Levi's 3rd Birthday Party

I decided in the interest of keeping things simple and/or manageable this year we would just do a family party on Levi's actual birthday along with our usual breakfast traditions... but alas it was not to be. His birthday fell on a Monday, and on Saturday (as I was making preparations) he voiced to me that it was really important to him that his friends came. I was caught off guard by this... 

"Friends? What friends?" I asked. He proceeded to name off a bunch of kids in his class at church... and so the frenzy of inviting friends and planning a super low-key friend party began.

Monday morning, as is a beloved tradition in our family, the birthday boy got his favorite breakfast (chocolate sprinkle donuts) in bed, with 3 candles in it.

There's the face of a special birthday boy!

After breakfast, Hannah was dying for him to open up the present she had prepared for him (and I say prepared because she went and found a toy for him out of a bag of things I've had put away for a while, then put it in an Easter bag and made him a card).

Nathan read him the card... 

and Levi LOVES his newest snuggly! It's a super fat dolphin :)

We also let him "have" or find another one of his presents early, because I was hoping it would spare me some entertainment effort later at his party!

Jeremy and I re-organized the basement so that the majority of it was clear open space, then rolled out the carpet we pulled up from the main level when we put in the hardwood. Then, to make the space feel more like a play area we got a play structure from craigslist and set it up down there. 

Needless to say, he loved it!

Then I set to making him an Octonauts birthday cake, which consisted of 2 box cakes, 2 containers of pre-made frosting, some pre-made fondant, a handful of Octonaut toys and some Skittles.

Here's the result!

Before too long the party time was upon us! We had his favorite foods (which luckily is Pizza and soda!) The kids all got regular cheese pizza and I made some special keto pizzas for the adults that are dieting :)

After dinner we played "Pin the patch on Kwazi"

and had a fishing game relay race.

Kids LOVE fishing with the little magnetic fishing poles!

Then it was time for cake!

Everyone was excited to see the Swedish fish on the cake, and Levi didn't hesitate to take one off and eat it!

After cleaning up a house full of blue frosting-fied kiddos, we moved to opening presents :)

And then sent the kids down to the basement to play until adults arrived :)

(Oh, and yes- that is a slide going down the basement stairs. It is temporarily installed there... thanks to the funnest dad in the world!)

After the craziness of little people subsided we did the rest of the family presents!

All in all, Levi was beyond tickled with his Octonauts party.

I'm so glad, because he sure is a joy to have in our family and I wanted him to have an extra special 3rd birthday. He is still super happy and cheerful pretty much all the time, LOVES to play with his siblings (both older and younger), and eats almost anything!

We love you LEVI!