We'll supply the pixie dust...

(**Warning...this post is specifically for my parents who were not at the party and actually might be interested in seeing this many pictures of it)

Self-applied lip gloss

I was not planning on a three-year-old party for Natalie. But I think she has been planning on it since Andrew's party last March. She repeatedly reminded me that she was going to invite her friends to her "pahty." Her blue train party...just like Andrew's. She was so excited that I finally decided that I wanted to have a party too. I just redirected the theme, and we were good. And I don't regret it one bit...I mean, look at her face. She was in heaven.

Natalie's party was last Saturday. Tinkerbell seemed to be a fitting theme. Natalie reminds me of a pixie/fairy anyway. So we sent out the invitations...

I bought a package of invitations and then inserted our own words (in a different font) and some glitter (pixie dust)...

Think of the happiest things
It's the same as having wings.

Tinkerbell invites her Fairy friends to come in their
Fairy attire to Natalie's 3rd Birthday Party!

All you need is faith and trust
And we'll supply the Pixie dust.

Fly second star to the right to the Garner Home on
January 24th at 10:00am.

If you believe in Fairies say I do, I do and RSVP to...

We dressed Natalie in her 18 month old Halloween costume from 2 years ago...it was rather short and tight at the snaps, but she didn't care or notice.

Natalie was in heaven with all her fairy friends.

We started with a make-up station: lip gloss, nail polish and flowers to go on your finger nails, tattoos, glitter...

We tried to play pin the star on the wand, follow the fairy (whoever was wearing the wings), and a hot potato version of pass the wand. Most of the guests were interested in the first game, not so much the second, and nobody wanted to pass the wand on the third game, they wanted to keep it. Luckily that was the point of the game so we had plenty of wands available. Andrew wanted to play them all.

Olivia doing a victory dance after placing her star

Andrew as the leader...not too many followers

We then moved to the table where the girls decorated a book I had put together. They covered them with stickers and I added each of their pictures, a picture of Natalie and a picture of all of them. Below is what the cover looked like (with a different font and print size and no square around the picture) and then the inside was a story about the fairies attending Natalie's party. Very simple, but the girls loved it. They sat there in silence putting sticker after sticker in their books.

A Fairy Merry

Birthday

And then it was cake time. I love making special birthday cakes. It is as much for me as for the child ;-) This year I got very lucky. My friend Marci's mom decorates cakes. I called Marci to see if she had some tips I could use for the frosting and she suggested that her mom come over and "help." All I had to do was bake the cake and whip up some frosting. She did a BEAUTIFUL job and Natalie was just thrilled with her Tinkerbell cake. In fact, all the girls wanted a closer look at the cake.

After cake and ice cream, it was time to open presents. One of our little fairy guests cried and cried when Natalie opened the gift she had brought. So after Natalie had opened it, I gave her what was inside, thinking that was what she wanted. It took me another minute to realize she just wanted the bag..."her present." So I handed her the bag and she was fine.

Before we opened the presents, I gave each of the girls her party bag---a green purse I found at the dollar store. Inside was candy, a pinwheel, a lipgloss ring, glitter, and Tinkerbell stickers.

Natalie was so excited that Grandma and Grandpa Garner were able to come to the party!

I got the directions for these flowers from my friend Erin...I just LOVED them. They are sitting in my room waiting to be hung from Natalie's ceiling.

I TRIED to keep the decorations simple...cardstock signs and banners...a grove of mini pine trees...balloons

The banner I made for above the front door.

It was a great morning. Granted, of course there was the par for the course stressful few moments right before the party started and the balloons weren't there yet, but Natalie thought it was just wonderful, and that is all I wanted out of this party. Well, that and a few new Tinkerbell toys. Check.

She's 3!

It's hard to believe that Natalie is the ripe old age of three...and yet, she has seemed older than her little age for so long, that I can't believe she is just turning three!

What a day. We celebrated the Saturday before with a Tinkerbell party (stay tuned for post and pictures), so the 27th was relatively calm. In fact, that morning as we were making a big deal of her birthday, Natalie asked, "Why do I have so many birthdays, mom?"

Andrew, James and I woke Natalie with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday." We had a streamer curtain for her to go through at the bottom of the stairs. Good thing she got through it before James, because it was gone within 10 seconds of James getting his hands on it.

Pancakes for breakfast...Natalie and me with blueberries, Andrew without. "A" for Andrew, "N" for Natalie, attempt at birthday "balloons" for both. James just ate what I put on his tray. The highlight may have been the red "you are special plate" that Natalie insisted on using for breakfast AND lunch. She loved it.

