Birthday Bash -- Times 2!

After the ear piercing fiasco, we headed over to Gigi's house for the first of Kali's two birthday parties.  To Kali's surprise, the Woodses had a kiddie pool set up and Kali wasted no time asking to go in.  Even though it wasn't very hot out, she spent close to 2 hours playing in the pool!  Baby Peyton joined her for a little while, but I don't think she had as much fun.  *lol*

After I felt like she had her fill of swimming, I told her it was time for cake and presents and that she had to get out of the pool.  Of course she didn't want to but once I reminded her about her presents, she decided to come with me and get changed.  I was a little anxious to get to the cake because 1) I ordered MY favorite cake (white cake with lemon filling) and 2) because I "stepped it up" a little this year and ordered her cake from a bakery. I wanted to see if this cake tasted any better than the grocery store cake that we had bought last year. 

And the verdict is....although the bakery cake was pretty, the grocery cake (Vons) tasted much better and fresher.  And after paying TWICE as much for this year's cake, I definitely won't make that mistake again! Next, Kalissa excitedly opened all her presents. She received the butterfly dreamlite and firetruck that she kept asking for. In addition, she got more "long hairs", bracelets, Princess Tiana dress up clothes and jewelry, a princess sing along CD player (can't wait to get videos of that!), a Disney book with music player, stuffed animals, money and bubbles! Oma sent her beautiful tanzanite & diamond earrings and money. She also received money in the mail from Uncle Felcie, Grandma Barbara, and Nana & PawPaw. Thanks to our families and most awesome friends (The Woods family, The Grace family, The Pollard family, and Miss Nicole Brown), Kalissa's birthday party was MORE than she hoped for and she had a fabulous time celebrating!

Obviously, Kalissa's actual birthday wasn't until Monday, July 23.  Kalissa knows this date and she knows that July 23 is her birthday!  She had been telling me for the last two months that July 23 is her birthday!  So even though we had her party, I didn't want her to go to school on Monday and realize it's her birthday and not have something special.  So I arranged for Petals the Clown to visit her class and do arm paintings and balloon sculptures for all the kids.  I wanted to keep it a surprise but people were telling me that having a clown was a baaaaad idea because kids are afraid of clowns.  The clown I planned to hire was not a circus clown, she looked more like Holly Hobby/Strawberry shortcake.  They still thought it was a bad idea so I decided to show Kalissa pictures of Petals and I asked her if she liked her....she did.  I asked her if she wanted her to come to her class...she did.  So I felt pretty confident that the kids wouldn't be afraid of Petals.

Monday morning arrived and I awoke Kalissa by singing Happy Birthday.  As usual, she was slow to get up but then she asked, "Mommy am I 3???"  I told her that yes, she's now 3 and she was soooo happy!  She kept saying, "Yea!  I'm 3! I'm 3!"  Only she and her friend, Maddie, were the remaining 2 year olds in her preschool class and now she was 3 like everyone else! 

I picked up cupcakes for the kids and met Petals at 3:30 for Kali's big surprise.  When we entered the class, Kalissa was soooo happy!  She asked, "Mommy, is this for me??"  and I told her that yes, we were having another party for her birthday.  Petals was a big hit with ALL the kids!  There were about 15 kids there and each one was surprisingly patient and none of them were afraid of Petals.

After the party, Daddy and I took Kalissa to Toys R Us so she could spend her birthday cash!  We went up and down and down and up each aisle.  She finally picked ONE toy...a diving Dora the Explorer.  I told her to pick more toys but she only wanted Dora.  I told her she could have anything she wanted and she still only wanted that Dora. So I ended up picking a few more things for her but that still only put a small dent in her funds.  I never thought she'd have an issue spending money!  *lol* The LeapPad2 comes out on August 1, so I preordered her one and the rest we'll just put into her bank account for later. 

Today she went to the doctor for her 3-year checkup and she's doing great.  She's a little above average in her height and a little below average in her weight.  She showed off her spelling skills which led the doctor to ask us just where in the heck are we sending her to school?? *lol*  She's off to a great start, I'm having the time of my life and we couldn't be more proud of her!!