Birthday #3!

Well, Amelia's 3rd birthday has come and went already.  It is so hard to believe that 3 years has gone by since she joined our family!  As much as I am dreading the age of 3 (My brother once referred to it as the "terrible two's" and the "*&%$@ 3's"), I am equally anticipating it as well.  With her verbal skills and her imagination taking off, it is fun to see her personality continue to develop!

For Amelia's party this year, she requested a "green" birthday.  The color, of course, not the environmental term.  Then, she decided that maybe a yellow party would suit her better.  The following week she was considering a blue party.  So, I suggested a rainbow party to encompass all of the colors and she went for it!

I had fun with the theme even if I only executed about 1/4 of what I was hoping to do.  One of my favorite parts was making the rainbow cupcakes.  It was a lot of work, but turned out super cute!  This is the batter divided into six cups, each one dyed a color of the rainbow.

Batch 1 of 4 for the day.  Yep, I made 48 cupcakes!

Here they were right before I took them out of the oven.

Half of the cupcakes are done!  I changed the order of the colors.  Some ended up with red on top, while others had purple on top.

Yum!

There were upside-down rainbows at all of the family room windows

I was so disappointed when I woke up to thunderstorms on the morning of her party.  Even 7 years later, I am still bitter about the rain on my wedding day.  It also rained on Amelia's 1st and 2nd birthday parties.  I ran out to the car to get something and noticed this rainbow right across the street!  It was pretty exciting for Amelia and I (mostly me) to have a rainbow on the rainbow party day!

No one in our house is exempt from helping out with party preparations--not even the birthday girl herself!

This is the cake in all of its finished glory.  It was fun to make, albeit a bit time consuming.  It was my first attempt at a "cake" built of cupcakes--no cutting needed!

This is the candy buffet that probably led to more than a few sick kids (and adults for that matter).  As seen here, Amelia and Sean had their fair share prior to dinner.  It didn't turn out quite the way I had envisioned it, but candy is so colorful, I couldn't resist the chance  to include it in the party somehow.

Our rainbow arch--we had more than a couple of arguments over this little project, mostly due to my control issues.  The bottom line is that it turned out really well (even using Jason's idea) and was a fun addition to the festivities.

Rainbow pinata

Birthday girl in her rainbow dress opening her gifts.  She loved keeping the "party hat" on nearly the whole time.  As you can see, some of our guests wrapped their presents according to the theme!

Amelia and Jason's cousin, Candace.  Amelia is decked out here in her new swimming suit and cover up that she opened only minutes before.

As you can see, Amelia also received a Tinkerbell dress from her best bud, Natalie.  She wore it most of the remainder of the party and even battled the pinata in it.

Amelia's friend, Claire, taking a turn at the pinata.  Can you tell this little lady has 3 older brothers?

Speaking of the brothers, here is Carter doing some damage on the pinata.  Thank goodness the Wiegand boys were in attendance, otherwise it would have taken weeks to open the pinata up!

At one point, I must have put down my camera and not picked it back up. I have no pictures of Amelia blowing out candles and very few pictures of other people in attendance at the party.  No pictures of all the good sports who came dressed head to toe in colorful garb to appease the birthday girl.  I am bummed, too, that we didn't even get a family shot that day!

The next morning, I had to get one more picture of Amelia with her birthday banner.  As you can see, the smile still hadn't worn off yet from the day before.

One last action shot of the cupcake.  Check out the inside!

Really, it was a fantastic party--the weather cleared up for a beautiful day, the food was good and plentiful, and we had lots of great friends and family in attendance.  We are blessed beyond belief with such amazing people in our lives who love Amelia as much as we do. 

Happy Birthday little lady!  Now begins the planning for #4!