Happy Birthday Party Day!

Yet more pictures of our

Birthday Girl!

Well, today was Party Day!

I am so happy with how it all turned out!

We think Rachel had a VERY fun day!

A special "Thank You" to our party guests

for making our little party so much fun

and just very special for our "baby" girl.

It started with meeting friends for lunch at Red Robin. I really thought Rachel would pick her favorite "burger place" aka Dickie Jo's, but she chose Red Robin. The server heard me call Rachel "birthday girl" and asked if they could being her a small birthday sundae  and sing to her. I said they could, but that she has been shy and doesn't like it super loud. She said they "tone it down" for older and younger patrons. Hmmm...still loud but very nice of them. I held my breath hoping a very startled Rachel would not start crying. She did fine...loved the "treat!".

After lunch, we headed over to the mall for a fun Build-A-Bear experience! She chose to build a "Dawgy" and yes, that is her name. She is so cute too! I will share some photos once I upload them. Rachel pulled her around by the leash as we walked through the mall. I felt a few people looked at us funny, and I just wanted to say, "Chill! Smile! She only gets to be the "Birthday Girl" once a year and only turns "3" once in her life. Let her just ENJOY!". No one said anything. I just felt they looked at us "funny". It was a fun to do the whole "Build-A-Bear" experience with the "pros" like we did today. She made her very first bear with Build-A-Bear at Christmas time with Grandma & Grandpa. That was fun too, but I can see how I could have made it even moreso with a little more knowledge about the process. I must admit...I think I am getting more and more into this "Build-A-Bear" thing. I'm ready to ask for birthday giftcards so I can make one of my own. The clothing and accessories are just too cute! What a special thing to do for her 3rd birthdy!

After that we headed home for some cake and ice-cream. Every turned out nice. We donned our Minnie Mouse party hats, sang "Happy Birthday" to Rachel, let her steal a few tastes of the frosting on her cake and eat polka dot off the side of it. We had cake, ice-cream and punch, checked out our goody bags, and played "Pin the Flower on Minnie Mouse". That was so cute and Rachel loved it. She even let us blindfold her and did very well sticking her yellow flower on Minnie. Such a cute game. After all that we moved to the family room where she opened her presents from her Mommy and Daddy. We had her open all the presents from out of state family and friends on her birthday yesterday, so she did the ones from us today. She is really getting into this present opening thing. The last thing she said to me before bed this evening was, "Open more presents tomorrow, Momma. Agent Oso presents." I had to laugh because she is possibly expecting presents every day now. Then I felt a little bit bad because I didn't find anything "Agent Oso" for her. I looked but no luck.

Such a fun day! Hopefully it was memorable for our sweet girl. She may possibly only remember the details for the short-term, but you know I got lots of pictures! Everybody was super patient with me as I snapped lots of photos all day long! I also remembered to not only charge the video camera but to take it with us too! A big thank you to the Da-Da for his help with both cameras!

This last collage is kind of funny.

She took some pictures sitting then

 stood up and hiked her tutu

WAY up almost below her armpits.

I started to pull it down, then laughed

and asked Ashley to take some pictures of it.

It was so cute, natural,

and her legs look super long!

Well, we are all exhausted!

We still plan to head to The Coast tomorrow!

Hopefully another FUN day to conclude the Birthday Weekend!

A little note to family & friends who check the blog...

Thank you so much for the phone messages, texts, notes on Facebook, cards, giftcards, presents etc...I have not had the chance to respond or do any callbacks with my party planning and stuff. I have saved all the birthday wishes and singing(s) of "Happy Birthday" for her to listen to. Please know we love you and appreciate you thinking about and loving our sweet girl. It means a lot to us. She is so incredibly special to us, and it warms our heart knowing you love her and miss her and wish her the best on her special day. It is a day we dreamed about for so long...her "birth" day and one I definitely do not take lightly. I hope to get some my formal "thank you's" and pictures out to you all within the next week! Hugs...