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!

Spring

Lots of stuff going on, as usual.  Kate followed in her big sister's footsteps and got ear tubes.  She did great and was actually a whole new baby until the teething hit!  She's been super fussy and when she's not cranky she is getting into everything.  The only time she's content for a moment is when she's stuffing rice crackers or a puff into her mouth.  She's refusing pureed baby food & I'm started giving her tiny pieces of table food which she loves.  She's so cute and silly.  When I tell her to clap she gets really excited and furiously claps her chubby little hands.  I love this stage but it's also frustrating.  I am looking forward to getting her into her own bed.  It will happen one day.  I hope! 

Sydney is definitely going through lots of developmental changes.  Her communication skills grow stronger everyday.  Along with all the exciting changes comes lots of extremes.  She will be so happy & giddy and then something will set off a crying spell.  Today she cried because her balloon flew away, and because her shoe fell off, and because Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ended, and because she couldn't find a ball, oh and there were several meltdowns at the park.  Tomorrow will be much of the same, I am sure.  I've heard that 3 is more challenging then 2, and here we are.  Despite the ups & downs, I really do love this stage best.  She is so much fun.  Tonight, I laid down with her at bedtime and we were chatting about different things.  She's so excited for her upcoming birthday party.  We've been working on lots of decorations and she even helped put the invitations together.  The afternoons spent gardening or sitting on the new stone wall in our backyard are the best. 

Here are some photos of my favorite place in the whole world.  Our Garden of Weedin'.  It's always a work in progress...

Sydney's garden is in bloom.  I harvested the nasturtium seeds last year and I have them growing all over the yard.

 Sydney helped plant these pots...and a sneak preview of some decor for her strawberry party.

 Strawberries galore!

 I made this little fairy garden. :)

 My veggie garden

 Geraniums and sunflowers

 Hummingbird house

 The very 1st bloom of my Eden climbing rose. 

Nasturtium


I planted a watermelon, pumpkin and sunflower patch for the girls.  I'll take some photos once things start growing.

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.