Jessica's 3rd Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Jessica's 3rd birthday with a big party at home.


She chose confetti cake mix and white frosting. She was so proud to be able to help frost her very own cake.



After lunch we opened presents from family. Here's the birthday girl! She's wearing Katie's flower girl dress from Auntie Mary's wedding, isn't it adorable?



Katie and Megan hovered over her the whole time, always ready to "help." Katie actually did help by reading each of the cards aloud to her.




One of Katie's gifts was this My Little Pony. Katie also made lots of paper art presents - a bookmark, a doorknob hanger, a tiny book, and a bouquet of flowers.




Auntie Erin sent a fabulous outfit with all of the accessories! Here are the fancy sandals.

Jessi loves these shades!

Hair clips from Auntie Erin. We didn't get a good pic of the dress, but know that she loves it! She said she will wear it to preschool!

Jessi loves to give Katie 'monkey hugs' like this one. She basically jumps up on Katie and wraps her legs around her. Katie loves it!

We got her a scooter, since she's always asking to borrow Katie's or Megan's scooter. All day she kept telling people, "I got my very own scooter!" She loves it!

Here is her finished cake! Pretty fancy, huh? She wanted a My Little Pony cake, and I was drawing a blank on how to do that with my rookie cake-decorating skills, so I had the idea to make a plain old cake but put lots of ponies on and around it. I think it turned out great!

We had a big crowd at our party: 13 kids and 11 adults! There were three other kiddos Jessi's age, Kristen, Matthew, and Danny. Their siblings were all invited, too. Here are some of the kids.

Here are more kids.

Another shot of kids. Chris made the most amazing BBQ chicken, and we also had hot dogs, baked beans, garlic bread, sweet corn, salad, fruit salad, and a veggie tray. It took us all day Sunday to prep all of that food!

Here's the birthday girl, ready to sing Happy Birthday to herself!

She blew out all of her candles!

Here's Jessica showing off her present from Danny, Jimmy, and Abby. Danny will be in Jessi's preschool class, and Abby will be in Megan's kindergarten class. Jimmy also goes to Holy Family, but is going into 5th grade.

I meant to take pictures of Jessi with each family, but forgot to take any more than this one. Oh, well!

After the party, Mom & Dad C. drove the three girls down to Ohio - they are keeping the girls all week long!! Mom is posting updates on her blog. I am really enjoying the peace and quiet, and have been busy tackling a big project - transforming Megan's bedroom from an outdated office into a cute little girl's room. Today I stripped the wallpaper, and Chris took down all of the fixtures and the chair rail. Tomorrow I'll wash the last of the glue off the walls, and will spackle. Wednesday is priming and painting day! I hope to get her room painted and re-decorated by Friday morning! That's when we're going to pick the girls up in Ohio, and drive to Wheaton.

If you want to call Jessica tomorrow on her actual birthday (Tues 8/24), call Mom C's cell. Email me if you don't have her number...I don't think I should post it here. Happy Birthday, Jessica!