the birthday girl's special day

Sorry, I'm still talking birthdays...stay with me!! I'll be moving on eventually. Part of me just can't believe my little girl turned three years old! Birthdays are a big deal for me, especially since now that I'm "old" my own birthday isn't so much a big deal anymore. I have to celebrate other birthdays like they're my own! And, we did a lot of celebrating!!

April 22nd - Mikayla's actual birthday

We started the day with a special breakfast treat!
Look! There's actually three candles!

Later in the morning, I had to bribe Mikayla to go to library time. She was being a bit stubborn (what's new?!). Thankfully, she decided that she wanted to go with 5 minutes to spare to get out the door and make it on time. She got to wear her "birthday princess" ribbon and loved it!

On the way home, I asked what she wanted for lunch and she said she wanted a cheese roll up, so we hit the Taco Bell drive through and came home to have a picnic lunch on the living room floor and watched Bolt before we headed for naps.

Ryan came home from work and surprised Mikayla with flowers. She was so cute holding them in her arms. I didn't get a picture of the moment because he surprised us by coming home a little earlier than expected and so I wasn't "camera ready". Here are the flowers with all of her birthday card greetings.

For dinner, we headed to Red Robin for a free kid's meal!

When they sang to her, she was a bit shy...that's my girl!

Enjoying her free ice cream sundae
After dinner we headed to Target for a new bike helmet for a gift she was going to get later that evening (but she didn't know that yet!)

Present Time!

Her first computer...
(Gotta share that I found this on clearance at Target back in January for 50% off! I was so excited and knew exactly that I would be saving it for her birthday.)

Opening up her princess scooter...
Here she is a few days later enjoying her new present!
Doesn't she look like such a big girl?!

Austin trying on Mikayla's new dress up crown
New jammies from her Grandma Ruth & Grandpa Charlie
Overall, it was a good day for a birthday.

this one's for you, grammy & papa!

This post is specifically for my mom and dad (aka Grammy & Papa)...the only immediate family members (besides my grandparents) who couldn't be at Mikayla's birthday party last Sunday. I know that they would have LOVED to have been here to celebrate with us, but living in Alaska 9 months out of the year makes it a bit difficult to come for a quick visit!

So, Grammy & Papa (and everyone else!) enjoy the many, many, MANY pictures from the birthday girl's THIRD birthday party celebrated with family last Sunday. And, if you haven't seen my themed obsession and all the "special touches" of the party, check it out here.

Uncle Jeff & Cousin Hunter

Uncle Jody & Cousin Hailey
Cousin Jacob hanging out in the tree
The Girls - Mikayla & Cousin Hailey

Austin enjoying some lunch on the lawn

Time for presents!

Baby Care Center from Grandma Ruth & Grandpa Charlie
Blowing out the candle (should be candles!)

I want this one!
Mikayla and the "boys"

Yummmm...
Cousin Noah enjoying the goodies!
Little brother

Cousin Hunter just hanging around
Cousin Riley & Cousin Parker
Mikayla wanted me to pass along a special greeting...

I love you Grammy & Papa and hope to see you soon!
Thanks for the fun new dolly!

tea time teaser

Mikayla had her friend birthday party today. The theme? Dress up and tea time! It was a hit! The girls had lots of fun and it was so sweet to watch them be so girly. More pictures to share later, but for now here's a little teaser of what's to come! I'm headed out the door fairly soon to attend a Women's Retreat with my church for the weekend. So, we'll "see" you all next week!

The birthday girl all dressed up and
ready for her friends to arrive!

Dress up fun - tears, cheesey smiles, and all!
Oh, to be THREE!

Have a great weekend!

my themed party obsession

Updated on 5/29/09: This party was featured on Creative Parties & Showers & One Pretty Thing.

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For Works for me Wednesday, I want to share something that definitely works for me...themed parties! I love themes! Birthday parties, baby showers, you name it and most likely I'll create a theme for it. I even enjoy giving themed presents for birthdays and baby gifts. It gives me a chance to get my creative juices flowing and I have so much fun in the process. One very important thing to know, however, is that I often put more TIME than money into creating themes. I like simple, but with some extra special touches. My sister would say I'm an overachiever! I just call it crazy.

TODAY is my daughter's 3rd birthday and last Sunday we had family over for a fun celebration! So, what was the theme you might ask?

~ Lollipop Sweetness ~

The invitation (pictured below) was shaped in the form of a lollipop. I also made a birthday collage of pictures of Mikayla from this past year and I sent one to each of the family members with their invitations. At the party, each of the cousins received their own lollipop with their initial on it.


At the end of the party, I took out the "lollipops" and had little baggies for the guests to put some of the candy in and take home with them. It was great to use this not only as decoration, but also for a little treat for the guests at the party!


At every birthday party, instead of cake, I make cupcakes (see here for more). This time I wanted to do something simple and bright, so I used lots of sprinkles and made some fun cake toppers with Mikayla's initial on them. So easy, so cute!




I've seen this idea floating around in many different places, so I just had to try it! These are strawberry marshmallows dipped in chocolate and covered with sprinkles. I then put a lollipop stick in them...they were a hit with the kids!


You know you can't get enough sweetness and I thought it might be fun to throw in some fruit roll ups just for fun and to add even more color to the table.


This idea was originally done by my friend Andrea when we co-hosted a baby shower together, and I just had to recreate it for Mikayla's party. Of course the matching paper is on purpose!


The completed table. If you look closely I have candy necklaces hanging from the light fixture. The rest of that idea was to have pictures hanging from the necklaces, but I ran out of time! For lunch we had a sandwich bar, chips, veggies, and fruit salad.

For some simple decoration, I found these bubble wands at The Dollar Tree and turned them into lollipops with some cellophane and ribbon. I loved how they turned out and it gave just the right amount of decor that was needed.

Near the end of the party, I took them all down and I had Mikayla give them to her cousins as party favors. Again, I loved being able to use these for two things...decorations and favors.

We then broke out the bubbles and the kids played with their wands in the backyard. It was a hit! Cheap entertainment works for me!

At one point during the party we also had a lollipop hunt. I had purchased some small lollipops and stuck them all over the yard and the kids ran around looking for them. It was so fun to watch them find them and put them in their bags. This was pretty much the only "organized activity". The rest of the time was spent eating and playing outside in the sun. Ryan had found some oversized blow up sports equipment on clearance last fall, so we got those out and the kids enjoyed having something to play with.

Not surprisingly if you know me, there are still lots of pictures to share of the party, especially of opening presents, blowing out candles and such. But, I'll save that for another post! On Friday, we're having 3 of Mikayla's girlfriends over for a tea party/dress up party, so I'll be sharing some more fun pictures if you want to come back to see!

And...if you want to see some of my other "themed obsession", check out the following:

Monkey Birthday Party
Flowers & Favorites Birthday Party
Pink & Green Icecream Sundae Baby Shower (aka Pickles & Icecream)
Themed Baby Shower Gifts

Head on over to We Are That Family for more Works for Me Wednesday!