ro.bot.birth.day.part.eee.

When your joint birthday party finally rolled around this year, you were soooo excited to spend the afternoon roboting with your friends and family.

"You came to my party!!! How was Scotland?!?"

 Family members drove from far away to document the robot birthday activities!

One activity was a pinata!

Everyone waited patiently for their next turn.

Except for the grown-ups.  They did not get to play, but they watched very nicely.  These are things you have to do when you grow up, even though you get to drive the car places and eat just cake if you want.

There were many different styles of pinata whacking.

One-handed.

Upside down. 

Spearing.

Pointing to aim.

Determined. 

And all were perfect.

Next it was time to pick out a cupcake.  The robot arms from inside the pinata looked useful for this task.

With the perfect cupcake chosen, you were serenaded with the "Happy Birthday" song.

Following the excitement of cupcakes, some people wanted to rest for a moment.

But others had more energy than ever.

Especially the dragons.

Raaarrr! 

And the grounds crew.

Then you got to open some wonderful birthday gifts!

And you thanked everyone for coming to your robot birthday party.

 We tried to take a family picture.

Those can be hard for us sometimes.

It was a fantastic day!!!

And a little bit exhausting...  Here is Jack the next morning after the sun is up.

last weekend as a three year old...

On your last weekend being *3* you did so many fun things!

First we picked all of the strawberries that were ready (and that the chipmunks had not already found) in our garden.

Then we ate them all!

 Next was an explorer adventure treasure hunting birthday party for your friend Gabe.  Jack got to come, too and made a new friend - Gabe's little brother.

Stripes unite!

Do you think Jack learned how to be so nice
from his big brother? I do!

Once the party had ended and all the treasure had been found, we went to Chipotle for lunch, and there we saw one of your favorite friends / your wife from school, Chloe!  While eating your quesadilla you tried to catch her attention with your special robot dance.  After you'd finished your lunch and were allowed to go say "hi" you decided to do some more dancing, complete with a slide across the floor on your knees.  All present, including the staff, agreed that young love just can't be tamed.

After this spectacle, Mommy and Daddy thought it was a good time to take you boys to Oma's, and we went to a grown-up wedding on a beautiful farm.

Daddy is just as goofy when you're not around.
Mom loves it!

At the wedding we watched a boy (called the "groom") dance with his mother.  This made Mommy think a lot about her boys growing up, and she is not ready for that!

So the next day, Mom wanted a picture with you, while you are still 3 years old!  This was not very easy.

Daddy had better luck. 

Then somehow you got the camera and Mom had to get that back.

After church we let you pick where to go for lunch.  You chose Bodo's - surprise! - and you offered to take a picture of us.  We said, "Ok!  Do you think you can get our faces in it?"  And you said, "yes."

Once lunch was over, we headed to the Ix Art Park for something very fun - a rainbow run! 

Sadly, we discovered our running stroller had a flat tire.  But there was a bike shop nearby!  ...But the bike shop was closed.  Because you are such a big boy, you decided you would run the race with the grown ups.  First though, you helped a man draw a fire-breathing dragon by showing him what it looks like when a dragon breathes fire and you took a nice rest in a cool lifeguard chair.  It made you extremely tall, so you wanted to make sure your friend Yemaya saw you up there.  She did. 

After the race we were sweaty, colorful, and happy.  We saw lots of friends and family, and even heard Aunt Summer's brother Christian sing! We saw Kiki's family, and we saw Milo's toes where he was sleeping under a blanket, and you doused a man named Fabian in blue chalk dust (he said you could).  We ate fancy popsicles and watched acrobats.  Mommy offered you lemonade but you said, "No thanks, I just want some water."

(That's Yemaya on the end. As if you could forget.)

Three has been good.  

We love you!!!