Sasha’s 3rd Birthday

On Sunday our close friends and family came together at our house to celebrate our amazing little girl, Sasha’s 3rd Birthday. Sad as it sounds, I’ve been planning it for a little while, and couldn’t wait to fulfill her relatively simple requests of “Frozen decorations and a Frozen cake please, Mummy!”. So the planning began… I know kids parties are hard work, but I actually secretly enjoy them- planning the menu (read: Party Rings, cocktail sausages and few themed bits thrown in), shopping/making bits for the ‘theme’ and choosing a traditional party game of two. Who knows, maybe I could have been a children’s party entertainer in a former life?! Anyway, that ship has sailed, so I get my kicks through organising shindigs such as this for S and F.

We didn’t do a big preschool party this year, but had our nieces, God Daughters, next door neighbours’ boys and a couple of other little ones who we’re close to, over for the afternoon. 12 in total, plus adults, and the numbers left me feeling thankful for the fact that we can lob pretty much everyone in the garden, as we don’t actually have a particularly big house, at least not one which is big enough for a large indoor party! As someone with a winter birthday, as does Freddie, I am envious of the fact that S has the opportunity to have a party at home and also one that is largely outdoors (thank goodness for warm, sunny, May weather!).

Apologies in advance for the photo-heavy post, but I like to capture a lot and then find it hard to choose #bloggerproblems Anyway, I hope you enjoy (well, friends and family anyway!)….

Sasha woke up EARLY on Sunday (hello, 5.45am!), trotted into our bedroom, and woke me up whispering in my ear “It’s my birthday”, with a heart-meltingly big grin on her face. She was clearly SO excited, and a clear example that yes, 3 year olds very much care about their birthday, even if they might not remember much of it when they’re all grown up!

Our little lady loved opening her presents. We didn’t go too overboard, but bought her a couple of things we knew she would love plus a couple of bits she would grown in to, like her balance bike.

The wooden fire station and Fireman Sam figures were a big hit! I think Freddie was especially pleased that he would more than likely benefit from this present too- one of the perks of having only 15 months between your sibling and therefore enjoying a lot of the same things!

I think this happy grin says it all! She kept saying “Thank you” over and over which was very sweet.

I’d spent the night before decorating our kitchen so she should wake up to the Frozen decorations that she was hankering after. Good old cheap-as-chips Ebay stores!

Every Frozen fan’s dream: Giant Elsa and Anna!

…AND I did find an Olaf Pinata in the end!

I still had a load of pink and white honeycomb lanterns from her birthday last year, so we did a bit of outdoor decorating where we could.

Whilst Adam and I were carrying out some party prep/cake wrangling/garden tidying, Freddie and Sasha spent most of the morning on and off their new super-safe, ‘Spring Free’ Trampoline. Our family have been lucky enough to have been made blog ambassadors for them for the summer, and since this beauty arrived last week, they’ve barely been off when the weather’s been dry! I’m looking forward to blogging more about our trampolining experience over the next few weeks.

A ridiculous amount of butter cream making went on that morning, all in aid of a very large birthday cake!

Ta-da! One Frozen cake, if a little wonky. It wasn’t supposed to be quite as blue, as I overdid the food colouring by mistake, but I think it still had the desired effect! 

My Dad, messing around and using the ‘3’ balloon as a punchbag (he thinks he’s soooo funny 😉 ) It was great having him and one of my brothers down for the weekend, and they live in my hometown so I don’t get to see them as often as we’d like. 

I love this pic of my bro and my baby girl! He’s a very good Uncle to both Freddie and Sasha, despite living far from us.

A little pre-party family shot of us. We hardly have any of us as a ‘four’ and we really must make more of an effort to take more. Maybe joining in with ‘Me and Mine’ each month will give me then kick up the bum to make it happen!

Our little chap looking rather serious, even though he spent most of the day running around like a maniac, high off all the sugar from the Party Rings he kept pinching off the food table! I love this photo though, although it makes me want to weep at just how grown up he is becoming. Just stop, okay?!

Little S is such a Daddy’s girl, and spends much of the time he’s around clung to him- getting Adam to pick her up, swing her around, put her on his shoulders… I took a few of these pics and I think we’re going to frame one 🙂

My lovely Mum! Who looks AMAZING for her age (cough, 65, cough!).

Once all of Sasha’s little guests arrived, they spent most of the time playing games on the trampoline! It’s probably not ideal having so many on at once, but they were all being beautifully behaved and careful, it was shame to say no! We played a version of musical statues, where they’d dance and bounce, and when I shouted “FREEZE!” they had to stand as still as they could. No mean feat on something bouncy!

The slide and mini trampoline were also big hits with my Niece and God Daughters (you can never have too many outdoor toys when you have a load of under 5s round).

Granddads together!

The children ate a picnic party tea in the garden which they loved, Again, we were so thankful for such great weather!

Waiting patiently for her cake. I love the happy, anticipated look on that face!

Ready, steady….

…BLOW! 

This picture of her looking at me melts my heart- she was so, so happy, and when asked what her best bits of the day were later on in bed, she said “having my party friends round, playing on the trampoline, and blowing out my candles”!

Me, smiling at someone, or something, probably in the midst of running about like a blue-ar*ed fly. Kids parties are so much fun, but bloody hard work!

The cutting of the cake! I did attempt purple ombre in the end, although THAT was hard work in itself. I’ve vowed ‘never again’ but since I’m a glutton for punishment, it probably will!

And finally…you can’t beat a bit of pass the parcel to round off a wonderful afternoon! I have to give special thanks to my Mum, who was there when I was wrapping this on the Saturday, and had to keep reminding me and my frazzled brain to add a sweet between each layer- she saved a lot of tears! 

So that was that, that was Miss S’ 3rd Birthday, and she couldn’t have asked for a better one. We’re lucky to have so many lovely people in our lives, and the children really are the nicest bunch of little people to have around- polite, fun, kind…they make hosting parties a joy. 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl- we hope you had an awesome one! 

 

Linking up with ‘Let’s Talk Mommy’ and ‘Share With Me’!