trevor and alisha + three little girls: the shark party

saturday august 13th 2011

party time! how great is it that the nemo bouncy house had sharks on it? so perfect. of course it didn't matter what the bouncy house looked like as long as shelby could jump in it. getting one of these was a present on it's own for my girl! the party was held across the street from our house at our silvera ranch community clubhouse.

shelby's cute cousins were the first to arrive and got to break in the jumpy house with her.

blue was the color for most of the decorations, though i don't think it was too "boy."

girls can like blue too! i know that the boys moms were glad that their sons didn't have to attend a princess party! i'm sure with two girls, i will have to do one of those at some point, so i will enjoy phases like "sharks" while i can.

i framed this poster for shelby's room and we replaced one of the pictures

in the clubhouse with it and used it as a decoration.

the blow up sharks were all pool toys and they were perfect 3 year old party decorations because they were indestructible! big thank you to amazon.com for having so many shark options!

i stamped the goody bags with shark. 3 sharks for a third birthday!

and there were yummy hammerhead shark gummies for all to enjoy.

this homemade banner was the only other big decoration.

i like the homemade look! i was super happy with how it turned out.

the best part was that shelby helped.
check out her awesome coloring job on these sharks! how about those two big shark bath toys? good thing we had a lot of shark things already. they sure came in handy!

oh and we broke out the old ipod to play music on the clubhouse's sound system. see it behind the bottom banner? such a great thing to have for a party!

i ordered these cute shark cupcake picks and put them in safeway cupcakes. super easy. we had chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet cupcakes to choose from.

at one point i wanted to make a rainbow cake for shelby and my loving husband pulled me back from going over the cliff of insanity on that one! safeway's desserts were perfect. shelby's personal little mini chocolate cake was particularly delicious, and after the party as we were cleaning up my mom and i would walk by and eat forkfuls of what was left. mmmmm. chocolate.

i printed out my favorite 3 pictures from the past 3 years. :) i love this girl!

cora was very happy to have quality grandparent time while i was running around party planning. thank goodness the thompsons came up for the party. they were a big help with it all!

as the kids all started arriving they each headed straight for the bouncy house. luckily the kids were all relatively the same age and size so it was a pretty fun time in there.

luke, bella, will, tilly, charlie, shelby. jump kids!

luke and shelby are a week apart in age, and they have cute, matching head wounds too. awww.

here's some of the moms gabbing: sarah, lauren, jen, maressa, and michelle.

shelby jumped until she got a little heat exhaustion. so daddy brought her inside where she then demanded a cupcake! it's your birthday shelby! you got it!

i thought about dressing cora up in a baby shark costume, but in the august heat that would have been torture. instead i got the girls matching shark shirts. they have a hammerhead shark and say "stop, hammertime." i also got them back-up matching shirts with just the outline of a blue great white.

daddy and his girls. as shelby says, "daddy is the BEST!"

when the kids were tired of jumping, there was a shark craft for them to do.

cute and easy. perfect for a 3 year old's party.

another fun "game" was playing with the blow-up sharks! in the days before the party, shelby loved lining up all the sharks in her room and up the stairs too.

luckily they all somehow disappeared with various kids after the party!

lunch time! we had a very simple spread of food. i tried to do some of shelby's favorites, like grapes, and celery/carrots with homemade ranch. but i knew that she probably wouldn't stay still long enough to eat anything but cake!

you can't really see them, but at the bottom of each jello cup was a gummy shark!

we got a huge 6 foot subway party sub, because what is more fun than a humongous sandwich?

and there were also pb&j cut into shark fins and all of them were made by my awesome dad! he was so great at the party, he helped make it all possible. love you dad!

eat up everyone!

yum!

as i predicted shelby ate very little and continued to jump in the bounce house. she also got a bit overheated in her skinny jeans, so grandma went over to our house and got her some shorts to wear. it wasn't until after the party that i saw she was wearing pajama shorts! hey, at least she was cool and comfortable. whatever!

