Happy Birthday!

The day finally arrived - McKenzie's 3rd birthday! She has been excited for weeks! It was a blast that she was such a part of things this year. I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday and she actually had an opinion. She wanted to have friends over so we made invitations together and delivered them to two friends (all I could come up with). Her friend Julia was the only one who could come - which was actually nice. :) McKenzie also wanted to "give everyone a present". I asked her what she wanted to give. Her random request - a Dora watch. This is quite out of the blue because she never watches Dora, talks about Dora, or has anything Dora......but, I found some cheap party favor watches, put Dora stickers on them and voila! - the party of her dreams. I was worried it wouldn't be exactly what she had in mind, but when she saw the watches she was bubbling over with excitement. It was adorable! My sister, Elisa, inspired me to attempt at a Boots the Monkey cake. She makes character cakes every year for her kids. I was surprised and pleased with how well it turned out - and that it was less difficult and more fun than I thought it would be. For the activity, Julia and McKenzie painted ceramic bugs and for lunch - mac and cheese (I love how little children are so easy to please!) As you can see from the pictures, the party was a success and McKenzie was spoiled to the max. What a fun day! She loves her ponies and this morning she prayed "and that my pony can walk"......she may have to help it out a little.

Of course, being Jason's birthday too, after McKenzie's party she took a nap and then we dropped her and Ethan off at Julia's house for a few hours while Jason and I went out to eat and to the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" (which I loved, by the way!). What a wonderful, fun, relaxing day! We will also be celebrating Jason's birthday in May at a Brian Regan show. We're excited for that. I really love this giving-eachother-experiences-for birthdays-rather-than-things idea. What could be better than getting rid of the kids for awhile and going out on a fun, more expensive than usual, date? :)