Grace is finally to the age where she understands what a birthday is, and boy was this almost 4 year old excited for her birthday! She'd picked Winnie the Pooh as her birthday theme, an obvious choice as those are her favorite toys and movies right now.
A couple weeks before her birthday, we went to the local party store and found some great Winnie the Pooh items. This huge wall poster was on sale for $1! This was her first friend birthday party, and it was fun to pick out some party favors! We got each of the kids a reusable Pooh cup, a cute little bear stuffed animal (at the crazy price of .50 each!), a kazoo, and bubbles.
(I knew there wouldn't be a lot of time the day of her birthday, so I set everything up for pictures the night before. :) )
A friend at our Church had a Pooh cake mold that she was kind enough to lend me. It was perfect! Travis was the mix master with the frosting and I decorated it. It felt SO good to have a vision for the cake and have it turn out better than I expected! Grace LOVED it!
Travis insisted on Grace having a special balloon (which I thought was super sweet), so I ran back to the party store the day before the big day and found this gem. I loved that it could be personalized! The girls both loved pulling it around the house.
Grace was so excited about the idea of a piñata, so Travis and I made her a balloon one. I had the idea to make it a beehive to go along with the theme, and although it took WAY too much time to decorate the night before (we did it while watching the Amazing Race finale :)), I loved how it turned out.
Birthday day finally arrived! We whisked the kids away in their jammies on a donut run--the breakfast of choice of the birthday girl.
We got them from this local joint called Jack Frost Donuts (a must visit for donut lovers in Cleveland). They were delicious!
Yum!
Grace loved the big poster and kept looking at and hugging the animals. It was so cute!
After breakfast, we got ready and headed out to some of Grace's favorite places for some more birthday fun.
My big girl wearing some new 4 year old clothes. She looked so grown up!
We've made a visit to Toy's R Us a birthday tradition...
They treat the kids like royalty there, bestowing them with a crown, balloon, and toy coupon. And besides, what kids doesn't love Toys R Us?!
Markers were Grace's choice to use her birthday coupon on. That girl loves to color!
Then we got back in the car and headed off to our next spot...
McDonalds! Grace LOVES McDonalds, but for various reasons, we rarely go. So, we made it a special birthday treat, and took her there for lunch.
The girls had a great time!
Bethany thought it was fun to walk down the slide instead. :)
After lunch we came home for rest and naps and finished party preparations.
Our friends the Lews came over (Grace's best friend Emi, her brother Devin, and mom Marianne) and the party began!
I wanted the activities to be little kid friendly and Grace favorites, so we started out the party by coloring Pooh pictures.
Emi and Devin:
Then we busted out a game Grace has been dying to play since we found it at a garage sale--Elefun. The babies were a little confused, but Grace and Emi had SO much fun, laughing and squealing, chasing and catching the butterflies. It was a big hit!
After the game, we started dinner. Another friend from Church lent us her beehive cookie cutter, and I thought it'd be fun to make little beehive pizzas for the kids (Trav of course was our pizza master).
Grace and Emi helped make the pizzas:
Didn't they turn out cute?!
After we filled up on pizza and some of Grace's favorite treats--peaches and Cheetos--we headed outside for piñata time!
Emi was a great little swinger!
Grace taking some good swings too:
After many attempts by the kids, the parents took a few swings too. Travis gave it the final blow, and out came the candy!
We divied up the goods between the kids then came inside for cake.
I LOVED that she gave her daddy a big hug after blowing out the candles.
Then it was present time. Emi and her family gave Grace a Winnie the Pooh coloring book and stickers, which she loved! Emi was a great audience while Grace opened the rest of her presents. :)
And finally, it was time for the party to come to a end and to hand out the party favors. The kids were excited about the kazoos!
I loved how Bethany carried her old and new favorite bears around. :)
Happy birthday our sweet Grace! We love and are so proud of the beautiful, smart, helpful, and fun girl that you are and can't believe you're already 4! So glad you're a part of our family!
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