i'd say it all went pretty smoothly for how big of a group there was!

after prepping the lunch, grandpa got cora to sleep and then they had a good cuddle. :)

after lunch i had some "games" planned. but really i just had a bunch of shark toys that the kids could play with because really, who wants to try to get a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds organized? not me.

but then, something happened to shelby! i have no idea how, but she ended up with a big scratch in between her eyes. some of the kids kept bringing toys into the bounce house, so that's a possibility for injury, but it could have happened a bunch of different ways. whatever it was, it hurt, and she was sad.

it was her party and she'd cry if she wanted to!

good thing grandma, thumb, and blanket were close by.

she perked up once she saw the "shark grabber game."

everyone got a grabber and they tried to get 3 little party toys out of the box.

good, clean fun.

that helped a little bit.

but when we started to get the cake ready she still wasn't her usual happy self.

happy birthday dear shelby!

close your eyes and make a wish!

you're 3 years old!

blow out all those candles!

HOORAY!

i'm so glad that the cake at least made her happy again!

yay! cake time!
(see the scratch? so glad it wasn't any closer to her eye!)

i know i look like such a nerd with that shark fin hat. just trying to be festive!

here we go shelby. ready for your cake?

while i was getting a fork, she decided to help herself.

now you see her shark similarities!

a fork for each hand.

shark-like again!

bring. it. on.

the girls loves chocolate.

happy birthday big girl!

it's nice to share with grandpa!

it will be time for beckam and cora's first birthdays before we know it.

bella in a sugar coma.

here's bella at shelby's first birthday!
oh goodness we thought they were so big.

hi maxim!

here he is back at the first party too.

preston is the cutest 18 month old ever!!!

hi bailey! hi morgan!

oh sydney. did you enjoy your cake?

awww. here's baby sydney with my dad back at shelby's first birthday!

charlie now and then. too cute.

ellie! your hair has grown so much since 09!

apparently dallas still loves cupcakes two years later. :)

and peyton has a true signature style! green shirts, plaid shorts. love it!

the kids were very creative and slipped hula hoops and sharks into the bouncy house.

we had some fun with sweet baby simon.

love him! he and cora are just 2 months apart.

after her mini meltdown, i decided that opening presents would be postponed until after the party. but daddy just couldn't wait! there were just a few kids left, so that made it a little easier.

i missed the beginning because i was cleaning and then i was behind the video camera for the rest of it. my awesome father-in-law took these cute pictures.

you see that "world of creativity" box? see what it says?
over 1,000 pieces. trevor just about chucked it in the garbage/lit it on fire/threw up right then and there. later that night and i found it in the side yard, near the garbage cans. so funny! i saved it and organized the parts that shelby could use in plastic bags. but we are totally getting that gift giver back for this. we are going to find something with 30,000 tiny pieces for their kid's next birthday, most likely including permanent markers, paint, glue, and glitter. ugh. 1,000 pieces.

shelby received such wonderful and thoughtful and fun gifts!
we have the best friends and family ever!!!

good times. great gifts. happy 3rd birthday Shelby!

if you were wondering where my other child was, she was with my amazing cousin christa and her cute kids, enjoying some family time.

i think sydney liked being around a cousin that was littler than her!

christa, you're gorgeous. you were meant to be a redhead.

peyton and richard also got to spend some quality cousin time together. i asked richard what peyton talked to him about so intently and for so long, his answer? transformers. :) so cute.

we love the tukuafu family!

here's me and lauren back when we thought it was so hard to have just one kid. hahahaha.

speaking of one kid. after the party shelby was SO happy to jump all by herself.

best uncle award goes out to richard!
he is amazing. he was more than happy to come and help out at a 3rd birthday party, hold babies, set up, clean up, and all with a smile on his face. he is such a catch. whoever gets him will be soooo lucky!