Life and Love: Hello Kitty 3rd Birthday

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Hello Kitty 3rd Birthday

This past Saturday we celebrated Annabeth's 3rd Birthday.

Thanks to Pinterest I had orignally wanted to have a Monkey Party (since I have always called Nanners "Monkey Monk") or a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party in honor of her favorite show. I picked her 1st birthday theme of Under the Sea and Mark picked her 2nd birthday theme of Princesses. We thought we probably would only have one more year of getting to pick the theme before she really had her own ideas and interests. We were wrong. In April, her friends Bella and SJ had parties on the same day and so she thought it should be her party day too. She decided that she would have a Hello Kitty party and has talked about little else since.

I love to decorate for all holidays and especially for birthdays. Thankfully we had LOTS of decorations on hand so the only thing I purchased was a pumpkin. Mark had surprised me with a Hello Kitty decorated house for my 23rd birthday and I, of course, had saved all of the decorations. I had also kept decorations from Cassidy's pink and brown themed bridal shower last spring. In addition, I used lots of Hello Kitty toys to decorate. I think it was very pretty and festive and affordable!

My 23rd Birthday/Annabeth's 3rd Birthday Banner

I put it back in the decoration tote as we may have another Hello Kitty birthday one year

Our mantle.

I reused the tutu wreath that I made for her 2nd Birthday and just added a HK button.

I used our Hello Kitty toys across the mantle

and then put up pictures of her in Hello Kitty outfits.

Pink and brown dots reused from Cassidy's bridal shower.

The Birthday Girl with her Hello Kitty pumpkin.

The pumpkin decoration was one Mark and I got in 2009 and used that Halloween.

We decided to make our own food this year. I had made lasagna, bread, and cupcakes from scratch for her first birthday and it had really stressed me out so last year Mark suggested we order pizza. That was much easier but also pretty expensive. So, this year we decided to serve white bean soup with chips and cheese. This is one of Annabeth's favorite meals and it's easy to serve a crowd! We spent just $40.16 on food for 20 people.

What did we splurge on? The cake.

We love Piece of Cake bakery in Evansville - they did our wedding cakes and also her 2nd birthday cake. We decided to use them again this year and Dad, Lu, and Mama had the task of picking it up and making the drive up with it (Thank You!) They have the absolute best cake and they do such a wonderful job decorating!

Annabeth picked out the theme of Hello Kitty and Balloons.

She selected her invitations and found this cake on Pinterest.

For party favors, we needed favors for 4 children - ages 10, 8, 2.5, and 18 months. I saw an idea of filling a themed cup on Pinterest and I liked that better than the goodie bag idea. Annabeth and I shopped (and completely overspent! oops!) at Party City and made some really fun cups!