The day began with a very happy Schäfer. We had groatmeal for breakfast and then he was off to preschool.
Ayi came with a nice card and thermals for next year. She’s so thoughtful! We don’t have any thermals for next winter.
At 9am, I started looking for recipes to make cupcakes. It gets this way every December! I mull over a bunch of ideas in my mind, but never make the final decision until the last minute. I really need to plan Schäfer’s birthday in October. I have this vision of putting everything in a box and then opening that box on December 29th. Voilà! Birthday party!
Can I say how annoying some on-line cake recipes are? Are you kidding me?
I was looking for a recipe that was… you know, not from a box!
Thankfully, I stumbled across this lemon cream cupcake recipe and was so inspired because I had a lemon in the refrigerator. This recipe is amazing! The batter was perfect and the lemon was just enough.
The icing did not turn out because our old blender was tired and did not grind up the sugar into the best powdered sugar. Hubs recommended we boil the icing. It made an amazing glaze icing. So yummy. Just perfect!
We took them to the preschool at 11am.
When we arrived, Schäfer was eating lunch. He was so happy to have cupcakes with his classmates. Each of his teachers had a card for him. So sweet!
Blowing out the birthday candles.
Schäfer was a little upset that Bao Bao came to help him blow out the candles. When we watched the video, we saw that it was Schäfer who actually blew them out.
Schäfer dug into his cupcake.
His classmates licked at the icing and ate slowly, but not our Schäfer.
When he walked all the way home from preschool, we had a special “bone gummy” waiting for him.
After lunch, Hubs and I tried one of the cupcakes. Wow. Yum. I think I want these for my birthday next year.
When the birthday boy woke up from his nap, he wanted another cupcake, but we had given them all away! Thankfully, we had a little piece of cake that was a gift from Zi Hai.
Then, we headed down to the photo studio for Schäfer’s three year portrait. My favorite photographer is no longer at this studio, but we gave them another try. We’ll see if we get anything memorable.
Then, we headed to the Children’s Park for 3 fun rides.
The race car ride.
On the dolphin ride you grab balls at the bottom, then press a button to fly the dolphin into the air.
Once you are in the air, you toss balls at a basketball hoop. What’s not to love? Balls. Buttons. Baskets.
His final ride was this motorcycle. He wanted to do a bungee bouncer, but it was not open.
On the way home, we stopped by Walmart because Hubs wanted to buy a timer for the rice cooker. The man wants hot groatmeal when he wakes up.
This evening, just as I was bringing the birthday presents out of the office, Zi Hai and his Mommy stopped by to give Schäfer three books. So I put the presents back in the office. You can imagine how difficult is was for Schäfer to play with Zi Hai while all his presents were sitting int he office!
Good buddies.
Thank you Nanamaw and Great Grandmaw for the train card, brown bear puzzle, and two new books!
He opened his presents from us just before bed.
Who could have known that a dump truck would be this exciting?
We gave Schäfer three Tonka truck books and an Alpha Building Crew book with CD.
He loves all the diggers, dump trucks, loaders, road rollers and cranes moving the letters around.
He went to sleep with his new wooden dump truck.
We’re officially having his party on Saturday at a new play area. 9:30am play begins. 11:00am cake. People can come and go as they please.
I’m more nervous about having his party at a play area than I am at our own home! Hubs called this one. With everything we have going on, it’s just easier to let the three-year-olds run around and play. We did just have everyone in our home for Christmas. So, we’ll give this is a try.
Here’s a video with highlights from the day:
Happy Birthday to Schafer! He is adorable. These photos are wonderful. I adore the photos of school and his classmates. It looks like a perfect day.