Christopher’s 3rd Birthday

Christopher turned 3 on August 18th!!! I’m finally getting his birthday post up. Maybe now I won’t feel like such a slacker mom. :)

At some point this summer, he was really into Curious George, which we can watch on Netflix. My original plan for his birthday party theme was going to be Thomas the Tank Engine, but I ended up changing it to Curious George because I thought a monkey-themed party would be fun to plan and decorate, and I figured that next year he’ll want a Thomas-themed party anyway, and I’d rather not do the same theme two years in a row.

Last year I planned a big party and expected a lot of people to show up. Christopher wasn’t in daycare at the time, but I invited acquaintances who had children around Christopher’s age, hoping for a good turn-out. I went to a lot of trouble… and the only kid there other than Christopher was my cousin’s little girl, who my aunt had brought from Texarkana. And the only other people at the party was family and our family friends, the Lawrys. To say I was disappointed was an understatement.

This year, I chose to invite only family and the Lawrys and just plan for them. It was much less stressful on me and we had a wonderful day celebrating Christopher’s third birthday!!!

I don’t love all of these pictures, but I was really too busy prepping everything to worry about shooting in anything other than auto.

{Morning of his birthday…}

I just snapped these pictures before most people arrived.
In this picture, you can see the blue spiral hanging from the ceiling. I had those in different colors hanging all over the living room. The little yellow bucket on the table was filled with candy. The Curious George balloon in the background was also tied to a bucket of candy.

I got the buckets from the $1 spot at Target. I got blue and yellow and filled them all with different kinds of candy. Then I bought the “3” candles and put them on a wooden skewer and stuck them in the middle.

This was our “dessert” bar… I always go overboard with the desserts, but I like for people to have options!

Red Velvet mini cupcakes with Cream Cheese icing. {both made from scratch}

White chocolate pretzel sticks. The sprinkles on the ones on the left are banana split sprinkles… bananas, cherries, and chocolate sprinkles.

Banana Bread

Banana Split Bar. We had homemade ice cream (made by my dad) with these yummy toppings in a waffle bowl.

This is an opening between the kitchen and living room. I wanted to do something fun and came up with this idea. Loved it!

Monkey faces!

4:59 – Birth Minute!

I realized – way after this picture was taken – that in all of craziness of the day, I had never put makeup on. Lovely.

Even though it was “just” aunts, uncles, grandparents, and the Lawrys, Christopher still had a ridiculous amount of gifts to open. He is very loved! (And spoiled.)

There were three things he kept telling us that he wanted for his birthday – balloons, a Thomas clock, and a drum. I made sure plenty of balloons were used as decorations, and Nana and PopPop got him the clock and drum.

This is his face when he realized what my parents got him – he opened up a helmet and then we asked him what he might need a helmet for? And my dad rolled in a brand new bike!

I am so thankful for our family. Christopher’s grandparents, uncles, and aunts all love him so much. Everyone except my parents & the Lawrys had to travel to be here to celebrate his day. I would like to say THANK YOU to each and every one of you! Our day wouldn’t have been complete without you here to celebrate it.