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... 

THREE!!!

Happy

Happy

Happy

Birthday

to our

Sweet

Beautiful

Smart

3

year old!

She certainly makes being a Mommy

way better than I ever dreamed it could be!

Oh, how I love my Baby Girl

even though she insists...

"Daychel Momma's Big Girl!"

Sharing some of this year's "overalls with the #" pictures. It has become kind of a tradition now. I was so happy to find that the darling Minnie Mouse overalls I had made for her (Etsy.com) to wear to Disneyland in November still fit. Judging by how big they still are she will probably be able to wear them for our next trip to Disneyland. Yay! Getting our money's worth:)...plus I just love them on her. We didn't have them in time for our November photo shoot, so we had to take the "ears" too! It all blends nicely with this year's party theme...

Too cute!

The standing ON the number was all Rachel's idea.

One of my favorite collages this year.

I thought it was cute how Miss Ashley caught her looking

over each shoulder.

The shot of her back was my idea.

I could not resist a shot of the personalized ears.

Our "Number 3" collage!

When Miss Ashley saw the overalls

she asked if we'd take some photos

with the new red umbrella they had just added to their props for Spring. 

Rachel loved it!

She likes holding the umbrella when we are out in the rain.

We both end up soaked and giggling when she does,

but it is so much fun.

Oh, and Mommy's hair gets flattened!

Who cares when you get to soak up all those

giggles along with the rain...

Busy, busy day planned for Friday! I did not get nearly the stuff done I thought I would today. We had to make a little detour to take Sheena to the Emergency Vet this morning after kind of a scary night last night. She is going out to the bathroom excessively due to the Prednisone...normal side effect. Last night we noticed that her, um...#2 shall we say...has changed. It was kind of alarming, so I called the office last night. They said if it continued to get worse to bring her in. Picture this...Frank, Lori, Sheena all going out together in the pouring rain throughout the night Wednesday night...Sheena wearing the leash, Frank holding the leash and Lori holding the flashlight! Poor Sheena...talk about a "deer in the headlights" look! If she could speak, she possibly would have said something like, "Doesn't a girl get any privacy around here anymore?!"  Hey, I had to see if there were any changes. There were, so I took her in this morning. She appears to be okay. This is a side effect too, but it is one you do not want to mess with or ignore. She is now on a bland diet and a pill twice a day to help get things back to "normal". Somehow we managed to stop at Starbuck's after the vet visit and STILL be on time for Rachel's gymnastics class. She did GREAT! I am so proud of how she tries new stuff each week! We have next week off then she starts a new 6 week session. Anyway, two more errands tomorrow morning and then it is time to celebrate! Oh, and tomorrow is baking day for Saturday's cake and ice-cream party. Bring on the fun!

Birthday Countdown!

As the "Happy Birthday Party", as Rachel calls it, day gets closer I thought I'd share some of the photos from Sunday's 3rd birthday photo session. It went really well! Rachel was very cooperative despite the three outfits and multiple hats and hairbows Mommy took in for the shoot. As soon as I put her brown/pink dress on her, she went over, sat on the "x", looked at the camera and said "goofy" (the word we were using the last two times to get her to smile:)). Miss Ashley, our photographer, just looked at me. She wasn't even ready yet. She got ready quickly and ended up taking over 100 pictures. Sharing some of my favorites of Rachel in her pink and brown party dress. She is wearing it for the official start to her birthday weekend celebration on Friday. Her Da-Da is making reservations for us to take her to our favorite winery. We have been taking her there since birth as it is also a really nice restaurant.

  

Our soon-to-be 3 year old

little Angel...

The profile shot...

She loved the "stairs!"

A little collage I made.

I loved the personality

that came across in her "standing" pictures.

She loved her little white gloves.

She was so preoccupied with them.

They were still pretty big on her,

so she was also trying to keep them on!

Just so sweet...

Love this...

Actually, I love all of them!

"Thank you, Miss Ashley!"

I made a practice cake, only one layer though, yesterday. I started experimenting with the fondant. It went pretty well. I'm kind of excited to see how it is all going to turn out for Saturday. I cut out all the pieces for making the Minnie Mouse party hats last night. I'm going to try to work some magic with the glue gun this evening. I found a punch recipe to go with the cake and cupcakes too! Rachel loved the punch at the Baby Shower we attended last week, so I decided to make some for her special day. I decided on my table settings and party favors. I have the balloons, helium tank and air pump. I have her Happy Birthday banner and the cake and cupcake toppers. I ordered the Thank You cards. Several gifts have already arrived for her. I need to wrap ours. Hopefully the big one will get here in time! I'm feeling ready! I just want out party girl to have a fun and special weekend! Love, love, love our little sweetheart...

