Happy Birthday Mattie

Last weekend, we started the celebration of Mattie's 3rd Birthday. It actually started on Saturday with a "big girl" birthday party. We weren't going to have a party for her at all this year, since Matt and I had decided long ago that we would hold big parties on the 1st, 5th, 8th, 12th, 16th and 18th birthdays. All of the other years would just be celebrated with family and maybe some close friends. We had a big party on the beach for her first birthday and then last year we just had some cupcakes and a pinata after church at our friend's house. So, this year we were going to do something similar, like have a cake and maybe go to dinner, but Miss Mattie started planning her own party about 5 MONTHS ago! She kept telling me what she wanted to do at her party and who she wanted to come to it. I thought maybe she would let up, but that's all she would even pretend to play at home! She would ask to put on a frilly dress and then get all her dolls and play Birthday Party. Matt and I talked it over and decided, that since we were going to be having another baby soon, and that's sure to shake up her world some, that we would let her have a 3rd birthday party. We planned it, with lots of help from Mo, and it was a blast.

Like I said, it was last Saturday, and it was Dora the Explorer themed. Anyone who knows Mattie, knows that she loves Dora! We let her invite some of her 3 and 4 year old friends, and we had a morning of game playing. Matt made an awesome "Map" on the computer and we printed them out for each child to have.

The Map showed what games the children needed to play to get to Mattie's birthday cake. There was Boot's Slippery Stones, (which was kind of like a cupcake walk). Each child had a chance to win a lollipop and a Dora sticker.

Then they played Pin-the-Tail on Swipper, which Matt also made on the computer. After that game we headed out to the backyard for a Dora pinata. The kids had a great time picking up candy.

Our last game was a simple scavenger hunt, that would eventually lead back inside to Mattie's birthday cake. Matt found clip-art of things around our yard and then we printed them on cards for the kids to find. I personally think that they liked this game the best. When they found the last card, we had the cake waiting for them, along with juice boxes. We sang to MoMo and she blew out her candles. We decided on a pull-away birthday cake this year, which was cool.

I had never seen one before, and found it when I was looking online for a cake. It was 18 cupcakes on a cake board, and then the tops of them got decorated like a normal cake, and you can pull away a cupcake for each person.

After pumping the children full of more sugar, they wanted Mattie to open her presents. She got a lot of wonderful things, which she has been playing with nonstop since Saturday.

After Mattie finished opening her presents, she passed out a "present/goody bag" to each child. Matt had found great idea online for goody bags, and we used it. We created a "Backpack" for each child.

We bought purple bags and then put the Backpack's face on the bags. Each bag had a card game (Dora for the girls and Diego for the boys), a pencil, a whistle, a crazy straw, a ring and Matt's pick... those Bubba teeth things!

We had a super fun time spoiling Mattie for the morning. My sister came down, and we went to lunch at Jason's Deli with her and my mom. It was fun to compare our pregnancy bellies, since we are due around the same time.

On Monday, we went to Walt Disney World. Grandma took off a day of work to come with us. We have the FL resident passes, which have black-out days (usually the time of year a Floridian
doesn't want to go to the park anyway), and the days just opened up again.

We started out at Hollywood Studios, since they just opened a brand new Toy Story section, with a ride. By the time we got there, all of the Fast Passes had been distributed for the day, so we actually had to wait in line for this ride. We waited 50 minutes to ride it, and I will say that it was worth it. With that said, I of course would never wait that long again!

The ride was 3D, and it takes you through a Fair, and you have a gun-like thing that lets you play 6 different fair games. It keeps track of how many points you get, and its fun to compare each others scores. Matt creamed us! After riding that ride, we headed over to Magic Kingdom, so that Mattie could ride her beloved Barnstormer! She kept asking to go the roller coaster! Before going on the ride, we let Mo get her face painted. We had promised her all year that for her birthday she could get her face painted. She picked out the Cinderella face. Cinderella is her favorite princess right now! Mattie sat very still while getting her face done. That girl does love
makeup! She looked so cute!

Matt took Mattie on the Barnstormer a couple of times, and then we spent the rest of the day just doing what Mattie wanted to do. It was a lot of fun. At the end of the day, we did go on the Buzz Lightyear ride, because Matt loves that ride. Matt always wants to compete against me, and he always does better than I do. But this time, I KILLED him!!!

I'm not quite sure how I got as many points as I did, but it was very funny watching Matt's face when he realized that I had smothered him! We got ice cream on our way out, and over all had a super great day celebrating Mattie.

Three years ago, we were blessed with our beautiful princess, and she has been an amazing joy to our family. I love that little girl so much! She makes me laugh everyday. I love how she gives me kisses and hugs, and tells me that I am her best friend in the whole world! She is my buddy,
and I could not be more grateful that she is part of our family.