Ella turns 3!

Ella's 3rd birthday was this past Friday.  During the day on Friday I took her to Sweet and Sassy for her first mani and pedi.  Ella's friend Adelynn and her mom went with us.  We went to lunch first and then to the kid style salon.  We had so much fun!  The girls had an absolute blast! 

Ready for a fun-filled day!

The girls both loved getting their pedicure!

Fun!

Love this face :)

Pretty piggy toes

Getting all lotioned up for the manicure

Concentration

Drying their nails

Ready for the runway!

Sweet and Sassy had all these boas and fun stuff to play with after their services.  I'm pretty sure the girls could've stayed here all day!

What a fun birthday!

Ella got to open her couple gifts from us that evening.  The kids all LOVE this ice cream set.  It will probably be the gift of choice for a few parties we have coming up. 

Ella's favorite princess right now is Ariel :)

Ella's birthday party was on Sunday.  After lots of back and forth, we decided to have it at our house and stick with the original Hello Kitty theme.  There was so much fun stuff to decorate with and make that I found in the weeks prior to the party.  I may have had a little too much fun planning for this party.  Either way, everything turned out really cute and Ella had a great time with family and friends!

The birthday treat table

Cake pops made by Tasha's Treats

Lots of fun stuff for the kids!

Happy Birthday Ella!

Snacks for the little ones

Ella's birthday crown.  She has worn this every day since the party too!

Party favors!

Pinterest inspired fruit cups!  Much cuter than the usual fruit salad :)

The birthday party girl!

Testing out the bounce house before friends come over...

and testing out the cake pops too!

Fun,

fun,

and more fun!

Mmmm, look at those goodies!

And even more fun!

Kiddos love this little house!

Ella and Sophia trying to leave the party ;)

Present time!

Friends helping with presents!

Ella still prefers the baby swing, and it looks like her friends do too!

Gabby helping Hailee out with her sippy.  Too cute!

Uh oh, here come the dress up clothes!

and the rest was history!  What a fun day!

Hailee has been loving these heels ever since Ella got them.  Who would've thought? ;)

Party planning

I LOVE party planning!  I really love birthday party planning, for kids.  And I especially love birthday party planning for my own kids :) 

Little Miss Ella has the big 3 birthday coming up soon, in about a month and a half.  Of course, I started thinking about her party a while ago.  The plan was to have something more low key, at our house.  We have some fun things in the backyard for kids and weren't looking to spend the $250 something that a big place would take to rent out.  Plus, Hannah and Hailee will get the big party this year (well, technically early next year).  I still feel guilty about having to cancel their party for them being in the hospital.  Obviously there was nothing we could do about it, but it still makes me sad that they don't have the photos of the big 1st birthday bash like Ella did.  Ella has now had 2 big, fun birthday parties so I think it is definitely the babies' turn next!

The other day I went to Graeter's Ice Cream with a friend and all of our kids (there are 6 between the two of us:).  We went to the Bethel Road one, in Columbus.  It has a nice size play area and of course, lots of good ice cream.  I noticed that they do birthday parties there so I decided to inquire about it.  They have a small to medium size room that you can rent out and all you pay for is ice cream sundaes for each kid!  They can make their own, with toppings of their choosing, which I'm sure would be really fun!  I knew the date and time of the party already, so I asked if they had availability and it was surprisingly available for the exact day and time we wanted!  I was so excited!  We can decorate how we want, bring in pizza and other food, and let the kids play and have a great time!  The space isn't for a huge amount of people, but will be perfect for our guest list. 

The party theme for our house would've been Hello Kitty.  I was so excited about this theme, but having the party at an ice cream parlor I started looking up ice cream party ideas on Etsy and Pinterest.  What do you know, they had super cute ideas!  So, Hello Kitty will be on hold until the 4th birthday party (which I kindof think it fits a 4 versus 3 year old better anyways) and we will stick with the ice cream theme! 

I asked Ella all the way home if she wanted the party at the ice cream shop or at home and she was so excited, screaming "ice cream shop, ice cream shop!"  I had her call her daddy to get the seal of approval once we got home and it was a done deal. 

We are so excited!  Below are some ideas I have found that I can't wait to try out!