Abbi's 3rd Birthday Party!

Its over and done with, and I have to say I'm pretty relieved. It was so worth it, but a heck of a lot of work. I won't even mention how much sleep (or lack of) we got last night. Rob said that the second I suggested doing a big party for Abbi's birthday he knew we'd be up until midnight the night before. Boy was he right!

I think it went pretty smoothly and all the kids appeared to have a pretty fun time. Of course the standard question was..."When do we get to eat the cookies?" I'd been hearing that one from Abbi since the day prior so I was pretty used to the answer. NOT YET!!!

Now onto the schwack of pictures, which really tell the story best.

Welcome...

Our chalk board in the front entryway

The kitchen view (Note the much needed coffee for us Mom's!)
The dining area
I found these cute little foam crowns at Dollarama, 3 for $1
The "loot basket." This had a bracelet, two rocket candies, stickers, and eventually...
The flower cookies! Yum!
The "tea party" was fruit smoothies served in tea cups. The best part? I got all of these tea cups (minus 3 of them) for $5.50 at a garage sale last weekend. Aren't they adorable?
In the backyard I had set up a table with some bubble wands and a basket full of bean bags (which I made up myself a few days prior - so simple!).
Our bean bag toss.
Rob cut out the hole, and I painted the design. I think it turned out really cute!
Abbi's new frog sand box. Her birthday present from us. $20 on kijiji, plus 4 bags of play sand.
Mataya, Elliot and Dena arrived a bit before everyone else, so Abbi and Mataya played in Abbi's room before everyone arrived. When we went up to check on them, they were playing Doctor. Mataya was the doctor, Abbi was the patient, and to make Abbi feel better she needed stickers. Apparently A LOT of stickers! Abbi is quite fond of her stickers and refuses to have them taken off. So cute!
Nancy, Danica, Sam & Mataya
The bean bag "toss." Well, actually the kids just thought it would be fun to shove as many bean bags as they could through the hole. Minus Sam, he saw the challenge of it and worked at it!
Getting ready to eat some lunch. Hot dogs, tortilla chips, pretzels, watermelon, and ice tea.
Malachi getting some grub. Aren't Bumbo chairs brilliant?
Sam enjoying his fruit smoothie out of his very "manly" blue tea cup. Adorable!
Abbi enjoying her flower cookie.
Danica saying (in a very big ol' black woman voice)
"Oh don't you be touching my cookie now!!!"
Alex enjoying some cookie
Mataya looking very lady like here...
Leah enjoying hers. (Note: She is still wearing her crown. She even wore it home!).
Me showing the kids how to decorate the cookies
Mataya's first creation
Princess Leah working very hard on hers
Sam was a master at decorating the cookies. He worked very hard on his 5 cookies and they all turned out great. I see cookie decorating in his future! Too bad I didn't get a picture of them.
Abbi was generally more interested in eating the sprinkles...
Danica still has that "hands off my cookies" look.
Dena, enjoying her smoothie. Elliot hanging out.
Amy and the newest addition to the bunch, Marcus.
Mataya's masterpieces...
Leah's fabulousness...
Danica's adorable butterfly cookies...
Abbi's cookie art...
Abbi and Gammy. Gammy really was there the entire party, but was often behind the scenes helping me keep order! Thank you.
The sprinkle aftermath...oy!
I predicted we would need 100 flower cookies. You should have seen Rob's face when I told him this. All last night he was muttering, "One hundred cookies...geesh. " But in true Rob style he pulled it off and they turned out great.

Um, I guess my math must have been off just a touch because there are "a few" left over...
Cookies anyone???