Nora Kate's THIRD Birthday Party: A Pony Party

We celebrated Nora Kate's third birthday with family and friends at her birthday party on Saturday, August 20th, 2016.  For months Nora Kate had been asking for a pony party.  She loves playing with her My Little Pony toys.  This girl knew exactly what she wanted (surprise, surprise)...she requested a pony cake that had pink on it and was fancy, she wanted pink and purple balloons, she wanted a pony on her shirt, and she wanted a real pony to come to her party.  I think her party met all of her requests.  She had such a fun time, and we had fun watching her enjoy her friends and party!

Our party girl!

We were looking a little serious at the beginning of the party since I woke her up from nap early, but she quickly got in party-mode!

All about our sweet girl at age 3!

I LOVE her sweet expression here!

Nora Kate requested I draw a pony on the sign...specifically the My Little Pony named Pinky Pie.  

Sweet friend Harper pushing Nora Kate on the swings.

Olivia and Ava swinging

We surprised her and had facepainting.

Of course, she wanted a fancy pony painted on her face.

Her first time on the pony.  

Nora Kate's first time riding a pony!

They had temporarily painted the pony's mane, so Nora Kate kept saying it was Rainbow Dash (that's one of the My Little Ponies).

Everyone at the party got multiple pony rides.

Dawson's first time on a pony.

Carter's first time on a pony.

Clayton's first time on a pony.

He kept looking at the pony with this expression.

"What in the world are you doing, Momma?! I'm a baby, on a pony?!"

Nora Kate always has this dreamy look on her face when she's holding Mr. Baby (as she calls him).  She wanted to hold Clayton ON the pony...all of her favorite things combined.

Pop and Clayton.

Our sweet niece Zoe checking out the pony!

Carter opted to have his arm painted rather than his face.

I think all the kids really enjoyed the pony!

Charlie with his tattoo!

Our sweet birthday girl!

Nora Kate's birthday cake I made.  It was strawberry cake with white frosting.

Singing happy birthday to our sweet girl.

Blowing out the candle.

Cannot believe our baby girl is THREE!!

We were thrilled that Nora Kate's friend Jackson who moved to Nashville this year was in town and came to her birthday party!  She always, always talked about playing with Jackson in her class on Sunday mornings at church and didn't want to go to church for a while after they moved away.  She LOVES playing with this sweet friend!

Nora Kate has sweet and generous friends and family.  She was thrilled to open lots of presents!

Check out that fancy face painting.

I also made her shirt for her party.

Love her expressions.

Nora Kate's party went really well!  The kids LOVED riding the pony around, getting their faces/arms painted, eating cake, ice cream, and snacks, playing on the playset, and running around together!  We are thankful to have so many wonderful friends who help make our sweet girl's birthday party so special!

Happy birthday, Nora Kate!

