Rowen Turns 3!

I promised last week that I’d have a re-cap of Rowen’s birthday on the blog, but that didn’t happen, sorry.  Finally getting around to it now though! 

Last year, we did one party with both family and a few friends, but this year we split it up and did two...a “friend party” and a “family party”, I’ll start with the “friend party”…

Guests: Over the past year we’ve gotten to know a few of our neighbors really well - so well in fact, that the kids request to play with each other all the time!  So we thought what the heck, invite 15 kids and their parents and see what happens!  We busted out the inflatable pools, sprinkler, slip ‘n slide and water tables and had ourselves a big ol' backyard bash!  Thank goodness for the water because it was HOT, but the kids loved it!

Theme: Naturally, the theme of the party was "princesses".  Specifically, Ariel and Sofia, which are Rowen’s two most favorite princesses!  I even decided to dress the part.  When I walked downstairs that morning wearing THIS, Rowen’s jaw just about hit the floor.  “Mom, Ariel is on your shirt, Ariel is on your shirt!”, she yelled.  Totally worth it!

(for those of you asking, I found the tank here, and for the record, no I was NOT wearing the matching undies, ha!)

Confession: I took a bunch of décor pictures, but then accidentally deleted them when I was going through my iPhone later that night (whoops).  

Food: I don’t know about you, but every year around mid-July, Ryan and I get really barbecue-d out.  Not sure why, but for some reason we get to a point where a grilled hamburger or hot dog no longer sounds appetizing.  So instead of grilling, we decided to do walking tacos!  Talk about an easy, fairly inexpensive meal idea --- they were a hit as was the rest of the party!  A big thanks to all of our friends for celebrating with us!

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The next morning we woke up early and headed to Panora where we met up with family.  We decided to do this party out at the lake to give everyone on my side of the family a day of boating and tubing!  There was no real theme, just a few balloons and some festive tableware, our view of the lake itself was decoration enough! 

We ate sandwiches and cake, boated, tubed, and opened gifts! It was relaxing and fun, a big thanks to my in-laws for hosting! 

The rest of the weekend was spent playing with all the new toys Rowen received (pretty sure we now own every single Ariel and Sofia toy known to man).  

Monday was Rowen's actual birthday!  It was rainy so we decided to travel north to Ames to check out the library (locals:  this place is awesome for kids) and have lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Hickory Park, where she got a free ice cream and a birthday song!  

What a fun-filled, party hardy weekend it was!