Olivia's 3rd Birthday Party

Even though Olivia's actual birthday is next week, we had her party last night at my mom and dad's house. The theme of the party was "The Little Mermaid". A girl I went to high school with (Beth - see website) did a fantastic cake for the party. The cake was a big deal for Olivia this year, and it has been the topic of much discussion for the past several months. Since seeing Ava's "princess" cake in April, Olivia has talked nearly non-stop about what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday. She stated numerous times- very specifically- that she wanted an "Ursula" cake. Yes, that's Ursula the evil sea witch from "The Little Mermaid". I didn't want Olivia to have a bad-guy cake, so I had Beth design a cake that featured Ursula but was not entirely devoted to her. I think that Beth did a fabulous job. Seriously, this was one of the cutest cakes that I have ever seen.

After eating the cake, it was time to open presents. Olivia received a lot of nice gifts this year including princess dress-up clothes, hairbows, everyday clothes, and an "I Spy" quilt from Aunt Connie . Her big gift from Brian and I was a kitchen set. She really liked it a lot and wanted to play with it the second that we got home. I think that she will get many hours of play out of it. After opening gifts, all of the kids (and some adults) loaded up and went on a hayride around the block. We did this last year, and had such a good time that we had to do it again this year. The kids liked seeing all of the animals in the neighborhood and really seemed to enjoy themselves. Overall, I think that the party was a success, and I can now take a break from party planning until March when Owen will turn 2.