3rd Birthday Party

Ally's birthday party was Saturday. Becky and I had been preparing for a while for the party. It was a Pinkalicious theme - lots of pink. Becky sewed dress up skirts for each of the girls and we bought a "princess party kit" that had a pink feather boa, tiara, ring and hair clippy for each girl. It was lots of fun. Aunt Beth and Grandma Debbie and Poppy came to help get ready and celebrate with us. I'll have another post of the rest of the weekend, but this one is just about the party and the prep.

Friday night we made the pink cupcakes - Aunt Beth helped Ally make some play dough to play with while I got the cupcakes in the oven.


Then it was time to frost the cupcakes. Ally had fun stirring the pink food coloring into the white frosting.

Then she and Aunt Beth piped the frosting on the cupcakes.

It was pretty neat to have Ally help with so much.

After cupcakes Aunt Beth became the tunnel monster. Ally wasn't so sure what to make of her.

Saturday morning Becky picked up 2 dozen balloons to decorate the house. Ally chose the balloon colors last weekend, so she was excited to see them all.

She got one balloon that will last for a while (the others deflate after 24 hours - this one should last a few weeks).

The table all decorated and the food laid out. We had bright pink triple berry mini muffins, chocolate chip muffins died light pink, strawberries and watermelon. Oh and of course the pink cupcakes had 2 shades of pink frosting and pink sprinkles on them. Ally is holding up her book that inspired the party.

Our Pinkalicious 3 year old! All day long Grandma Debbie kept asking her if her belly was pink yet, and Ally would pull up her shirt to check. In the book the girl eats so many pink cupcakes she turns pink!

The 3 of us

Debbie and Beth hung the tulle from the ceiling. When Ally saw it for the first time she laid down on the floor to look up at it.

Becky made this banner for Ally's 1st birthday - we hope to use it for each and every one. Growing up in my family there was a large clown candle that we blew out on our birthday, I hope this banner will be my family's "clown candle".

This is Becky's crafty-ness at its best - she secured balloons inside the hole in the picnic table.

Ally had fun opening her gifts and we've been playing with new toys all weekend.

Then it was time for singing and eating cupcakes.

Here Ally is with 3 of her 4 Guatemala girlfriends - we have 4 families we get together with on a regular basis, and we were very fortunate to have Rosa, Gabi & Roxie come to the party. Ally tells everyone "no Alice she is sick - she has a pink eye"

Last year we invited our neighborhood group and had a great party but 40 people was a lot in our house, and we thought now that Ally was older we should limit the # of guests. I have to say this was the perfect amount of people. (It would have been great with Alice too). The girls all seemed to have fun together, especially after cake.

blowing out her candle

Eating her cupcake - just the frosting off the top but she loved it!

After cake it was "ring around the rosie"

And we all fell down!

BTW Ally picked out her outfit of pink clothes pretty much on her own. We bought a hot pink tutu-skirt for her to wear but she insisted on this light pink cotton one and the leggings and the short sleeve shirt complete the outfit.

It isn't a party at our house without crib jumping. Gabi, Ally and Rosa all had a blast, while Roxie hammed it up in the living room trying on dress up clothes.

At the end of the party we read Pinkalicious and the guests took home a dress up outfit and a balloon. Then Ally went down for a nap. It was a great morning.

We are so happy that our friends could share it with us, and that Becky's family came to celebrate with us. Thank-you to them as well for all of their help, they made the whole event much more enjoyable for Becky and me.