John Deere Green

For Charlie's 3rd Birthday we celebrated John Deere style. It was a lot of fun. Ben "happily" decorated the entire downstairs in green and yellow streamers. (with a little encouragement from me) He did a great job! We also had an "Amish Haystack" dinner. Ben thought it went well with our theme. They serve these a lot in our area. (Ben teaches at a school that has quite a few Amish kids.)



Charlie was adorable on Sunday. He came down the stairs after his "nap" (He never went to sleep. He was too excited about everyone coming over.) As soon as he saw all the decorations he said, "My birthday is coming!" I said, "No, it's here." His face just lit up. It was adorable. I think he couldn't believe that it was finally here.

We also had green and yellow balloons tied to about 10 different tractors. Our present to Charlie was giving him many of the antique tractors that my dad had given me when I was little. Some of them are still in their original boxes and date at least 20 years old. Ben's favorite is the International and mine is the Allis Chalmers.

Charlie told me that all he wanted for his birthday was cupcakes and tractors. So... that is what he got! I made him this tractor cake and these pathetic looking cupcakes. They were supposed to look like round hay bales but you would have to use your imagination a whole lot to really see that! Sorry Charlie I tried!

Charlie got lots of fun presents: tractors, tractors and more tractors, his first GI Joe from Joel and Mal-Mal, a new guitar from Brickers, dinosaurs and clothes (weird but he LOVES clothes) from Aunt Sharen and Bob, his own cornhole set from Greg, Amy, Troy and Megan, a scooter and rocket set from his Nana and Papa Hughie.

I handed my cameras off to Joel and Troy so I could enjoy the party. I thought they were taking pictures of the birthday boy but apparently they were just catching others making funny faces.
Notice Joel is playing with the GI Joe that he got Charlie. Hhhmmm... maybe Joel actually would like that for his birthday. Just a thought Mal. :)

Here are our attempts at a family picture. Ugh... never seems to look like I was hoping.

Charlie loved playing with his big cousin Kobe.

Our guests were such good sports. They indulged me and say "Happy Birthday" to Charlie twice because we missed getting it on tape the first time. I knew he was looking super cute singing it to himself and I wanted to be able to look at the tape later. Thanks everyone. The crazy mom appreciates your willingness to work with me. :)

Happy Birthday Charlie we love you! Thank you to all of our guests. We appreciated you spending the evening with us. We had a blast!