I imagine that with all three girls having birthdays within one week of another, we will likely be having joint parties and extended birthday celebrations for years to come. We decided to go big this year….and I mean 65 people big and a moon bounce slide combo. Going into it, I knew that we would probably alternate years with doing big birthday celebrations and other years with doing smaller family gatherings. This was a year for going big though. I think in part it had to do with last year’s birthday celebration being small as I was 38 weeks pregnant. In part it also had to do with the fact that we had just moved in to our new house with an awesome backyard and many of our friends had yet to see the place. So maybe the girls’ birthdays was just an excuse to have a party?!?!? We decided to have the party on August 16 which was after both birth dates which allowed us to focus on enjoying their actual birthdays without having to focus on the party too much until the week before the party.
Even though we were having a big party for the girls, we still couldn’t let their actual birthdays go by without a small family celebration. Avery and Emerson’s birthday breakfast consisted of a ceral bar with a candle in it. They both were thrilled with blowing out their birthday cereal bar, so much so that I started to wonder if the afternoon presents were even necessary! We had a quick breakfast so that we could be at Kid Junction when it opened at 10:00 as their birthday was on a Monday and Justin and I each were able to take the morning off, but only the morning and not the whole day. The girls had a great time playing and the grocery store is still by far the favorite room of the girls. What was super awesome this time was that Harper truly got in there on all the fun this time and was not only pushing her own shopping cart, but also she was pushing it backwards AND laughing about it because she knew exactly what she was doing. For some reason the girls weren’t really into the slides and mazes this year as they had been the previous two times we were there….they were scared of them this go around….with the exception being the “baby” slide area.
Avery and Emerson had plenty of cards to open during the day including one from GiGi and Papa Mac that contained a Minnie Mouse Crown that literally took Mommy longer to put together than Dadddy’s frozen pizza took to cook. Sadly, I think it would have taken me even longer than 15 minutes had Karolin not been in the room to give me a hint as to what I was doing wrong….sad, I know!
The birthday celebration continued in the evening with some Chinese Food for dinner courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa followed by a small little cake and ice cream courtesy of Giant.
The celebration continued into the evening with opening of presents including a new kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa.
Turning three also meant “big girl” beds, which meant taking off the railing and putting on the crib rail!
Fast forward one week and one day, and it was Harper’s birthday. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Harper’s 1 year photo shoot.
We celebrated with a cake for Harper, which she wanted no part of whatsoever, and cupcakes for everyone else.
I had actually made two cakes the night before her birthday…one for her Harper and then one for everyone else. I was multi-tasking (making dinner for the current night) the same time that I made the cakes that I totally forgot to spray the pan with Pam, which equated to a disaster and a cake that I couldn’t serve. Thus the gourmet store bought cupcakes, which turns out I probably didn’t need due to the fact that Harper wanted nothing to do with the cake. Harper’s big presents were her very own baby doll and Pottery Barn Chair from Grandma Barbara and Grandma Adele which she was pretty excited about as she loved playing in Avery and Emerson’s chairs.
The Big Party! The Big Party was Saturday August 16 and it was a hit. Justin and I for once decided to go all out….although money is always a consideration, we decided for this party it really wasn’t. That included a moon bounce combo that truly made the party and really made the party a backyard party and eased my concerns and the obvious about our house not having a walk out entrance from the dining room or living room. The kids had a great time playing in the moon bounce and some of the younger kids had a fun time hanging out in the ball pit.
The majority of our friends were able to come. We also had plenty of family including Grandma Adele, GiGi, Uncle Russell, and the entire Petchenick clan. We also had a few new neighbors who we look forward to hanging out with more in the future. We of course over estimated on everything with regards to how much everyone would eat and drink so we had A LOT of left overs, but most things especially the beer will not go to waste.
We had two awesome cakes that Karolin made from scratch that were delicious. Everyone gathered to sing happy birthday and mid way through I realized I forgot to have someone video it :(. I thought about having everyone sing a second time but decided against it.
Really though it was a great party…my only regrets were that I didn’t get to have meaningful conversations with some of our friends…but I knew before the party started that would be the case and we didn’t get better pictures…but again that was attributed to us trying to enjoy the party and not being so focused on capturing the event. We heard from most everyone that the party was awesome. I even made goodie bags (which wasn’t in my original plan) but I’m glad that I did as I think the kids thoroughly enjoyed them as evidenced by Camden on her way home from the party….note to parents….check your rearview mirror if your kids are quieter than normal…lol.
And because we didn’t get a chance to take any pictures with Grandma Adele at the party we took some the following day at Mom and Dad’s house.
I’m hoping that as the girls get older my chances of getting a picture where they are all smiling and looking at the camera at the same time will increase…oh well…at least these make me smile.