All the birthday festivities

Last year Clyde turned two and ended up having two birthday celebrations. This year he turned three and managed to have three. Something has got to change :).

The weekend before Clyde's birthday we were delighted to have Grandma and Grandpa Izatt, aka Pops, come for a visit - and they brought Mallory and Courtney too!

Courtney, Mallory, and Clyde before church on Sunday - aren't they all so adorable?

So on Saturday evening, after a busy day of paintball for Pops, Chuck, and Mallory, homework for me, and running errands and playing in Boise for Grandma, Clyde, Will, and Courtney, we whipped up some cupcakes for our soon-to-be three-year-old.

Yep, I made Clyde mix his own cake. I don't believe in coddling. I do believe in rewarding hard work, however. If you look closely you can also see the bump on Clyde's left eye - he and Courtney were playing 'throw the ball up in the air and both try to catch it', which rarely ends well :). They enjoyed themselves, though, Clyde still wanted to play after taking Court's chin to his eye!
Ah, the 'Happy Birthday' cupcakes in all their glory. Clyde picked the letter 'B' to hold the three candles.

This may have been Will's first encounter with a frosted cupcake; he nibbled a little off the bottom and gave the rest to me :)

Grandma and Pops' gift for Clyde came a few days later: a really neat butterfly-hatching kit! It comes with five little caterpillars that you're able to watch become cocoons and then butterflies, at which point you release them into the 'wild', aka the backyard!

Chuck and Clyde got it all set up in the boys' room, right now we're waiting for the last caterpillar to cocoon-ize and then we (meaning Chuck) will remove the smaller container and let them continue to develop until they're ready to emerge as beautiful butterflies!

Clyde doesn't understand exactly what's going on, but he's pretty excited!

The second celebration came on Clyde's actual birthday. We had pancakes for breakfast, and I made a small departure from the 'C' pancakes I usually make for Clyde and added a '3' to the mix as well. I know, practically gourmet :)

Later in the day, Clyde found himself again mixing his own cake:

After the cake was put in the oven, we took a brief break to allow Chuck to go help with some church business. The little boys and I enjoyed the beautiful evening in the front yard.

My three-year-old and me!

Ring around the rosie . . .

They all fell down!

Then Chuck came home and it was back to business. Clyde wanted a 'blue Lightning' (McQueen) cake, so Chuck free-handed a pretty decent car and used blue sprinkles to finish the job.

Will helped out, too :)

Clyde and Will were both mesmerized by the candles!

That last one was tricky!

Finally, the next day we met Uncle Cody and Grandma Pam for lunch at my mom's new classroom, after which we went to the zoo (see last post!).

First Clyde opened his present from Uncle Cody . . .

a CARS book and a Toy Story painting book!

Will was excited too.

Then he opened Grandma Pam's gift; she made him a CARS blanket!

Which he now drags all over the house :)

Whew! Add to that the special birthday blog that Sam and Terri wrote, as well as many phone calls and other birthday wishes, and Clyde is a pretty loved little birthday boy.

(But there's no way he's getting four parties next year. I'm serious.)