Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Today was Nathan's 3rd birthday and so here are the top 3 things that I love about him:

1. He is smart. Nathan is always thinking and trying to figure out how things work. He loves to learn. He knows all of his letters and their sounds and is obsessed with anything that has to do with the alphabet.

2. Nathan is a good brother. He loves to play with his cousins and his friends, but his favorite person to play with is his brother, Jake. Sometimes when Jake is at school he'll ask, "Where'd my friend Jake go?" He puts up with a lot from Jake, but in the end they love to be together and to copy whatever the other one is doing!

3. Nathan is polite. If he barely bumps me he'll say, "Oh, sorry Mom!" He almost always says please and thank you and if he needs to get around someone in Target he'll always say, "Scuze me!" It's pretty cute.

We had a big family party celebrating all of the May birthdays the first Sunday of the month. Carli always spotlights all of the birthday people. She tells about their favorite things and then enthusiastically says, "And lets all welcome, Nathan Warnick Draper (or whatever their name is)!!!"

Nathan was pretty excited to get this letter magnet set from his cousins.

Laney and Nathan both got new bikes and helmets. They wore their helmets the rest of the night and Nathan continued to wear his wherever we went for a few days after that!

Nathan loves his new Diego bike that Grandma Juli gave him!

Today started out with balloons being dumped on Nathan while we sang Happy Birthday! This is a tradition in our family- every birthday starts out with balloons!

Then we met my mom at Build-a-Bear where Nathan got to pick out a bear and clothes and go through the whole process of building a bear. We always walk through this store when we go to the mall, but we have never actually done it before- it's pretty fun with all of the little stations they have.

Jon was pretty proud that Nathan picked a football uniform for his bear to wear. Grandma Juli helped him get the bear dressed.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing games inside. It was raining today so we couldn't go outside, but luckily Max took a good nap so I was able to play with the boys most of the afternoon.

Trent, one of Nathans good friends, stopped by with a little gift and wished Nathan a happy birthday. He even sang to him- it was so cute!

Once Jon got home we went to Chuck E. Cheese where we had pizza and the boys ran around playing all of the games. Nathan kept trying to play the skee ball game, but he couldn't roll the ball hard enough to get it up into the holes, so he finally just walked up and dropped them in! We thought this exhibited good problem solving skills even though it is against the rules of the game!!!

We then came home and Nathan got to open his presents from us. He got a cell phone, binoculars, a digital camera, a slip 'n slide and some new underwear! He was pretty excited about all of his new stuff!

Last but not least, we sang to him and had cake and ice cream. Like I mentioned before, Nathan loves the alphabet so he got a letter "N" cake! He loved it and it was so easy to make!

Aren't birthdays so fun?!!!

Heading upstairs to get ready for bed with all of his new presents. I guess he really loved them since he took them all to bed with him and is sleeping with them. What a funny kid! I love Nathan a lot and am so glad that he is part of our family.

Happy Birthday!!!