RSVP...

Our beautiful girl is turning 3!

Here is a sneak peek at one of her pics from Sunday's

birthday phoot shoot!

We had three outfits and our photographer,

Miss Ashley, took tons of pictures!



"proper etiquette"

"manners"

"common courtesy"

 just plain old

 "being polite"

Sometimes I wonder what all these mean. Are parents "teaching" any of this anymore? Were they ever? Did they teach their children when they were young and then it just "went away"? Can't help but wonder. It has been on my mind a lot lately, unfortunately.  "Did the Christmas gifts we sent ever make it to who we sent them to?", "Did the Bridal Shower gift?",  "The wedding gift?", "The birthday gifts?" and so on...

Is it so hard to drop an email, leave a phone message, text,  or even jot a quick note on FB? "Hi, got the gift you sent. Thanks!" I'm just not sure what to think. Should we stop sending things? Practically everything we send is out of state, and we hear back regarding very few things. I'm always wondering if things actually reached their destination or not. Sometimes I am embarrassed because I ask. Should I have to ask someone if they got the wedding gift or shower gift we sent? I remember the first time I started noticing a change. It was a few years ago after attending the wedding of an acquaintance. I thought it was odd that we did not receive a "thank you" for the wedding gift of money we gave the newlyweds. Then I thought, well maybe they weren't sure of who we were because we were friend's of the groom's mom. A few months later...same thing with her other son. Hmmm...okay, maybe people don't send "thank you's" unless they know you better? Five wedding gifts, various shower gifts, and quite a few other gifts later later to various people...no "thank you's". I just feel like I missed the memo or something. Are "thank you's" no longer necessary? Let me just add that I know people are busy, really busy...I absolutely do not think or expect that someone should sit down and have to write a formal "thank you" for every gift that is sent to them. Heck, with 50 people attending a birthday party, that would be next to impossible for most people. I guess I just think you should somehow let someone know you did receive the gift and it was not "lost in the mail".

Then there is the  "RSVP". I think this is what started this whole thought process these past few days. (yes, silly stuff like this wakes me up at night, interrupts my sleep and I think about it) Every year I send out about 15 or so birthday invites to Rachel's party. I hear back from maybe a third of the people. Is that the norm? I know our parties are not huge, fancy events. I know most potential guests are out of state. Wouldn't you still drop a note or something? "Hi, thanks for the invite. We can't make it to the party. Hope Rachel has a fun day!" or maybe not even that much elaboration. With many, her birthday is not even mentioned or acknowledged. I'm not sure what to do...stop inviting?, just assume every year that even though I take the courtesy to send the invitation that that is just what it is "a courtesy"? and I should not expect a response? Should I just chalk it up to bad manners, people are too busy, or that people couldn't care less? I am not trying to be rude or sarcastic. Anyone who really knows me hopefuly realizes that. I am just not sure what my role regarding "etiquette" should be? I sometimes feel like I am the one who has it all "wrong" here.

From the time she could barely talk, I started teaching Rachel to say "please", "thank you", "excuse me" etc...and I will continue to do so. She waits her turn, she waits in line, she has more patience than I do sometimes. I think I am doing the right thing. I hope I am doing the right thing. She gets cut in front of, "pushed" aside by other kids, and sometimes is even forgotten by the teachers. Yes, that has happened more than once. It was very hard, as a Mommy, to watch my sweet girl sitting quietly, "criss-cross applesauce" with her hands in her lap, only to be passed over when they were handing out instruments or other items. I remember getting tears in my eyes as her big, beautiful brown eyes kept looking up at me as if to say, "When do I get one?" or "Why didn't I get one too, Mommy"? She simply sat and observed the other kids playing with theirs. She is quiet, shy (now anyway), not aggressive, and as sweet as can be. I know I am her Mommy and of course I would think all of this, but I was/maybe always will be a teacher too. I used to see all kinds of kids. I can see where she can be left out, forgotten and (so far) labeled as "the good, quiet kid who is a joy to have in class". Unfortunately, it happens as the "other" kids demand much more attention. But...I want her to have good manners, be polite and to do the "right thing". I hope I am doing the right thing by "teaching" her all of this. I think I am. I pray I am.

As soon as she can write, I will teach her how to write her own "thank you" cards. When appropriate, I will make sure she knows the difference between "RSVP" and "Regrets Only". I will, hopefully, be able to explain the importance of doing each in a timely manner.

I know this is not my usual "happy to be alive...so in love with my girls" blog post. Just some things on my mind. I see the posts, both on blogs and on FB, by friends who experience similar things as this and know I am not alone in my ponderings. On a much more upbeat note...looking forward to sharing more of Rachel's adorable photos soon!