The lead-in was actually somewhat laid back (well, compared to previous years). Turns out it's much easier when you have someone else handle the mess for you. This afforded us a little time during the week to take the kids out to the nearby elementary school so they could enjoy the playground.

He's getting pretty good at climbing that thing.

Per usual, he requested that we stop by the big map on the way home.

He likes to stand on the states and ask us if we've been to them before.

His brother just finds it all somewhat confusing.

The big day finally arrived, and Max wasn't about to waste time with nonsense like putting on daytime clothes.

Breakfast? Ha!

This, too, was confusing for Owen.

He's been asking for these two for months. I have a feeling that we can close the book on buying Toy Story figures.

We'd barely gathered ourselves together for the day when it was time to head out to the bounce house place for the big event. In no time at all, the kids were bouncing and sliding all over the place.

I'm going to call that a success.

Note to self: Bouncing flash off giant red inflatable thing may cause a slight color issue.

No idea. Is he pretending to ski?

I had one of Mimi sliding in sheer terror, but as a good son-in-law I will not post it. In fact, I've burned the memory card.

Note to self: Brandy is smiling. Also, bouncing the camera off a bright yellow bouncy thing will also cause weird color issues.

By the time we'd moved into the second room, some of the kids were starting to lose their energy a bit.

There's cake after this, right?

SECOND WIND.

18 eyes. We caught 10. Good enough.

Once we'd all had our share of vinyl burns, we moved on to the next room for some cupcakes and pizza (the lesser known lunch of champions).

He's been practicing by spreading dandelions all over the neighborhood.

Seemed like everyone had a pretty good time. Once we said our goodbyes and parted ways with plenty of goody bags, we took our massive bag of presents home and made Max pose for an unending series of photos. If you want to see him getting annoyed with me taking pictures, the series of him opening presents (follow the link at the bottom) is about as illustrative as it can be.

As the day drew to a close, we thought we'd snap a few photos of the birthday boy out in the backyard. He seemed amenable to it.

Mostly he just fidgeted and did weird poses.

Thankfully that makes for amusing photos, so we don't mind.

At this point I'd usually draw the post to a close. We usually run these Monday through Sunday, with Sunday usually being a lazy recovery day that doesn't bring in a lot of photos. Apparently someone didn't like that idea. His brother was getting all this attention (and all those presents), which was completely unacceptable. About a half-hour before Nan and Papa packed up the car to go home he drew himself up, made a stink face at his brother, and did this...

MUHAHAHAHAHHAA EVERYONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO ME NOW.

You'd think he had been doing it for months. He walked back and forth and back and forth for a good fifteen minutes or so. Yes, we have video.

Moseying

He's now doing this as often as he can.

As a result of this milestone, we were reminded to take some time aside and snap a few photos of the now fourteen-month-old Owen.

Bathtime makes for good hair.

At some point I'll train him to actually look at the camera.

That'll pretty much do it for Max's birthday week. If you want to see the rest of the photos (including annoyed present-opening Max), you can click here". Seeing as this was a big week for the big guy, we'll sign off with a video from his big day.

Happy Birthday, Max!

Amazing that it's already been three years.