Time to party!

When it was finally time to start the party we brought the cakes outside.

There was a little mishap along the way.  My assistant carried two of the castle turrets while I carried the cake.  I'm a control freak and just couldn't let anyone else handle the cake.  Even though the cake weighed 20 pounds.  Well, it may have not been quite that heavy but it sure weighed a lot!  As my assistant and I got into the elevator, he leaned over to press the down button. And dumped two of the castle's turrets on me.  No biggie.  David met me halfway to the pavilion, took the cake from me, and we set the turrets on the tray in front of the castle. 

After the cakes arrived, David started grilling cheeseburgers and hot dogs.

And we had all the fixings to go with them.

We also had music blaring in the background.  Some chose to dance.

Others took advantage of the pool.

Guess what Grace chose?

Then it was time to eat.  Lunch was fabulous.  My sweet husband is a master at the grill!

Grace had quite the turnout for her party.  This is her cousin Sara Katherine.

And Kaylin.

Her new friend, Connor.

Both of her grandmothers.

And her friend Caroline.

After greeting guests, swimming in the pool, and eating lunch; it was finally time to blow out the candles.

Grace blew out the candles 15 times or so. 

She's a little firebug.

It's a trait that she inherited from my side of the family.

She sang "Appy burf-day to Dray-cee" (Happy birthday to Gracie!) about a dozen times or so. 

Finally we pulled the candles from the cake.  Grace licked them of course.

While everyone else ate cake, the kids played in Grace's present from Granddaddy. 

A beautiful red wagon!

It was the hit of the party.

Grace wanted to take it and her friends everywhere.

Bluh-Loons! (Balloons!)

Grace really likes "bluh-loons" (balloons).

So I made certain that we had plenty of balloons for her birthday party.

As I inflated the balloons, Grace insisted on holding every one.

She wanted to share them with Faith, too.

Faith really likes balloons, too.

But not quite as much as Grace does.  At least not yet.

The girls played with balloons until it was time to take them outside to the party.

When Faith wasn't sleeping, she was staring at those balloons.

I think all kids like balloons.

And what's a party without plenty of balloons for everyone?

We like cake

We really like cake.

And for Grace's 3rd birthday I may have gone slightly overboard with her cakes.

Grace really wanted a mermaid cake but I was afraid that just one cake wouldn't be enough for all our guests.  And I really wanted to go a little over the top with her cakes.  Just to see Grace's reaction.  I wasn't disappointed.

I must admit that I enjoy embellishing our cakes.  And since we were having a mermaid cake I decided to make a "tass-ull tate" (castle cake), too.  Ariel isn't just a mermaid.  She's also a princess.  And along with a crown and magic wand, every princess needs a castle.

Originally I was going to keep it hidden from Grace until the party, but she loves to help me in the kitchen so I decided to let her help.  And because she wanted her cake "spar-cully" (sparkly) with "speen-culls" (sprinkles), I let her have at it.  It was after all her cake.

I had planned to keep her mermaid cake hidden, as well, but Grace spotted it out of the corner of her eye and yelled out, "Dares two Air-ulls!  Dares two of dem!"  (There's two Ariels!  There's two of them!)  and ran over to get a closer look.

I couldn't have been happier with her reaction.  Grace sat beside her mermaid cake for the longest time and told Ariel that she was "bew-ful" (beautiful) and she "yubbed her" (loved her).

And in that moment, all my hard work paid off.  Her excitement and joy over her Ariel cake was so infectious and heartwarming.  And we had so much fun decorating her castle cake together.  

After baking 4 separate cakes and mixing I don't know how many batches of icing, I spent quite a bit of time on these two confections.  But I have to admit that they both surpassed my expectations.  And I may have a tough time outdoing myself next year...  Still, I will try...

Stuffing Ariel

We bought Grace a pinata for her birthday party this year.

When Grace first saw it she immediately recognized it as "air-ull" (Ariel) from the Little Mermaid.

Grace really likes Ariel.

She even danced with her for as long as I would let her.

Eventually I told her we needed to put prizes inside her.

Grace said, "I do it!  I do it!"

And so she did.  One prize at a time.  She wouldn't let me or Mammee help her.  Or eat any either.  When Mammee tried to sneak a piece of candy away for herself, Grace said, "No Mimi!  Dat's for Air-ull!" (No, Mimi!  That's for Ariel!)  Regardless of how careful we were, Grace always caught us and took our candy away.

Grace was so funny with her pinata.  She talked to Ariel and said she was her "fend" (friend) and told her "I yub you, Air-ull!"  (I love you, Ariel!)

I was surprised that Grace willingly shared Ariel with Faith.

That pinata is bigger than Faith.

She weighed a lot, too, with all that candy inside.

Faith is barely taller than Ariel.

We can hardly wait for Grace's birthday party!