Happy Birthday, Branson

I can't believe I had Branson 3 years ago today. He seems like such a big kid! It's crazy how fast time flies. Branson is such a pleasure to have in our home. He is bright, funny (sometimes even sarcastic), sweet and incredibly loving. Branson allows his baby sister to pull his hair, grab at his face, and tackle him without a complaint. In fact, he thinks it's cute! He loves his family so much - and he lives to make his sisters laugh.

Branson's birthday was a success! Here's the play-by-play:

Branson's birthday began at dawn (notice the sun rising in our family room window) thanks to our littlest early-riser, Irelynn. So Brian and I picked up the house, dispersed the balloons, and assembled his Spiderman scooter all before he woke up. When he came down the stairs, the expression on his face was priceless.

And he was so excited that couldn't stop making funny faces for the camera.

Ever since we got him his first GeoTrax train set for Christmas, Branson has a new love for trains. So I made his cake into a train for his birthday this year. It took me all morning to frost and decorate it. And yes, I made everyone wait to eat it until almost the end of his party - just so that I could enjoy it a little while longer. :)

In this picture you can see that I added the cotton ball stretched into smoke coming out of the smokestack.

Branson picked out a baseball pinata. I didn't bother blindfolding him - I knew the pinata would last quite a while without it. :)

Brian held the string from the second story.

My cousin Merrill and his sweet family came over - they have 4 kids. This is Levi taking a swing; he's Natalya's age. We were planning on just a family birthday party because some of Brian's familiy thought about visiting us this weekend - but it didn't work out. Instead, we invited our nextdoor neighbor and an around-the-corner neighbor at the last minute. We were happy that they could come - we have fantastic neighbors. His little party turned out great!

When the pinata broke, it rained candy. (Well, mostly because Brian shook out the rest of the candy from upstairs.)

I was so glad my parents could come. And if you ask them, they wouldn't miss it for anything. Here is my dad cheering for the kids as they swung at the pinata.

Here's my beautiful mom. Her hip is hurting her and she's waiting for a hip-replacement surgery. But she still volunteers to watch our kids when we need her. She lives to serve.

These are our neighbors from around the corner. They have a 3 year old boy, Boston, who we love to play with. We often share dinner at one another's homes. Our other neighbor, Yara, was taking this picture. We're so blessed to have Jon and Yara as next-door neighbors - they're wonderful.

Naturally, Branson loved opening his presents. But he's not your average kid - Branson would be satisfied with just birthday balloons. He played balloon volleyball more than he played with his new toys. I love how easy-to-please he is. And he didn't expect anything - so when someone gave him a new toy, he was super excited and expressed his gratitude immediately.

Happy birthday, Toughy!