Birthday Duo: Trey Turns Tres and Dad Steps Over the Hill

I love birthdays!  And I'm hard-pressed to think of one more special than the one we celebrate in April in our family: a Double Birthday for my well-beloved Nathan Smith Merrill and our youngest son Trey Smith Merrill!  This year was fun because our Trey turned three years old (who doesn't love a 3-year-old?) and Nate joined me in the over 40 crowd (41 years is just barely over the hill, right?).

Here are the photos of our celebration of 4-14-14:

I set up this photo purposely to show how poor Nate is regularly jipped on his birthday now that he shares it with Trey.  The pile of gifts on the left is for Trey, and the little collection of presents on the right is for Nathan.  Haha!  Granted, the plastic toys and games that we get for Trey are usually bigger and less expensive than the books, clothes, or DVD's that we tend to bestow on Daddy.  But STILL, it does look kind of bad. ;-)

Trying to take the annual picture of the birthday boys together--and asking Trey to look at the camera.  He was saying, "I AM looking at you, Mommy!"

Ah!  This one was just too cute and became the "official" birthday picture.  I love these adorable faces!

Trey is playing with the frosting cups while I was decorating the cake...sticking them to his forehead!

Cutie!

It was Lightning McQueen for the cake this year!  Thanks to Nate for taking one for the team and allowing me to do just one cake this year.  Besides, how often does a 41-year-old get a Lightning McQueen cake for his birthday?

This is one of the new toys that Trey got for his birthday this year--a bubble blowing plastic lawn mower!  You can see in the picture that we still had a little unmelted snow in the yard.  It was a little chilly!

Big Bro Avery and Big Sis Coco were having fun running around the backyard with Trey as he tried out his new toy.

Who knew this one gift would be such a big hit?

After work and Daddy's home for cake and ice cream!

Getting ready to sing to our birthday boys.

Trey is wondering how much longer he will have to wait to eat that cake!

Daddy and Trey blowing out the candle!

And here is Chase demonstrating what the colored frosting on the cake can do to your mouth, with a particular treat being his display of the artificial coloring coating his braces as well!