Ethan is 3!

Ethan's birthday has been fun to anticipate this year. Since October (or sooner), he has been telling people, "My birthday is coming up!", and on Nov. 1, Barb brought a calendar page and stickers so they could have a countdown until the Big Day.

On Wednesday, Ethan was bouncing with excitement, and we loved talking about how his birthday would be the next day, when he woke up and the sun came up. He was running around, and when Grandma stopped by, she was almost as excited as Ethan.

On the big day, I got up early and so did Ethan. He wanted cereal for breakfast, and we ate together, "as a whole family". We let Ethan open one of his gifts, a 25-piece puzzle and we put it together at the breakfast table.

When Barb got here, Ethan got to open more gifts, to help him get through the day:

Grandma picked up Ethan for their Thursday-morning playdate, and they baked his cake. Ethan and I got to decorate it together when I got home from work. We put a football on it and tiger stripes (for his favorite football team), and wrote "Ethan is 3!" And we licked the frosting bowl clean. Yum.

For dinner we ate ribs, au gratin potatoes, salad, and beans. Grandma and Grandpa and Barb and her husband came over for dinner, and Jonah and his parents came for ice cream and cake.

Grandma got a cool book for Ethan that talks about all the neat things they do together:

This is my favorite picture from the day. Look how proud Ethan is to be 3!

Here are the cute kids, Ethan (in his new hat), me, Kate, and Jonah:

Besides blowing out the candles on his cake, Ethan's other proudest moment was singing on a stool with his new microphone:
More lounge singing (this is after he "slowed it down a bit"):


And now we have a 3-year-old! Any advice?