My Birthday Boy

My son loves to pretend. He also loves animals. So there really is nothing better for McKay than pretending to be an animal. We go through different phases. Sometimes we're elephants; sometimes we're tigers. Right now we're on a horse kick. You can find us galloping around outside and McKay has even gone so far as to eat grass. . .like really eat it. But for his birthday it was Lion King all the way. Once I gave him the option of having a Lion King party I could not even mention any other ideas.

So there I was. My three year old convinced I had the talent to make him a lion cake. My three year old pretending for four straight weeks that we were Simba, Nala and Mufasa. When McKay started his Lion King phase my sister dug out some old Lion King figures that no one in her house was playing with and let us borrow them. By the second day of possessing these little guys, Brian and I kind of wanted to die. Okay, not really die, but we definitely were ready to send them back. He was so obsessed with playing Lion King. He wanted to do it first thing when he woke up, during every meal, and every time in between. I was all Lion-Kinged out. But I managed to pull it together for his party and he was in heaven.

He had to wait a little while before the big party. We held him off by giving him presents in the morning.

And having a yummy pancake breakfast on the special birthday plate.




After awhile it was finally party time.




These cute little lions (plus a shy one hiding around the corner) were quite a bunch.

(McKay, Matthew, Ethan, Gray and Drew (not pictured))


They were pros at the game "Sleeping Lions".

And perked up as they rocked out to "I Just Can't Wait to be King" with moves like this:

And some serious moves like this:

"Lion-Lion-Hyena" (aka, duckduckgoose) was everyone's favorite game. . .although most of the lions didn't ever totally get the concept.




Then it was time to gather at the water hole.




And what's this? A lion cake! Except I didn't decorate it. Because of our seven hours in the emergency room the day before and an early morning doctor's appointment for Ellery that day, my sweet mother-in-law came down to help. And help she did. She made this lion cake cuter than I ever could have. Lucky us.




And then it was over. My baby was three! I can't believe it. I think time starts going in warp speed once you have kids. Sometimes it seems so weird that I have a three year old. We have been doing this parent thing for three years and although it goes by fast, it seems like we've had kids forever.



But enough about that. Lets end with some fun words about McKay. Oh my goodness, how do I even describe my little boy? He is amazing. He keeps us busy. He keeps us playing. . .all the time. And he is such a little sweetheart. I honestly don't think it's much of what Brian and I do or have done, he just is a pleasant kid. He came that way. And we're sure glad he came to us.