We celebrated Gracie's 3rd birthday a couple weeks ago...figured it was about time I put up pics from her birthday. She had a wonderful day. Her birthday fell on a Monday this year, and since Robbie wouldn't be here due to working in New Hampshire, we celebrated the day before. Rob's parents came up from Rutland for it, my sister Traci and her husband and kids came to help us celebrate, and of course my sister Melissa was there too. Unfortunately my parents were not able to be there since my brother was still in the hospital at that time.
Gracie decided 2 weeks before her birthday that she wanted an all Tinkerbell party. So that's what she got. Decorations, cake, even gift bags and wrapping paper were tinkerbell. Gracie was so excited...her birthday had finally come!! Even Gwen got excited, even though she wasn't getting any presents. I think though it's because Rob's mom let Gwen take her camera and take pictures of everything.
My sister's daughter Mae decided to give Gracie a gift as well and gave her some dress up shoes that she had outgrown. Gracie loved them, since-believe it or not-we did not own a single pair of dress up shoes. Georgia loved them even more. She has got such a shoe fetish, and once she saw these shoes, she wore them around all night.
Gracie had so much fun opening her presents. Her cousins and sisters were just as anxious to see what she got as she was.
This mailbox by Melissa & Doug was one of the favorites of the night. The other favorite was a make your own cupcake toy set...the girls all love that one. Clothes? No way. Movies and toys are the way to go apparently.
Gracie wanted a Tinkerbell cake so badly, but I so did not want to make one of those big character shaped cake pans that I thought would take forever to decorate. So while we were at Michaels' thinking about the cake, I came up with this idea and it turned out pretty good. I'm not too talented though. I did use an icing bag to make the icing look like grass, but towards the end the frosting heated up from the warmth of my hands and got mushy and didn't look right (and you can tell too). The flowers and leaves are pre made icing decorations that I found at Michaels. The stones are snickers. The stems of the flowers are kabob sticks, broken in half, with green fondant wrapped around (cause I couldn't find a place that sold modeling chocolate, and I was too tired to make it myself). I even found a "gold pixie dust" that was edible that I sprinkled around where tinkerbell is sitting. It actually turned out pretty good, and was a good lesson in what to do the next time I attempt something like this.
And of course Gracie loved her cake!!! All the kids wanted one of the flowers with their cake. Gracie even made a wish as she blew out the candles.
While the kids were all waiting for us to cut the cake and dish out some ice cream, one of the kids made the suggestion that my sister's son Aidan needed a kiss. Of course Gracie was willing to try. She chased him around the kitchen and family room for about 5 minutes before an adult grabbed Aidan so Gracie could finally give him a kiss. Aidan wasn't too happy about it, but he was nice enough to play along.
We didn't know how well Georgia would handle a piece of cake on her own, so we gave her a mini drumstick that we had in the freezer from earlier that week. She loved it...but of course, she loves any treat and will gladly eat any cookie, cake, ice cream or pie that comes her way.
Grace at one point got tired of using her fork and decided that she wanted to be like a puppy dog and eat without any hands. It was pretty funny...she just ended up licking the icing off the cake because eating the cake without hands turned out to be too hard as well.
I decided that we'd have a small celebration on Monday, Gracie's real birthday. I bought a small ice cream cake at the grocery store that morning and had a fun time. It was just the girls, me, and my sister Melissa, so it wasn't much, but it still felt good to see the smile on Gracie's face as we sang happy birthday to her again.
The whole weekend was wonderful and I am so grateful for so many wonderful family members who made the weekend so special for my sweet Gracie. Gracie, you are my sweetheart. You know when people are sad, or upset, and somehow know just how to calm people down or comfort them. You give wonderful hugs, and say the funniest things. Your imagination amazes me, and my love for you grows each and every day. I am so happy and grateful that you chose to come to our family, chose me as your mommy, and that the Lord sent us such a happy and healthy little girl. Happy Birthday Gracie girl...your daddy and I sure love you!!
