Kailee's 3rd Birthday

Hi Everyone,

It's been crazy busy this month. I thought I'd actually get a little break...who the heck was I kidding. First, James turned 35 this year at the end of January. 2 days later, it was Kailee's 3rd birthday. That weekend, Kailee's party. And let me just tell you, I hate holidays and birthday b/c I have a hard time balancing being mom, photographer, entertainer all at once. I feel like when I go to someone else's party, I get these fabulous photos of everyone, then when it's my own parties, well, to put it bluntly, they stink. B/c as I'm picking up the camera, someone's pulling me into the kitchen to get the food ready to serve, then another guest comes, so off to the door I go to greet them, then the people I went to take a picture of, well they're gone, so I'm relocating them, but now they're eating....then it's time for cake, and I'm like CAKE??? I didn't even eat yet? (Not that I don't mind eating a little cake before my meal :) It's a vicious cycle all day. So this year, I said I want to enjoy myself a little more. I'm not going to invite the entire state of Illinois to my daughter's birthday party. Maybe just half of the state. Hey, I'm italian, everything we do is BIG!

So I was able to grab a few photos here and there.

Here's Kailee before we started singing to her. Isn't this hat adorable!



Then we decided to do a craft. Since Kailee's birthday theme was Little Mermaid, picked by Kailee herself, we decorated a mermaid!
Here are some of the clan while decorating!



Here's a closeup of the craft.



Okay, this needs it's own introduction. James' Grandma Sally made these cakes.
NOT STORE BOUGHT...and they were amazing. The first one had jelly beans for rocks, graham cracker crumbs for sand, fruit roll ups for the seaweed, and of course a mermaid in the shell. Grandma thought of everything. The second cake...well, let's just say I didn't even know there was going to be a second cake. The second one is actually Ariel. I have no idea how she did this one. It had to have taken forever to get this much detail. Check it out for yourself.



Here's Kailee and Great Grandma Sally



During the present opening, Kailee thought she would turn the cards around and attempt
to read them to everyone watching. She was more interested in the cards then the presents!



And lastly, close to being delirious b/c neither of these two had a nap that day, here's Kailee and her cousin Chloe horsing around.



So Kailee is officially three, and I'm officially exhausted. I will update more this week, lots going on!

Talk to you all soon1

Kailee turns 2!

Well so far this year we are off to a great start! It's been a bit crazy, but crazy is good! Kailee is officially 2 years old...I still can't believe it. We had about a million people over to celebrate. Okay, a slight exaggeration, but I was so busy getting food together, the cake, games, I barely took any pictures. Can you believe that? A photographer that didn't take pictures? It seems like every time I go to my nieces' birthdays or friends, I get a ton of pictures. I definitely felt the difference with my own party. You have to be a mom first, then a hostess, and there's no time for anything else! We were about 3/4 through the party when I realized that we didn't even pull out the video camera yet. Oops.

Kailee's birthday was a princess theme, and boy did it look like it! We played hot potato princess style, we passed around a glass slipper. We played something similar to pin the tail on the donkey, but instead it was put the princess closest to the castle door, yes, I know, it's a little wordy. :) Lastly, all the little ones decorated tiaras or crowns for their party hats before we cut the cake. Here are some pictures and you can see my little munchkin is so grown up!


Check out her cake!


Daddy helping her blow out her candles


Her princess big wheel


AND she got a princess bike....she's going to be styling when she's riding!



Okay, I know, she looks just like James. EVERYBODY tells me that!

'Til next time!