Gracie's Birthday!

Gracie turned 3, and we sure had a great time celebrating!

Prepare yourself for a barrage of photos!

While Aaron was out of town a week and a half ago, the girls and I ventured to Party City for some birthday party supplies.

I'd never been to a Party City before, and I do have to say that I'm a fan.  Our Walmart used to carry a bunch of birthday party stuff, but they recently underwent some changes in their crafty/party area and don't have much in the way of character birthday supplies.  

Anyway, the girls bee-lined straight for the clearance.

I love my little bargain hunters!

We totally hit the Dora jackpot!

It was like a tic tac toe of awesomeness, because right next to Dora was Lalaloopsy (Maggie's favorite), and next to that was Hello Kitty (Leah's favorite)!

Gracie's birthday was on Monday, but we had the party with Aaron's parents, my parents, and my sister on the Saturday before.  

She got some great gifts, but before I show you the pictures, I need to tell you that she was exhausted!  The girls were playing hard outside with my dad before they came in for presents, Gracie was up late the night before and hadn't napped for a couple of days.  

She doesn't look very, well, happy in these pictures, because she's pretty much exhausted.

My mom and dad made Gracie a doll bed for her babies!

She loved the bed so much that she wouldn't let anyone even touch it!  My parents designed the bed to be a cradle and a regular bed; you just flip it over!

My sister got her a potty training Dora.  Dora fit marvelously into the bed!

Aaron's parents got her a tricycle!

I was so excited for Gracie to have her own new bike, seeing as she gets all of the hand-me-down bike type things.  

They are the cutest bike gang ever!

I was so relieved that Gracie loved the trike and baby bed!  I told our parents that she would love those thing, and she did!  

For Gracie's birthday last year, I told my mom that she would LOVE to have her own Zhu Zhu Pet, because she was always playing with her sisters' Zhu Zhu Pets.  My parents got her 2 Zhu Zhu Pets and some accessories, and she was terrified of them!  Wouldn't play with them for literally like 6 months.  

Oops!

Anyway, I made a super yummy cake!

I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman.  I used ganache instead of the Nutella.  It was delicious!  The only problem was that it couldn't be assembled ahead of time.  I made the cake earlier in the week and froze it, but I ended up having to be in the kitchen more than I wanted to on the day of the party to work on the cake.

I found a really awesome gluten free cake to make for my father-in-law.  I halved the recipe and made it in 1 round cake pan.  I used a drinking glass to cut out 2 circles and layered it up all special for him.

Isn't it pretty?!

I promise she did like her cake, even though she wasn't super smiley about it!

Oh, and in a birthday act of solidarity, Maggie wore her shirt from when she turned 3 :)

Gracie was much smiley-er on her actual birthday!

She opened presents like a champ!

She thoroughly enjoyed her Dora umbrella,

I like how it looks like she and Dora are making eye contact :)

a helmet to go with her new trike,

and her picture from Maggie (among other things)!

I love the pictures Maggie is making these days.  You can see that it's a picture of the 3 girls, tallest to shortest.

The picture even had a scratch and sniff sticker.  

There were yummy pancakes and fruit for breakfast!

I made the quilt that is in the baby bed.  I almost lit the sewing machine on fire because the thread kept breaking.  

We had friends over that evening for another birthday cake!

Per Leah's idea, we even turned out the lights so that the candles would be extra bright and exciting!

And don't worry, I'll share the recipe for that cake on Wednesday!  

We had a great time celebrating an even greater girl!

I'm linking up with Blair at Wild and Precious.