Emerson’s Dino Birthday Party!

Leftover donuts and chocolate face first thing this morning. (Gonna keep the morning activities and photos light, because the afternoon was when the real party started!)

 

While we were watching church this morning, she sat down so quietly and just watched perfectly still for a few minutes.

PB&J, cherries & cheetos for lunch, and then down for an early bedtime.

She let me do her hair after nap time, and she picked out her purse for the day, which perfectly matched her new dino dress for her dino party, and we headed out to Grammy & Papa’s house!

 

 

Way back in January, Emerson randomly told us one day that she wanted a dinosaur cake for her birthday. We said something like, “yeah ok sure, but we’ll ask you again in six months.” We figured she’d for sure not remember or change her mind, but ever time we checked with her about it again,s he said the same thing. So six months later, she had a dinosaur theme for her 3rd birthday party, which was also a pool party! (Thanks to a few very simple decorations from Oriental Trading and Amazon.)

And this is her first bikini, given to her as part of her gift from Ms. Q!

So I always take my phone in the pool for photos, knowing it’s “waterproof,” but I actually put it under water for the first time today, and even though I was nervous, it worked well! And yes, it still works well, a few hours later 😉

We kept it simple with pizza, salad and a few homemade dips & chips, plus cake & dessert for ice cream.

Pretty dress & gardening set from Aunt Meggie and Uncle Bo.

Minnie Mouse purse and vet costume from Aunt Suzanne & Uncle Keith.

Unicorn, penguin, penguin book, romper, dress and bubble gun from Nana & PopPop.

She has told Papa multiple times she wants to go fishing, so he bought her an Anna & Elsa tiny rod, and he’s going to try to take her fishing soon!

And look at this perfect book I found, about a dachshund dog named Pretzel! Just like ours! It’s by the same author as Curious George, and it’s just adorable and perfect! (We also got her Moana panties, her dino dress, stickers, a cool writing pad thing, llama hand sanitizer, and tiny Nerf gun.)

Dino tennis shoes and dino dress from Grandmommie.

Brand new kitchen from Grammy & Papa!

Riley really loved the new penguin too 🙂

I made my now “famous” Jell-O poke cake, with blue Jell-O and blue icing, and used little dino cupcake toppers. The center of the cake got stuck to the lid of the dish, so it got messed up, which was sad, but it still looked cute & tasted delicious!

Of course she had to feed the deer before we could load up to leave…

On the way home, she asked me to wear her “doctor outfit” about 50 times, so I gave in and let her for a few minutes, even though it was after her bedtime already. And goodness gracious she looked incredibly adorable in it! Especially the little hair-net/hat thingy!

She was very sweet at bedtime, giving all the loves and hugs. Again tonight, she wanted only one lullaby, and then she wanted me to just hold her for a minute in the quiet. When I got up to put her in the bed, she asked, “Why you can’t just hold me forever, Mama?” And oh, she about broke my heart with that one! I told her I would always love her and always hold her, but she still had to actually sleep in her bed. So sweet!

We had a really great afternoon at her third birthday party! Three still seems so big, but also of course so little. Huge “THANK YOU” to my parents for hosting the party, and doing so much to help make things easier and less stressful for me. That was the easiest birthday party we’ve thrown for her so far! And I see many pool parties in our future! 😉 And of course thank you to the rest of our family, for all the incredible gifts, but also just for loving our little girl so dang much!