Kate's 3rd birthday party was last Saturday, on her actual birthday!
Friday night was a ROUGH night of sleep. She woke up every 1-2 hours in the middle of the night asking if it was her birthday yet or would ask if it was time to go to her party.
The morning of her birthday she woke up in a great mood (despite her lack of sleep)
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!
Here is Kate waiting for her guests to arrive. She was SO excited:
Claire was also excited for the party to begin!
The party place had a huge bounce house,
a "Tot Town" (see below) with a ball pit:
Kate, Thoren, Nicole & Maddie playing in the ball pit:
{Thanks Becky for the picture}
Maddie & Kira:
{Thanks Becky for the picture}
Claire running around like a crazy girl:
Kate in the ball pit:
Sweet Tatum:
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.
Tyler & Kieran:
The huge inflatable slide was a big hit:
Beka:
Kate:
Tony & Leila:
Drew, Kyle, Heath, Elise, Kieran & Anders pose for a picture:
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, our families came over for dinner, cupcakes & a couple presents.
Happy 3rd Birthday, Kate!
How cute is her dress?
How cute is her dress?
She makes all the dresses from up-cycled t-shirts & does her own screen printing! So talented!
This dress is inspired by Disney's Princess & The Frog movie.
*sidenote - The frog is also perfect because she isn't really into the Princess thing. I showed her Cinderella for the first time 2 weeks ago (the only princess movie she has seen. After the movie she told me her favorite characters were the cat, dog & mice. Kevin was so proud since he is anti-princess*
Of course, I have learned that I can't do a photo shoot with her on my own, so I begged my older sister to come with me to help make Kate smile!
Kate was surprisingly cooperative!
It has been so rainy the past 2 weeks & this week she came down with a nasty cough (and she has since given me her cold) so we have been cooped up in our house all week.
Kate loved running up the hills, it was quite the workout for me trying to keep up with her!
One of the good things about all the rain is that all the hills around our house have turned GREEN!
In order to have her sit for some pictures, I bribbed her with the promise of candy.
Kate had her 3 year check up this week.
Gotta love the pink converse!
Kate was 
We are back to lounging in our pj's & trying to get over our colds.
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