Sydney is 3!

                                     

We spent Sydney's birthday (for the 2nd year in a row) at Disneyland.  We had so much fun at Breakfast with Minnie & Friends and exploring the park.  The only snafu was that we discovered Sydney is not fond of boats.  Once we learned what rides to avoid we had a fabulous time.  Sydney loved every moment & Kate was mesmerized by the sights and sounds.  Both girls were so happy and well behaved.  Our little family of four ended the evening at home with pizza & ice cream sundaes.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate Our Sydney. 

Here are a few photos of our Disneyland adventure.

 I'm 3!

 Who's behind me?

 Starstruck!

 Nice to meet you Chip!

 Minnie's biggest fan!

 Kate meets Minnie. 

 Teacups with daddy.

Syd & Daddy

Sydney's 3rd Birthday Party

A Berry Sweet Birthday!

We celebrated Sydney's birthday on a beautiful, sunny day in the park.  The weather couldn't have been more pleasant and the company was even better.  The hubby bbqed hamburgers & hot dogs and my mother-in-law made enough sides to feed an army.  There were sweets galore and strawberries, strawberries, everywhere!  It was a fun day.  We even got some huge smiles out of my shy, little shortcake.  She loved the bounce house and dressing up in her party dress.  I can't believe in a few short days, she will be 3.

Anyway, I'll let the photos tell the story of the day. 

Sydney & Kate in thier Sweet Stuff Creations shirts.  Thanks Wendi!

These were super simple to make.  I dipped some mini wafer cookies in hot pink candy melts & added the sugar cube strawberry.  Yum!

Strawberry cookies by Sydney's request.  She helped by adding sprinkles & by eating the broken cookies. :)

   

 The jumping bean & the jumper!

Ribbon & fabric garland.

I made these centerpieces for about $3 each.  I got the baskets 2/$1 at Dollar Tree.  I added some ribbon and the little strawberry plant 6/$3.  I made the tall signs with a free download I got here.

 The setup

Ribbon mobile.  This was so fun to make & the photo does not do it justice.  I want to make these for my Etsy store when I'm ambitious enough to reopen it.  Someday soon I will have more time to get it going again.

Painted rocks.  Sydney and I had fun painting these and they now reside in her garden.

The marshmallow pops were a hit!

My sweet girls rocking out.
 

My mom made this banner for Sydney's 1st birthday & we've hung it up every year since.  I love it!

My mom made this sweet little crown.  I measured Sydney's head while she slept the night before the party & I didn't do a good job.  The crown was a little too small but we managed to clip it on with a hair bow.  You can't tell by the photo, but she loved her "pwincess hat".

 Sydney in her party dress

Stephen and Sydney picked out this silly guy.  I ordered a strawberry pinata from Party City but when it arrived Stephen thought it was too small.  (Pinatas are serious business in his family. LOL!)  Anyway, he took Sydney to pick out a new (gigantic) one.  This is what they came home with!  haha!  Stephen loved that he threw a wrench into the "theme".  The laugh is on him though because I manged to make it work. ;-)

 Here is the photo of Mister Froggy being decapitated.

Sydney waiting patiently for the candy to hit the ground.



Me & my girl

 Present time

                                                                   It was a great day!

More Bday photos...

I have slowly been going through the over 230 photos taken at Syd's party. Here are a few more that I couldn't resist posting.

Sydney's 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated Sydney's 1st birthday on May 15th. We welcomed 75 family & friends to our "new" home to celebrate the momentous occasion. It's been an amazing year and well worth celebrating in a BIG way. We went all out and it was fabulous. It was a lot of work getting the house ready for the special day and we wouldn't have been able to make it a success without the help of our wonderful family. The list of people who helped us is long. It warms my heart to know how much we are loved.

The little zookeeper

All smiles

The centerpieces. I used our wedding candle holders, added some ribbon, some pom poms & pipe cleaners from the dollars store & some wood animals I bought for 50 cents at Micheal's. Cheap & easy...

My mom made this sign for Sydney. We can remove the "1st" part & put a new number in for every new birthday. I love it!

Mommy, Daddy & Sydney

Grammy & Sydney

Sydney's hearing aids all dressed-up for the party

Our home

Sydney's 1st year in review (Thanks Ashley)

I bought the cake topper on Etsy (kharygoarts) and I made the cake myself. It was 3 layers of chocolate & white cake with 2 different fillings (banana & chocolate pudding & strawberries & cream). I made Martha Stewart's Swiss meringue butter cream and it was yummy! I only wish I got to enjoy more of it.

The cakes

Pinwheels and poppies

Paper pinwheels made by my mom. She used flower & animal papers.

My mom made these hanging paper balls with cute, whimsical cardstock. I wish I had more photos of these. She made some with fuzzy animal print cardstock. They also had hanging tags with zoo animals.

The decor. We used pink tablecloths with animals print wrapping paper as table runners. My mom bought really cool animal balloons at Target. Before the party began I peeked out Sydney's window and I saw how beautiful everything looked and it made me tear up. Our family helped to make it so beautiful. My father-in-law spent many hours working on our yard, my mother-in-law made food and bought almost everything we needed, my dad came weekly to keep Sydney occupied while I cleaned or ran errands and my mom worked on handmade decorations for weeks. It was really special for us to celebrate how far we've come. It was a hard year...but a beautiful, joyous year. I couldn't be happier.

The kid's table (Thanks Audrey!)

The beautiful sign the my mother-in-law had made for Sydney. She used one of my favorite photos.

My cousin Loretta & my little niece Giovanna. Lori just completed her 1st year at Cal and then hopped on a plane to be here just for the party. My family is amazing!

The salsas

The Taco guys cooking up the carne. Woody was barking at these guys until he realized they were cooking meat and then he wouldn't leave their side.

Mr. Gorilla was hanging around at the party. I spotted him with a beer during the party.

The best Elmo pinata I could find. He's a little cheesy and kind of creepy but Sydney really loves Elmo. She squealed with delight when she saw this pinata.

Aiden taking his turn

Little Sophia taking her turn

Sammy whacking Elmo (I forgot the blindfold!)

Brooke in for the kill...Poor Elmo!

Sydney getting candy for mommy. :) Look at Elmo's poor head in the background.

Opening presents. Sydney got so many thoughtful gifts. We are so very thankful.

Elmo!

Sweet Delilah

The End!

I can't wait to see what adventures Sydney's 2nd year brings. She is the most amazing, sweet, loving little girl. She brings so much joy to every one's life she touches. Despite the stress of having such a big party it was well worth the work. I'm so thankful for everyone who came and celebrated with us.