As some of you know, we are filled with anticipation for the arrival of our 2nd child…a baby boy due any minute now.  (End of February 2013).  This is also when we celebrate our little girls 3rd Birthday…I guess there’s something lucky about the month of May.   We celebrated her birthday a week early to make sure we had time in case he decided to make his appearance a little bit early.  Turns out, he’s almost a week late now.  But that’s ok…enjoying the extra sleep.

This is my little girl kissing my belly as we wait…she’s just turned 3 years old and the more we talk about it, the more she understands that she is soon to be a big sister … I think she’s excited because she talks to my tummy and says ‘hi’ to him a lot.

For the past year, she has had an infatuation with dinosaurs so we knew that had to be the theme of her party.  We call her ‘Kayla-saurus’ and I was so fortunate to find an amazing seamstress on Etsy who could make a custom t-shirt for her with her own name, and an adorable patchwork dinosaur cut out…hand stitched!  Her name is Kim, and her company is Lilystitches.  You MUST check her out for personalized items, they’re incredible.  She even went WAY above and beyond by HAND delivering the t-shirt to me (I have the added bonus of being local to her shop) even though it was my last minute timing with the order…she cared enough to make sure we had it for Kayla’s party.  She was a sweetheart and I look forward to giving her items as gifts for years to come, thank you Kim!

Once I had decided on the dinosaur theme, I knew I needed to have a dinosaur cake…and it had to be a Triceratops…Kayla’s favorite.  I described it to our baker, Gourmet Goodies, whom I choose for so many of our special events, and cried on the spot when I first saw her creation.  The size, the detail, the thought…I knew my little girl would be SO excited to see this cake and she was.  It was so chocolately good, the left overs didn’t last long at all…mmmmm!  Thank you Deb!

Just look at that smile….SO excited!!! 

We had about 7 little girls over which was a perfect amount for a house party…Kayla is so lucky for having these sweet little friends to play with.  I used a water table and filled half with
sand, and the other half with some water.  The project was a dinosaur dig!  There were plastic eggs hidden in the sand which were filled with malted eggs which looked like dinosaur eggs.  (for Easter baskets…it was the perfect time of year to use them.)  There were little plastic dinosaurs in the dirt too that the dug for and got to take home as part of their goodie bag.  They loved playing in the dirt, so fun!

Yay, found an Egg! 

The other project we did was to make the little take home bags.  The night before I wrote each of their names using a fabric marker with stencils on their canvas totes.
They each got their own personalized bag, and then with their moms, they colored in dinosaur stencils of their choice of dinosaur.  Quick and easy little project for everyone to work on at the table together.  Then they could put their little goodies in there to take home.  I found dinosaur rubber duckies, and dinosaur bubble bottles on Amazon…as well as the plastic dinosaurs and eggs they got from their dig.   We had some dinosaur face masks too, but we never made it to putting them on…too much excitement and play time…they just loved running around together.

We opened her presents together the next day…the moms suggested at this age, it’s too overwhelming for the kids to wait, and then they want to play with everything.  She was so excited to
open all the thoughtful gifts…such a lucky little girl!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kayla-saurus!  We LOVE you more than you could imagine. xoxoxo

{Rochester, NY event photographer…photographing lifestyle memories in your home….to remember your life…beautifully}