Finley is 3 ...

and there was great cause for joy & celebration. This is a recap of his actual birthday. There will be another one of his party the day after - but not until tomorrow after I have had some much needed SLEEP!!!

Finley's birthday morning started when he opened and walked out of his bedroom door and to his surprise their were a couple little presents by his door and lots of streamers. He woke up before us (way to early in fact) and creeped upstairs, opened our door and whispered, "There's presents by my door daddy," and he proceeded to drag Ryan and I out of bed to check them out. I loved that he came and got us. I even had him re-enact coming out his door. First things first though - change of diaper (yes, we are still in diapers ... hopefully not for long). As he was getting his diaper changed he spied something in the corner of the room and he could barely contain his excitement. As soon as his pants were back on he bound giddily over to his new kitchen and market. He ended up playing with this ALL day long. And he played with it before waking us up this morning (for how long, who knows?). He played with it before, during, and after his friend party, and I'm sure he's dreaming about playing with it right now. He also had a couple presents to open after his breakfast (of which consisted a healthy dose of TRIX - his choice). After breakfast I got ready to go to the gym and got Berlin all dressed for the day. However, everytime I tried to drag him out of the house, he kept saying, "No mom. Not right now. I'm playing with my toys." So instead we stayed home and Finley whipped up some apple cookies and scrambled eggs for me on his new oven & stove. It was totally worth missing the gym!

So he played all day, stopping long enough to eat a meager lunch of herb & butter rice (again of his choosing). Then it was back to playing & sneaking treats from the goodie bags I had finished making that morning for his friend party. Ryan came home a little early so we could go to dinner together at Finley's favorite restaurant - the Spaghetti factory. But before we did that we took Finley to Toys R Us to spend his $3 gift card from Geoffry (the Toys R Us giraffe - sign your kids up for the bday club and they get one every year). He had SO much fun just walking around the store. He played with all the swords, balls, robots, light saber and whatever else could be played with. Then it was to Trolley Square for some dinner where my sister Valerie met up with us. Finley was so cute when we sang happy birthday to him while eating our ice-cream.

After dinner (and a little tempertantrum because he wanted to go to Aunt Valerie's gym with her) we headed back home to open the last of his presents. His birthday started off super modest. But the last month Ryan and I kept finding things to give him, and I'll admit, I have a super hard time passing up a sale. While wrapping everything the night before, Ryan and I realized that we had gone a little overboard on the amount of gifts. I think that Ryan felt more guilty about it than I did. When it comes down to it I figure that these are the only 2 kids I will have and it's my right to spoil them. And though I hate a mess (and who doesn't?), I think the toy mess at the end of the day is worth every penny because it means they did something other than sit in front of the TV. So here's to spoiling my kids for as long as they appreciate and use what we give them! Cheers! But I digress - back to presents: After presents Finley got to stay up SUPER late trying each gift out. It was fun, especially when he let me be his first patient ever! Then begrudgingly he went to bed, but only after repeated reminders that his party was in the morning.

Thus went Finley's 3rd birthday.