tales from the sales: dinosaurs

The 'Evanosaurus" turns 3!! Ready for the big day!

A quick photo outside before going to school! Look at all that snow!

Enjoying dinner at Culver's! Evan's favorite spot!

Thanks Auntie P .. love my knight stuff (& making a mess)

Watch out Heinz

It was a busy week and for good reason! Evan turning 3 has been a highlight. He's no longer a baby or toddler...but a little boy. He's silly and smart and very loving. A good mannered and good natured friend to many and no matter the mood we're in, he can still make us smile and laugh along. I adore this child.. Plain and simple. First born, first grandchild, first son...we couldn't be happier with the person he is and continues to become.

This week happened to be "Dinosaur Week" at Apple Lane...what more could a boy ask for...except that it was also his "birthday week"! We brought in dinosaur cupcakes to school on Thursday. Luckily for me, they have to be store bought so we picked up blue and green cupcakes from Walmart and added eggs on some and mini dinosaurs on others. Unlucky for me was the nice blue surprise Evan gave me the next morning....he's been doing AWESOME with potty training, and happened to have an accident in his pull up. It was BLUE and stained his little butt blue!!

Thursday afternoon, we decorated the house with balloons and invited the Hart family to join us at Culver's for dinner. They came over before to open some presents. Evan opened the smallest one first and was so excited...more Matchbox cars...a collection of construction vehicles! He proceeded to play with them while we were telling him there were more to open. His response "i don't want open presents, i want to play with these" We jokingly said "Okay then I guess we'll have to give the presents to other people and you won't get them" As serious as can be, he says "Otay" picks one of the other gifts up and hands it to Kallie "here you Kallie, this is for you"....we all laughed! So, we opened a couple more and left for dinner!

Evan remains in the 50th percentile for his age at 92 CM and 14.2 kg...I haven't done the accurate conversion so I'm thinking he's about 36 inches and 31 pounds.

Saturday was Evan's party at the YMCA. I debated where to have it this year. With addition of new babies recently in our circle of friends, and the kids are getting a little older, it was time to keep our house from becoming a disaster zone, we opted for the YMCA. They have a kid's gym with rock climbing walls, rope swing, mats and basketball goal, a multipurpose room for the party, and gymnastics room with soft toys, spring floor, etc. Perfect for running off the sugar highs! We decorated and presented Evan with his dinosaur cake! I practiced a few weeks ago, and made an orange one. After completing Evan said he didn't like it and wanted a green one that day. Not happening until his party! The cake was from a book Alex gave me for Christmas and a lot of fun to do. I made a bigger dinosaur this go around, and of course it was green. The spikes are actually Lay's Stax dipped in colored chocolate (I tried both pringle & lays' in my test kitchen the Pringles were too fragile). The test run didn't take but an hour to assemble and frost, so I figured I could get in done after the kids went to bed on Friday night. I baked the cakes during the day and let them set. I ran out of icing halfway through...at midnight...sent Alex to get more. I didn't realize increasing the size slightly (going from 8" round pans to 10") would call for triple the icing! So, I colored the icing, and finally finished at 2:00 AM! Evan woke up around 1AM and said he wasn't tired and all done with his nap.