Tristan turns 3!

We celebrated Tristan's 3rd birthday last weekend and it was a ton of fun.  His birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so we decided to do a beach day on Saturday out on the north shore, and then do dinner and cake with some friends on Sunday.  It's great because he's at that age where he understands exactly what is going on.  He knew that it was his special day.  Sunday morning Tristan woke up to a house full of balloons (blown up by mom and dad the night before), and presents.  We immediately turn on "Happy Birthday" by the Ting Tings on the ipod so he can dance it up a little and kick his balloons around.  (This is before 7 am but you have to start the day off right!)  And of course he wanted to dive right into opening his presents as soon as the dance session was over.  

(Forgive the grainy photos)  

 Post dance party, pre present opening.  He's so stoked about his big day.

 Betsy's first interaction with balloons.

Betsy could care less about the presents.

 A new drill!  He loves helping dad fix things around the house.  He insists on being called Bob the Builder while he's working.

 A new train set.  He was so excited about this. And this is what we get when we tell him to smile for the camera.

Later that afternoon, after church and naps, we headed up to St. Louis Heights recreational park and had dinner and cake with some friends.  It was rainy and cold which was a lot of fun for the forrest-y atmosphere and roasting smores in the fire pit.  It's nice to be able to bundle up once in awhile.  

In between showers we would head over to this lookout above Manoa valley. We could see our house way down below and the city in the other direction.

The lego cake.  Cake decor is not my specialty so don't look too close!  Tristan picked the lego man and put him on top.

 

These kids take cake eating very seriously.  They are very focused.    

 

The pinata.  Late on Saturday night, we decided to try and make a pinata.  I wanted to try and make some lego head or a lego, but we didn't really have the energy or time to get creative.  We just blew up one of T's really big balloons and paper mache'd it with newspaper.  It was a mistake to start it at 10 at night because we failed to remember that there were many stages of layering and drying.  2:30 in the morning, and 2 or 3 layers later, we decided to call it a night.  The next day, we popped the balloon before it was completely dry, and it sunk in a little bit.  About 10 minutes before walking out the door for the party, we thought it would be nice to put a face on it.  Christian decided to use black spray paint, and chose to put the eye in one of the sunken areas, making the pinata look super creepy.  This made Christian very happy!  He loves all things creepy. Hopefully it didn't scare the kids too much.

Smores!

 

 Betsy girl hanging out with Uncle Hanale.

Tristan, the ladies man!  No one posed him for this picture, it was 100% natural.  That's just how cool this kid is.  We love you T man!  Happy Birthday!

Some of Tristan's faves at 3 years old

Movies:

Cars

The Lion King 

TV Shows:

Dinosaur Train

Bob the Builder

Fireman Sam

Richard Scarry's Busy Town

Sayings: 

"I know, Betsy Bear" (trying to comfort her when she's sad) 

"We're best friends mom/dad, right?"  

"Nope" (his new favorite word and answer to everything.  I cringe when I hear it)  

"Mom, you're so big!" me: "big like tall or big like fat" Tristan: "big like fat".  Thanks Tristan.

"Dad, are we boys?" 

"I want to go shopping!" (like father, like son)

"I want chocolate, I need chocolate!" (whiny voice, his wants turn quickly into needs)

"I want to make you happy... you give me chocolate?" (trying to butter me up before he asks for something he knows he can't have)

Food:

spaghetti

mac and cheese

peanut butter and honey sandwiches

anything with chocolate

grapes, apples, oranges and strawberries

pancakes

pizza

chicken nuggets  

Places: 

Lego store

toy stores

book stores/ library

zoo

beach

pool