher, whom he loves!). I wish I got a picture of everyone, it was a pretty good turnout...

After a little while, we played a few games. The first was dinosaur egg cracking. Paul and I had stuffed little squishy dinosaurs into balloons and then blew them up. The game was super simple. "Crack" your dinosaur egg and you get a baby dinosaur. All the kids enjoyed the game, even the little ones I thought might be scared of the loud noise, but the promise of a toy to KEEP was worth it, I guess. :)

We also played a dinosaur tracks games. Paul hid cut out paper tracks over by a huge tree, the kids had to find a track and bring it back to me to get their prize. These prizes were either little stuffed dinos or little action figure type dinos (like the ones on the cake). I didn't get any pictures of this one, but they liked it too. Very simple and not stressful for the parents, just the way I like it.

The kids also got to decorate their own cupcakes. This has been something we have done at each birthday party, and I think we will continue. It is so much fun. The kids love to make their own one and show it off to the other kids. Even the adults get in on the decorating! So fun.

Then we sang Happy Birthday to Matix. I really can't believe he is (going to be) 3!!! What a big boy. He loved all the attention, and hugs, and fun.

Thank you to everyone who came and showed Matix how much he is loved. It was a great day.