Snugglebug Birthday Party

Since Essie turned 3, I guess she got to have THREE parties, right? She had her final one Friday at her new school, Snugglebugs.  They really do birthdays there and it was just about the cutest thing ever.  She was the STAR student all week and got to bring pictures to share.  She also got to be the special helper.  On Fridays they take the kiddos to gymnastics so she was gone while I set up.  It was sweet seeing her running in so excited. 

The kiddos sat on the carpet and Essie called them to wash hands. 

Then they sang Happy Birthday like 3 times and ate  purple cupcakes.

Then everyone went back to the carpet.  I read a book to the kiddos (Tangled of course) and she opened gifts.  It was so sweet that each child brought their gift to her and said "Happy Birthday".  She was overwhelmed with sweet gifts! 

Afterwards she chose to come home with me and we went to a special lunch together!  I am so glad that Essie has an amazing place to spend time at each day.  Snugglebugs has been a pure blessing to us!

Summer Fun

I am loving summer this year.  It seems the past few years we haven't gotten to just enjoy summer.  Essie goes to daycare 3 days a week and stays with me the other two.  On those days we go to swim lessons, dance, eat lunch together, etc.  The days she goes to daycare I clean, run errands, blog, and well honestly sometimes nap or just sit still and watch non-Disney related T.V!

 Today Essie was at school so I wanted to tackle her closet...it's gotten out of control lately. So I cleaned it out.  Her room has been in need of a re-do for awhile so I'm slowly trying to get it reorganized.  She got alot a ton of dress-up clothes for her birthday so I made a little dress-up area for her. 

This evening my friend Brittany and I went to a local paint bar for a Christmas in July celebration.  We've been wanting to do one of these for so long and fell in love with these cute Rockin' Reindeer.  It was a blast and I know that we will be doing this again very soon! 

Essie's family party & pre-birthday fun

After Essie's big birthday bash, we all came back to our house and had a small family gathering.  We ate ribs, bbq beans, onion dip, chicken, and desserts galore.  Essie was thrilled to get to dig into her gifts and even got to open more presents!

and just because I forgot to post these...some of Essie's pre-birthday fun!

Tangled up for Essie's 3rd Birthday!

We knew last year at Essie's 2nd birthday, that we would have a Tangled themed 3rd birthday.  Tangled was the first movie she ever saw and she is obsessed with it! I consulted Pinterest and got to planning several months back.  Essie was old enough to help plan this one and had a lot of input to what we did.  I wanted to keep this one a little more simple than her previous years.  Our first decision was to have it at her gymnastics place since it would provide active fun for all those WILD toddlers! 
Essie was set on one certain cake she saw on Pinterest.  It had to have a tower and her Rapunzel toys on it.  Thankfully the hubster had mad fondant skills and made an AMAZING tower for her cake.  He created the tower out of rice kripie treats that he pressed around a PVC pipe.  He then covered it all with fondant and hand-cut the details. 

I baked the cake and my mom and I helped decorate it. 


This was "Rapunzel's Sweets" table.  It housed the cake, hazelnut cupcakes (Rapunzel's favorite was hazelnut soup), white cupcakes, and oreo pops!  I made the cupcake toppers and decorated the cupcake tower with yellow ric rak (hair) and purple tulle skirt.

We kept the menu simple this year and went with the "Snuggly Duckling" pub theme.  We served bread braids, grapes, cheese & crackers, summer sausage, rootbeer candy, and peanuts.  My friend painted the snuggly duckling sign...I looooved it!

The kiddo table filled with frying pan plates (black plates with plastic knives hot glued to the back) and favor bags. The girl's favor bags had hand-crocheted purple crowns (thanks Dad!), rapunzel candy, and rapunzel tatooes. The boys had pirate pouches, pirate eye patches, pirate tatooes, and flynn rider candy. 

Party and Present fun!!!

Essie loved her party and was so blessed to have so many people come to celebrate with her.