Nora Kate is THREE

As of August 14th, Nora Kate is THREE!!  Turning three has been a big deal to her because she remembers Carter being three (just a few months ago), and I think knowing Carter was three recently makes her feel like three is "so big" as she said!  She's mastered holding up the three fingers to show her age (this is always a hard one to hold that pinky and thumb down).  She loves to talk about being three..."How old am I now, Momma?" "You're three, Nora Kate!" "YES! THREE"
I was waiting to post Nora Kate's three year old update until after her 3 year check up which we just had Thursday.  She is in the 90th percentile for height and for weight.  She is 36 pounds and 38.5 inches tall.  Her checkup went great.  She was oddly excited to go to the doctor for her checkup.  She picked out a fancy dress and talked about going to her checkup ALL morning! So funny!  Carter was at preschool and Dawson was at school, so it was just me and her and Clayton at her checkup which I think was part of the excitement for her. 
At three Nora Kate is the most fun little girl! She LOVES everything girly!  Since we only have 1 daughter, I'm so glad that she's into all the girly things!  She carries a purse with her 90% of the time.  She has 3 or 4 purses, but her first one is her favorite.  Her purse is always full of "fancies" (aka bracelets, necklaces, and rings) and "hanitizer" (hand sanitizer...she loves the pink and purple glittery hand sanitizer from Bath and Body-part of the excitement is just going to pick them out).  She also loves her baby dolls.  She pushes them around in a stroller, carries their things in a diaper bag, and puts them in cloth diapers like Clayton.  She always points out that her baby is a girl! 
She says when she gets big she wants to be a Momma and have a pink baby (translation a baby girl).  When we are out shopping she always finds items for baby girls and will comment on how cute it is and tell us that she will buy it for her pink baby when she's a Momma.  (This melts my heart! I LOVE that she wants to be a Momma!)  She also says that she will name her baby "Pink." Haha! 
Nora Kate loves to have her toes and fingernails polished at all times.  Her very favorite is when I do my nails the same color to match her.  She also loves lip gloss...however, we have not mastered the art of using just a little lip gloss...she puts on tons!!!!  Over the summer Nora Kate got into the Fancy Nancy books, and now her very favorite word is "fancy."  She loves for everything to be fancy, and it's probably her most used word!  Her favorite songs are "7 Days in a Week" and "I'm So Fancy."
Nora Kate also likes playing doll house.  She will rearrange their furniture a million times before she gets it just right and will add the family to the house.  So cute!  Another favorite is My Little Pony!  She requested a pony party for her birthday, so that's what we did!  She has learned the names to a lot of the ponies, and her favorites are Pinky Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Apple Bloom.  Nora Kate has a wonderful imagination, and she will play pretend for hours. 
Nora Kate LOVES playing with all of her brothers.  While she loves everything fancy and girly, as soon as the big boys start catching crickets and grasshoppers (yuck) in the yard, she's right there with them! She can be fancy and keep up with the boys just the same-love it! 
I also love seeing her different relationships with her brothers.  She really looks up to Dawson and will ask him to help her with things or show her things.  She also (usually) listens to what Dawson tells her, and plays well with him.  Nora Kate also plays REALLY well with Carter too.  She plays with Carter as more of an equal.  I love that they always have a friend in each other to play with since they're so close in age.  Carter and Nora Kate are awesome at using their imagination to play together-they make up all kinds of silly restaurants and shops where they work and I have to come visit during the days when Dawson's at school.  They're so funny together!  Nora Kate is a great big sister to Clayton too.  She still loves him SO, SO much!  She wants to hold him all the time and constantly be an inch from his face (still!).  She always brings him blankets, toys, etc. and talks to him so sweet!!
Nora Kate has a sweet relationship with her Daddy too, of course!  John calls her "sunshine," and any time Nora Kate hears the word "sunshine" she beams and says "THAT'S WHAT DADDY CALLS ME!!!"
At age 2.5 Nora Kate got a twin bed, so she now sleeps in a twin bed with no rails.  The boys had rails for a year or so, but Nora Kate insisted from the beginning that she didn't need rails.  I was nervous at first, but she never falls out.  She loves her big girl bed still.  She sleeps with her "Lovie" every night along with a pile of blankets that I'm constantly trying to lessen, but she loves having a "nest"  as she calls it, which basically means every blanket we own! Haha!
Nora Kate has an opinion about her name...she does not like for anyone to call her "Nora."  She will always say, "HEY! Ugh, why did they call me Nora?! My name's Nora Kate!"  This usually happens at the doctor when they call her name to call her back or at the pharmacy when we have had to pick up a prescription for her.  Sometimes the boys call her Nora Katherine, and to that she will even say, "NO! Call me Nora Kate!"
At three I would describe Nora Kate as sweet, feisty, talkative, opinionated (in a good way-she always knows what she wants to do/play/etc), brave (she now goes on rides at Dollywood that I can't believe she's brave enough to do like the Shooting Star), and bubbly!  I love this sweet girl so much!  I cannot believe she's three already, but I'm loving all the little girl fun we are getting to experience with her.  SO, so fun!