Happy Birthday to Ella!

On Saturday morning, we dropped SJ off at Gigi and Granddad's house and KA, Daddy, and Mommy headed to Atlanta for Ella's third birthday party!  Ella was having a "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" themed party at The Center for Puppetry Arts, and we were so excited about it - we'd never been to a puppet show there!  At first, we were worried that the sleet would keep us from getting to the party - the morning started with bad weather and a heavy sleet shower in our area.  Luckily, we were able to make it to the party just in time for the show to start!  We had no idea what to expect, but the show exceeded our wildest expectations.  It was amazing!  The puppets, scenes, songs - it was all incredible.  No photos or videos were allowed during the show, so I don't have any pictures of the show.  I tried to snap one of KA in front of the "curtain" before we left the show.  We definitely want to go back and see more shows soon!

After the show, we headed to the party room for lunch and cupcakes.  Erin had done a fabulous job of decorating in the Rudolph theme - all the kids had a little Rudolph bucket filled with their PB&J, Cheez-Its, carrots, and raisins for lunch and cute antlers to wear, and adults had chips, sandwiches, and drinks for our lunch.  Then, we had delicious red velvet cupcakes for dessert!

 

 

 

 

After our lunch, we headed to the craft room to make marionette puppets.  Katie Anne loves crafting, and she was really focused on her puppet and did a great job putting it together.  She is so funny about her crafts - she has to make sure we follow the directions step by step and likes to "read" them out loud as we go. (Wonder where she gets that?!?)  She did an awesome job on her puppet and even "made it her own" by turning Rudolph into Clarice with a little red foam bow on her head.

 

 

After KA finished her puppet, she acted out the show with Ella, Erin, Harper, and Handley.  Erin, Harper, and Handley played the parts of Rudolph and the other reindeer, KA was Clarice, and Ella was a very convincing Abominable Snow Monster!  It was so cute to see them acting out the show - they were very convincing in their roles!

 

It was an AMAZING birthday party - as usual, Erin did a great job pulling this one off!  We had a super time and can't believe that Ella Claire is three years old!  All our little friends aren't babies any more ... these kids are growing up too fast!