donuts and pajamas.

For Carter's birthday party we decided to do something at our house this year.  I wanted to keep it simple (of course, that's never the case!) and have a fun theme.  After reading another blog I follow, I totally copied her idea and went with an early morning donut and pajama party.  It was perfect!  Kids are cranky in the afternoon, especially during nap time.  Plus you have to wait all day for the party and then take all night to clean up.  Instead, the party was over by 11:30am, kids were napping by 1pm and the house was back in order by 3pm.  

The morning started early, as it usually does, around 5:30am with Carter getting to open up a few of his presents from us.  

A new blanket I made (well, cut some fabric and tied some strings).  He is loving Toy Story and now sleeps with this blanket every night.

Then I took Carter with me to the local donut house to pick out some special treats for his donut cake (way easier than cupcakes!)  

 I decorated the house with sprinkles and these super cute sprinkled donut coasters I found in the dollar bin at Target (love.target.) I didn't take many pictures of the food but we had fruit, blueberry muffins, donuts (duh) and milk, chocolate milk, OJ and coffee to drink.  Super simple!

 It was really just a pajama party for the kids but Matt and I wanted to get into the party mode too.  And, it was super comfy.

 Love Matt's pants!  :)

 Lucy wanted a snack before the party started and the Grandma's were happy to help!

 One bored little boy patiently waiting for his friends to arrive.

 We sang Happy Birthday pretty quick because most of the guests couldn't wait to eat some yummy donuts.

 We had 5 little boys under the age of 5 and 3 babies under a year.  So much fun!

 I kept with the breakfast theme and had the kids make fruit loop necklaces for an activity.  But really, they just played with the strings and ate the fruit loops out of the box.  And Lucy helped herself too. Lucky girl!

 Crazy playtime in the playroom.

 Pin the sprinkle on the donut!  But, only Carter and his friend Michael wanted to play.  Needless to say, the game ended quickly.

 Pinata time!  I am SO not ready for a swinging bat flying around the house, so this option was perfect! Each kid takes a turn pulling a ribbon off.  One of the ribbons makes the pinata open.  So fun!

 And then presents.  Oh my gosh.  I've never seen a kid open up presents so quickly.  Sadly, our thank you cards will probably be pretty generic (ie. thanks for your gift?) because it was impossible to figure out what was from who.

 So many fun people came to celebrate with us.

 On Carter's actual birthday he got a few more presents.

 A new nativity set from Grandma Vance.  It's great to let the kids play with it and explain the story of Christmas.

 And, because you only turn 3 once (and to make him feel better after getting bullied at Jump Planet) he got 2 cupcakes!  One at lunch (which made nap time interesting...haha)

 And another at dinner!

Such a fun way to celebrate.  So far 3 has been a really great year.