3rd Birthday Celebration- Part Three

We celebrated Daniel's birthday on Sunday October 2nd with just our close relatives over at our house. Daniel was very excited to have everybody over for his party! He was very into helping us clean our house so everybody could have fun. In fact, in the days after the party & even still now, he keeps "cleaning up the place so we can have Daniel's birthday party!" The theme for Daniel's party was race cars, with decor featuring the Cars movie characters of course! We got a few balloons which he had fun with- some had the number 3 on them and the big balloon was a Cars balloon. We decorated with checkered flag decor, caution cones, signs I made featuring locations around Radiator Springs (from the Cars movie- such as Flo's V8 Cafe, Ramone's House of Body Art, Sally's Cozy Cone Motel), a huge Cars banner in our family room (which Daniel thought was lots of fun!) and even our collection of Disney road signs. I made a Happy Birthday banner and another bunting banner featuring pictures of Daniel at each age so far, starting with his newborn picture- that turned out so cute. I used ribbons to tie them together this time and I loved how that looked! (I'm getting ideas together for Annabel's 1st birthday already!)

Both Daniel and Annabel looked so adorable in their party clothes, a handsome turquoise checkered shirt and khaki pants for Daniel, and for Annabel I found the cutest pink corduroy dress with dots and a collared polka dot onesie underneath complete with tights, too! Oh- they were both just too cute! And ready to party!

We started the party by having everybody help paint one of 4 wooden race cars for Daniel to play with later. We had a lot of fun with this activity and Daniel loved painting of course. And he really wanted everybody to help! He made sure everybody painted something! He even helped them paint their cars, too. The cars turned out pretty neat. I was amazed that he knew his was a hot rod! (He may have seen the box, but I'm really not so sure about that...) Anyway, it was fun to do something interactive- I had really been wanting to do something like this for Daniel and it really worked out so well. Daniel, and Ben & I, will enjoy these cars and they will always remind us of Daniel's third birthday. Thanks everybody for joining in the fun!

While Ben cooked the hot dogs and brats, Daniel played downstairs with Aunt Christina, Uncle Brian, and Uncle Jason. Annabel played upstairs...or really, she just sat looking SO pretty and giving us the biggest smiles. It was a fun few minutes of playing...just enough to keep Daniel busy and away from the presents for the moment, because he was SO excited about those presents.

After lunch, which again, Daniel was really too excited to eat- he just wanted to dive into those presents that were sitting there looking way too tempting...in fact, he managed a couple rips into a few of them before lunch was over! So, as soon as most people were done eating, the opening of presents began. And just like on his birthday, Daniel threw every bit of garbage away before moving on! He was quite the tornado and very busy opening presents and checking them out. He wanted to play with every single present right away, too. There were a few times when it was hard to get him to open the next present because he wanted to take the other one out of the box right now. But, he opened every last present with the same energy and eagerness as the one before- he never wore out! I can already see Christmas being super overwhelming and exhausting...for me, more than him probably! I was out of breath just watching him!

After taking a few minutes to check out presents, clean up, and get cupcakes set up, we sang Happy Birthday to Daniel. He loved that- he even sang along! That was so sweet and so cute. He blew his candles out so well, too. And he gobbled up that cupcake- two of them even, although he only pretty much ate the frosting off the second one!

Then we headed outside so Daniel could take a whack at the adorable, fun pinata Grandma Cheryl made for him. It was a pretty tough pinata, too- we ended up having to help it along with a pair of scissors. Still, Daniel had a ball hitting the pinata with his bat. Aunt Christina helped him in the end. And then he loved checking out all the goodies that came out! Even Annabel managed to grab some out of my hand! Don't worry, it was in a baggie and she didn't actually eat it!

We played outside a little then. It was beautiful weather and it was just so nice to get some fresh air before everybody headed home and we put the kids down for their naps. After naps, we had dinner and of course we played with all the new presents!

Thank you to our families for coming to the party and for all the fun presents! Daniel is really enjoying all of his new presents!

Enjoy the many pictures below (I always say that don't I?!)- thank you Jason for taking such awesome pictures!

Party decor!

Annabel waits for the party to start!

Painting race cars!
I love Daniel's expressions!

Daniel is my son...he doesn't like getting messy one bit and is always wiping his hands clean immediately!

Check out that awesome paint job Daniel is doing!

Daniel helps Grandpa Larry paint a race car.

Oooohh- I had such a hard time picking just a few of these ADORABLE pictures of Annabel sitting so pretty! Could she BE any cuter?!

I think THIS is my favorite one!

Daniel made sure to keep his camera handy for taking pictures at his party!

Silly Uncle Brian and Daniel! Love this pic!

Time to open presents- finally!

Daniel threw every last bit of garbage away!

I think this is a fun picture of Daniel checking out a new book- this is what I meant about Daniel looking at his new presents immediately! He literally did just stop everything to check each present out each time he opened one!

Grandpa Gary tells Daniel all about his new construction site toy. Daniel LOVES this toy- he was very excited about playing with it.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Daniel
Happy Birthday to you!

A big puff to blow out the candles!

Time to gobble the cupcakes up!

Mater, McQueen, and Checkered Flag toothpick decorations- Daniel wanted one of each!

This picture tells it all...the cupcakes were yuuuuummmy! Not much left!

Pinata Time!
Grandma Cheryl made such a fun, colorful pinata- thank you!

Aunt Christina helped Daniel take a few last swings!

Wow- check out all that loot!

Annabel scored a baggie of loot, too!

Daniel had fun playing around the yard.

Annabel enjoyed the fresh air!

Daniel even played with the water table a little, too.

Family picture!

Now it's time to play with the new toys!

Annabel loved this giant bucket- it's bigger than she is!

Daniel was very excited that we put this together during his nap...he played with it all night!

Daniel also really loved the gears from Aunt Christina and Uncle Jason.

Whew...what a party! And now we've concluded Daniel's third birthday celebration! Time to start planning Annabel's 1st birthday...not that I'm in a hurry...