Ava is Three!

Birthday Message at Ava's School

It's hard to believe that March is almost over! She was so excited when we started the month of March because she knew it was time for her and Daddy's birthdays!

We celebrated Ava's third birthday two weeks ago with a fun bird themed party! The last two weeks have been all about Ava growing up! After her birthday week, Ava's school started her 2-week transition to her new 3-year old classroom. The big difference is that it's a much larger class size and higher ratio of kids for teachers. They also have a full size playground outside and rotate around the school during their daily schedule. It was a lot to soak in, but she did a great job. We had some difficult drop offs in the last couple weeks, but the teachers were really encouraging. It helped that she had some friends in the new class. Starting Monday, she'll be in her new classroom full-time!

Ava is doing so well with potty training. She is able to nap without a diaper now. We only use diapers overnight and some nights she wakes up dry. They wouldn't have stopped her from entering the new class, but it's nice that she's independently using the potty since there are only two teachers for 16 kids.

Ava is 3!

On her birthday, we got some cupcakes from our favorite bakery, The Flying Cupcake, and sang her Happy Birthday! It was fun to see her reaction. She loves to blow out the candle and likes to hear the song. She requested sprinkled donuts for her class birthday treat that day. I stopped at Dunkin Donuts to pick them up and she shared them for their morning snack.

Birthday cupcakes for a family celebration.

Then on the Saturday after her birthday, we had a party at our house with her friends from school and some of our friends and family. It was so much fun! We had a bird themed party! I got the party invitation from Etsy and just printed it locally. I also got a coordinating party favor image that I used to make favor bag stickers and cupcake toppers. And she loved picking out the coordinating pink and black and white polka dot ribbon for her party.

Princess is ready for her party!

The kids made pine cone bird feeders as a fun activity during the party. They spread peanut butter on the pine cone and dipped it in bird seed. We had paper bags out and art supplies so they could decorate them to take the pine cone bird feeders home. It was really fun! Ava got really into spreading and tasting the peanut butter! I'm glad we had the indoor activity for the kids planned because of the cold weather. For favors, the kids took home pink Peeps or extra bird seed.

She was so excited to open her birthday presents! My mother-in-law made the chocolate and pink vanilla frosting cupcakes. I was so glad to have her help while I made the appetizers and snacks. I served 7-layer Mexican Dip with homemade refried beans, a veggie tray with homemade Penzy's ranch dressing, fruit tray, and Trader Joe's Cat Cookies.

Shawn Pierce took some amazing photos of her birthday party and you can check them out here!

We had so much fun celebrating Ava's birthday! And now my project this weekend is to do the thank you notes! I'm going to use the left over favor tag images for her cards. Ava likes to help decorate the cards so I'll make it a craft project for her too.

Party Favors

Cupcakes with custom toppers!

Girls bench!

Making pine cone bird feeders.

Getting into the peanut butter!

Enjoying the Happy Birthday singing!