Kate's Birthday Party

Last weekend (and not this one that just passed) we had Kate's birthday party. I know I'm a little behind on my posting but last week was crazy busy. I have spent a lot of time planning Kate's birthday because I just love for her to have a party that is just all about her! Well, this year I couldn't decide on a theme for her party. Kate has many loves right now & I couldn't decide which she would enjoy best so I decided to do something a little crazy. Kate's theme was "Kate's Favorite Things" and we incorporated the Backyardigans, Handy Manny, and Minnie Mouse. I had a lot of fun getting everything together and I think Kate and her friends really enjoyed the party.

Before the party I was baking some goodies & Kate decided she wanted to help. She had her potholders ready and wanted to "test" the food before her guests would later.

The overall look of the party.

 The gift and sign in table with some of her pictures from her birthday photo session. (Not the session with the black eye incident)

 The Backyardigans area. If you are familiar with this show then you know that they always end their adventures with getting a snack, so I figured what better way to bring them in than to use them at the snack area! We also had a "Pin the Bowtie on Pablo" game. Pablo is the blue penguin from the show. The kids didn't fully understand the concept but they enjoyed playing with the stickers!

 The playhouse also made an appearance at the party. Going along with the Backyardigans TV show, they always play and have their adventures around their house in their backyard so Kate's little house was the center of her adventure too.

To bring in Handy Manny, we decorated cookies. It was a little difficult to think of a Manny activity that wasn't too boyish so I decided that we would stretch our imaginations. So, the kids had to help "fix" the cookies and decorate them. We used little wooden popsicle sticks to spread the icing and they mimicked (at least in my mind) little wooden planks that Manny is always using to do his repairs on the show.

  The cake and yummy punch!

 The cake was made by the same lady who made Jonathan's groom's cake for our wedding. Funny side story with that: we actually never got to eat any of the groom's cake. The cake lady is from Lubbock and we had some family bring it down for us but the cake was ruined during the transport. I guess we all underestimated the strength of the sun on a hot August day in West Texas. By the time we made it to the reception the cake was melted and crumbled into pieces. It was quickly scooped away and I never even got a bite and didn't see pictures of how it looked before it was ruined until months after. However, my father-in-law took a bite before it was removed and he said it was still pretty tasty! So, fast forward to now, I wanted to use the same lady again but with better results and sure enough the cake was really yummy...and we had a funny story to laugh at together.

 The Minnie Mouse area. Minnie is all about dressing up, being girly, and just being cute....well all of these things are some of Kate's qualities too so we went with it! We had rings, bracelets, necklaces, sunglasses, and feather boas for the girls to accessorize with. But, of course, how could we be Minnie without some Minnie ears and a big pink bow?! I made headbands with those things for all the girls to wear along with their accessories. Us "big girls" got a kick out of wearing them too!

 I must note, I LOVE my Cricut Machine. It is my best friend. I made this little birthday banner for Kate to add a little more Minnie flair.

 The birthday girl sporting some Minnie ears...and her poor little black eye.

 

Jonathan and I with our sweet birthday girl. Be sure to check out her little dress, its made by me!

The party came to a close with opening all of Kate's fun presents. She was all about it at first but then just wanted to play with her new toys so she left me to open the rest. I like to think that her birthday is also a little about me, after all I did do all the work on the day she was born, so I gladly opened the gifts! Kate now has new babies to play with, a stroller to push them around in, a car to ride around outside once it warms back up, a pretend shopping cart complete with food, a tea set, all 3 Shrek movies, and much more. We are blessed to have such great friends and family who love this little girl as much as we do. We had a great time at the party but it would not have been complete without all of our great friends there to celebrate with us.


I should also note that the party weekend was also another Tech game day weekend. We played #11 Missouri and we thought it was more than likely a loss; however, we were gladly surprised and ended up winning! Wooohooo! Go Tech! I always love a Tech win.