Today we celebrated our little Madelyn’s 3rd birthday at one of our favorite local play parks. The only stressful part about today was not having the park pavilion reserved. I can explain! I called to reserve it, but it cost more than I was willing to pay when (1) I already pay for the parks in my property taxes and (2) it’s completely free to use on a first-come-first-serve basis if there are no reservations. Somebody needs to redo that whole system, it’s ridiculous! The time slots to reserve were all wonky hour slots too, but I digress.
Madelyn’s birthday party was bee themed this year, in case that wasn’t obvious. This is probably the last year I truly get to pick the themes for my daughters because they’re getting old enough to actually have opinions. Bittersweet! Madelyn’s theme was “It’s Sweet to BEE three” and it was ADORABLE! Did I even get bee themed clothes for the girls and I? Yes, yes I did. No regrets! Was I tempted to get a bee themed shirt for Brian? Yes, but didn’t think he would really appreciate the effort. I try to limit how often I torment that poor man.
In keeping with the bee theme, most of her food was bee themed. There were mini cupcakes in chocolate fudge and lemon with lemon buttercream. There were chocolate rice Krispy treats on lollipop sticks with chocolate bees for accents. (Side note: making the bees out of chocolate was entirely way too fun, and surprisingly easy too!) Honey Comb Rice Krispy Treats (a new recipe I toyed with—not good enough to share yet, but a work in progress!). Cake pops in both chocolate and lemon were a must for our little three year old, naturally. Still not totally satisfied with my cake pop “skills” but they did turn out better than my previous attempts! And no child’s party is complete without CheezIts and juice boxes!
There were little fruit cups with fresh blueberries, strawberries and fresh cherries! This time of year is when there are so many fresh local fruit to choose from!
The “favors” were little crafts using the “Bee Attitudes” for the kids to decorate, little coloring books Brian and I made (so fun!), crayon boxes, and bath bombs for the girls or hot wheel cars for the boys.
The weather was absolutely perfect for our little party! We are so blessed to have so many friends and family come to celebrate Madelyn with us. Pops and Mamang McDivitt drove almost 10 hours to be there this weekend! They get the award for farthest traveled, for sure! The girls were counting down the days until they arrived for the weekend. Madelyn very much enjoyed her special weekend and felt very loved and spoiled by all. There are times in life when you look around and just marvel at how God has blessed and touched your life. As I sit typing this, my daughters are cheerfully playing with Madelyn’s new toys, my father-in-law is playing the guitar, and Brian and his mom are sitting at the kitchen table. Today was another precious memory to add to our already-full collection to look back on someday.