No Horsing Around: Nathan is Three!

Where does the time go? I can't believe my little baby is a "big" little boy now. September 14th will always be probably the most amazing and exhilerating day of my life. And every year, I just want to celebrate that!

I had been hearing about this carousel in a Des Moines Park called the Heritage Carousel. It sounded really interesting to me, so I did a little searching on their website to see if they do birthday parties. I really wanted to do something outside as this is typically the time of the year we do our last of the warm weather celebrations... so I wanted to take advantage. And Chris did not want to grill for everyone again. What I found at the Heritage Carousel's website was some VERY reasonable prices for parties! The party package included unlimited rides on the carousel for the kids, reserved picnic tables, table ware, party games, t-shirt for Nathan and goodie bags! Perfect. I didn't need to do anything but bring food. That's my kind of party.

One of the games included was a parachute game, which the kids had a really wonderful time playing with. But as you can see below, the boys had a really hard time resisting the carousel... but they needed to because we didn't get our free time to ride for another 45 minutes!

On to the cake! I really wanted to do a carousel themed cake since we were at a carousel and the same lady who has been making all of Nathan's cakes found this cake design. As always, she did a marvelous job and the cake tasted delightful!

Nathan blew out his 3 candles like a pro! Notice the 3 sticker on his shirt - he found that in our garage among a stack of house numbers that go on mailboxes!

We've been really lucky in our time in Des Moines because we've made some really spectacular friends. So many of them were able to make the party... and if you can tell below, they all really love Nathan. <3

Finally it was carousel time! Some of the kids rode round and round for practically an hour! I don't know how they did it! I went around one time and was immediately woozy.

Here are some of Nathan's best "grown up" buddies.... Tracy and Brian....

And Sara and Brandon. Both couples were very helpful with Tracy helping me set up and Sara helping me to cut the cake for everyone. They are Nate's stand in aunts and uncles, for sure!

And here is Nate with his little God-Brother, Gideon!