she is "FREE"

I'm a little late posting about Merritt's 3rd birthday party.  I know some of you won't/don't care, but I end up printing the blog into a book at the end of each year so this is for my documentation too!

Merritt is/was my NICU baby.  I was fore-warned that I would be expected to sing and talk to her as much as possible before I had her.  With all the emotions and chaos of those first few days I hadn't really had time to think of any songs to sing to her.  The first day we saw her, the nurse told me I could sing to her to let her hear my voice.  Put on the spot like that - my mind went blank.  I couldn't think of ANY songs and the first one that came to mind (that I actually knew the words) was You Are My Sunshine.  I sang that song to her ALL the time (among others) and still do when I rock her to sleep every night.  When she is upset and crying, it usually calms her down.

So she had a "You Are My Sunshine" 3rd birthday party!  Very low-key and held at our lake house.  She LOVES chocolate cake so her wish is my command.  She is getting her "big girl bed" this month so she didn't really get any presents "to open" from us.  I knew the family members would help me out there!  thank you to everyone who drove all that way to help her celebrate!

If you ask her how old she is… she says "I'm free!"  I laugh because I like to think of it as her being free from all the worries we had.  Even her cardiologist only sees her once a year… done with surgeons … done with NICU.  Just free.  :)

dancing with Poppy

"patiently" waiting for her cake!

With a little help from her big siblings.  

8 is Great!

Having 2 girls with birthdays 1 day apart is hard!  I think I know how twins must feel now always having to share your birthday with someone else.  Last year I made them do a joint party and Mati Claire and I agreed that we would ATTEMPT to alternate years with separate and joint parties.  So far it is working out well, because this year she turned 8 on the 8th!  I've always been told that its your "golden" birthday when that happens (I was 19 on the 19th, etc).  Hence…Mati Claire's GOLDEN 8th birthday!
I'll let the pictures do the talking, but I will have to upload the "Fotobooth" pics when the photographer emails them to me later!  There are a dozen more pics but these were my favorites.

Can you tell how happy she is?  Your love is my love.  Its hard to see in pic, but I loved the ribbon holding her birthday picture from each year.  And the light up 8 is just too cool (ordered both from Etsy).

Thank you FedEx for making my signs.  They turned out exactly like I wanted.  If I had plenty of time, I would have covered the garage door in pink paper and made it look like Pepto Bismol exploded at my house.  "Your birthday is the greatest day of my life" "She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes"  "Dream big little girl"  "And though she be but little she is fierce"  "Thank Heaven for little girls"   

Robby Followell is a local (but known across the state) wedding photographer that owns a photo booth  "The Fotobooth".  I got to pick which background I wanted and how could I not pick the gold sequin? I didn't know how this would go over with a bunch of 8 year olds… but Holy Moly…. it was a HUGE success and we could not peel the girls out of it.  They were OBSESSED and it was TONS of fun for everyone of ALL ages!  Even Papaw got in on the action that I will share later!

Mattox told Robby that "[he] is not a Fotoboother."  Yet, we could not get him out of it and he took just as many pictures as the girls did!  

Yes, I made this cake.  My second big cake so far.  I heart fondant.  I do not like the taste of it though.  I ordered her cake topper name thing from Etsy.  

The food was mostly done by Chick-Fil-A.  If I had to make a cake, I wasn't about to slave over food too.

Matt ordered me 'these' strawberries for Mothers Day several years ago, and I've been obsessed with them ever since for special occasions.  They ALWAYS show up perfect the day before I need them.  Shari's Berries online is awesome.  And you can get all sorts of colors and types of sweets (but specialize in strawberries)  www.berries.com
And somehow I forgot to take a pic of the pink chocolate covered with edible gold glitter OREOS!  They were awesome too! 

Mati Claire loved the live butterfly release we did at Merritt's first birthday party a couple of years ago.  Again, the kids love it and the butterflies usually hang around during the party which is neat.  

I mean Miss Sarah can't get any cuter.  She's so cute even her butterfly loved her!

The July birthday girls/sisters!  

Can't forget the babies!!! First cousins born 3 weeks apart are starting to take note of the other finally.  They stare each other down and Colton tells Mason his plan for future trouble.  Mason normally just shakes his head and agrees.  

Mason is so happy and smiling all the time!

tiny dancer.  music comes on = she's dancing somewhere.

 Pink play-doh with gold glitter and "8" suckers for the party favors!  Easy and cheap to do since I spent all of the budget on the Fotobooth and butterflies!

Mason is a Party pooper! Mrs. tyanne is the new baby whisperer!  He falls asleep every time she picks him up!