Birthday Costume Party

Ugh, I've had the worst case of writer's/uploader's/creater's block. Just the mere thought of logging into blogger has put a scowl on my face the past few weeks. Not sure what's wrong with me - but I'm determined to get this post finished. Especially since I started it 2 weeks ago. I have barely even read any blogs...but I will surely get caught up one of these days. So...Sissy's birthday...

She turned 3 in mid-February. I think I may have said this last year, but now I really don't have any babies left in the house. She's potty-trained, sleeping on her own beautifully through the night, going to school, talking in complete sentences...she's a big girl now.
We threw her a Let's Pretend costume party to celebrate. I decorated with pictures of characters past and present, famous and not. Party favors were CDs that included such songs as Ode to Imagination by Joe Wise and See You on the Moon by Great Lake Swimmers, etc.
Yes, I know the cupcake liners don't match; they have red hearts...those kinds of things don't make me happy. I overcooked the first batch, using up all of the pink liners. I could have made a desperate, last-minute trip to the store, but I took a deep breath and let it go.My friend Lori, who brought her 4 kids (a cowboy, a chef, a cow, and Laura Ingalls), did a pretty thorough job documenting the party. I'm going to be a little lazy/blame my writer's block and say: please visit her blog for more complete party details.

In fact, I had to "steal" one of her pictures because I accidentally deleted the one picture I took of Tornado dressed as...what else, a tornado. As the party date approached, I took Tornado to the party store and offered to buy him any costume he wanted (so I wouldn't have to make one). He was SET on being a tornado, though, and he was set on making it himself. I thought it was great. He taped polyfil onto a garbage bag and stuck pictures like a bus, a farmer, animals, balls, a barn, etc. on with Velcro.
We had a roomful of very cute kiddos, like this transformer and his little "monkey" sister.
Sissy first started saying she wanted to dress up like Dora or a princess. Of course. I really wanted her to wear this costume, though, because Tornado and Dash had worn it at her age. It's just one of those items that makes me feel sentimental. So even though it's really a boy Indian outfit, she happily agreed to wear it when I promised she could accessorize with a pink headband and pink shoes.

I adored my little Peter Pan.

There were even many adults who joined in on the fun. This is my sister Tracy in her spectacular hot dog (Tofu Dog) costume. I love that I can always count on Tracy to be at our parties and play along.

Googie was a good enough sport to put on an apron and chef's hat.

Ryan dressed up like a knight, and I was his fair maiden. It was in honor of one of our favorite movies, A Knight's Tale.

I picked out my dress especially for Sissy. The goal was to get a dress she would love. This one had just enough pink and sparkly for her. When she first saw it, she totally gasped, "Oh, I love you (meaning "your") dress!" (In fact, I just asked her, "What did you like about your party?" She said, "I liked your dress. It was like a princess. There was pink on it. And my cupcake had pink on it." She really wanted pink icing, but I was out of my natural food coloring. I happened to have leftover pink frosting in the freezer, which I used for her one cupcake.)

another gratuitous shot of my knight in shining armor

The "Best in Show" winner himself: Papaw, dressed up like Bozo Texino. He has always drawn pictures of Bozo Texino so it was very fitting.

He went all out and was very deserving of his award.

Dad had a little competition with this cute cowboy.

Sissy was ELATED that her Mother's Day Out teacher, Ms. Jeri, came to the party with her husband and two kids. We loved that Jeri even joined Sis at the mic to sing their "color" songs.

For some strange reason, I put TWO candles on her cupcake, rather than three. So weird.

One of my favorite things in the whole wide world - the way my kids smile when a crowd of people are singing "Happy Birthday" to them. That is the moment when I feel like the hard work of a birthday party is well worth it. I want them to feel extra loved and special in that moment. I love the way they almost always join in singing to themselves.

And I love how every time someone told Sissy, "Happy birthday!" - she responded with a "Happy birthday!" right back to them.

Wow...I think I've done it. I think I just completed a blog post. Sigh. I might just surprise you and blog again during the next week.