Katie's Birthday Party

Here are the highlights from Katie's Dora party on Saturday:

We started out playing in the toy room (appropriately with the Dora dollhouse!) until everyone arrived. Everyone got Dora party hats, and then we made bracelets like Dora's (they had a flower bead in the middle--Dora's is certain colors, we made ours unique with different colors). If you've ever had little kids make bracelets, you know that can be frustrating for them, as the beads slide off the other end so easily, etc. Here's a tip I got from Shelli: use chenille stems instead of string or wire. It makes it so much easier for them to slide the beads onto something stiff, and the beads stay on!
After that, we went looking for Katie's "stolen" pinata. We had a whole adventure, just like the Dora show, going from "Locked Gate" to "Troll Bridge" and finally to "Cherry Tree." We had a Map, and Aunt Echo helped by playing clips of the songs for Backpack, Map, the Grumpy Old Troll, and Swiper (thank you, Echo!). Partway through we ran into Swiper and played "Pin the Mask on Swiper," which was Katie's least favorite part. She continues to tell me not to have Swiper at her parties anymore because she's afraid of him. I had no idea he was such a "bad guy"!

We ended up at the pinata (Dora from WalMart), and the kids took turns pulling the strings to get the candy. It worked out perfectly because everyone had at least one turn before the candy came crashing out. They used their Backpack goody bags to collect their loot. (Sorry, no pictures of the adventure, we only took video!)

Then the adult family arrived and we had lunch. Katie picked the menu, so it was sandwiches (pb & j for the kids, deli meat and cheese for the adults) and chips and pop. She opened her 3rd Year DVD and we all watched it, and then she opened presents. At our request, she received a lot of small toys; little Princess and Polly Pocket dolls, Littlest Petshop Pets, etc. She also got her own (pink) Legos from us, as she's been asking for them for a while because Isaiah is pretty possessive of his. And now he's possessive of hers, too, unfortunately.

We ended the party with cake and ice cream. It's a tradition in Adam's family to have a train cake for the 3rd birthday, so we had to have a Dora train cake. If I were less pregnant or more creative I might have figured out how to make it into Azul, but this is what we ended up with:

Katie couldn't seem to get the candles to blow out, so Isaiah helped:

Katie said she had a good time, except for the part with Swiper, of course. All in all, it was a fun party.