Birthday Bonanza

Last weekend was quite the weekend of celebrations!

I had been thinking of doing Audrey's birthday party at the carousel at our local mall for awhile. I was tempted by the discount coupons I always got in the mail, but once I started to look into the birthday packages, I knew it wasn't for us... it limited the number of kids, included a cookie cake, and provided invitations and plates, etc. Um, thanks, but no thanks. My amazing cousin Melanie is my go-to invitation designer, and she perfectly customized Audrey's vision into a beautiful invitation this year. 

Yes, the party was at the carousel, but would Audrey settle for a simple carousel theme? Oh, no. She first insisted we have a Tangled birthday party but soon changed her mind to Cinderella. I was relieved because she had a Cinderella dress she could wear so I figured, why not?

Of course, my sister-in-law Stephanie makes world-famous cupcakes (okay, at least locally famous), so why would I want a store-made cookie cake? And the mall carousel is open to the public, so I figured I'd buy wristbands for the kiddos and call it a party. Then I had the genius idea to call the mall and ask for a discounted group price and was elated when they knocked off $2 per kid, saving me almost $30! What a deal!

So on Saturday morning, Cinderella's carousel party commenced. Audrey had twelve guests plus Noah, and lots of parents and a few siblings came along. 

Audrey, Madison and Kason 
(church friends)

Oliver and his mommy Tanya

Kate, my cousin Adrian's daughter, who came with her grandmas!(Adrian and Matt were in Calgary)

Luke and his mommy Corrie

Kason and his mommy Trish

My cousin Christa and her youngest (for another couple of months!) Kennedy

My cousin Melanie's daughter Ryann

The set-up

Inspecting the candle, which she insisted we light 15 minutes into the party...

She made Daddy blow the candle out for her

Callen, who just became a big brother!

Mackenzie is only a few weeks younger than Audrey

Cooper, our former neighbor, riding with his sister Cassidy

My college friend Angie's little boy, Levi

LOTS of gifts and LOTS of help!

July 27th is a really big day in our family, because not only was my special little princess born that day, but it is also Nick's birthday (Chris' cousin) and Sharon's (Jamie's cousin). This year was EXTRA special because Nick turned 30 and Sharon, the big 6-0! Not to mention, a mere three days later comes Papa Drew's big day. So we planned a big party Saturday evening at Jamie and Drew's house to celebrate all the birthdays--it was like Christmas in July!

Nick, the birthday boy

Sharon and Jim

Birthday girl Audrey with her goofy face 

Birthday boy Drew

GGB is a genius--she got Audrey her very own Iron Man! Noah was flabbergasted.

Big hugs for GGB

Mark and Diana gave Audrey this awesome fixer-upper dollhouse, and Great-Uncle Tommy got down on the floor to play.

We were lucky to have some out-of-towners: Aunt Tracy and Debbie, Nick's mom, plus GGB

My brother-in-law Mark and Mom

On Monday, the real birthday, we kept it low-key. Audrey requested pizza for dinner so we made our own, then opened gifts after eating leftover birthday cupcakes.

Three going on thirteen...

Happy birthday, my sweet three-year-old!