Celebrating 3 Years!

For Mackenzie's third birthday, we had (surprise, surprise.....) a princess themed party. My mom made her the most adorable Sleeping Beauty princess dress & we had the "real" Sleeping Beauty come to the party for entertainment :) I wasn't sure at first if I should splurge on this, but after seeing the "real" Belle at her best bud's party, she definitely wanted to have Sleeping Beauty come to hers! And Brannon heard at some point that if you're going to spend money, a good category is on making memories. When budgeting, don't forget to make memories :) I think this falls into that category! And we were definitely in need of budgeting after our home renovation, but I'm so glad I splurged anyways! She had a blast. And I was so happy to be able to see her have such a great time with her friends! Although (like I say every year), I wouldn't mind a lower key birthday party next year......but by time it rolls around again, I always to celebrate BIG!





The cupcakes! I was so proud - I made them myself this year!





















Mackenzie with Aunt Natalie & Granmommy waiting for the fun to begin!














Liam - braving the princess party in his pirate outfit and getting his face painted














Keelyn - our little sleeping beauty!














Taking a dancing lesson from the princess. They were so attentive. Maybe if I dressed like a princess Mackenzie would listen to me better??














"Freeze" dancing. They were so cute dancing & freezing when the music stopped!














Miniature princesses posing (and I use the term posing very loosely!) with Sleeping Beauty!














Blowing out her candles (with a little help from mommy - it was windy!)














Photo with our big T-H-R-E-E year old!




















"Okay, now that I'm three, I can carry my sister around, right??"














Family photo with EVERYONE smiling, eyes open, & looking at the camera. I call it our birthday miracle!! And girls are coordinating.....couldn't get daddy to wear pink though!

Celebrating with Friends

Here's a few more pictures from the party & her friends that came by to help us celebrate!

The girls sitting together eating the snacks - so cute & grown up looking!

Harrison feeding the lion

Ryan & mommy Claire

Roman giving "Miss Kenzie" (as he calls her!) a hug :)

The Gardiners & Baby Jackson

All her girl friends from our community group

The Big #2 Birthday Party

So, this weekend was finally the culmination of all of our birthday fun. We had Mackenzie's birthday party with a bunch of her (and our) friends. It was a zoo/jungle animal theme party - perfect for our little monkey! My mom handmade her very adorable little jungle animal dress to fit the occasion! It was a lot of fun! (But also a lot of work..... definitely worth it, but I'm glad to say we have another year before we have to do it again!)

She seemed to really enjoy herself. I wish she could've taken a real nap

beforehand, but the excitement from the impending party was too much for her and she didn't fall asleep until about 2:45 (after first starting to get her down around 1pm!). Then, we had towake her up at 3:15 b/c the party started at 3:30! Oh well, 30 minutes is better than nothing :)

We played feed the monkey & lion -

thanks to the adorable animal paintings that Meemi did (her former kindergarten teaching is going to be so helpful through these years!). Then, we ate & hung out. Then, of course the cake - which she wasn't so sure she wanted to share, and wanted to eat ALOT. She almost broke down when I stopped the eating. Only saved by the promise of opening gifts.

Opening gifts was also interesting. Her friends wanted to check out the gifts. She did NOT want to share her new gifts. Fairly typical, but still hard to manage not having a breakdown in front of everyone while opening her

gifts! She got a lot of great gifts, and we really enjoyed getting to spend time with our friends in celebration of 2 great years with our special little monkey!

Playing "Feed the Lion"

Best family pic of the day......apparently Mackenzie & I were more interested in what was to our left....

Blowing out her candles - with a little help from mommy

"NO Kee-Kee, you may NOT have any of my cake!!"

Unwrapping with a passion!