My big boy will be THREE!

It's hard to believe that in one week my "little man" turned "big boy" is going to be three years old!! I know it's very cliche, but seriously, where did the time go? It doesn't seem very long ago when he was turning one and I was in disbelief that my little guy wasn't an infant anymore! Sigh.

Isn't it amazing how much they change that first year?? I love how these pictures capture the ornery nature that my little Ethan still possesses two years later. :) This was my month-by-month project that first year. I took a picture of him each month wearing a 12-month onesie to show how much he grew over the year based on how the onesie fit. I always laid him on the same blanket, though in hindsight, sitting him up may have been easier, as getting a boy who just wants to roll over, crawl, or run away, was not an easy task! haha! By the end, at 12 months, I gave up and let him hold the lens cover to try to keep him in one place. ;) To complete the project, I put the photos I had taken of him into an Adobe InDesign document to arrange them all to fit into an 8" x 10" picture frame. Next, I exported the document into a .jpg where I could edit it in Adobe Photoshop to try to make the individual pics blend together as nicely as possible. :) I'm in the process of working on Noah's photo montage too. I can't wait to see it completed in July!

Here is my big boy at almost three years. Oh. my. gosh. Can I stop time and keep him little forever?!?

He looks so grown up!! And he is. :'( Bringing home a baby last summer definitely made him seem much bigger than before we had left for the hospital. He has become such a great little helper with everything Josh or I do, and he is actually really, really helpful now! haha! He is super ornery and quite the funny man. He can also be quite stubborn (gee, I have no idea where he gets that from! ;) hehe) and independent, but fortunately for us, he is still pretty well-behaved and good-natured, especially for his age. We didn't go through a "terrible twos" with him, so I am hoping that three is just as nice! He really has been the perfect child. I fear he will spoil me for the future kiddos! haha! He is quickly picking up the potty training that we just started last month and is doing such a great job at it! I think it just clicked for him last weekend and it has been a breeze since then. He doesn't even need us to help him now! Awesome. He has known all his letters, numbers and colors for the last year or more now and his vocabulary has exploded in the last six months. You can't get the little chatterbox to stop talking now! haha! He is a boy after his Daddy's heart, as his cars are his most prized possessions. Hs is never without at least one of them in hand, and it's usually more like ten or however many his little hands can grasp at once. ;) He also loves reading, building things, puzzles, playing with Daisy (and any other doggy we encounter on our walks), and anything he can help Mommy or Daddy do. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful little boy as our son.

We decided to have Ethan's birthday party in Ohio this year. With our recent move to Tennessee, it meant he couldn't have a party with all the friends he left behind in Georgia. Also, with our temporary living situation in the apartment, it wouldn't allow much room for a party here for out-of-town guests. After much thought, we decided Great Wolf Lodge would provide a fun-filled day for the birthday boy, his little brother and their cousins. :) Oh, did I mention that the boys have another cousin as of this week? That I am an aunt again? Yay! Another beautiful little girl, Hannah Kathleen, was born to my sister and her husband on Tuesday, February 21st (same day I had been due with Ethan - neat!).

So...back to the party. We decided that a Cars 2 theme would be best this year, as Ethan is obsessed with his "race car movie," as he calls it. I think he would watch it every day (multiple times too!) if I let him! We are fortunate it's a good movie that we don't mind watching hundreds of times. Literally. ;) haha! Mater is his favorite, but Lightning McQueen comes in a close second. Once we had decided on the location for the party, I was able to start designing the party invites.

To continue the Cars 2 theme, I made the invite an "all access pit pass," including a lanyard to make it look official. :) The back included details about the party and directions to the Lodge.

I designed and printed the invites, then laminated them with no-heat self-laminating sheets and trimmed them with the paper cutter. Then I just punched a hole in the top and attached the lanyard. Piece of cake! I stuffed the invites in envelopes, complete with coordinating return address labels, and we were off to the post office to get them mailed out to the VIP guests. :)

FYI, if you mail anything with lanyards, it will cost more than 45 cents. They can't put it through the regular mail sorter because it's too thick (the weight was fine though). So, it required 65 cents to mail each one. Good think I checked before just slapping a regular stamp on them and sending them off that way!

I have a lot more details to figure out before the party next weekend, but I think we're off to a good start. It should be a fun trip to celebrate a wonderful little boy.

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