Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Jilly's birthday

Jilly’s 3rd birthday was the day after Thanksgiving. And I think it was one of the best birthdays a 3 year old could have! She was pretty happy and cheery the whole day and got to have lots of fun without too much stress for her parents. Here is my Birdie Birthday Girl first thing in the morning.


That morning, Jilly’s bff, Maya, came over to hang out, a min birthday party. They watched the Dora the Explorer “Singing Sensations” DVD, which is a sing-a-long with tons of the songs from the show. The girls were sooooo excited to watch it, but both sat very still and just stared at it. Steve was the only one who got in on the singing action. ;-)




Maya brought Jilly a present. It was hilarious. When Maya first got there, she comes in and announces, “I brought Jilly a present!” and then started to open it herself! After the movie was over, we said it was time to open the present, so again Maya grabbed it and started pulling it out. Hehehehe. We put it back in and let Jilly open it herself.


Lip Smackers! What a perfect gift! Jilly is obsessed with Chapstick/Carmex/Lip Gloss/Makeup, so how perfect for her.


And of course she wanted to use it right away.


There were also Princess fruit snacks. YUM! Fruit snacks are Jilly’s favorite. I honestly think this was the most perfect and well-suited present for Jilly. Thanks Maya!


After presents it was time to decorate cupcakes! I had baked chocolate cupcakes the night before and had some frosting and sprinkles for the girls. Here are Maya’s.


I would usually have to start the frosting on the cupcake and then let them ‘finish’ it.


It often devolved in to this.


Jilly’s cupcakes.



Messy Maya face! She licked all the icing and sprinkles off her cupcake and left it bald!


Jilly liked munching on cupcakes too.


Next it was Spa Time! I sat the girls on the couch, turned Nickelodeon and painted their toenails. I let them pick their colors out of Dark Red, Blood Red and Pink. Maya picked Dark Red and then picked Blood Red too, so I did alternating colors on her toes, even though you can’t see it too well in the picture.


Jilly picked pink.


They also ate apple slices while they got their pedicures! ;-)


While they had decorated their cupcakes, I also decorated some for us and for Maya’s family. For her family, I put each of their first initials on the cupcake. I even made one for baby Reagan (it was a really tiny cupcake) and told Michelle she got to eat it. ;-) And then I did some other designs for us.


Maya definitely made Jilly’s birthday very fun and exciting!

Once the festivities were over and our guest had gone home, I got Jason fed and settled and scampered off to my mom’s to decorate Jilly’s birthday cake! My mom found a Wilton Dora cake pan with all the instructions to decorate it. She baked the cake and did the background frosting, and then I came over to mix up the colors and do all the stars and piping.

It took quite a while to get the frosting black enough. And I had to keep licking my fingers. Can you tell?


All the outlining on Dora was quite a chore. Once the filling-in got going, it went fast. But the initial part was looooong.


After 2 ½ hours of just decorating, we have the finished result! Dora the Explorer!


Then I went home to get the family ready to come back to Granny & Grampa’s for the birthday party! I did Jilly’s hair all fancy.


When we got back to the party, we showed Jilly her cake. And what does she do? Not express amazement, wonder and gratitude, but rather stick her finger right in the frosting!! Punk!!!


We sat down and opened presents first.







She got a Teddy Bear Dress Up set.


And the “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” masterpiece compilation! This book has all four stories, recipes, songs, a CD and other little tidbits in it. It’s awesome! Thanks Aunt Becky!



Granny and Grampa out did themselves and got her TONS of Crayola Color Wonder art supplies. She got 2 Dora coloring packs (coloring books plus markers), 2 blank pads of paper, and a travel kit that has a clipboard that stows the coloring book and markers inside of it.


They also got her this fun bright rainbow striped teddy bear backpack.


And this sweet little set of dolls (the dress on this doll is actually a pocket that has a bunch of teeny tiny dolls in it). They also got her some other washable markers and colored pencils.


Auntie Terry and Uncle Kevin sent some cute clothes, including this unbelievably soft hoodie.


There was also some jewelry (necklace and bracelet) which she loved. Auntie Juliet and Uncle Kelly got her a wooden block set which is just awesome!!


The Bells included a little purse for her with ‘the essentials’ inside. There are sparkly stickers, band-aids and a granola bar. Perfect for a three year old on the go! ;-)


And this super cute outfit as well!


My mom found a smokin’ deal on this easel at Jo-Ann’s. So that is what Steve and I gave to Jillian for her 3rd birthday. It’s pretty cool.



Chalkboard on one side with a white board on the other. There is also a roll of paper that gets pulled down over the white board side. It can either be this low to the ground or add the ‘legs’ and it is much taller. When the legs are on, there are storage baskets to go under and keep everything in it. For now, we’re leaving it low like this, otherwise she can only use the lower 1/3 of the boards!



She got in on the coloring action right away! Auntie Juliet helped.


Then it was time for cake! We lit up her Dora cake and she was pretty impressed! She couldn’t quite blow out the candle, so I helped her again this year.


While we were eating cake, she reached for Grampa’s hand and would not let it go for a long time! So cute!


We all just hung out in the living room, chatting and eating for awhile. Steve and Kelly took care of the couch.


Auntie Juliet held Jason so that I could sit and enjoy my cake.


Granny perched in her super awesome chair and a half.


And my goofy Birdie! She was giggling like crazy with Uncle Kelly.


My super happy big giant 3-year-old girly pants! :-D


We love this little girl way too much and are so glad she had such an awesome birthday! Thank you to everyone who sent gifts or cards or messages, and have been a part of her life. :-D

1 comment:

angelalois said...

omigosh WOW on the cake. I am 100% impressed! You go mom! AND no gifts with cherries? I'm surprised! :-) And A SPA DAY? what is she going to ask for when she's 16?