The Big Three

We spent a lovely weekend with Randy's parents to celebrate Andrew's third birthday. Grandma & Grandpa's place is Andrew's heaven. There's a big yard to run around in, a tramp, lots of attention and spoiling, and Grandma & Grandpa have lots of "oldies but goodies" toys that Randy and his brother and sister played with when they were kids. In the words of Mater: "It don't get much better than this."

He got a fire truck from Grandma & Grandpa (and some other fun things), which is his new sleeping companion:

This is the best picture I can get of him with his fire truck as we still keep him in the buck when he's home.

Grandma & Grandpa Hellyar got him a Ready Bed. The first night he slept in it, he slept an extra 2 hours! Hopefully we'll have the same luck when we take it on our camping trip next week!

When I put Josh in the bed with Andrew, Josh just started giggling up a storm.

Aunt Maranda & Uncle Tyler got him his very own Spidey fishing pole. It was a hit! Another must for our camping trip:

He also got a Savings Bond from Grandma & Grandpa Carroll, a monkey hand puppet (very fitting) from Uncle Russ & Aunt Lisa, and a big stuffed snake from Grandma Doris. Thank you for the gifts and for making Andrew's day special!

On his actual birthday (June 18th), we invited all of the neighborhood kids to eat cake & popsicles and play with Andrew's new Thomas sprinkler. We also took him on a train ride to get a Jamba Juice.

Here are some fun facts about Andrew:

• His favorite color is red
• His favorite foods are popsicles and any kind of processed meat (bacon, sausage, hot dogs, pepperoni)
• He's given a new nickname to Josh, "Cuckoo"
• He loves to jump on our bed (and we let him) while singing "5 Little Monkeys"
• He's happiest when he's playing outside
• He's still obsessed with caterpillars and can make just about anything look like one

We couldn't get the candle on his cake lit because it was too windy outside, so we sang "Happy Birthday" to him and then told him to make a wish, he then made the action like he was blowing out a candle. I don't know why, but I thought it was so cute and wish I got in on video.

Happy Birthday, Bud! We love you!