I sent out this invitation using a photo I took of his “Duckie Shop” that he sets up thrice weekly.  Do not get your hopes up, each time you ask, “Can I buy a blue duckie?” He takes the blue duckie and puts it in a pile and says, “Not fer sale!”  No matter what, none of the duckies in the Duckie Shop are ever actually for sale.  Fun game.

I hung this banner at the park.  My sewing machine bit it so I glued this baby together.  Actually a little harder to manage than if I could have just pinned and sewn.  I freezer paper stenciled a birthday message.  I like the way it turned out and plan to hang it in his room when we move.

Cake and goody boxes. I bought fabric to sew goody bags but a) my machine wonked out and b) I had already bought these Chinese take out containers as part of my ‘be nicer to yourself’ project. I had these little photos printed up at Snapfish (highly recommend them, much better job than my beloved Flickr) and used them for the labels.

Here’s a ttv shot of the cake and the duckie cake pops I made.  I saw them here and here.  They were harder to make than I anticipated, why do I never learn?  At first I made them fist sized and not surprisingly found them to be unwieldy as I dipped them in the yellow candy melt mixture.  But then I smartened up, reread the directions and went with something closer to the quarter size they were suggesting.  Next time I would add less frosting, maybe no frosting and just cream cheese as a binder b/c these things had to have been sickeningly sweet.  I had no desire to try one.  It was all about the joy on my little one’s face (oh, and the PHOTO opportunity).  The cake below I was quite proud off.  To bake without eggs is not so easy.  I layered 4 cakes and slathered a blue dyed coconut/frosting/cream cheese mixture between and all around.  Layering was key because egg-free cakes tend to have very little rise to them so this cake felt substantial, like a “real” cake.

Waiting for guests to arrive.  Wearing a vest he picked out of the dress up drawer just for his party.  Dapper little dude.  See those balloons?  They were supposed to launch the ceremonial pacifier off into the sky (and out of his mouth) to mark turning 3.

Half way through the party a great wind (or my husband’s loose knot tying driven by fear of LWP – life without the pacifier) whisked the balloons away.  Plan B – sew those suckers into a stuffed duck.  We’ll see…

The most fun the kids had was making “duckie popcorn” with the parachute.  It was perfect because they could all do it at once and there was minimal parent direction.  They just popped those ducks all over the park!

In this lovely hand made bag was a lovely box with a rubber duckie “handle” on the lid.  My son immediately ripped it off.  He treasures the box but insists that the duck goes INSIDE the box, not on top.  Sorry L about his critique of this particular craft.

There were no complaints however on this next craft.

Do you see the greatness that is this shirt?  Duck, duck, GOOSE!  Lauren freezerpaper stenciled it, she is the MASTER.  He got many more lovely duckie themed presents, including a duck umbrella that is as cute as all get out but I don’t think my husband wants me posting the photo of him under it.  Will check and get back to you. Update:  He acquiesced.

Love that man.

Thank you to my lovely contact on Flickr, PaperNest who suggested feathers in playdough as an activity.  The kids loved it and a couple of the adults got in on it.  My father in law declared my friend Vonda the duck modeling genius of the party!  Disclaimer:  this is not a shot of Vonda’s work.

Here one of my best friend’s daughters taking a good whack at the pinata.  Isn’t she adorable?   This was my last party pinata.  We made one before that didn’t break so we went with store bought and it also didn’t break without serious adult intervention.  I did kick it old school and let the children fend for themselves.  There was not one shove or tear involved and it was a lesson learned for me.  For my oldest son’s 3rd I had individually wrapped bags for each child inside the pinata so it would be “fair”.  Blah blah blah, no FUN!

Thank you to all our friends who came and helped to make this such a joyous celebration.

We love you all and look forward to hosting you in what we damn sure hope will be our new house!

My little guy in the cool duck costume sent to him by my doting parents, A-One grandparents!  My big guy wore this to welcome the kids to the party.  They worked it out that he was the “number one helper” of the party.  Very sweet.

I wonder what next year’s theme will be?  I am challenging myself not to start thinking about it until the party is 3 months away, instead of my usual 6 month mark!