Kate's Minnie Mouse Birthday Party!

Kate's 3rd birthday party was last Saturday, on her actual birthday!

Here she is proudly displaying one of my cupcake toppers that I made.

She was excited to be "THREE"!
And, even more excited about the flowers that Daddy got her for her birthday!

For her birthday breakfast, she requested "Mickey Mouse" pancakes.
(I made them using Trader Joe's pumpkin pancake mix. SO good!)

It rained ALL week, but on Saturday morning we woke up to blue skies.
And, it was so cold that there was even snow on top of the foothills/mountain.

(I took this photo from my driveway, with my 75-300 lens)

After breakfast, it was time to get ready for Kate's 3rd Birthday Party!

The theme that Kate chose was "Mickey & Minne Mouse"
(Mickey Mouse Clubhouse has been her favorite TV show for the last year)

Here is the invitation that I made:

{Invite can be found in my Etsy shop}

Since she has a January birthday & the weather in California can be rainy (like it was this week....Hello Stormwatch 2010), I decided to have her party at an indoor bounce house place!

The party place had a huge bounce house,
a "Tot Town" (see below) with a ball pit:

There was also a climbing wall for some of the older kids (and some of the parents even climbed it!)
Air hockey time for the boys:
Elijah, Tyler & Kieran.

After an hour and a half of playing, it was time to get ready to go into the party room!
Here is the party room (before everyone was let in)

The plates & napkins Kate picked out:

Her Minnie balloon:
(Kate LOVES balloons)

Lunch is served! (pizza)

Lots of kids & lots of fun!

After pizza, it was time for cake!
Here is the AWESOME cake my mother in law made:

Seriously, she is the cake master!
(Click HERE and HERE to see other cakes she has made for me)

Kate blowing out the candles:

Make a wish!

{Thanks Becky for the picture}

Here are the favors that I gave out:
My friend Heather made the cookies & I made the favor tags!

The party was a ton of fun & after a very wet & rainy week, it was a great way for all the kids to get out all their pent up & excess energy!

After the party, we headed home for naps & then to get ready for the family dinner party we were having later on that afternoon!
After Claire went down for her nap, we let Kate open up some presents that she got.
I told our friends "NO PRESENTS!" - Kate's birthday is a month after Christmas & she is really spoiled by both sets of grandparents, so she truly doesn't need anything.
But, I kept getting emails from friends asking what they could get Kate. I kept telling them "Nothing!"
But, the about a week before the party, I got an idea!
I emailed our friends reminding them "No Presents for Kate" but I told them if they felt the need to get a present, they could bring a small check written out to the American Red Cross or Compassion International for Haiti Earthquake Relief.
Our friends are SO generous & we collected almost $200 for Haiti Earthquake Relief!
Thank you!!!

Funny Story: After I emailed our friends asking them to give to Haiti instead of getting Kate a present, I told Kate that there were kids in Haiti who lost their homes & all of their toys in the Earthquake. I told her that she wasn't going to get as many presents this year because her friends were going to give some of her presents to the kids in Haiti who needed things more than she did.
Kate's response? "Can we give those kids Claire's presents instead?"

I want to point out Kate's "3" t-shirt.
I made it!
This shirt is attempt #2...attempt #1 was a FAIL.
I have A LOT to learn about sewing!

While Kate & Claire were napping, I got things ready for Party #2 (the family party)
My biggest project for this was this cupcake tower!
I was SO happy on how it turned out!

It was a plain cupcake holder & I added ribbon to each tier.

I made 2 different kinds of cupcakes, Funfetti & of course THESE which are my go-to.

A new little project I worked on was making the cupcake toppers!

I made about 8 different designs for the cupcake toppers & I was really happy with how they turned out!

Seriously, I LOVE cupcakes!

I might start designing cupcake toppers & favor tags and add them to my ETSY shop.
(But, if I do, that wouldn't be until later this Spring or Summer )

I could eat cupcakes everyday! Yum!

When Kate woke up from her nap, I told her I had a surprise for her downstairs & then I showed her the cupcake tower. She kept thanking me for her cupcakes all evening.
"I love my cupcakes Mommy" She melts my heart!

Later on that evening, both sides of our families came over for dinner (I made a double batch of my green chicken enchiladas & Mexican rice)
We also had the cupcakes for dessert!
Happy 3rd Birthday, Kate!

Thank you to all our family & friends who helped us celebrate Kate's 3rd birthday!

Click to see:
Kate's 1st Birthday Cupcake Party
Kate's 2nd Birthday Carnival Party