Birthday Palooza 2012

Due to crazy schedules this year, Nicholas was able to celebrate his birthday for about three weeks straight.  It's still hard to believe that my baby boy is three years old. 

We started with a birthday celebration with the Davenports and Moseleys.  He of course had a blast playing with the balloons and everyone was in awe of Mimi's Lighting McQueen cake creation.  Truly impressive! 

The Thursday before his birthday was his last day at Mother's Day Out for the year.  That week they had their year-end program with the kids singing and dancing.  You would think that as much as Nicholas loves to sing and dance that he would be all about this, but he simply sat with a blank stare most of the time beside his teacher Mrs. Virginia.  He teared up a little at the beginning, which was a step up from the Christmas program, so maybe by the time next year's programs roll around he will be ready to fully participate.  Thanks to Mrs. Virginia for making his first year at MDO a special one! 

Then that Friday we headed to Mobile to visit with Gigi and Pawpaw.  That night we had birthday celebration #2 that included family from the Thompson and Allenbach side. 

 One of my favorites of that night was the "roar" off between Nicholas and Emma using one of his birthday presents - A Dinosaur Pet.  It was too funny! 

Saturday we drove over to New Orleans for the night to visit with our friend Mumbles.  He was throwing a surprise birthday/engagement party for his girlfriend.  Special shout out to Mumbles - congrats on getting engaged and we look forward to next summer's wedding festivities! 

Since we weren't hosting one big birthday bash for Nicholas, we wanted to do something special on his actual birthday.  So we decided to take the day off and head over to the Georgia Aquarium.  Gabe and I had been several years ago and knew he would go crazy over it.  He loved most everything except the volume of the Dolphin Tales show (it was rather loud so he kept his hands over the ears the entire time but got the biggest kick out of seeing the dolphins jump out of the water). 

Finally, when it was all said and done we felt he needed to blow out a candle on his actual birthday, so we got these tiny cupcakes.  He has had a great birthday-palooza and thanks to everyone for celebrating with us and all of his birthday gifts!  We are so blessed to have such thoughtful and caring family and friends. 

And last but not least, we FINALLY closed on our construction loan!!!  There has not been any work done yet as our builder is out of town this week and they still have to get all the building permits, but we hope to see some dirt moving soon.  After five years of saving and planning, we are so ready to see some progress.  I hope to have updates on this topic soon!