Alexandra Turns 3!

This weekend we celebrated Alexandra's 3rd birthday with friends and family. On Friday, her actual birthday, I hosted playgroup and so we had a party with her friends. The kids seemed to have a good time. What's nice was that it's just a laid back party - the kids just played and we had cupcakes and sang happy birthday. It was a beautiful day out so the kids were able to play in the water table, in the pool, and in the sprinkler.

I ended up doing a jungle/safari theme for her party. I thought it turned out pretty well. I made monkey cupcakes and some tiger and lion cake pops too. Let's just say there were not a lot of leftovers (and any food that was left over we took care of after the party!)

My mom, Amy, and Nancy came down on Thursday and were a huge help! Uncle Bob came down Thursday too because he had a conference to go to on the weekend. On Thursday I was in party mode trying to bake and decorate cakes, clean, and get all of the food ready. I ended up being a tad bit overwhelmed but was able to get everything done (although I didn't get to bed until about 1:30 and of course when I went up Camden got up so by the time I was done with him and went to bed it was about 2:15 or so.)

I thought the party turned out nice. Then after everyone left we were all pooped! Alex played with her toys the whole day and ended up crashing in the late afternoon in the car when Nana and I were running some errands.

Then on Saturday came party number two. Aunt Tricia, Papa, Mimi, and Lindsay joined us to celebrate again. It was nice that Alex was able to play with Alyssa (who just turned 2 a few days before). We just had some pizza and soft pretzels, cake, and ice cream. Again, nothing major but it was just nice being able to spend time together celebrating Alex's special day!

Here are some pictures from our fun birthday celebrations:

 Helping to crush the popcicles for our giant sno cone

 Pressing the ice pops into the bowl

 Her birthday outfit

 Checking out the food table. She asked about every 10 minutes for a cake pop

 Monkey cupcakes

 Cake Pops - Tigers and Lions

 Birthday Kisses 

 The food table

 Waiting for her friends to arrive

Alex had some "quiet time" with Amy putting together  a personalized puzzle she got when Camden was born. I'm surprised that she had the attention span to sit and finish this whole puzzle! (There were lots of little pieces!!)

She wanted to sit up on the counter to look at the cake

Enjoying her pool (or hot tub because the water got so warm!)

Swim time

The jungle/safari cake I made for Alex for her birthday party

Chris lighting the candles 

She was so excited when we sang to her 

Opening a princess castle from Nana and Papa

Alyssa opening her gifts

Daddy playing with the princess castle with Alex