My baby turned three two weeks ago today. ::Hallelujah Chorus::

Two was a hard year for us. Miles' big brother at age 2 was great and so fun! I loved that year with Simon. I would eye-roll whenever anyone would label 2 as the terrible year. Simon got his terrible on at 18m...and again at 3. The odd years seem to be harder for him. But then Miles came along and I was able to fully appreciate the terrible of two. Towards the end of year two (or technically would that be year three?), I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Miles is talking more, communicating better and understands at a deeper level. Three has to be better, it just has to!

I believe in birthday weeks. We kinda had to do that with Miles anyway. I guess that's what happens when ones birthday is on a Monday and your birthday party isn't scheduled until the following weekend. We had to keep it alive somehow so he wouldn't be so confused when his party came around. ;)

We celebrated his actual birthday by building a snowman (it's hard to believe we had that much snow only 2 weeks ago!), eating a requested dinner of Waffles (strawberry and cream edition), and a trip to Cupcake that evening - where he picked out a gorgeous green frosted cupcake.

I think it's safe to say his favorite present that day was his Gordon train. He's kind of obsessed with trains. When we asked him what else he wanted to do that evening, he was quick to say "go to the zooooo!". Of course the zoo was closed and so we headed home instead. Peter surprised us that next morning by staying home with plans of taking our little boy to the zoo. I tagged along.

From my Instagram: "Shhh, don't tell Simon, but we went to the zoo this morning. I don't think I've ever been to the zoo with snow on the ground and windchills in the teens. A first for everything. Hardly any crowds though and the winter animals were quite active. So it was worth it."

Our neighborhood Como Zoo is his favorite, because they have his favorite animals: Polar Bears and Lions....and Monkeys (lots of monkeys). Oh and fish. I cannot forget his aquatic friends.

The day before his birthday party was fully devoted to cleaning, baking and decorating for his fish-themed party - such a fun theme! Pinterest to the rescue, of course. I know I've done it before Pinterest, but seriously how the heck did I party plan before this wondrous site came to be? Party planning is so much easier with it around!

The decorations for his party are all self explanatory. It's amazing what you an pull off by just looking at pictures. That's usually all I need when it comes to getting my creative on. I hardly ever actually click on the picture to go to the website. I use Pinterest and Google image search a lot when I need inspiration.

Edible decorations. Both were fun to do, but the marshmallows were definitely easier to assemble.

A School of Fish

The amazing cake (I totally failed on the color scheme when it came to the cake. Oh well...it's the color of sand. Yeah, sand.). AND the fun and whimsical water scene in the background. Which is still up. :P

I found the chocolate peanut butter cake recipe on Pinterest as well. What a gold mine of a pin. Probably the best chocolate peanut butter cake I've ever had... with a few adjustments here and there, made by me. I shall devote a blog post solely to this cake and frosting. It's that good.

The family party was really fun. I made a huge pot of Loaded Baked Potato Soup for the adults and Star Fish PB&J sandwiches for the kiddos. 11 adults, 6 kids in our tiny house. Loved every minute. Miles' Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles know him well. He received adorable clothes, a basketball hoop/mini basketball, bubbles, an adorable stuffed puppy dog and his very own DVD of The Sound of Music - seriously, his favorite movie everrr. He's constantly asking to watch "the Goodnight Song" and "Doe a Deer" on Youtube. Love him.

He's a pretty fun kid, very passionate, loyal, high-spirited, caring, LOUD and active. He yearns to do everything big brother does. He enjoys a good tune and a good book...and all things sports. He loves Sunday mornings because that means he gets to go to "Hallelujah". He's becoming quite the comedian and thoroughly enjoys making us laugh. He's a handful, but I wouldn't trade him for the world. Happy birthday, Miles Paul.