A Happy 3rd Birthday

There's little more I can say about Scarlet's 3rd birthday than "awesome." She's just at that age where, for the first time really, she is enjoying everything and really getting into the pageantry of special events. She has been focused on this birthday for about 4 months and it was so much fun to plan with her.

My parents always did birthdays right - spreading them out for us with multiple parties. It wasn't your "birthday" it was your "birthweek." Julie and I are exactly the same. I have at least 4 parties or events every year and I am doing the same for the kiddos.

Scarlet's week started with a party at school for her little friends. Her Gumball and I surprised her with a cookie cake and we all sang happy birthday. She was the first birthday party of the year, so it was an extra special treat for all the kids.

Right before walking out the door to school. Happy Birthday!

This is her cute little classroom, friends and teacher, Ms. Chelle. I don't think she had spotted us yet in this photo.

Then, she spotted her Gumball and made a mad dash ;-)

Ms. Chelle is telling them all that it's a special occasion and that there will be cake. This drew quite a few "oohs and aahs."

Making she sure gets every last bit of her cookie cake.

And this is her best little friend, Marley, who is a complete sweetheart. She loves to give hugs.

Next was her birthday dinner with Momma, Daddy and Brother. We let her choose her favorite restaurant, which of course is Olive Garden. They even came to sing to her. Please don't listen to my singing ;-) She talked about this for at least a week after.

After dinner, we came home to open gifts from us. She had requested her gifts starting about 2-3 months before this, so we were looking forward to her finally getting to open them.

We got her one of those dolls from the Our Generation collection from Target. They are like the American Girl collection, but we thought better for this age. Her name is Holly and Scarlet loves her.

She also got the horse and foal for Holly.

And the highchair that fits beside her at the table.

And then of course came the big birthday bash! Her party at The Little Gym. She had requested a butterfly party, so she got both a butterfly and gymnastics party. The gym is someplace we have gone for classes since she was 4 months old, so we're real familiar with it and all the activities. It is truly awesome. They handle everything - monitoring the kids, teaching them new tricks, balancing acts and strengthening their cores. At the party, they also help with all the logistics, cutting the cake, and even writing down presents on the TY card list. The kids had a blast from what we could see, and it's made me seriously consider having all our birthday parties there.

She loves the rings.

Cousins. Ben was really into this place.

Jonathan was, too. He tried a little bit of everything.

This was HILARIOUS. They turned on music and told them to run, and they took off at lightening speed without a care in the world. Notice Will in the bottom right corner - he seemed to be leading the pack at many times.

Will and Ben walking between the bars.

Swinging and building up that core!

The spread.

The cake.

The awesome set-up they did for us. We had 20 children in total.

Scarlet is very funny about loud noises. They scare her easily. So she immediately covered her ears when everyone first started singing to her. She thought it was too loud...but quickly grew used to it and then thoroughly enjoyed it.

And then came presents. So many presents...

And then the kids could go back into the gym again for some more bouncing around. They have this Air Track. All the kids sit on it while it airs up like a bounce house. Once it's full, they bounce on it in a line from one end to the other. They LOVED it.

Will had a really big time on it. Scarlet always seemed to be moving in the wrong direction...

And the party crew. This was the best we could do at getting all the kids looking in the same direction. I think we did pretty good!!

These are my Pinterest-inspired party favors. I used the Cricut to make double-layer butterflies out of colored card stock, then placed a Smarties roll as the body.

These were also from Pinterest. They are goldfish-filled baggies that are pinched in the middle by a clothespin to create the body and wings. Pipe cleaner antennae and googly eyes finish them off! These were a big hit with all the kids (even though I was afraid of having a butterfly theme with boys there).