Matthew {3 Years}

Happy Birthday Matthew Oliver!!!

We celebrated your 3rd year of life with a party at Cameron Park Zoo.  It is hard to believe that you are 3 already.  

You asked me to make you a papa lion cake.  This is what I came up with.

You were so excited when you saw it.  You knew right away that it was a papa lion.  The lions are definitely your favorite exhibit. 

 Daddy helped you blow out the candle.

Your cake was chocolate with milk chocolate icing.  

We had the party at the Gibbon's exhibit.  It was a cool morning as it had rained the day before.  The animals were very active and put on a good show for us.  

 There were lots of presents.

I wonder what is in the Mickey Mouse bag?

A baseball bat.  Thanks Papa!

 Here you are with Grandmother opening the present she and Grandaddy brought you.

 I wonder what it is?

A bicycle!  Too bad you couldn't ride it in the zoo.  You sure wanted to.

(we take it almost everywhere we go now)

Too much fun for Samuel.  He zonked out.  

Here you are walking hand in hand with sweet Lily.  I found these animal ears at Target.  They had elephant and monkey ears and a lion mane.  Notice Matthew even has a lion on his shirt.  This is a pajama top that I cut the long sleeves out of the morning of the party.  

And Stella was there too of course...

Uncle Dorian and Patrick.  Can you tell they are brothers?!

Some horse play...

This is Matthew's cousin Max.  He will turn 4 on July 10. 

Even Patrick took a turn.

Here are some of the animals at our zoo. 

These were taken by Aunt Rachea.  She has a great eye for pictures.

And then there is the "Papa Lion"

 Isn't he gorgeous.  I can see why he is the king of the jungle and at the top of the food chain.

 That is a brave fly on his nose.

 His eyes are mesmerizing.

When we are at the zoo we always spend the most time at the "Papa Lion" exhibit.  They lions are Matthew's favorite.

This is a video I shot a couple of years ago. The "Papa Lion" literally walked over to us, looked right at Matthew and started talking.  Amazing!

These are the animals that we brought.
Matthew, Max, Stella and Lily (her legs anyways)

We had so much fun with all of our friends and family at the party.

Dear Matthew,

You are growing into a fine young boy.  As parents I should say that we have "survived" through three years of parenting, but with you we have never had to "survive".  You are such a delightful child and we love you dearly.  

This year you have grown and developed into quite the talkative little boy.  You run everywhere you go which accounts for all of the scrapes and bruises you have on your legs.  I think your favorite thing is to ride in your dad's big red truck.  Everytime we go somewhere, you ask if we are getting in it.  

Here are some other things you have grown to love this year...


watching movies: Toy Story II, Mama and the Beast, Nemo and the Fishes, and the Tractor movie. 

There is a whole blog post about this picture.

pushing around your wheel barrow and working in the yard with your dad

Nothing better than working up a sweat and getting dirty along the way!

scooping and grinding coffee beans in the morning

drinking the coffee you made

I finally bought you your own coffee cup for your birthday.  You take your coffee with lots of cream and honey...just the way I do.  Now I don't have to share mine anymore.  Well sometimes I still do. 

digging in the dirt...

You have your own shovels but most of the time you prefer to use your Dad's. 

hats -  you try hats on everywhere we go...

I think we were at Old Navy.

Here you are at Target admiring yourself in the mirror.

blueberries - we even took you to a blueberry farm to pick your own...

We could not get them in the bucket fast enough.  You were picking and eating them right off the bush.

I am surprised you didn't turn blue.

sliding

We got this slide for you last year when you turned 2.  You still love to slide on it and are not partial to any other slides we pass by.  Recently your favorite has become Coco's.  I am sure it will be our favorite all summer long. 

and last but not least...running

You run everywhere you go.  It is hard to get you to slow down.  You are really fast!

We are looking forward to what the next year brings.  Each day is a new day with you.  You keep us on our toes.

We thank God for growing you up to be such a sweet BIG boy.  

Love Mommy