The Day Brooke Turned Three

Brooke has been so excited for her birthday.  Ever since Katelyn’s birthday in August she has really been planning for her big day.  Anytime she’s seen something in a store that she liked, she would say, “I’m going to ask for that for my birthday!”  So, after careful deliberation in every party isle of every store we went to , she decided on a Princess Dora party.  Not Dora as a princess, but Brooke as a princess hanging out with Dora.  The theme suited her perfectly. 

She started out her day with breakfast and playing in her coloring castle with Katelyn before school. 

Then our plans for the day changed when we got some exciting news.  We got to go downtown with some friends to the courthouse and be there as the judge finalized the adoption of our good friends’ son that came into their home over a year ago.  We were so happy for them and glad we could share that special time with them. 

Brooke enjoyed a Frosty with her lunch and then it was time for a nap so that I could finish her cake.

 

So I learned a lot about Dora that day.  I never noticed that she had both light and dark pink  as well as pale and bright yellow colors in her seemingly simply ensemble.  Dora ended up requiring over 10 colors – who knew?  Certainly not me.  But when the birthday girl woke up and saw her cake, she was beyond ecstatic!  So despite Dora’s painful coat of many colors it was definitely worth it.

Next we headed out for her family party at Chuck E. Cheese.  The girls were so excited to play games and win tickets.  We had a blast playing dance dance revolution and definitely worked up an appetite for some luscious cardboard pizza.  The girls loved their dinner and were ready to go play some more as soon as dinner was over.

Eventually, it was time to turn in tickets for prizes and the nice worker lady even gave the girls some cotton candy.  They were both so excited you would have thought it was made of gold.  Then we headed home to continue the party there.

 

Brooke loved opening presents and was so excited about everything she got.   But her favorite gift was definitely the makeup case (complete with pink and purple cosmetics) that Katelyn gave to her.  She actually sounded like she was going to hyperventilate when she opened it and saw what it was.  She immediately hugged and thanked Katelyn and said “We can share it Sis! You can be the blue (purple) and I can be pink!”  I love how they love each other.

 

After opening her last present, Brooke ran over to me and gave me a giant hug and said “Thank you for the BEST birthday EVER!”  I am so glad she didn’t ask for a pony, because after being that cute, I totally would have gotten her one.

Next  it was time for Dora cake.  I hurt me to cut into Dora, but Brooke was so happy about it, that it made it very worth it.  Just as we were getting ready to start singing the birthday song to her, she broke into song and sang to herself.  It was priceless.  I guess she figures that since she sings it for everyone else, she deserved a turn too.

We sang to her too (multiple times of course) and the girls blew the candles out over and over.  Katelyn also filmed some of the action while Brooke enjoyed her cake.  The only thing that could have been as exciting as Dora cake, was putting on a new Dora night gown.  The birthday girl was thrilled with her new jammies and despite her sugar buzz we read “The Birthday Monsters” book and then got them tucked in bed.  It was such a fun day that we decided we’d take advantage of her having a weekend birthday and extend the celebration of Brooke into Saturday.  She was happy to comply and continue the party train through the weekend.

On Saturday, we started out by going to watch Katelyn cheer at a basketball game.  Brooke also danced every chance she got.

 

Next it was time for haircuts which they were both so excited for.  They had fun getting trimmed and then it was time for lunch.

 

The girls of course picked Subway and Brooke ate her sandwich like a big girl (not in pieces) – she was so proud of herself.

We spent that afternoon playing with Brooke’s new toys and assembling Legos.  Kyle was glad to see their interest in Legos growing but of course they still wanted to use their creations to play some version of “house” rather than Kyle’s preferred Lego theme that involves Robots and explosions.  They have a blast playing with him though and I hope they realize how lucky they are to have a mechanical engineer helping them with their designs.

We had such a great weekend celebrating Brooke.  She had so much fun celebrating with her friends too, but I somehow only ended up with video footage of the fun.  She loved being the birthday princess and we loved treating her like one – she is so excited to be three!