Day 112 - Happy Early 3rd Birthday to Our Little Hannah
/Since my parents are heading home tomorrow (sniff sniff), we decided to celebrate Hannah's 3rd birthday almost 3 weeks early, so she can have some extra family around for her special day. Yes, we will do something fun as a family on the day of her actual birthday, but today was about decorations, presents, and cake! You might recall from our post about Kian's 5th birthday party, that birthdays are a big deal in our house, and we take them very seriously :) Hannah has been loving mermaids and mermaid princesses lately, so she requested to have a mermaid themed party.
How to Throw a Low Budget Under the Sea/Mermaid Party (With Minimal Supplies):
What you need to decorate:
1. White or Construction Paper
2. Scissors
3. Aluminum Foil
4. A Grater
5. Paint/Paint Brushes/Color Pencils
6. Tape/Glue and maybe glitter glue for mermaid's hair
7. Strings
The universe must have known about Hannah's plan for a mermaid themed party because I found a book called "How to Draw Fairies and Mermaids" in the kids' room upstairs that I found very helpful, especially for creating mermaids with shiny tails. All you need is to gently rub aluminum foil on the smallest side of the grater for some texture, draw the shape of the tail and cut it out :)
In addition to the mermaids, I drew a few pictures of fish and cut them out. The kids helped a lot with painting and coloring them. I also used a few pieces of green construction paper for seaweed and blue construction paper for underwater bubbles! Finally, Kian requested a happy crab to be added to the mix, which I drew and he colored.
Once everything was completed and hung up by the window, we added a few pink and purple balloons (yes, they are not exactly underwater colors but Hannah loves them) and our underwater scene was successfully completed and ready for the party.
See? Wasn't that easy? It kept the kids busy for a couple of hours, and they had a great time being involved with the party decorations.
A Brother's Birthday Gift
Kian has really grown to love drawing, and he spends a good amount of time on each of his drawings really thinking everything through. Though not exactly in line with our mermaid theme, he drew an awesome picture of Wonder Woman and Batman, Kian and Hannah's favorite super heroes, as a gift for his little sister. Yes, that melted my heart...especially that hug!
Preparing for Dinner and the Party
While my mom and I got busy making dinner and preparing the cake. The kids had fun playing games with daddy-o, and my dad taught them how to build shapes with match sticks, a game he used to play when he was a kid :).
Party Time
We all had a delicious dinner, thanks to my mom, and then it was time to get the party started!
At the request of Hannah, my dad made her her own special birthday hat (since one was made for Kian for his party). Our little mermaid had a blast opening her few but awesome presents. Seriously, I can't believe she is "almost 3" already!
Cake Cake Cake!
Just like Kian's party, we made the cake with a pre-packaged cake mix that my parents brought. I had also ordered a cake topper from Etsy (Yep I love Etsy!) that completed our mermaid themed party!
And to wrap it up...The After Party ;)
The kids had fun playing with Hannah's new toys together, and Hannah ended her fun filled day with a new Kindle story called 'Furmaid', which is about a little mermaid that has a furry tail :) (Special thanks to "Grampa Ross", "Grandma Lala", and "Aunt Kate" / Lieberwirth family for the Amazon gift certificate!)
Thanks again to all our family near and far that helped celebrate Hannah's "almost" 3rd birthday.
My parents are heading back home early tomorrow morning. We have had a great week with them and are going to miss them as we continue our big adventure.