Snug is Free Three

When Snug says he is three, it comes out as "free"...but being three is NOT free, in fact, it is the END of being free. So many places children 2 and under a free...but now those days are over! Oh well. We planned our two trips to the county fair (one trip, along with a second time to the Extreme Makeover house I didn't re-blog about...I try to keep things fresh) before he had his birthday and would need to pay the admission fee!
So this is the birthday cake. Like it? Me neither. I had to get a neighbor to watch the kids so I could run out and buy another cake mix. I'm sure I could have made one from scratch...hindsight is 20/20.

This was his "main" birthday present from mommy and daddy. It cost $6.50. Not that cost is all that important, but really, what a deal! We spent $5 on track and little buildings/bridges at one garage sale, and $1.50 on train pieces at another. 40% of the track and the table were free from Craigslist! There string on the one part is a drawer hosting many more pieces of track.

It was a hit! Both boys like to play with it...one boy mostly destroys it...we'll have to work on that.

Here is the "real" cake! Snug wanted a Cars cake, but I don't pay grocery stores to make cakes (unless it is an ice cream cake). This one is iced in chocolate frosting and we used crushed chocolate cookies and green tinted coconut* for the road/ground/grass. The trees were free at a garage sale (and went through the dishwasher, I assure you), Mater and McQueen are courtesy of my cousin Crystal (THANK YOU SO MUCH!).

When he was asked what he wanted to eat for his birthday, he immediately said "Cake!". Hmmm, no. What do you want to eat for your birthday? After listing some ideas, he came up with "zanya" on his own! Lasagna it was...only there was a little meltdown about it at the table because he was still convinced he was having only cake for dinner.

"Zanya" and cake were a hit with everyone!

We had our neighbors on both sides along with the boys' godparents over for dinner, dessert, and presents. In this one is a t-ball set that pitches the ball to you when you get old enough. How cool?

In the top bag was several miniature Bob The Builder trucks, also from Crystal and my Aunt Dawn (again, thank you so much!), in the middle box is a new swim ring as the dogs chewed his old one up, and the bottom box is a Melissa & Doug cake set. That was also from us. He also received a Buzz Lightyear guy (he's never even seen Toy Story...in fact he's only seen "Cars" two times. When you are only allowed 1/2 hour of TV a day and sometimes none 95% of the time, 2.5 hour movies are very rare) who he makes wooshing sounds and flies around the house. Someone must have told him that he flies.

And last, but certainly not least, he got this GIGANTIC balloon bouquet as a present. I had told one of the party goers that he would really like some balloons for the party...well they went all out! He was thrilled with that gift also.

Happy Birthday Snug! Looking forward to the next year and many many more to come!

*take 1-2 drops of green food dye and swirl it in the coconut until well coated