My sweet little girls enjoyed their 1st and 3rd birthday party this past Saturday. We celebrated by throwing a big, traditional, family-style party with colors and cake and fun animal touches. I love all the planning (you’re shocked right now, aren’t you?) but there was nothing better in the world than seeing the smiles on my girls’ faces when they saw [everything we had made for them but also] an entire house full of people who love them show up at the same time. Almost everyone my girls know and love in the same place, at the same time. Lilly literally shook with each new party guest that walked through the door. She’s a party girl through, and through and told me at bedtime that “this day was actually her best day ever”. Here’s a little taste of our evening soiree.
My incredibly patient mother helped me make those sweet little giraffe and parrot sugar cookies. The giraffe was made out of a pineapple cookie cutter and the blue [Rio] parrots were born from a cardinal bird cookie cutter. You see, Mom and I are Sweet Sugar Belle junkies and we FINALLY got to try out her cookie recipes and methods. If you don’t know who I’m referring to, you must go get a cup of tea, say goodbye to your to-do list, and google her. Best cookie decorator in the entire world. Incase you are wondering, those sweet little boxes are full of homemade, super delicious, pink and white, vanilla, sprinkle marshmallows. My incredibly talented fellow foodie friend from where I grew up made them for my marshmallow loving girls. And YES those are Trix Crispie Treats. We don’t eat sugar in our house.
Not to brag or anything, but isn’t that pom-pom-yarn-garland the freaking bomb?? I seriously can’t stop admiring it. Probably the best use of any scrap material in the history of my life. Didn’t cost me a penny. And to be honest, I’m so glad everyone else likes it too because it might stay hanging there for quite some time… Thanks to my brother, Sam, our clear balloons were able to be filled with colored confetti (a.k.a. a bazillion tiny hole punch dots that Sam punched on Friday night). He’s awesome. And thanks to my Dad for taking all the confetti filled balloons to get filled with helium. He’s awesome too. And he said the balloons make a freaking MESS when they pop. Hmmm, so glad we did not fill them with GLITTER.
Lilly is an animal LOVER and Grace is very un-opinionated at the moment so I seized this opportunity to throw my animals an animal party! In attendance were all of our “real” animal friends- penguins, giraffes, lions, an alligator, a snake and few funny monkeys. I borrowed some cardboard tracer-things from my school and traced/cut some animal silhouettes onto card stock. They made a cute little decoration behind our party table. (I’ve since discovered that they sell almost identical tracers at the craft store in the “teacher” section for bulletin board decor and such.)
This phenomenal photo backdrop wall was brought to life by my amazing mother-in-law. She made ALL of those tissue paper pom poms and helped me hang them up on the wall. They were certainly a little bit softer in the daylight but I absolutely love how bright they made our party photos look!
We even got a rare good photo of the three of us. Princess Lilly was to busy-busy to take any photos. Can’t blame her.
Perhaps my favorite photo of the night- the look on our sweet little almost-three-year-old’s face when she got her first princess dress -up dress put on. We just took it off for night night time. It’s certainly a new favorite. Never have I ever been so in love with cheap silk and tulle. 
We are so blessed to have such amazing family around us to help us throw these things together. It’s so special for our girls and definitely creates some amazing memories that we will all treasure forever. Not to mention it gives Grace one more reason to eat cake- that girl is now more addicted than me.
****
Speaking of… I cannot end this birthday post without sharing a few shots from GG’s real birthday. She demolished those ::sighIhavetosayit:: store-bought cupcakes without so much as taking a breath of air. Who doesn’t love cupcakes as big as their head?
(You can read a little bit more about the begrudged purchase of said cupcakes by clicking here.)
And just incase you were wondering…
…this is what baby faces look like when they slip into baby sugar comas.
Not that you’ll be surprised, but eating cake- much like everything else in Gracie’s life- is super, incredibly, serious business.
Buon compleanno miei amori.
-J
Kelly says
LOL at Lilly’s face in the “sugar coma” pic!!