Yay for birthdays! Chelsea is three! Tinkerbell is the theme she chose this year.
Getting the jewels ready for decorating tiaras. I'm glad Grandma has lots of space. We'd never fit all these people at our place!
(I'll list them, you count them. We had me, Rick, Chelsea, Brie, Grandpa K, Grandma K, Aunti Beth, Auntie Jennifer, Grandma H, Grandpa H, Kyri, Tyjah and their parents Bryon and Crystal, Gavin, Gatlyn, and their mom Kinda, their Grandma Pam who is my aunt, Zoey and her mom, Cheyenne and her mom....and I think that's all.)(That's plenty, I know, hehe)
The kids played lots of games. Their favorite was "Statues" where they danced to music until it stopped, then they had to freeze. They did that one several times. They did If you're happy and you know it, follow the leader, dancing, statues, a gorilla game (it isn't played how you are thinking, it has nothing to do with ooh ooh ahh or scratching armpits or beating chests...wait, I take that back, there IS thumping your chest in it.) and lots of other good things. They all got stickers and prizes and wands and they got to decorate tiaras and crowns and dress up. Oh such fun. They all had a blast! Us grown ups had a pretty good time as well.
The big cake! It was a white cake. So pretty! Zoey's mom got to eat Tink's boobs. (hahah!)
Chelsea got her own individual Tink cake, too! This one was chocolate. Mmmm. I like the chocolate better than the white cake, but there were several guests that don't eat chocolate. Crazies. (just kidding!)
The beautiful Tinkerbell centerpiece.
All of our guests! From the left we have Kyri and Tyjah Hornbacher, Brie, Zoey Vande Hoef, Chelsea and Auntie Jennifer, Cheyenne Douglas, and Gavin and Gatlyn Wolf. What wigglers they all are! This is a great shot, considering. Hee hee!
Blowing out the candles!
Someone is learning how to do stairs! At this point, she could only go up one stair. But as of a couple days ago, she can go all the way up. A big girl!
A mom/dad for each guest is very convenient when it comes to a three-year-old's party. I can't imagine trying to manage cake and ice cream and drinks for all these kids without them!
Anything to get that shot, eh Grandpa?
Mmmm...ice cream! She dripped chocolate ice cream all down her front. Which reminds me, I still need to wash that little dress! Yikes!
Look at that! Balloon! Cool!
Whoa that thing is WAY up there! Actually this little one has started throwing herself backward at random times for no apparent reason. She's lucky she can trust whoever is holding her to catch her!
And finally, time to open the presents!
Brie had a great time munching on all the bows as Chelsea opened her gifts.
The doll nursery! THAT'S what was in that big box! Everyone was quite interested to see what it was. This dumb thing took me 2 1/2 hours to put together. Of course I did have the help of both Brie and Chelsea. :) But it was very worth it. Both girls like to play with it all the time.
Here is the fabulous Fairy-God-Aunt who orchestrated the whole party! A BIG thank you to Auntie Jennifer for planning, decorating, and entertaining for the party! I just had to show up with the kid and the camera. That's MY kind of partying!
What a face! She is decorating her lovely tiara with jewels.
I love the similar expression on my cousin, Bryon's face. Ha! What a kid! I guess he wanted in on the dress-up action as well.
Woo hoo for big wheel bikes! Chelsea's legs are a little short, but we'll make it work. She's excited for it! Happy third birthday! I have a three-year-old. Whoa
On Memorial Day we went to a couple parks. First, was the Scandinavian Heritage park.
This was the main reason we decided to make a stop at this park. When we go to Grandma Heit's house we pass by the Scandinavian Heritage park and Chelsea always comments on the big red horse. But we can't see that much of it from the road. So we decided to come for a quick visit. I don't think she realized it was quite THAT big from her carseat on the road. So here is a great new perspective.
What an ant would see if he looked up. Sort of. I was laying on the ground with the camera against the cement. It's my version of an artistic shot. Yeah. I'm not a photographer, but I do kinda like this picture still.
Looking at the horse up close. That's one big horse! I think she was adequately impressed.
But like all things with a three-year-old, it didn't hold her attention too long. So we looked at the waterfall and windmill and statues and some other cool buildings. We chased each other for a bit also. Not a bad action shot, eh? I was "getting" her at this point. So cute!
Here are a few interesting parts of the park. This isn't everything that's there, though. This church is quite eye-catching. There is only one place in the whole church that has nails. (They didn't tell us which part) The rest of it is held together with big wooden pegs. We got a tour of it and some background info when we went back to this park a different day. It was really interesting. But I can't remember any of it right now. You can also see a couple of the statues and part of the waterfall in this picture.
If you can't read the inscription, it says, "Let this globe depicting the seven continents of the world symbolize all our heritages."
After the Scandinavian Heritage park we headed over to Oak Park to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Heit for a picnic and some croquet/playground time.
Chelsea still enjoys a baby swing every now and then. She's reverted to quite a few of her baby ways: playing in the walker, chewing on toys, fake crying, and pretty much whatever else Brie does normally. At least she still uses the potty and hasn't gone back to wanting diapers! Whew!
Not sure what to make of this swinging business.
Swinging is ok after all! Mommy managed to get a couple smiles.
This is Chelsea's new comfort stance. She wraps her hands up in the back of her shirt. She does the same with dresses, only it's little more immodest then! The geese had to pick the ugliest part of the grass to hang out an get their picture taken. Oh well.
With all those geese wandering around, one of them had to lose a feather eventually. Chelsea found it and started tickling everybody. Brienna was the only one not to giggle. Obviously, she's not ticklish on the head. :)
Not sure what to make of this grass business. As long as Grandma stuck close by, she was fine.
