My baby turned 3!?!?

I never thought she would grow up so fast, but she has. Who can complain, though? She's so fun and full of excitement and life that I would be crazy not to enjoy this stage of her life. She's such a sweetie! For her birthday she said she wanted a Dora cake and a Dora party, so that's what she got. I decided to do a little adventure for the kids at the park we had her party at, and it turned out kinda fun. I didn't want to wear myself out doing all sorts of crazy things, but still ended up being exhausted when it was all over. Lance says it's a good thing that birthdays only come around once a year, but I can't imagine having 4 or 5 birthdays to plan a year. We'll think about that when we get there, I guess.

The Dora adventure started out with Swiper the Fox taking the candles for her birthday cake. They had to go to three places to find the candles, and Lance was their tour guide. He was originally going to be Swiper, but got stage fright when he saw all the parents there. He did a good job being the guide, anyway. Their first stop was Lollipop forest. They got to cut suckers down off the branches of a tree.

This is Jaycee's friend Caleb, and they were so cute just standing there. He's got the cutest laugh, and it's so readily available. He will laugh when I look at him sometimes.

This is the beginning of the second adventure, the Rainbow Tunnel. We just put some picnic tables together and covered it with tablecloths. Some kids were scared to go through, but most of them braved it out.

The last stop was the Balloon Garden, which contained the birthday candles. We stuffed the candles in the balloons, and them blew them up. Then just taped them to knives and forks and stuck them in the ground. Unfortunately, I blew up all the balloons, and was left with no backups. Just our luck that the wind came up, and popped one of the balloons holding a candle. I just stuck it on top of a knife and called it good.

Do you see Jaycee holding her ears? She was quite scared when they started popping the balloons. Good thing we had the older kids to help us out with the popping.

For Jaycee's first two birthdays, I made her a cake, but got scared away when she said she wanted a Dora one. I decided to order one, and I'm really glad I did. Maybe I'll make one next year, though...we'll see. She loved her cake, and was so excited to go pick it up from the store.
I just happened to snap the picture at the right moment. She really wasn't that excited about any of her presents. I just found little dollar store presents for her. She didn't need any more toys, really.

After she took a very needed nap, Andy and Omar (introduced in the previous post) came over and gave her this present. It's a Maltese dog with its own carrier. She has named the dog Tinkerbell, and just had to take her to church today.

A big thanks to everyone who came to Jaycee's birthday party, and to those who gave her presents. She had a great birthday, and enjoyed all the excitement. I have to apologize to the grandparents for not putting pictures up of their presents. Lance's mom sent a whole box full of adorable new clothes to Jaycee, and I actually recorded it. Lance just said that I can't post it on the blog. Jaycee was kind of very unappreciative in the sense that she said, "Ooh, clothes! There's something in the bottom." She proceeded to pull all the clothes out without even looking at them until she got to the bottom and said, "Oh." That was it. Not the best way to react to a present, but it was way funny. The worst part of the video is probably that I was laughing so hard. Oops. We appreciated the clothes, and she really does love them. My mom also bought her some new dresses and shoes (proxied by me, and she supplied the money). It's great having friends and family.