Hans' messy party

I honestly can't say who had more fun at Hans' 3rd birthday party: me or the boys? To start off the day, they finger-painted (should I say 'body-painted'?) with pudding, and definitely got into it. Little buddy Kana painted his legs, then his belly, and eventually really didn't care about the paper. 

They started to get sticky, so they hosed off in the sprinklers and maybe had even more fun than in the pudding!

Nathan was stoked!
After some snacks, the little guys swarmed to the next game:
chocolate-dipped marshmallow-bobbing. They had to eat the dripping marshmallows from a string without their hands, and I think we parents had as much fun watching as they did eating!

Anything for the love of chocolate syrup!

I think Hans is going for Kana's marshmallow, because Kana moved on to Cody's...

Way to go Cody!

Christian didn't mess around and got right down to business.

The kids were ready for some real food after all that hard work, so they settled down for hot dogs and watermelon, while Mimi read one of Trey's childhood favorites, Harry the Dirty Dog. This is one of our faves now, the story of a little dog who hates baths, runs away, misses home, comes home, but nobody recognizes him because he went from "a white dog with black spots to a black dog with white spots". So, with a renewed appreciation for baths, he cleans up and stays home happily ever after. Super cute. 



So, after some good eats and visions of bathtimes dancing in their heads, the kids finished their lunches.




A baby gecko even came to the party!

Then, the pièce de résistance:

mud pie in the back of a dump truck! 

The kids made their own from "mud" and "dirt" and gummy worms, in little pie tins
and ate and ate and ate!
And boy were they happy to take a bubble bath!

Just wait....in just 2 weeks, we get to do it all again for our Annika; she'll be 1 year old!