Anna's Third Birthday

I have lived through the birthday, I posted pics on Facebook about the birthday, and now I'm blogging about the birthday. Catching a theme here? Anna turned three today in spite of the fact that she was forbidden to do so. She did NOT have our permission, but she went and did it anyway. At least she's cute :)

She started her day by sleeping in until almost eight o'clock! This is my early riser, so it was pretty surprising. We were all up and dressed and breakfast was almost done by the time she made an appearance. At least she woke up in time for her traditional call from my parents (or mom, since Dad had gone to work). They always call and sing to the birthday person. She smiled a lot and thanked her grandma, then we let her open family presents. She received a Kai-Lan sticker/coloring book from her aunt and uncle, a purse and watch from her cousin Makenzie, a bag of clothing from Grandpa and Grandma Litwiller (they had already given her a toy when they were up here for Ben's birthday), homemade cards from her brothers, and a Big Wheel from us. Rob had chocolate chip pancakes and sausage for her breakfast.

Rob left for a chiropractic appointment and to pick up the birthday cake (Kai-Lan, of course) and we trudged through school and cleaning. The kids were so hyper that it was all we could do to contain them. Once the cleaning was done, we let them watch a movie. Rob was going to make homemade mac 'n cheese for lunch but we ran out of time, so he picked up some Lunchables from the store instead. Somehow in the midst of all of this, a Stampin' Up order arrived and I got it bagged up for the hostess, I took a business call, two more family members called to sing (Aunt Mandy w/Kenzie and my dad), Anna was dressed in party clothes (Chinese princess dress and pig tails) and the party was set up and decorated for. Whew!

The first little party guest arrived all decked out in pink princess attire around 12:30 and the rest of the girls trickled in shortly afterwards. I had one mom stay, thankfully, so there were three adult present. Our first order of business was making princess crowns, which proved to be a little harder than we thought. The older girls did great but Anna and her other friend needed lots of help. They all got made and I had the girls sit down for a picture. Unfortunately, we put Anna's new bike away right before the picture, so she was kind of pouty. Then we ushered the girls into the kitchen while the boys hid all of their shoes. We talked about the Cinderella story while they waited. The girls found their shoes pretty quickly and then I passed out streamers and we had a princess twirl. They had fun twirling around in their pretty dresses. After that, we read Anna's current favorite children's story (Pete's a Pizza) while Rob prepared for cake and ice cream. The girls sang Happy Birthday and ate up the yummy sweets.

Halfway through eating cake, one of the girls spilled her pink lemonade right into the cake. We were able to salvage most of it, thankfully. We wiped many pretty little faces and hands and sent them back into the living room for present opening. Anna received some nice things from her little friends, like a Belle doll for playing in the bathtub, a mini princess with many changes of clothes, a whole pile of princess craft items, and a mini magni-doodle. The last gift was the most precious because it came from two sisters who pooled their piggy bank money together to buy the gift. Isn't that sweet?

I had one last craft up my sleeve, so the older girls glued some sparkly clothes onto teddy bears that I had cut out ahead of time. Little girls began leaving around 2pm, all sugared up! Anna and I did some stamp product deliveries afterwards so she would nap in the car and then we came home to crash. She wanted to eat at Applebees for supper and we couldn't complain...it's 99 cent kids night! Now we're all resting after the long day.

So I have a three-year-old now and she had a wonderful birthday. I think I need a nap.