Liliana's Birthday, Part 2

Here is a picture summary of Liliana's Dora and Diego themed party for her 3rd birthday.  We rented out the clubhouse in our neighborhood for the party and it was the perfect setting.  We had some cancellations of people coming, but it ended up being the perfect group of people.  I'm so glad we have Eduardo's family here to celebrate with :)

The cake pops turned out pretty cute!

They were gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free and dye-free :)  But they still tasted yummy!  I used beet juice to color the frosting pink.

These are also the balloons I surprised Liliana with in the bedroom the morning of her birthday!

She still keeps wanting to wear this all the time!

And we still have a lot of balloons left in our room we are still playing with ;)

The kid's area we set up was a big hit.  The furniture on the right is a bamboo set my mom bought for Liliana from a  friend of ours that imports things from Bali :)

Since none of the kids were old enough to read, I HAD to have these napkins to go with the drinks ;)

Since we catered Mexican food, we had to have margaritas of course!

Liliana and her friend Baby Cohen.  She was babysitting while his mommy went to the bathroom and she made it her job to keep that pacifier in his mouth at all times!  LOL

Our friend Little Henry enjoying the Dora pinata!

Liliana and Tio Mario

Liliana and her cousin Tonatiuh.  They're only a couple months apart.  Can you tell who's older?!

Cousin Patrick, Little Henry, Liliana and Cousin Tonatiuh

Our only pic together during all her birthday festivities :(  We need our camera man back!

We lit 3 candles for her to blow out.

Opening presents.

All the babies got a place on the chair :)

Liliana and her cousin Diana :)

Liliana's Birthday Part 1

Liliana's 3rd birthday was last Friday.  I didn't get any good pics of the wake-up surprise I had planned, but it was really cute.  Instead of getting a room full of balloons, we opted with a really cute balloon bouquet of Dora helium balloons that would last until the party on Sunday as well.  I was in the other room when she woke up and saw the balloons and I walked in to Liliana trying to sit up and pointing while half asleep trying to open her eyes.  She was really excited, but still sleepy so it was really priceless.

We then came out to the living room and she saw all her presents waiting for her so we decided to open them right away.  I brought the computer out and set in on the table so Eduardo could Skype with us and participate in all the opening festivities.  Thank God for the internet and computers!  

Liliana opened each present with such innocence and pure appreciation.  I just love this age!  Each little thing is such a treasure for her and she gets so excited.  She got little things like a princess brush and lip gloss and a the long saught after Dora guitar she has been drooling over at the Children's Museum.  But wouldn't you know it...I spent $24 on the guitar and $1 on the lip gloss and the lip gloss turned out to be the best present ever.  Ha!!  

After the present opening, I got ready and my mom took Liliana to her office to show everyone her cute princess outfit she was wearing.  They ended up taking a VERY long time so the rest of the day did not go as planned.  We had been planning on going for a sushi lunch and Liliana hadn't had breakfast yet.  They didn't get back until late so she was way hungry, which led to a bit of grumpiness on both of our parts.  But we had lunch and it was yummy.

After lunch we had planned on going to the Children's Museum, but Liliana decided we should go to the park instead.  So in the cold, we went and played for a bit.  My mom stayed in the car and Liliana and I went up  and down the slides and got some energy out.

Like usual, Liliana's birthday didn't go as planned, but it was great nonetheless.  I'm so extremely blessed to have such a beautiful and amazing baby girl.  I don't know what I would do without her.  She has definitely made me a better person :)  It was a really special birthday for both of us.  We just hope that next year her papi will be here to celebrate with us!

(the next post I will write about how the party went :)

Party Planning

I'm pretty excited that I have something to occupy my mind and time lately.  Liliana's 3rd birthday is on Friday!  

At first I was reluctant to do much of anything after realizing her papi wouldn't be here to celebrate with and I was feeling guilty for wanting to celebrate.  But after much talking with my dear husband, he convinced me I should throw Liliana a party for her birthday.  We were in the States last year for her birthday and he missed that one as well, but we didn't really do much except go for dinner with my in-laws.  He reminded me that this day is for her and our little girl definitely deserves the best!  So once I made the decision, I ran with it full force :)

Her actual birthday is this Friday, December 2nd.  I am planning on doing this in the morning for when she wakes up...

Then she will open her presents and we will take her out for a sushi lunch, which is her favorite food in the world.  The girl would eat it every day if I could afford it!  LOL.  Then after lunch we will head down to one of our regular spots, the famous Indianapolis Children's Museum.  I told her when we went there the other day that we would buy one toy from the gift shop there on her birthday so that will be special :)  

The party we are planning is going to be on Sunday, December 4th.  I'm working on Saturday so Sunday was the best option.  It's turned into an early evening party so I think it should be fun.  My mom has rented the clubhouse in our neighborhood.  It's a really nice space with two rooms, one of which we will designate as the play room and we are going to set up a bunch of things to do in there.  

We are getting the party catered by a local Mexican restaurant.  My mom decided it would be easier and less stressful to just have everything made for us and I can't agree more!  We are also getting their famous margaritas for the adults ;)  

I have been practicing making cake pops and I'm quite nervous how they are going to turn out, but I'm gonna go for it.  I also saw a cool idea for the kids' food that we are probably going to try.  Check it out below with the cake pops....

We wanted to do a theme for the party as well and my mom and I went out shopping over the long weekend for the decorations.  I desperately wanted to do a girly princess theme because that is sooo Liliana, but there might actually be more little boys than little girls at the party, so we opted for a Dora and Diego theme which is still really cute and she LOVES Dora too.  We'll do a princess party next year!  My brother-in-law is having a pinata made for us of Dora and I can't wait to see it.  I'm slightly upset about the candy aspect of the pinata, but it a Salvadoran tradition so we have to have one.  I've been so good about not letting Liliana have candy for so long that I don't want to break that, but I guess I have to relax for that one day :)  

So there you have it!  I still have a lot of little preparations and things to buy.  My step-dad is going to take Liliana out tomorrow night so we can wrap her presents.  I'm excited we are doing this.  But of course none of it is the same without my other love here and I know it's really hard for him too.  Luckily he has an equally busy weekend in El Salvador with 2 baptisms and a wedding so I don't think he will have time to think about it!  I will post party pics next week :)