Happy Birthday Joshua!!!

Three years ago, my baby boy Joshua was born. I can't believe how time has flown by. In many respects, Joshua is a living effigy of our life in Portland. It was not long after we moved that we found out that we were pregnant with Joshua. What a surprise that was! That time in our lives was supposed to be very trying and difficult; and it was. I think Joshua was sent to us, with his contagious smile, silly personality, and infectious optimism, to bring a much needed ray of sunshine into our lives.

Don't get me wrong. We weren't miserable. We weren't in an intolerable depression. But times were tough and Joshua has always been able to brighten a room when he walks in. That talent will follow him for his life.

Anyway, we had a small get together for Josh to celebrate three years. Josh requested having an outer-space birthday party. More specifically, a party with aliens. Given our financial situation we had to be innovative. We strung paper stars, UFOs, aliens, and planets from the ceiling to add to the atmosphere (pun definately intended).

We just can't keep clothes on our boys. Hopefully by High School we'll have that problem nipped.
A fully clothed Challene cheesin' it up while hanging stars.

As an activity we decorated "flying saucers" made of paper plates and styrofoam bowls. The kids loved it.

More saucer action!

My wife has a tradition of creating a three-dimensional cake for the kids' birthdays. She enjoys it and the kids absolutely love it. There was Pablo, the blue penguin from the Backyardigans (her least favorite), the puppy, Mickey Mouse (side note: don't give three year olds black frosting!), the Monkey (my personal fave), and the baseball. Given the alien theme, she made a UFO cake with a green alien on it. She did very well in my opinion.

Singing.

Blowing out the candle (we opted for a #3 candle instead of having three candles on there).

This little chunk is Noah, John and Amy's youngest. They made the long trek up from Payson. It was good to see them again. He actually let me hold him for a short while.

Joshua has found a new love of art. This kid would color ALL DAY LONG if we let him. Actually, I'm not opposed to that except that he has difficulty staying in one place. A wandering Joshua with pens, crayons, markers or anything is a bad thing. Our walls have paid the price. But he does really good! Some friends gave him the mother of all three-year old friendly art sets. He's done some masterpieces, that's for sure.

What a better way to celebrate than with two hundred balloons and over 30 balloon stomping feet. The room there is open, connects with our great room, and has a vaulted ceiling. The popping balloos were SO LOUD! It was incredible.

Josh was having a hard time, so he ran to the closet and pulled on the first flip-flop he could find. He ran back and got into the action. Love that smile. Love that kid.

Justin, Jeremy, and Matty (you can see his foot in the lower right) were troopers helping the kids. Actually, I think they may have had more fun than the kids.

Clean up was actually not as bad as you may think. Most of the kids helped out.

It was a fun party. Happy Birthday, my Joshy! We love you!