The Baranko Family: Dump Truck Party

After weeks of build up, and several days of Luke asking if "today was his dump truck party day?", the day came! Luke's 3rd birthday party was on Sunday. We were so happy to have Ben and Linda in town to help us celebrate. The weather was awesome, the turnout was great, and it was just all around a fabulous day. We had such a great time hanging out with everyone, and Luke was actually into his birthday and his presents like he hasn't been in years past, so it felt more fun. Yay for a great birthday party! Luke is a lucky kid!

Brought home a dump truck birthday balloon for him on Friday, which he loved.

Claire was enamored of the balloon, too.

This is her expression like 90% of her life. Happy baby.

All ready for the party.

Luke showing me his dump truck cup, goodie bag and construction hard hat. Notice the trucks shirt too, which he wanted to wear to his party.

Eichinger's came in from Springfield, with Katie Eichinger in from Peoria.

All the Mackus side relatives were there, despite all of them having a 2nd cousin's family wedding that same night!

Gottwalt's came on their way back to Minneapolis. They were in town for Theresa's wedding.

John:)

Banana time

Fire truck pinata from Isolene. Luke loved it! He sat underneath it staring at it for a long time until we told him it was finally time to hit it.

Showing Dad his goodies from the pinata

Dump truck cake! First year of his party with no atomic cake since Donna and Emil moved out of Downers Grove. This cake was super cute and yummy, too.

The kid still doesn't like the "Happy Birthday" song. Here he is looking worried that we're about to sing it, but we didn't.

gift time!

Luke was OBSESSED with cousin Anthony, who is cousin Irene's son. He wanted to show Anthony all of his presents, and he had been asking him to play with him all day. Anthony was such a great sport and was so sweet to Luke, we were so impressed and grateful.

On Saturday, the day before the wedding, we attended cousin Theresa's wedding in nearby Oak Park. The wedding was really nice, and it was fun seeing the whole extended family. Theresa and Jesus are such a cute couple, and we know they'll be so happy together. Luke and Claire both looked adorable, but that's where the similarity ended. Claire was an absolute angel the whole ceremony and reception. As Matt says, "she brings goodness and joy to everyone around her". Luke, on the other hand, continues to be, let's call it, "an active" little boy. It is literally impossible to get him to sit or stay in one place for more than 30 seconds. I think we may have actually had him participating in the actual wedding or reception about 7% of the time we were there. The rest of the time Matt or I or Ben or Linda or Donna or Emil all took turns on "Luke duty". This duty consisted of watching him play at the church playground, assisting him climbing a nearby tree, walking him down the block to watch the El trains pass, walking around the church school and looking in all the windows, and a few other things that were outdoors. None of these things allow you as the guardian to sit for anything more than a nanosecond. By the end of the night both Matt and I were so exhausted that we didn't know how we could muster the energy to host a party for 30 the next day. But we woke up energized and everyone is so easy going and fun it was not work to host. So based on that "test run" on bringing Luke to a wedding in his current age range, we made the decision to withdraw his "yes" RSVP to my cousin Kevin's wedding on September 14th. I think everyone will benefit from us not bringing him along.

Aunt Irene and Theresa

Hanging out outside the church - this is where Luke and Matt spent a good part of the ceremony.

Saponara Family photo - this is all one family!

Cute!!!

Trying to get Claire to fall asleep, so walking her around the reception hall. Much better task when you can do it with a cold beer in your hand!

Nap time:) Awwww.

Baranko boys

Tequila shots!

The day after the party was Labor Day. We spent a little time with Mom and Dad, who had stayed overnight, and then we had a photo shoot with our favorite photographer. Pictures of her work to come! Luke was coming off of Saturday with no nap, Sunday with no nap and lots of activity and off-routine stuff - that combined with his normal aversion to doing anything we want him to do made the photo shoot a little bit of a challenge. We may not have gotten any great ones of him, we'll have to keep our fingers crossed that Steph was a magic maker!