Of course, Snoopy decided he needed to get in on the action since everyone was hanging out together on the floor.
Lydia made this car out of some Magformers.
Derek turned 3 earlier and we built up his excitement for his birthday for several days beforehand. The girls were eager to get him their own birthday presents. Lydia got him yellow play-doh (his favorite color) and some things from around the house. The day before his birthday, we went to a store for Karina to find Derek a present. The winner was this helicopter with sound effects and a trigger-activated rotor. Derek loved it so much, he took it everywhere he went until he left it somewhere (hopefully in the house), and we have no idea where it is now.
Derek was so pleased with the helicopter - look at this big hug when he was saying thank you to her.
Another big winner was a tool set. Derek has particularly enjoyed his first power tool, this drill, that he uses to screw a toy bolt into a nut over and over again.
Then it was time for the kids to "help" Tanja bake Derek's birthday cake. Fortunately, most of the batter wound up in the cake pan.
The remainder of the batter and frosting wound up in mouths or on faces.
Doesn't this look like the kind of cake a three-year-old would pick and design? M&Ms over the frosting on a double-decker cake. The kids decorated it.
Derek managed to blow out the three candles on his cake, but needed Lydia to blow out the remaining numeric '3' candle.
Tanja worked hard that day and took a well deserved nap on the floor cuddling up with Snoopy. Of course, I couldn't resist taking a picture of her and Snoopy.
Derek was very appreciative of his birthday celebration (plus he just loves cuddling up and hugging).
Since it was his birthday, we didn't make Derek take a nap, but we probably should have. He was so exhausted from being so busy that he fell asleep for the night on the couch at 6:30pm, 2 hours before his normal bed time. All the excitement of his birthday wore him out, and Snoopy came to cuddle with him after he fell asleep.
Snoopy doesn't need much of an excuse to take a nap, and Lydia is so sweet and friendly with him.
Lydia loves bringing her mattress onto the floor so she can invite Snoopy to sleep with her.
Derek has gotten into the bad habit of sleeping in our bedroom (and frequently ending up in our bed). One night, I woke up pleasantly surprised that Derek hadn't woken us up at all that night and wasn't in our room when we woke up. We were so proud of him for staying in his room all night. Then we realized he wasn't in his room or downstairs. After a bit of searching, we found him in Karina's room where he apparently pestered her into letting him sleep with her and he was just as annoying in her room to her as he normally is in ours to us. Poor Karina didn't get much sleep that night.
You might notice his holey socks above. These were his beloved alligator socks that he wouldn't let us throw away and insisted on wearing every time they were cleaned. A few days after this, one alligator sock got a hole in the toe, and that was apparently a deal breaker for him, because he finally agreed they needed to be thrown in the trash.
Here are the kids and Snoopy all cuddled up and keeping warm under the blanket.
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