Our Birthday Girl

Yesterday we celebrated Isabelle Katie's 3rd Birthday with some of our good friends from church.  I had SO much fun getting things ready for the big day!

I had also planned on finally posting pics of her birthday dress that I made last month, but...since her party turned into a lovely butterfly (posa, from mariposa, according to Isabelle) theme, I did not have the strength to resist the adorable little butterfly dress at Gymboree, which was on sale and I had my bucks to play around with....it was perfect!

We asked her friends to come wearing their sundresses, as we'd be having a picnic in January!!

So much fun!!!

 All the girls all looked adorable!!

Here are some pictures of the big day...

My darling girly birthday girl!!!

Someone's a little ex-cit-ed!!

Lots of pink and yellow flowers
Tradition has it that I buy one or two new pretty plants for New Year's...
of course they're dead within two months, but...
they work well for a summer party in the middle of winter!

 The other flowers are recycled from the Valentine's Day box, all purchased on clearance a few years back~ each year I add to my collection of white porcelain vases, usually at TJ Maxx or Marshall's for two or three dollars each, and they worked perfectly with our theme. 

Ginormous tissue paper peonies~ loved these!
They were also on the stairs with a couple of pink balloons.

I kept the crepe paper at a minimum for this party~ between the windows and draped across the tiles on the fireplace.

Easy as pie...which is ironic, since I cannot make a pie to save my life...you get the idea!

Truth be told, I'm not one to do goody bags for birthday parties.

I think I've done a handful in the past, but mainly it just adds to the stress.

But these were fun and cute and I loved putting them together!

 

Inexpensive paper bags filled with just a couple of things from the dollar aisle at Michael's~ I got things with multiple items, like princess crayons, and divvied them up among the bags.

The butterflies are clips, 2 for a dollar I believe, so that was the biggest expense.

I think they turned out really well and the girls were very excited to take them home!

Miss Isabelle giving things the once-over earlier in the morning

I think she approved- she kept dancing around saying "My birsday party, so pretty!  So many pretties!"

Onto the...Birthday Cake!!!

I was a little disappointed that I didn't have enough room for a fancy letter "I"

But I think the cake turned out pretty- that's a heart shape on top of a round layer.

I added the paper doilies to give it some more summer charm and personality...that, and my plate is a black print, so a bit sophisticated for three year olds, ha!

 

 I can see now why I don't get paid the big bucks for my confection creations- so it wasn't very smooth on the sides there, but it sure tasted good!

I think I was in love with that beautiful pink frosting.

We also served true picnic fare~ green and red grapes, cheese & crackers, and pink lemonade. What a nice change of pace for the middle of winter!

I'm going to throw in this one last picture of the explosion that went off in the play room. Or at least that's how it looked, ha!

Who says only boys make b-i-g messes?

We're so thankful for our good friends!

Thank you!
So grateful to God for bringing us our special princess!!