Happy 3rd Birthday, Arden!

My baby turned 3 on the 15th and we celebrated her birthday with friends and family last weekend with a book themed party.  I couldn't think of a more appropriate theme for my book-loving girl!

Here she is in her birthday outfit, scored super cheap at Gymboree by Grandma.

I set up a little library in our front living room, complete with books, stuffed animals, glasses, and other reading props.  No one really used it, but I liked it anyway.  :)

I made some bunting by cutting up old Golden Books I found at Goodwill for fifty cents.  You should have seen Arden's face when she saw me cut out the first triangle.  She burst into tears and cried, "MY BOOK!!!" She was so offended that I had cut a precious book!

Cork board decorated in honor of the birthday girl:

Party favors were "bookworms."  Ha!  I kill myself!

Clarke made a great video with pictures of Arden throughout the year.  The video slide show set to music is probably my favorite birthday tradition for the kids.  It started way back on Huston's first birthday because CVS had a deal for a free video made from their Kodak machines in store.  After doing them at CVS for a couple of years, Clarke took over creating them with imovie on our mac.  The kids always love looking at their pictures, and it's so fun to show them to our friends and family!

Watching the picture show:

I wanted my mom to make a pink ruffled cake for Arden and it turned out so cute!  And tasted just as good!

Arden loved opening her presents, and got so many things just perfect for her!  Clarke and I got her a Kidkraft play kitchen, and she got lots of play food for her kitchen, two stuffed dogs in little carrying cases, a princess dress up set, a Hello kitty doll, a coloring book, some story books, and several other things.  She was a pretty happy girl!

The requisite family birthday picture (which required probably 55 attempts):

Happy birthday, sweet girl!