Birthday with the Grandparents

One of the huge benifits to living in KC is that we are sooo much closer to my parents. We were used to seeing them a few times a year, but I have a feeling we will be seeing g them so much more!

They were not able to come in the weekend of Arlee's party but they came in the next weekend. It was great for Arlee cause it was like his birthday just kept going...lol.

When they came in Friday night , we ate a nice meal at the house and they had all kinds of presents for Arlee (mostly Trains). We stayed up forever and talked and talked.

Saturday, we enjoyed sleeping in. Then we went to KC and took Arlee out for a birthday treat. We took him back to the Choo-choo  restaurant and then out for a ride on the street car...which was just like a choo-choo to him!!!

 Checking out the Crayola store in Crown Center....

                     And then the Candy Store....

Keeping those greedy hands out of the candy was not easy!!!!!

          Enjoying all the trains and noise at Fritz!!!

Touring Kansas City on the Street Car

Another wonderful weekend in Kansas City 

Our Number One Engine is Three

Our move to Kansas City fell right in the middle of Arlee's birthday. We had originally planned to take him to Nashville and ride Thomas the Train. That broke my heart to have to cancel that. It had been planned months in advance. But that just goes to show, you can never predict the future.
We decided to have a a small cake on his actual birthday and wait to have his party  until the next weekend, when my sister and her husband could come in.  He love having his very own "D-Day cake" I let him pick it out and that all we heard about for the rest of the day. My "D-day"cake...lol

Preparing to blow out his candles...and we did it over and over and over!!! He loved blowing out the candle as much as eating the cake!!


That weekend when my sister came in, We had a cookout at the park. Since this was not my orginal plan, I had to rack my brain quickly to come up with the decorations and our themed shirts. I'm just a nerd when it comes to parties and holidays. This was thrown together but I was so pleased how it came together.

 I had bought his Thomas had weeks ago for his thomas train ride, so I worked around that. I kept it very simple (shocker, I know)

I decided The theme would be:
                  "Our Number One Engine is 3"

For the cake as deco, I just raided Arlee's room and grabbed all his little trains. I put one one the cake as well.

Hard to get a pic of this overly excited, active little man.

After singing "Happy birthday" and blowing out candles 10xs, he thought his cake needed more decorating!!!...haha

Of course, present time was the most fun and the  fastest. It was over in like 3 seconds!!!