We went to the library in the morning, she played at a friend's house in the afternoon, we went to the gym, and then John came home "early" from work. He would have made it even earlier if somebody had not been having a baby on the freeway (please do not let that be me in 5 months!)
I let Natalie pick out her clothes--she chose her Belle dress for the morning, her Diamond Castle dress for the afternoon, and the cute outfit from grandma for the evening (hard to climb around in a dress-up).

Natalie opened her presents and then we went to Chick-FilA for dinner--the draw being the indoor playground. It was perfect. I didn't make another cake--we had that on Saturday, so we settled for some ice cream and another round of "Happy Birthday."

And throughout the day, she had several calls from cousins and grandparents. Thank you, thank you for your calls! She just lit up every time she got on the phone.
It was a great day to celebrate a wonderful girl.

A few things you should know about Natalie:

1. She loves beautiful things. Right now specifically that includes make-up, nail polish, jewelry, and dress-ups.

2. She is sweet. She tells me all day long, "Mom, I love you." If I seem frazzled she says, "Mom, I love you." She has even pulled a "you look beautiful, mom" out of the bag. As she and Andrew are playing together I have overheard her several times say out of the blue, "Andrew, I love you."
3. She is fun and likes to laugh.
4. She has a munchkin voice. Oh, I hope we have captured this adequately in our home movie library. People hear her speak and do a double-take because her voice is just too cute.
5. She is very coordinated.
6. She loves friends.
7. She flirts with older boys. It is funny, but maybe a little worrisome to. If there are older boys around, she is giggling, talking to them, and batting her eyes.
8. She wants to do everything that Andrew does. She told me that we were having a birthday party and at first said it was going to be a train party, "like Andrew's"

9. She is extremely determined (a fancy way of saying stubborn). Although this is a difficult quality as her mom sometimes, I am positive it will serve her well in the future...right?
10. If you ask her what her name is, she says, Natalie Darraine Gahneh (Her middle name is Larraine after my mom). She loves that she and Gramma "Darraine" have the same name.
11. She will do just about anything for candy.
12. Can you say drama queen?
13. She has about the cutest "shoor" (sure) you have ever heard.

James b-day celebration

Sometimes things are a little more lax for the third child. Our third child turned a year old on October 2nd. But John was pretty crazy with both school and work, so we put off celebrating the big day...until October 19th.

Per tradition, we invited all of John's family over basically to watch James eat cake. And he put on a GREAT show. At first, he wasn't sure what to do with the cake in front of him. Natalie tried to show him. Sidney tried to show him.



Finally he got it.


And then he devoured it.



We call him Captain James, so here was his special cake.

Happy Birthday John

John just celebrated his 35th birthday and in honor of his special day, here are the top ten things you should know about him:

1. He likes chicken. (That is what he said to me when I asked him a semi-serious question when we were dating.) And he can fold his ears.

2. He remembers small details that people tell him. I am always amazed how he can ask somebody about their sister, their mom, their dog, or whatever, in detail. Even if it has been months since he last talked to them. He remembers little things that people tell him and asks sincerely about them.


3. He loves to water ski, run and play games. That is three-in-one. He also is up for anything including skiing, golf, and tennis.

4. He is very funny and is so quick. He makes me laugh and laugh and laugh. I'm usually still registering what somebody has said when he comes up with his witty response that is right on. I love it.

5. His senior class picture was a picture of just his eye. Yes, when he went to get his senior pictures taken, the photographer was trying out a new lens and took a picture of just John's eye. That is the picture that John chose to put in his yearbook. And when we showed up at his 10 year reunion and everybody was walking around with name tags with their senior yearbook picture on them, John was walking around with an eye next to his name.

6. He is a very hard worker and takes his responsibilities seriously.

These aren't his famous moves, but hula is almost as good.

7. Nobody dances like he does. Seriously. I can't even describe his moves, but you will not forget them once you've seen them. It takes some major coordination and style to do what he does.

8. He makes people feel comfortable and at ease around him. He just has a knack for this.


9. He has a very healthy sense of self. One of the things that I was so attracted to when I met him. He is fine with who he is without being egotistical and never tries to be something or someone else. He does not usually care about what he is wearing (hence the 1985 bright yellow polo rugby shirt that he still wears. Ok, maybe it is 1990. And it does look good on him.) and is never wrapped up in himself.


10. What a great dad and husband! I know he really wants me and the kids to be happy. What more can you ask for. The kids cannot get enough of their dad. Even when he was dunking Natalie. She loved it.

Happy Birthday John!!