Parasaurolophus Party

If you don't know what a parasaurolophus is, don't worry- neither did we until about 5 months ago when Louis' dinosaur obsession started in earnest. In case you were wondering, its an upright walking plant eater with a crest on the back of its head. We know random things like that now in this house (and no, his mask is not a parasaurolophus, that is obviously a protoceratops).

So when that time of year came around for Louis' 3rd birthday, there was no question as to what kind of party we would have to throw. Louis was in heaven with everything being about dinosaurs. We've got a few pictures from the hallowed event to show you his delight.

We started the morning off with a few presents from Mom and Dad. Of course out of all of them, he loved his $1 squishy figurine of a ankylosaurus.

Elsie's favorite gift was of course, his dinosaur shoes. She was mad when she had to take them off to get dressed.

We had a little paleontologist dig site where they dug for buried dinosaur bones and then a real, erupting volcano-- Louis is quite morbidly obsessed about how all the dinosaurs died, and he is convinced from his reading that this is how they all died.

James prepared a really great treasure hunt for the kids with dinosaur maps and bits of the treasure hidden all around the park. Louis, who was introduced to maps this summer by his older cousin Dane, was obsessed. He took the whole thing extremely serious and kept on referring to his map to figure out where to go.

Serious map skills.

Masks found during the treasure hunt.

Dinosaur lunchtime, complete with sandwiches cut to the shape of a brontosaurus.

Elsie was on my back in a back pack for most of the party, but she did get to get down and do what she likes best, eat fruit.

Then of course there was the cake. James' friend Mana was in town and helped us created a truly menacing stegasaurus. All Louis wanted to do the morning of his party was open the fridge and look at it. At his party, he kept on trying to sneak over to the table just to stare at it.

He was very serious about the candle blowing.

And there you have it, Louis has finally turned 3. Both James and I have noticed how the closer he has gotten to his birthday, the faster he has kind of shed the 'terrible two' image and gotten calmer, less prone to fits, loves to help and can be reasoned with at least 50% of the time. We of course love him to bits and are grateful to have him in our lives.