Look Who's 3?!

This girl!

3! How did this happen?

 

We had a weekend full of festivity. We started it off on Friday with a joint Fairy Birthday Party with Tessa's friend Kendyl. These two are quite a pair. So girly, so funny, and so spunky. These two can hold thier own.

Birthday parties are a lot of work. And I even felt like we went pretty low key on this one. It was great to have Annalee (Kendyl's mom) to share the workload and cost with. And while a lot of work for a few days, it's always worth it, the girls were excited about the fairy theme, loved flitting about and all the kids seemed to have a great time. So chances are, we'll do it again. We had 13 kids, divided them into three groups and rotated them through activities....Plant a fairy garden, pick your favorite color playdough and mix in some pixie dust (you know, to make it sparkle!) and decorate a cookie wand. After the rotations were through, everyone went on a fairy hunt! Wahoo! After the fairies were  found, they got to put them in their fairy garden. For our memories sake...Vaughn, Jake, Luke, Max, Rebekah, Noah, Zach, Will, Brooklyn, Kate, and Avery came to the party. Whew, that's a lot of boys! The girls are so outnumbered in their age group, but those boys were good fairy sports!

 

Here are the favorite pics of the afternoon.

 

 

Even Bode had a good time. I feel blessed that Tessa has such a fun, cute group of friends to play with and grow with, that have great parents. It is going to be wild watching all these kiddos grow up.

My favorite line of the afternoon? Wade walked through the gate just as the party was getting started, Tessa runs to him, screams with delight and says, “Dad! Hi! Come on in, it’s my party!!”

and after the majority of the crowd had left, Wade began sweeping off the patio, I walk outside and he says, “That was chaotic.” Makes me laugh, it went smoothly and great, but 13, 3 years is indeed, nothing short of chaotic. It was a fun afternoon.

 

And if you thought the fun ended there, you are wrong, we kept right on going through Saturday! We opened presents this morning and then followed through with a spontaneous plan that Wade and I came up with last minute this week to get a sitter for Bode and take Tessa to do something fun on her birthday just the three of us. We really should be doing this more often. We tried a new found little spot called Adventure City, in short a miniature version of an amusement park, about 12 rides, all small, just Tessie’s size. We went for about 2 1/2 hours and had a great time together. It was over lunch that she told her dad he was joke.  And then threw her head back and laughed hysterically. All she know about jokes is that they are funny. So she told her dad he was a joke and then laughed her can off. Wade and I laughed our cans off too. She is funny stuff I tell you.

 

 

 

Just for the record, no one taught her to pose like that, she figured that one out all on her own. That ballerina dress by the way? It’s from Balinda the Birthday Fairy. She’s been keeping an eye on Tessa for weeks now, watching for nice behavior. She even came and rang the doorbell on Wednesday when Tessa was upstairs weeping and wailing about who’s knows what. Tess came down the stairs only to find that Balinda had to leave because Tessa was not acting nice. Mmmm, bummer. Good thing she chose to cheer up so Balinda could leave that dress on the front porch this morning.

 

 

(Doing the “Macarena” at Adventure City. On her 3rd Birthday with mom and dad)

 

That night we had scheduled dinner group with friends at Salt Creek Beach. I brought a birthday cake and she ran around with Luke like a crazy person. A few couples in our dinner group have had babies within the last few months and I couldn’t help but look at those brand new baby girls tonight and then my  loony bin running wild with her blond hair blowing behind her and wonder where the last 3 years have gone. Slow down Tess, please slow down for mom.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Bug-a-boo. We love you like crazy.