party time!

sarah kate still has until july 6th before she turns 3 but we had her little party this past weekend since her actual birthday is so close to my due date.  her best friend, alden, turned 3 on june 3rd so we had a joint party for the girls at monkey joe's - a jump house playplace.

on friday night trey grilled burgers for us and our parents.  later jonathan, ashley, ava and bryce came into town.  sk was thrilled to have all of her family together!

since my whole family planned to leave right after the party on saturday (and we didn't do gift-opening at the party), we let sk open a few of her gifts from mimi/papa and her gifts from ava, bryce, jk and ash on friday night.  the 2 gifts that got the biggest smiles were her new cinderella dress (wedding edition complete with veil, bouquet and high heels) from mimi & papa and her new merida doll from ava/bryce & fam.  she was actually wearing her old "messed up" cinderella gown when she opened her new one and i've never seen a kid undress themselves as fast as she did!  and she has worn it everyday since.

some friday pics:

sk and her princess helpers.  she was so excited to receive the merida doll and her first ever little train from the thomas series.  she loves trains more than she actually loves the show thomas but we are getting her a little track for her birthday and the thomas trains will be perfect for it!  

digging into her new piano/princess vanity.  very exciting!  

  

realizing her next gift is a new cinderella gown.....the undressing begins! and that blue smocked dress she has on was a gift that mimi let her open earlier in the day.....she also basically ripped off whatever she was wearing to put that on.  sk has even learned the term "smocked" and is glad to tell me everyday, "i want to wear a smocked dress.  not a play dress - a smocked dress."  thank you, mimi for giving us another option! 

here is a pic of her in the new gown yesterday morning.  mimi had considered taking it back because she thought maybe it wouldn't be long enough for sk's taste (sk really likes her dresses to touch the floor!)  we are sooooo glad she didn't!  it actually is plenty long and sk is obsessed with it.

who do you want to marry, sarah kate?  "i want to marry mommy, daddy, ava and bryce." 

her party was saturday morning at 10.  at first, sk was overwhelmed by the jump place - it had been a long time since we've been to one.  and apparently she was starving.  poor thing, we were cracking up at her and taking pics because she was holding her face and saying how scared she was!  nothing like laughing at your kid and taking pics of her misery=)  sorry, sk, but you are all-girl and full of drama - we love you!!  i told her to get in there and have fun or else she couldn't have her presents.  so.....in she went!

i realize that a long smocked dress is not the best choice for a jump house party, but guess who chose it??!!  sk walked right into shrimp and grits with me, browsed the rack and after ooooing and ahhhing over all the smocked dresses she picked this one out and said, "i have to have it!"  and it is precious and SOOOO sarah kate.

precious ila gray

the beautiful and spunky stella hayes!  she is a girl on the go!

 the "big girls" - greer, charlotte, ava and bryce

brycie!

greer!

charlotte

pizza, cake and icecream time!

anytime sk and i talked about her birthday cake and what she wanted she would say, "i want one with ALL the princesses."
i found one on-line, got sk's approval and sent the pic to a girl from my hometown who created the perfect cake for sarah kate:

and all that whining during jump time, "i want to go eat cake!!!!".....this is her piece after she was finished - no surprise here......

ha!  she was hungry though...she ate TWO slices of pizza.  and she enjoyed her icecream of course.
and naturally, after she was full and energized she wanted to jump more, but we had a busy day ahead of us with 2 more birthday parties to go to.  i was surprised that she was able to keep going and make it to 3 parties in one day, but she did it.

i'll do her 3 year post when she actually turns 3.
i'll also do another post soon about the remainder of our weekend.  trey's parents were here for the whole weekend and we celebrated father's day together on sunday and had a nice afternoon together.  she also started swim lessons this week!  boy we had a rough first day on monday but today she was swimming like a fish.  we are so proud of her and so is her instructor!  all those things i will want to document on here soon.  i'm tired though and have reached my blogging limit for tonight.  tomorrow is the 20th of june.  hayes is due on the 20th of july.....yikes!  and yay!  9th month of pregnancy: please be kind to me.

ending with a pic from the pool this evening.  trey and i have taken her to the pool the past 2 afternoons to work with her (sans puddle jumper).  she is loving her new found freedom - perhaps a little too much!  she's a fearless fish and is willing to push off the steps whether an adult is waiting to catch her at the end of her swim or not!  scary.