Lola turns 3 - the birthday dress unveiled..

Our beautiful daughter turned 3 a few days ago.

Invitations went out weeks ago

and we had a lovely little backyard party for her, and she celebrated with close family and friends.

The day was a classic Qld weather day - hot and humid, followed by a thunderous storm about 5pm that afternoon. Fortunately for us, there was no rain so we were able to put up our jumping castle and let the kids run free in the yard.

The cake was a huge hit. She loved it and I must admit it was fun to make (only because my awesome sister came over for the night to help me decorate it, and we made a dash to the bottle-O before we started).

And, if I do say so myself, Lola looked awesome in her birthday girl dress. She got lots of comments about how gorgeous she looked, and Poppy even told her she looked like a box of smarties (that comment could well have gone either way, but she was happy with it!)

and her party bags/thank you's were ever so cute.  My clever friend Hsuey drew this up in minutes, and they were printed and stapled onto clear bags with a giant chocolate freckle inside (sorry no pics - I realised just as I was breaking into the last one that I hadn't photographed them! I looove freckles).

I love having parties at our house. It's part of my personality that I love having people around all the time - and a party in my own 'environment' makes me very happy.  And we have a great house for parties.. It's finally coming together and most of our clutter is finding a home. The outside to inside flow makes it easy for the kids to come and go as they please.  And fortunately for me, we get to do it all again in about 6 weeks for Andrew's 1st birthday.

the 3rd birthday dress

Lola will be 3 in less than a month. I love that she's crazy excited about her birthday this year.  I've been thinking about what she'll wear to her party for a few months now (is that strange? I don't think about what I'm going to wear each day until I'm actually throwing the clothes on - but I love dressing her!)

So when I found this spotty, satiny type fabric at Spotlight on the $5/metre sale table - I knew it was what I needed.

And last night I sewed her dress.. I don't want to show it to you just yet (I think it will look much prettier on the birthday girl herself), but think 'Amelia top', but longer, with a pretty belt/sash :)

She tried it on this morning (so I could get the length), and had a bit of a meltdown when I told her she couldn't wear it yet.. I took that as a very good sign that she liked it.

Who doesn't love the Australian Women's weekly birthday cakes cookbook?

I swear this book has bought more joy into people's lives than many other 'joy-promising books' out on the market.  And even though it has moved with the times a little bit - there are still so many of the old favourites in the new editions.  I remember when I was a kid, it would be months before our birthday that we'd start flicking through it trying to decide which cake we'd ask for that year.. And to Mum's credit - she never said 'No way - too hard' to any of them? I don't know that I'll be that obliging when my child/ren start putting their orders in :) But seeing as Lola is still only 2, this year I got to choose for her as she is not quite at the stage of picking something out of many options (even chooosing between a red dress and a yellow dress - she wants both)..

So I chose the Bunny Rabbit cake for her this year, and here's a shot of the bunny, in all her glory

(actually, this was taken 'after' Lola blew out her candles, and she appears to have blown off part of the bunny's paw as well - oops)..

And of course, I had to include a pic of the birthday girl enjoying it at her party (Here Lola is saying 'I want the nose Daddy!!'

I also plan on writing in my book which child had what cake for what year (eg. Julie - 2nd Birthday). That's what Mum did in her book, and it's fun flicking back through it and remembering each party.

Happy Birthday number 2 to you Miss Lola!

Our little girl turned 2 yesterday. And Simon and  I also celebrated our first 2 years as parents. There has been way more laughter than tears and definitely more health than sickness. For that we are very grateful. Lola is showing us more and more of her personality as every day passes, and she has so much spirit and humour that we just love.  And in less than 10 weeks, we're sure she'll take on her new role as a big sister with as much enthusiasm as she seems to tackle everything.

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl.

Chronicle of Birthday day activities:
Top left: Afternoon swim with Daddy at the Council pool
Top right: Birthday cupcakes
Bottom right: Free face painting in New Farm park
Bottom left: Her favourite meal for lunch - Sushi!!