Ezra's Birthday!

Ezra is three years old!  We had a birthday celebration with Grandma and Grandpa, and Ezra couldn't have been happier about that arrangement.  He sat next to them at dinner, sat on Grandma's lap to blow out candles and eat his birthday cake, and had Grandma close at hand for opening presents.

His birthday dinner was one of his favorites: a sausage and gnocchi dish with Parmesan cheese on top.  I made the same pumpkin cake as I did for Maren (here is the recipe Liz: pumpkin spice cake), and topped it with a homemade chocolate frosting.  The frosting was the dirt for a birthday construction site.  (No, I cannot claim any creative genius here, but I am good at copying!)  I had a lot of fun making the cake smooth and pretty, and then intentionally digging it up with some mini-excavators and bulldozers.  And, so did Ezra!  He needed a little time to play with his cake before we ate it.

Ezra had a stack of presents to open from four adoring grandparents and us.  He is still in love with things with wheels, so the cars, trucks, and trains were a big hit.  He also got some puzzles and games. 

Pumpkin spice/chocolate construction zone cake--a big hit!

Exploring the cake with Grandma Roslyn (as Ezra calls her)

Hooray for Ezra's birthday!

Maren was perfectly content to just observe all the festivities, but she did enjoy this new ball from Grandma.

Ezra and Grandma have a tradition of visiting a cookie bakery together.  One of his gifts from her was a whole stack of bakery cookies!  

A Brio train set from Grandma Denise!  So fun!

I love this last picture!  Maren has been very shy/unsure around Grandma, but at Ezra's birthday, she started to warm up.  For the last five minutes of present opening, while Ezra and Grandma were focused on the unwrapping, Maren would sneak up to Grandma, touch her arm, and then scurry away.  She repeated this stealthy approach about five times.  It was adorable to watch.  I think she is realizing that Grandma is an important person in Ezra's life, and so she is starting to crave some of that attention too.

p.s.--Dallin took a short video of cake time at Ezra's birthday, check it out on his blog: http://phatfiddle.blogspot.com/

(Grandpa and I were at the party, but apparently we were really focused on picture taking.)