The rainbow cake

Because I think it needs its on post! I mean, come on, its a rainbow cake!!

As I mentioned in the last post, Cheyanne's 3rd birthday was rainbow themed, everything bright colors and rainbows. It was way too cute. And, it made my little rainbow bright girl so happy which is really what its all about.

I pretty much followed some pinterest ideas I found when it came to making the cake. I bought a plain Pillsbury white cake mix and split it into 5 bowls. Using a few drops of food coloring, I colored each bowl a different color.

I poured each bowl into its own round pan and then cooked each about a quarter of the time directed on the box. Out came these pretty layers.

I iced each layer while stacking them.

I fixed the lopsidedness in the picture and got them to lay flat then iced the whole thing with white icing.

I decided not to put any decorations on the top like I had originally planned. I thought maybe there should be ONE plain white thing at the party, ha.

She loved the surprise rainbow inside.

I was a little worried how it would taste with all that food coloring in it, but it actually turned out delicious! I was shocked how moist and yummy it was. Chey didn't care how it taste, she just loved how it looked!

Cheyanne's 3rd Birthday Party

This birthday party is NOT to be confused with her birthday because according to Chey, everyday this month is her birthday. Every. Single. Day she has informed us "Today is my birthday." HA!

So, this post is just her birthday "party" because Chey's birthday lasts all month.

The Saturday before her birthday I planned a big party for her. I had all these grandios ideas of birthday fun- decorations, food, games, music, etc. You know, all those things 2-3 year olds really care about…

I knew long ago that she needed a rainbow themed birthday this year. If you follow me on Pinterest, you had to of known months ago what kind of party Chey was having. Chey loves all things rainbow these days. I figure this is probably the last year I can really get away with planning a theme that I "want" and no way could I just give her a cookie cutter party. :)

Wouldn't you know though that shortly after I sent out 16+ invites and started getting many RSVPs, the Giant bails? Well, not exactly bailed of his own free will (thank you Uncle Sam), but was told he would be flying the same week and wouldn't be home until well afterwards most likely. I think it was within 5 minutes of finding this out that I hopped on the phone and sweetly begged my parents to rearrange all their plans and come help me! Thank God for parents. I mean, really, lifesavers.

With the Giant gone days beforehand, Nana and Skipper were immediately put to work when they got here Thursday and literally didn't get a break until about the time they repacked their car the next week. I'm a slavedriver. Most of the day Friday, Mom and I cleaned and prepped food while Dad helped do a little bathroom remodeling.

Saturday came and we got partying. We all woke early and started cleaning, decorating, and setting up because people were coming at 11.

Not just a few people, but 16 children and their 15 parents. Yeah, 31 people here for a 3 year olds birthday. You ever hear of the rule, 1 kid for every year of age of the birthday kid? Yeah, I'm a rule breaker… this year.

I spread out all over the yard with a tent, tables, chairs, inside, outside, everywhere to make sure we had enough room.

We are just so blessed to have so many people that love us and are willing to give up their Saturday afternoon to come spend it with us in the heat and rainbows.

31 people… we had a chaotic blast!! Chey had a few meltdowns amongst all the fun but she had the time of her life. Evidence of 1st meltdown below. She's not a fan of all eyes on her and most definitely NOT a fan of being sung too by a choir...

 

She did however love her cake and pretty much everything else at her party. 

She jumped like a mad woman. Auntie T and Uncle Jonny struck gold with their birthday present. They rented her a jump castle for her party. Best. Present. Ever. Seriously, I'm not sure I'll ever have a party at my house again without one. 

Of course after everyone left and we had an hour before they came to pick it up, we got in on the action in the jump house. That was probably the part I loved the most. Just getting to be silly and play with Chey doesn't happen very often anymore. Nana held on to Jameson while Skipper and I jumped around with the birthday girl.

J did get a chance to play after all the big kids were gone and he loved it. 

I have no idea now why he was shirtless. At one point or another, both of my children were shirtless during the day, but I think maybe 3 is the cutoff for appropriate naked baby pictures on the blog. :)

Happy 3rd birthday sweet Cheyanne. You are my girl through and through. I'm so thrilled to see the little lady that you grow up to be and blessed to be a part of your life. I know you are going to do big things in your lifetime and have no doubt that you will make your daddy and me very proud. 

** HUGE special thank you to my dearest photographer friend Christina for taking photos at the party knowing I would be way too absent-minded to remember to do it on my own. The Giant really appreciated being able to see what he missed. If you live in Charleston, I highly recommend her as a photographer FYI. She's fantastic!

Santa, we'll try again next year

Obviously our round two with Santa didn't go much better today. And by "not much better" I mean much much worse.

That is about as close as she would get to Santa Claus this time. What you don't see here are the water works that ensued. I think we're done with Santa this year. Cheyanne's been traumatized enough for one year. 

But didn't she look cute at the base Christmas party despite the trauma?

It was so cold in the hanger (since they still had air conditioning blowing) though, we had to keep our coats on. Thank goodness I brought it last minute. Who has air conditioning blowing on a chilly drizzly day? Despite freezing our tails, it really was a fantastic party. 

Who knew that Santa flies on a Globemaster when the reindeer need to rest?

We were all waiting at the hanger doors when we heard he was in the area.

(I love this picture)

Here he comes!!!

All in all, we left happy and in the Christmas spirit. What more could you ask for?

This is the one good picture of Chey and I in front of the model plane. I should have gotten a picture of us inside it. Kids were all over this guy.

Ho Ho Ho-ly terror

Ahh Christmas and all those lovely, sweet precious Christmas moments that we hold dear to our heart from year to year.

Well, actually, Christmas hasn't started off so fantastic for Cheyanne quite yet…

I don't know who I feel worse for in this picture, Cheyanne or Santa Claus. Keep laughin' back there Mrs. Claus. That will get you on my naughty list real quick.

Well we tried. We have round two with Santa again this weekend at the Spec Ops Base Christmas party. Maybe this time, we'll have better luck. I've been talking Santa up all week so we'll see if she caught on.

Thankfully, she recovered quickly as soon as she turned around and saw all those fishies. Monday, we attended the SC aquarium's member Christmas party with a new squadron friend and her daughter. Besides this traumatic captured moment, the entire event was unbelievable! I can't wait to make this a yearly tradition with Hubs next year. The party was catered with yummy food and free drinks (both kiddie and adult beverages- YES)! 

We loved watching a special Christmas scuba dive show in the tank, as seen below on this precious girl's face.

Another memorable and hilarious later regrettable moment at this party was when Cheyanne tasted her first donut. People, sugar highs and drops are real. I'm a witness to this. I should have known, but since Chey doesn't really get much sugar, all I had to go off was her birthday party and somehow that fun never came to my mind- until now. I'll just show you in pictures.

All from the first bite. Eyeing it down.

First taste.

Mmm sprinkles. Did I mention that it was a fresh chocolate and sprinkles covered Krispy Kreme donut?

M.O.R.E!

 And so it begins…

Up!

Up!

Up!

Ahh, Ecstasy.

And…. crash.

Of course, the crash only came after she ran around banging on the tank glass yelling at the fish like a wild normally-would-have-been-embarrassing-if-I-hadn't-been-laughing-so-hard child. Ahh these precious Christmas memories.