Princess is 3!

Dear Princess,

Happy 3rd birthday, my sweet, smart, and beautiful daughter! You have grown so much this past year and it's been so fun watching you learn and grow. You bring lots of sunshine to our lives.

This year, you wanted a Minnie Mouse Birthday party. You LOVE Mickey and Minnie Mouse! We had it at our house and it was probably the last birthday party we'll have at this house before we move to the farm house. You had a blast! You had 4 friends come and a few of their siblings. Your cousin, A, ended up in the hospital due to RSV so she wasn't able to make it. We played games, ate some fun Disney themed food, and had a yummy cake and cupcakes. I surprised you with a giant Minnie Mouse walking balloon, we decorated your bedroom, and took you to Chuck E Cheese on your birthday for lunch.

Fun Facts:

Favorite color: pink
Best friend: Abigail
Favorite food: pizza
Favorite veggie: sandwich (salad with ranch)
What you want to be when you grow up: a doctor
Favorite song: Jesus is Lord and Create in Me is a close 2nd
Favorite book: lots of books
Favorite place to go: Disney World and Chuck E Cheese
Favorite toy: Mouse dolls and toys, especially Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Princess, you are one of the most kind and thoughtful people I know. I love how you are willing to share, comfort, and love others. You are very bright for you age and speak clearly. You love to help those in need and are very precious to us. We hope your love for God, Jesus, and others always continues to grow. We love you very much!

Love,
Mom

Playing the Mickey and Minnie Chase game

Pin the Bow on You! 

She loved the custom game I made her

Minnie Mouse cake and pink cupcakes

Disney themed food: Pluto's Popcorn; Princess Pretzels; Goofy's Grapes;
Daisy's Vegetable Garden; Minnie's Bows; and Donald's Cheese and Quackers

Pin the Bow on her game

party favors, kids grabbed a Minnie or Mickey ears when they arrived

Kind of like musical chairs but Musical Bows, dance around from
bow to bow. When music stops, stop on a bow and pick a prize in order
of your number. We had monkey dolls in pink, red, and white to choose from.

Enjoying cake with her friends

Some siblings

Party friends!

Present time!

Party favors

Feeding her new baby doll

Some of the balloons

Happy 1st Birthday Little Man!

Dear Blue Knight,

Happy 1st birthday!! You are now 1 year old! This past year seems to have flown by. We love watching you learn, grow, and explore. You are such a happy and sweet baby and very active! You love to crawl, climb, sing, babble, and want to try to fit in the smallest places. We had a wonderful birthday party at our house for you last weekend. We kept it pretty small and invited family and a few friends from church who have kids in your cradle roll class. In all we had 13 adults and 12 kids. 8 kids were 2 and under. We decided to have a brunch. We served fruit, yogurt, lots of breads, muffins, veggies, sandwiches, coffees, juices, dips, and chips. We bought an indoor Jumping Gym as his big present from us that the kids 2 and under enjoyed. We set-up Caden's big water slide for him and the older kids who came. It was a fun party. We really like home parties the best and loved having some of our friends and family over to celebrate our cute and sweet boy!  

One of your best friends being held by his dad

On your actual birthday, we met Daddy and Opa at Chick-fil-a. You even climbed to the top of the playground! You also took a little fall, which sometimes happens when you're learning about gravity. Thankfully you were okay!

Your 12 month well baby appointment was yesterday. You're an active and healthy baby/toddler. Here are your stats: 

31.5 inches long (90% height)
23 lbs, 7 oz (80% weight)
47 cm head (75%)

They now do a new eye screening test and it showed up that you could have a potential eye problem. They recommended we see a pediatric ophthalmologist. Your vision seems fine and I'm not sure what they could detect at this point but we'll check it out. We're praying your vision is okay.

You typically take one nap per day, in the afternoon from around 1-3. You wear size 18-24 month clothing. You're in size 4 diapers, still. You sleep from around 7:30pm-7am. You like a wide variety of foods but love fruit the best. You still prefer crawling over walking. One cute thing you've done for months is that you like crawling with a ball or car in your hand. You still nurse 5-6 times per day and we'll eventual introduce you to whole cow's milk, although the World Health Organization recommends breastmilk until 2 years. So we'll mostly stick with that unless you decide to wean on your own before then. 

We love you so much, son! It's been a great 1st year! Happy birthday! 

Love,
Mom

Some of the older kids

Attempt at getting all of the little kids in the bounce house for a picture

Eating pancakes and blueberries for breakfast

My helper!

Such a cutie!

Eating lunch. You ate grilled chicken and fruit.

Opa loves you!

Daddy loves you!

Mommy loves you!

You climbed into your sisters chair and started eating your brother's watermelon and carrots

Playground fun

You and your sister had so much fun!

Curious George Birthday Party!

Princess just turned two and loves Curious George! We have a lot of his books and about a month ago I started letting her watch a show occasionally while I needed to tend to her baby brother. She loves both the books and the show and was excited to have a Curious George birthday party! The party was so much fun and all of the kids had a blast!

We had her party at home and kept it on the smaller size. Being January, we wanted to keep the kids inside and due to her age, having less kids is usually better. There were eleven kids there, that included two babies. I bought her a big Curious George cake and asked my baker to use pink icing instead of red. The colors for her party were pink and yellow. I made a few balloon center pieces for the big tables and put up a few birthday decorations. I also made a few games. I made a fishing game. I made the fish out of clothes that the kids had outgrew and I hadn't donated yet. They loved seeing their old clothes re-purposed! I also made a banana bean bag toss game where I drew a big George face and cut out a mouth. Then I sewed some bananas out of soft yellow fabric that I stuffed with rice. The kids loved tossing the bananas in George's mouth. I also made a pin the tail on Hundley game. I drew a tailless Hundley and then made about a dozen tails for the kids to try and put on him. For the little kids, I just let them walk over and put the tail on him. The older kids, we blind-folded them. They loved it! The winner won a sock monkey.  

To make the party extra special we bought a few costumes to surprise the birthday girl with a few guests. My husband dressed up as the Man with the Yellow Hat. I dressed up like Professor Wiseman (from the TV show, in the books, the professor is a man). We dressed up our baby as Curious George. Princess LOVED it!! She was so surprised. My sister was reading to her when we went to get dressed. All of the kids thought it was neat. Our older son, who loves Curious George too, thought it was a great idea! We surprised him as well. My husband made a great Man with the Yellow Hat! And we now have our costumes for next Halloween. 

Here are some pictures from the party. The games were cheap and easy to make. I also bought Curious George's Birthday Surprise book and had everyone who came to the party sign it. We splurged on the cake and costumes. I served strawberries, blueberries, fruit dip, chips, guacamole, and a variety of drinks. I bought a vegetable tray but completely forgot to pull it out of the fridge until the party was over. The party favors were bubbles, a bracelet, and some balloons. We made our daughter's day and that was the most important thing. 

Cutest George cake ever!!

I love the little George train toy they added

Some fruit, fruit dip, chips, and guacamole

A few decorations

Fishing game

Princess, Man in the Yellow Hat, Curious George, and Professor Wiseman

Such a great costume!

Family picture in costume - Baby George was a little upset

Cake time! I moved our small table to the middle of the kitchen dining area

Sweet friends

We let her open her presents at the party

Her friends wanted to watch her open their gifts

Feed George Banana Toss Game

Pin the Tail on Hundley

It's hard to get a group picture but I was determined to get one.
I have missed getting group pictures at the other parties.