Liam's 3rd Birthday!

This is the first year that Liam actually seemed to notice and be interested in his birthday.  We talked about it coming up after Christmas and after his cousins arrived, and he mentioned having a party on a number of occasions.  We decided to try and have it as close to the actual day as possible, since usually we have to wait till people return from ski week.  But this year, with James leaving later, and cousins and friends around, we were able to have his party the day before.  We went simple, and just had crazy balloon, ball and mayhem run around time in the palestra at school for about an hour.  Afterwards we headed downstairs to the snack bar area and had pizza, salad, snacks and of course, his birthday "cake".  (we went with fruit tarts since berries were on the top of his list).  I think all the kids had a good time, and best of all, since campus was empty of it's usual inhabitants, the whole event was easy to pull of, and pretty stress free.  Nassim helped so much with food prep, but we picked up the pizzas from bellavista and so the biggest hassles were taken care of.  Here's who came:  Cassidy and Jamison, Oliver and Calvin, Stirling and Grayson, Gaia and Amadeo, and Leo, Lua and Ava (plus all the parents to go with the mentioned kids and us, of course!)  Here are some photos of the fun, though I wish there were more with all the kids.

Happy to crawl around in such an open space!

Birthday boy!

Calvin hanging out with Eowyn (he really likes her!)

People taking a breather

Singing happy birthday - it must have been really bad because Oliver's blocking his ears!

Liam getting first pick of the mini fruit tarts

Happily munching kids - Liam and Stirling

More eating! Miller boys, Shan, Nate and Amadeo

We held off giving Liam most of his presents until the actual day.  He did open a few things at the party, but on his birthday we gave him a new little piece to add to his train set.  He also got some lovely new clothes from Nass and co, and a race car lego set from Kat.  He got a fantastic new story book from Grandma Gail (that he's loving reading from every night!) as well, and from friends, a few toy animals, a great and challenging puzzle, and fishing game and some new markers.  That's one lucky kid, if you're asking me!  (oh, and a gift certificate from Gramma and Grampa which we haven't used yet!)