Brooke's 3rd Birthday!

For Brooke's actual birthday her Grandma from Michigan flew in and almost didn't make it because she was sick. Brooke LOVES her Grandma and was so happy she was here! Grandma arrived late the night before her birthday so when Brooke woke up Grandma was there to surprise her!

Brooke's first gift to open in bed was a new bike helmet.

Then we went downstairs where she saw her new balance bike!

For breakfast daddy made her a number 3 pancake!

Then I baked her rainbow cake (my first). She was excited to eat it. :-)

That afternoon we took her to Jungle Jim's play land in Midvale for the first time. Its an indoor kiddy place with lots of rides. She went on every ride and had fun! Skylar was a bit scared on the carousel horse. :-)

Then we tried the bike outside. She has a long ways to go before getting it but we are practicing.

Then it was gift time! Grandma spoiled her with a couple of floor puzzles, books and play-dough.

Time for birthday cake!

Last Saturday we had Brooke's big safari themed birthday party!

I hired a face painter to make the party extra special.

Brooke picked her favorite animal - a giraffe. Gail made her adorable ears and tail to complete the outfit!

While kids took turns getting their face painted I had a craft set up in my craft room of course! The kids selected a tiger or lion to make out of foam stickers and decorate a bag with their name too. These bags would then be used for the safari adventure!

Daddy did a good job helping Brooke decorate her bag!

Once all the kids made a bag the safari adventure began! It was pretty much like an Easter egg hunt. There were dozens of little animals and animal shaped eggs all over the yard that they had to find.

Next it was lunch time. Thanks Gail and Cassie for making the rainbow fruit cabobs and veggie cups! I also had PB&Js and turkey & cheese sandwiches. Jason grilled up some hotdogs.

Jason and I wanted to have some fun too with the face painter! Isn't she amazing!!

 This was Brooke's response when she saw Tiger Jason! She was so scared. :-)

I was a macaw.

Then we played pin the nose on the lion.

There were a few more kids than this that had to leave early. So we had 10 kids and 4 babies.

The kids had fun with the zebra pinata but Jason ended up having to break it.

Then cupcake time! The zebra cupcakes were lemon zest and the tiger were chocolate chip cookie dough with chocolate frosting. Both were delicious! (I was up until midnight the night before frosting cupcakes and blowing up balloons but it was all worth it!)

Brooke got lots of fun gifts from all of her wonderful friends.

Daddy already playing with the toys. :-) Actually he was drawing a really good helicopter!

Finally the party favors were boxes of animal crackers.

The party was a huge hit and we had gorgeous 80 degree weather! Thanks to all who came. Brooke had a wonderful time.