Princess For A Day

Lily's 3 birthday was all about princesses! We sent out princess invites, made princess cookie wands, decorated the park down our street with princess decorations, and gave out princess favors! We wanted Lily to feel like the princess she was on her special day...and I think we did just that!! We had a wonderful day celebrating her birth with family and friends!

The Birthday Princess herself:


The party started with a pizza lunch, with watermelon, salad, and goldfish crackers as a side! The kids all had fun sitting together eating their lunch, making each other laugh!




Of course every time we get Kyan and Lily together they are all giggles!



G. Enjoyed his pizza!


And I. enjoying his watermelon:


After having a quick meal together, the kids went to play on the playground and with the big giant purple ball in the field! Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of them playing, but I do have one of cutie Ella watching all the action!


After some free play it was time to do the pinata!! In the shape of a princess crown of course!

G. taking his turn at bat:


Kyan's turn:



Princess Lily's turn:


E. takes a turn!


And I. gives it a try:


Finally my cousin Conner steps up and starts hitting it down!!


He did a great job getting it started, and was nice enough to let Lily finish it off!! The kids all had fun rushing to fill their bags with candy!!



Out came the special princess deserts that we had made next! Nannie and I spent the whole previous day baking and decorating these cookies and wands and the cake! It was a lot of stressful work, but they came out so good! I need to remember to put almond extract in cookie dough more often...they came out SO yummy!!




And out comes the beautiful cake!


I. and G. wanted to give Lily some help with the candles!


Unfortunately that is not what Lily wanted, and she had a minor melt down that they had helped blow out her candles! So sad!



Daddy came to the rescue though and re-lit the candles for her! (I love Violet trying to sneak a bite of cookie here!)


This time she blew them out all by herself!

Some f Lily's guest enjoying their treats:

E.


Cousin Kelly:


Cousin Kaitlin:


The beautiful Mr. Gage and his Mommy Becky:


O. from Little gym made it just in time to enjoy a cookie and some play time with Lily!

Lily's friends had fun with their favor bags! Papa even got everyone special airplanes to build!

Kyan and Jon checking out the plane:

I. digging into his candy:


Lily dug into her gifts without anyone else (I think Kyan may have helped egg her on! Hehe!)


Lily got a lot of wonderful gifts from her friends, including a stuffed penguin and penguin book from I., a princess dress from Kyan, a princess book and magnet princess toy from G., duck game from O., princess book from E., Thomas movies and kid music from Nannie and Papa, and wedding cake toy from Aunt Maureen and Uncle Rob!

She had a wonderful day, and was very sad when it was over. Poor thing started crying while we were cleaning up and said "I want it to be my birthday again! I miss my friends!" Broke my heart to see her so sad...but I know it meant she had a wonderful time, and really felt special on her Princess day! That's all I could ask for! Love my little Princess!!

Thank you to all our friends and family who made Lily a Princess for the day!!

Lily's 3rd Birthday At the Aquarium

We had big plans for Lily's birthday! All she wanted to do was go to the amusement park and ride a roller coaster! We had been talking to her about it all week, and she was SO excited! Unfortunately we woke up on her birthday morning to rain!! We did some quick thinking and changed our plans so she would still have a wonderful birthday doing something new! We chose to go to the Norwalk aquarium, which we have never been to before! I nice fun indoor activity!

But first, to calm her down from finding out we couldn't go to the amusement park, we led her to her big present from us...a grocery stand and shopping cart!!

Lily of course loved them, as we knew she would! She started playing right away, forgetting ll about the amusement park (well..not really...but at least she was happy!)

On our way to the aquarium, we stopped at the SoNo Brewhouse for a breakfast brunch! We all had a wonderful time at breakfast, feasting on waffles, eggs benedict, lobster stew, bacon, and bagels with lox. (Well, Lily feasted on fruit, muffins, and bagels with cream cheese!) It was a wonderful breakfast! And for the first time we took Ella and Violet out of their car seats to join us at the table!


They made things interesting at the table, with them reacting for everything in their sight!

And Lily was particularly loopy with it being her birthday and all! We let it slide though (She wasn't to bad really...just fidgety!)



Ella the thumb sucker?


Lily had fun playing with all the condiments! This place just just stunning too! So much to look at!


We then made our way to the aquarium, which we discovered was packed with people! There was a line all the way out the building and around the corner to get in! We almost turned around and left to find something else to do...but decided to stick it out. It may have been a bad decision on our part...but Lily had fun!

Once inside, we made our way over to the seals. There was a break in the rain, so we were able to check them out from the outside, where there weren't as many people!


This Little girls name was Lily too! We met a lot of Lily's today!



The girls checking out the Seals:


Then we headed to check out the penguins!


Inside we found some turtles:



And a big sea turtle! Lily loved this guy:


And we all enjoyed the jelly fish!


They are so pretty (behind glass!)


We then checked out some tropical fish. It drives me crazy when kids these days refer to this fish as "Dory" from Finding Nemo...but alas I don't know the proper name of this fish! It still drives me crazy!



At least Lily isn't one of those kids calling clown fish "Nemo". She was telling everyone (and I do mean everyone) in the area "That's not Nemo! That's Nemo clown fish! That's his home (points to the anemone) It stings! (but it sounds like she says stinks!) I love that she was listening to me and learned that they are called clown fish...and that she needed to inform everyone his proper name! (This little girls name was Lily too btw! Haha!) This whole moment was my favorite part of the day!



We then went to check out the sharks!



And then Lily found her favorite...the touch tank!


Touching the whelk snail inside a whelk:



Touching star fish:


After wondering around a bit seeing some other displays, we found a play area for younger kids! Lily had a lot of fun in this area collecting fish and building herself a kitchen!


We also found a hippo to play on!



We then found a boat play scape! Lily had fun driving the boat! (and did a very good job at waiting for her turn if I do say so myself!)


And then there was this food display (all about the correct fish to eat to be environmentally sound) Lily had fun pretending to eat everything!



The girls passed out of course:

Before we left, we found the Meerkat display. There was a bubble you could go inside that put you right in the middle of the display! Very neat! (And also very scary for Mommy when it got filled with about 20 children, and Lily got stuck and couldn't get out!)


Lily loved it though!




She loved it so much that she cried the whole way to the car when I finally got her out! All in all we had a fun day! It was very crowded, and I don't feel this aquarium managed the crowds very well...but it was a nice little aquarium with some nice displays! Lily had a fun time, and that's all that matters!

At home that night we pulled out the rest of Lily's presents!


Elmo in Grouch Land:



A baby doll carrier that is just like Mommy's (Really, it is! Made by Ergo baby just like my carrier! Wonderful products!)



And play fruit and ice cream to go with her new shopping cart!


We opened those while on skype with Nanie and Papa! It was nice they got to join in some of her birthday celebration!

And lastly, we finished the night with cake for dinner! (We were all still full from brunch...no need for dinner too!) This was my practice cake for her party next weekend! I think it came out pretty well...and it was definitely delicious!


I hope Lily had a wonderful 3rd birthday! I still can't believe she is 3 already! To me she will always be a little baby. It's hard watching her grow up so fast, but I hope we are giving her lots of fun memories to look back on when she's even older! Love you baby girl! Happy Birthday!