Happy almost third birthday to our little HG! We went ahead and had her party a week early this year since we were going to be traveling on the actual day for Carson's wedding. I asked her a few months ago if she wanted a care bear party (because mommy really wanted to do a rainbow one, and care bears are sort of close to that.. or at least Cheer Bear has a rainbow on her tummy), and she seemed open to the idea, so I basically ran with it. Other than the weather completely not cooperating and ruining my plans of an outdoor affair at the park (ie NOT at our own house this year), everything turned out pretty close to how I was hoping and picturing it would. The morning was a bit of a scramble to get things organized and arranged, and by scramble I think I really should say more of a s#$@ show of me being pissed/stressed to have to regroup at the last minute, but in the end everything that I had gathered for set up at the park did more or less translate into our home set up as well. Fortunately HG is still young enough that she didn't really even realize that they were supposed to be at a park instead of just at our house. I have wanted to do a rainbow party for a realllly long time, and the cupcake decorating station was super fun and actually the kids were the perfect age for it which was great. Overall, I was a million times less stressed and crazed this year with the planning than I was for last year's event. I definitely think it becomes sort of a skill over time to make these things come to life, and for sure Pinterest was incredibly helpful this time around with ideas. The "rainbow" theme is also really pretty conducive for easy decor ideas. Last year I felt sort of all consumed with needing so many trays and containers, etc but fortunately now over time our collection has grown and so I didn't feel like I had nearly as much stuff to buy just to support the party infrastructure. All in all, I am glad that we got it done before this next week which will be so crazy and exciting with Carson's wedding and all that entails, and I think HG had a good time with her friends. Our neighbors were so generous with their creative and thoughtful gifts for her also, which was so sweet and I just know that we are so fortunate to be raising her with such great people for her to spend time with.
A few pics of the birthday girl!
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| So glad it occurred to me to label each kid's tray.. definitely kept things more organized with this many |
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| Zoe, Harper, and Mia |
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| Audrey |
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| CeCe, Zoe, HG, Mia, Audrey, Miles, Eloise, and James |
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| CeCe hard at work |
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| James enjoying the fruits of his labor |
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| Miles, always the focused artist |
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| Eloise and Will |
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| HG's wonderful former teacher, now babysitter Miss Danielle was so sweet to come see her! |
