And the Luketrain Turns Three

Luketrain, Lukapotamus, Luke-a-pot-pie, Lulu, Lubear, The Luke, Luktronymous, Lulubean, Lulus...the boy goes by many names.
And today he turned the big three!  
I'm quickly fading on the couch so a whole bunch of pictures of the big day with minimal commentary. 
Ha, just kidding...we all know I won't be able to stay quiet.

First, St. Lucy got her pre-dawn dues:
Note: not on my head.  But brought upstairs so a few liturgical points scored, at least?

Then a certain little guy got all gussied up in his engineer clothes.

The first half of the day he just kept asking, "Is it still my birthday?"  Despite his awaiting it for months, I'm not sure he got the whole concept of what a birthday actually is. 

He's a little bit cute.

They all are a little.

Brian took them to get our Christmas tree in the morning while I worked on the cake.

When they got back he busied them with some train coloring to give me a bit more time so I could finish The Cake.

He's been waiting months for his train cake.
It actually turned out better than I thought it would.  I'm pretty happy that it didn't take that much time (relatively speaking) and the boys all loved it.
(Deets:  Indian Tree natural food coloring and spirulina powder for the green, one normal loaf cake and three mini loafs, ice cream cone for the smoke stack and all the rest is pretty self-explanatory?)

He kinda liked it :)

Add in some ultra fancy decorating and some unpictured streamers and we had ourselves a train party.

Aaaand that's pretty much the decorating.

The boy was so so excited that people were coming over to celebrate.  He was the cutest.

A moment of pre-celebratory reading time with Grandpa

He also got mucho presents:

Much needed new clothes from grandparents 

And the gift from out of town Grandma that became the hit of the party.  The boys and their friends thought these Magformers were the best thing ever.  I'm not going to name any names but I'm pretty sure every adult male in the room was trying to get their hands on them, too.  (FYI the price is crazy high right now...I've noticed a few of Amazon's items have extremely fluid prices depending on demand and probably the fact that Christmas is two weeks away.)

And a puzzle for the boy who loves puzzles.

Permit a moment of mom sappiness, if you will.  I just adore how my kids make gifts for each other.  Without one word of prompting or suggestion from me, they each spent hours making something special for Luke for his big day.  Then they each wrapped them all by themselves.  It's the best and I treasure it so much.  Despite the fact that they have been bickering and driving each other (and me) crazy seemingly nonstop lately, they really do love each other.  I need those reminders sometimes!

David made Luke a crown

and also gifted him his old train slippers that no longer fit him ;)  Luke wore them the rest of the day.

And contrary to the picture, that train was constructed out of cardboard and painted by Michael.  The wheels really move and it is full of awesome. 

Opening John Paul's gift

A wood train that he spent hours building out in the garage.  So great.

And gift cards for ice cream from the Godparents!

Cake was enjoyed though any part with a hint of chocolate was tested and discarded.  I have no idea how this child came out of us.

After dinner we gave him our gift from Brian and me.  Judging from the, ahem, reluctance on the part of all the boys to leave it for prayer and bedtime, I'd say he (they all) really like it.  I'm a little bit proud of the idea, if I do say so myself.  

It's a miniature indoor sand box!  
We'll see how this goes.  It's kinetic sand (again, way more than I paid a few weeks ago) so it doesn't pour like regular sand or leave a huge mess but can still be sculpted and shaped.  It's pretty crazy cool.  I'm hoping this will be a good activity for him especially when I'm trying to do lessons with the older boys or need him busy for a bit.  
(And all the other homeschool mothers laughed and laughed.)

Well, it's cute anyway ;)

Happy birthday, sweet Luke.
We love you with our whole hearts.


  1. Happy Birthday sweet Luke! Looks like you had a fun day!!

  2. I didn't realize our littles were so close in age. Lucia turned 3 on the 5th. (And we call her Lulu too!) How precious he is!

    1. Luke would totally have been a Lucia or Lucy had he been a girl! It would have been the perfect birthday!

  3. Happy Birthday to our amazing Luke! I'm so sorry we couldn't stay long enough to see him unwrap his gifts from his brothers. How awesome that they make special gifts for each other that they put so much time, heart and love into. You're doing a beautiful job raising beautiful boys. Love the indoor sandbox idea- very clever! Great birthday cake train too, by the way. How do you do it all??

  4. P.S. So would have loved to see you wearing the morning Lucy cake on your head! Come on Mary!

  5. So impressed with your Cake! And your cute boys!!
    Our kids LOVE those magnet builder pieces. I wish they weren't so pricey, cause it's one of those toys I'd love to have a good collection of. And.... I'm waiting for your review of the kinetic sand after the first few days of use :) I've been going back and forth on getting it for Clare, so I want a real live person that I know in real life to tell me how awesome and not messy it is!
    Happy Birthday, Luke!

    1. I will definitely give you the full report once all the data is in :) As of now, I think rules will be that only one gets to play at a time (not sure how well that will work), and that it has to be at a big table. It does get out of the box a bit and the stuff is pricey so I don't want to just be vacuuming up all the little pieces that fall out. Little pieces are harder to pick up but can be swiped into the box off the table. Maybe I'll bring it to one of our group meetings and we can play so you have some firsthand experience :)

  6. Mary, your cake was amazing! So beautiful! Great job to you! I love everything about this post. So beautiful and gives me hope for my littles. Grateful for you and others for sharing the beautiful that is so good and gives hope!

