painting party

a whole month late.... but here are the highlights from reese's fun third birthday:

she woke up to streamers hanging from her door and balloons everywhere :) and gigi and pajoe had gotten to our house after she fell asleep so that was a fun surprise when she woke up too! 

pretty much a walking pottery barn kids add ha! got a suitcase and lunchbox to go with her backpack. this girl loves bags and loves to organize everything. hilarious.

her big birthday present finally got set up on her actual birthday and she was soooo excited! 

{note that shes totally bundled up and it was april 19th. ugh. hope its not that cold every year on her bday!}

party time!!

here's the incredible invitation my cousin aimee made 

when i was brainstorming what to do for her birthday this year I started just thinking of all Reesers favorite things to do... and pretty much EVERYTHING was some sort of art :) So we went with an art theme and she was so excited about it. For a month before the party she would tell everyone she saw at every store or the post office or church about her "painting party" and all she wanted was fingerpaint :) which we didnt actually do at the party but she didnt notice!

paintbrush rice kris pies

Each cute friend got an apron with their initial painted on it and a little canvas with their name taped off. Then they got to paint on their canvas -all over the place!- and when it dried we pulled the tape off and their name was still white. It was pretty cute and praise the Lord no one got paint on their clothes (that i know of). I was so worried!!! I think they liked it. Except all of our three year old friends are boys so they didnt quite love to paint as much as the birthday girl. She was the first one to start and the last one to finish (by about 20 minutes haha like i said, she loves to paint!!)

all the mommas and the second borns. these girls have been such a blessing to me this year!!! i need to write a post just about them. God is so so so faithful to always provide me with the neatest women. I just adore each of them! We've joined their small group and couldn't be more thankful for this community! who knew such awesome people lived in Des Moines Iowa ;)

chaos? :)

munchkin still painting! while all the boys were climbing the swingset, blowing bubbles, riding in the barbie jeep, coloring with chalk... reese was still painting :)

this was pretty funny bc R was so excited about the facepainting the days before the party but when it was actually time to she chickened out and would only let me do tiny dots on her cheek (instead of the butterfly we had already even practiced haha) and she insisted on painting my face first :) thank you reese mason for the beautiful orange blob you painted on mommys face! anything for the birthday girl

her face was just precious as everyone sang to her. too bad it was so chilly and you couldn't see her cute shirt that said "its my birthday" on it. 

 rainbow cake! totally worth it. 

fun outdoor chalkboard!! 

cute dax in the barbie jeep :)

oh hilarious. reese is still obsessed with cars (aka lightening mcqueen) and mater and we watch the movie over and over and she can practically quote the whole thing and she just loves them like they're dolls and she takes care of them like dolls. hilarious. so she saw this dumb cars pinata at the store and begged and begged for it for weeks before the party. so her dear sweet daddy caved and surprised her with it. hilarious. she just LOVED it. and still loves it when she sees it in the basement. i'm thankful it had those strings at the bottom bc it could maybe we used again! surely she won't still have this obsession when she's four though, right?? 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REESE ELIZABETH!!! 

You are such a firecracker. You are so passionate in every single way. You are tender hearted but strong willed. You love to play outside. You LOVE to have imaginary friends with you (and us) allllllll the time (well actually most of your imaginary friends are actual people (always Sam but sometimes other friends too) and we pretend they're with us). You love to act out scenes and scenarios you read in books or on tv shows. You love books and we read together A LOT! You're really good at "reading" by yourself by looking at the pictures and making up what might be going on. You have the most precious curls and hardly ever let me put anything in your hair. You still love gymnastics and are getting so good. You can do a forward roll, sort of a cartwheel and can walk on the beam by yourself. You are still in the 1% in height and 8% for weight. What a little peanut. Funny bc youre very very very allergic to peanuts. We took you to the allergist this year and you're pretty dang high on the scale of how allergic you could be :( We're still praying you'll grow out of this though. You are also pretty much the best big sister in the whole world and its adorable to watch you love on Lucy. You now know how to text people from my phone. You text imoticon images to whoever the person was that I last sent a text too. Usually daddy, gigi or honey :) or maybe a random church person or maybe my hairdresser. haha that was a little embarrassing. You have the sweetest, high pitched precious voice and I just LOVE it when you tell me stories about something we did or something you made up. You sorta know how to spell your name - usually you say R E S EE. That little brain just works non stop and is picking up something new everyday. You are so dear little Reese and you make me so so proud. I couldn't be more thankful to be your mommy! Thanks for getting me through these long days - even when I want to pull my hair out bc you're being a stinker - I still am so thankful to have you as my little buddy! I love you sweet girl.