And Then They Were 3

The day began with the Edwardsville Fire Department Open House. Luke and Lilly had been talking about this for weeks. It began with some tentativeness, but ended with sheer pleasure. They got to ride on the back of a fire truck, sit in the front seat, get in the back of an ambulance, and Luke's favorite thing was spraying the fire hose. What a beginning to a fabulous birthday.

After the firehouse we went the Mickey D's (AKA Donald's at our house) and then to a soccer game to blow some time. We got home from the game in time for a short rest time (too excited to actually take a nap) and then the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and great grandparents began to arrive. They were so excited to see everyone. We had some pizza for supper and then came time for the birthday cakes.

As you can tell from the pictures, they were pretty happy with how they turned out! After the singing and cake eating were over we moved on to the presents. I can't believe how many presents there were to open. (Thanks to all our family for the wonderful gifts for the kids.)

With 10, that's right 10, kids at or under the age of 5 you can just imagine how smoothly the unwrapping of gifts went. You guessed it. Absolute chaos! The kids loved it though and actually enjoyed the help of their cousins to open gifts so they could play with some of their new toys while presents were still being opened. Lilly wasn't quite sure if she wanted too much help though. To be continued,...