Kate's Party

Kate's third birthday party was Saturday and oh-so-much fun! This was the first time Kate has been really aware and interested in her own birthday, the party, etc. She's been talking about it for weeks. "I'm going to be three soon!" "We're going to have ice cream at my party and make a big mess!" We invited the kids in Kate's day care class, and from what the parents who RSVPed said, it sounds like Kate had been talking the party up for quite a while—her friends were so excited to come!

It was a wonderful party, and Kate had such a good time, which is what's really important! As you know, I love to entertain, so let me share the whole shebang!

The Theme
Kate loves ice cream, and at some point a few months ago, I decided that would be a fun party theme. The main attraction therein may have been those cupcakes you bake in the ice cream cones. I remember them from my childhood, and instructions were easy to find online (and on the back of the cone box, in fact!) You just fill the cones about halfway with cake batter and bake like normal! (Fill more than halfway and they'll overflow.) Possibilities on the decorating are endless, but I used an icing bag with no tip to make a simple swirl that looks like soft serve. I think they turned out pretty well!

I made this decoration for the front door. If you look really close, you can see the trim around the "welcome" sign is made with sprinkles. I saw that idea on Pinterest, of using sprinkles like glitter, where you put glue down, sprinkle the things on, and dust off the excess. 

 I made Kate's party hat with no illusions she would wear it for more than a second while we were blowing out candles—and then forgot to put it on her at all! (Tip: I bought the cheapest party hats I could find several years ago—they're Spongebob underneath—and decorate them to suit my theme.)

I made tissue paper puffballs and adhered cone-nee-Spongebob party hats to them to look like ice cream cones. Didn't get a good shot of them, but you can see them okay in this pic:

 And this was the favor basket, filled with ice cream cone bubbles (Target, party favor aisle).

The Outfit
I found Kate this cute ice cream cone top online by Sew Cute Creations, and since it had the tulle ice cream and it was her birthday, after all, I suggested she could wear one of her dress-up tutus to her party if she wanted. She did, and I think she just looked darling! Over-the-top-festive, as is one's prerogative on her third birthday!

What was even cuter, though, was that when the first pack of friends arrived, she basically handed out tutus at the door so they could dress up too! (Warning to new mommies of baby girls: you will get a lot of pink tutus. We have four and didn't buy any ourselves! But they sure came in handy today!)

The Food
The ice cream cone cupcakes were the highlight, I think, and I can't believe they didn't fall off the cake stand. They're top heavy after baking of course, and were falling like bowling pins in the kitchen while I was decorating. (A muffin pan prevents this for the most part, both during baking and decorating.)

Here's my girl about to blow out the candles. Notice she changed shoes in the middle of the party!

We also had an ice cream sundae bar. What would an ice cream themed party be without actual ice cream! Most of the veggie tray went uneaten—I wonder why!

The Fun
The girls played all over the house much of the time, in the playroom and up in Kate's room (where they took every puzzle piece from every puzzle and dumped it on the floor). I almost hated to interrupt the fun to have them eat cake and open presents!

The present-opening marked a new stage for me as a parent, I found. Whereas last year, I still had to help her open each thing, this year she just went for it and I was on the background, barely able to catch what she was getting, much less who gave it to her. Fortunately, my mom stayed in the center of the chaos to keep cards with things and control the craziness a little bit!

And then they went back to playing! I got a kick out of this pic of Becca putting lettuce in the toaster. (I handed my camera off several times, so some of the pics we got were surprises even to me!)

 And just to prove baby sister was there. . .

We didn't get any family pictures or Kate and Claire together, unfortunately. This was an action-packed, fun-filled, crazy little girl party, and we had a blast. Hope all our guests did too!

Happy third birthday, Kate!