Claire's Three!

Well she will be. On Wednesday. We decided to have her party the Saturday before her birthday. Claire really wanted a princess party. I honestly have no idea how kid's birthday parties are supposed to work, and I was overwhelmed scanning Pinterest for ideas. Since when did birthday parties become such a big spectacle? With potty training and my school schedule, I had to keep it pretty simple. We completely forgot about the BYU/Wisconsin football game, and I'm so grateful some of Claire's friends could still make it to her party. Claire had a blast and loved having everyone there.

I set up a dress up table with some necklaces, bracelets, hair clips, and ring pops. I wanted to find some knight things for the boys, but couldn't find any.

We had a craft table where everyone could decorate a crown. The girls seemed to love that and were very creative.

The food was themed, and I meant to make place cards, but when it came down to it, I really didn't care. The pigs in a blanket were supposed to be "swords in sheaths", chips were "dragon food" and the fruit was made to look like magic wands.

Because I had class on Saturday, I decided to set everything up Friday night. I was excited about making Claire's cake, even though it was probably a little too ambitious for me. I wanted to make her a castle, but I ended up using 5 boxes of cake mix and spending 3 1/2 hours on the stupid thing. It started out fun, but when the cakes started sticking to the pans, and I had to throw away two of the cakes, I started to get really frustrated. I think I scared Ross. After a second trip to the grocery store to get more cake mix, I calmed down. And I was happy with how the cake turned out, even though it wasn't quite what I was envisioning. I now know what it means to do anything to make your child happy and their day special.

Saturday morning Claire came out front. First she saw the streamers, and then she saw the cake. She had the cutest shocked expression and said, "MOM! You made this for ME? For my BIRTHDAY?!" Then she talked about how beautiful it was and asked if we could take a picture. She's so funny. Then she ran in to wake up Ross. "DADDY! You have to wake up! You have to come and see! You have to open your EYES!!" We saw the future of birthdays and Christmases and all of the excitement. It made all of the frustrations of last night totally worth it. She LOVED her cake and was SO excited about it. She made us sing Happy Birthday to her five times before I had to leave for class.

Thanks to everyone for coming and making her birthday so special! She had so much fun and is still talking about it!