Happy Birthday Joshua!

Happy 3rd birthday to Joshua!  So much has happened in the last three years.  Last year we really didn't have a celebration since I was in the hospital trying not to give him a little brother for a present.  I love looking back at pictures of his first birthday and seeing the similarities of some of his facial expressions to what he does now and the differences between him and Ben.  Then today I went back and re-read his birth story and looked at those early pictures and it just amazes me how much of a difference three years can make!
I had all these plans to have a fun pirate themed birthday party for Josh, but then we decided to buy a house and life got a bit complicated.  So then it was just going to be a few friends over for cupcakes, then we decided to combine the party with a visit to the local pumpkin patch because I don't have many weekends free in October.  (Note here about the party - I know some of you dear readers with kids Josh's age might wonder why you didn't get an invite.  I feel rather awkward about this and hope I didn't offend any of you too much.  It's just that when I originally planned it to be in our apartment, I took into consideration the tiny size of our place, the lack of parking and decided that fewer people would be best.  Even after we changed it to the pumpkin patch I knew that the rain might very well cancel our plans, so I still couldn't invite a ton of people to meet at our place instead.  So it was only due to lack of space that I kept the guest list super short, not because I only wanted certain people there, I promise.  Next year we'll hopefully be in our big new house and I promise we'll have a super party and invite everyone!)

The weather cooperated and everything turned out fantastic.  We went to Lone Pine Farm and while we waited our turn to go on the horse drawn wagon ride the kids fed the goats and played on the playground.  After stomping through the mud to pick out perfect pumpkins, it was back to the playground for some delicious bright blue cookie monster cupcakes and apple cider.  I think if the weather holds out this might become an annual birthday tradition.  Enjoy the photos of our day and thanks to our friends for making it such a great day for our family.

This might have to be our Christmas picture this year,

I just love how happy the boys look.