Birthday Fun!

Natalie is turning three on Thursday. So to honor the year, we are essentially having three birthday bashes, one for each year! Note to self: this could become very expensive down the line should this pattern continue.

The birthday fun started last weekend with a trip to DisneyWorld. When my brother came out last November, we went with him and upgraded our one day passes to three day passes. It was too good a deal to pass up. We figured we might as well milk it before she turned three and we actually have to buy her a ticket. Yeah, Disneyworld is only an hour away, but it is 'spensive! We had a great time and it was amazing to see how much more she got out of it only six months later. That's one thing I love about the young years, your kids change so quickly, something can be experienced in a whole new way in just a short time.

Here we are meeting Mickey and Minnie.


And here are Dean and Natalie on her favorite ride, the teacups! She just loves watching the mouse pop out of the tea kettle. Thinks it's incredibly funny.


Then today, we threw her birthday party. After we narrowly averted a cake castrophe (will not be using that bakery again), much fun was had by all. Natalie is a total beach girl, just loves playing in the sand so we threw her a beach themed party and got her a sand/water table for her birthday. She was in heaven, as you can see from the photos below. Three of her little friends came over and they played in the sand, decorated visors and devoured cake. She had a really nice time. We'd invited more kids, but they couldn't make it for various reasons. And now, I'm kind of glad. I think too many more kids would have been overwhelming at this age.













And here is a cute video of her blowing out the candles. Apologies for having to endure my singing while watching.



Then on Thursday, her actual birthday, we'll have a final, small family celebration where she can open family presents and go out for ice cream or something. Hmm... and actually, now that I think about it, she may get another celebration next weekend if we head down to her grandparents house. Boy, I hope she doesn't expect a 2 week long birthday extravaganza every year! I may have just made a large parenting error... :) Time will tell. But hey, what the heck, birthdays only come once a year and if you can't overdo it when you're a kid, when else can you?