Happy birthday to me indeed

Don't worry... the celebration continues. I still ask to blow out candles on a near-daily basis. It's really more of a birthday MONTH than a birthDAY to me.

Aaaaah, finally

Quality time with Aunt Pook-Pook, introducing her to my new friends, Piggy Piggy and Elphie the Elephant.

I was pretty pooped by the end

Thank goodness mommy and daddy will carry me. I can't be expected to stand on my own after all of this excitement.

Kira approved!

She told me that she enjoyed both the cupcakes and the tacos. What an impressive palate!

The food was really good, too!

Gourmet tacos (steak, chicken and shrimp) from Komodo:

Delicious cupcakes from Brown Sugar LA (some of them didn't even make it onto the table!):

YUM.

Everyone had a great time socializing

I love the photo of my little friend Kira engrossed in conversation. She has such personality!

And CAROLINE came too!

We love her.

Amma wanted to kidnap some of my cute little friends

I can't say I blame her. Just LOOK at these beautiful girls!

My guests enjoyed stuffing new little friends, too!

...and who wouldn't -- it's great fun!

Here's how the stuff-your-own animal thing works:

First, you choose an animal from one of the six options (mine were panda, pig, elephant, penguin, dog and monkey). Then you walk over to the big red stuffing machine and John holds the animal next to the stuffer while you put your foot on a pedal that triggers the stuffing mechanism:


You stuff your friend:


You choose a star and make a wish. Then you place your wishing star in your new little friend's pouch:

John seals the pouch for you so your wish doesn't get lost, then he closes the animal up and you have your new friend!

Then you pose for pictures with mommy and daddy... and cousin Mackenzie, who also loves her new little panda friend. I'm not sure she put the panda down during the entire party!

You also get a birth certificate for your new little friend - you know, so he can fly and cruise with you when you travel.

First, I took a lap before committing to a location

I learned from the movie Clueless (1995) that you should always do this.

Setting up for the party was a lot of work!

First, we roped off a large area for ourselves with balloons:


It creates a nice effect, don't you think?



Then we went to work setting up within the ropes.

John of Johnny's Animal Land set up the build-a-bear (or build-an-animal) area. All of those stuffed animals were so cute -- I wanted one of each!

While the party was starting to get underway, my little friends enjoyed various games, including one where you toss bean bag bananas into the monkeys' mouths. Great fun!

And then the party *really* got underway...

Happy birthday party to me!

Mommy and daddy threw me a birthday party at the park - with 100 of our closest friends in attendance! Although I was pretty pooped from several nights of staying up late, waking up in the middle of the night and general debauchery, it was a lot of fun. We roped off a large area with pink streamers and pink and purple balloons, we had plenty of games to keep people entertained, lots of delicious tacos from Komodo (self-described as "gourmet tacos on crack") and fantastic cupcakes from Brown Sugar LA (flavors included red velvet and lemon - my two favorites - plus cookies n cream, s'mores, coconut and more).

Best part of all: mommy hired a mobile build-a-bear to come to us so the kids (and some adults, too) could take home a new stuffed friend! All of my little friends went home with a new little friend of their own. I went home with a new Piggy Piggy and an Elphie the Elephant that I stuffed just for mommy!

I especially enjoyed blowing out my candle... repeatedly

Refrains of "AGAIN!" were heard in our house. Many times.

Birthday dinner

For my birthday dinner, mommy asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted a cuppycake. She brought me one! Ask and you shall receive. I like this birthday thing!

Happy 3rd birthday to me!

On the day of my birthday, we celebrated with Amma and Baba by getting a mini ice cream cake from Brentwood's acclaimed Sweet Rose Creamery. My goodness was that a delicious ice cream cake! My goodness is this going to be a spectacular year.

Birthday squirmy wormy

Mommy had a meeting this morning. All she wanted to do was to get ONE picture of me in my cute little birthday outfit (an "It's my Birthday" shirt with a frilly cupcake on it and a cute little matching skort). I wouldn't stand still. All of her pictures came out blurry. The ones that were not AS blurry were also unusable because I decided to make funny faces, close my eyes or stick my finger in my nose. She was not amused. She snapped this picture of me in my carseat as my birthday picture because it was the only time I was fastened in somewhere and at no risk of suddenly deciding to jump, lay on the floor or stick my butt up in the air.

3 year olds. Humpht.

The zoo also had an aquarium and penguin exhibit!

It doesn't compare to the other Aquariums I've visited, but it sure was fun! And I got to go jellyfishing, just like SpongeBob SquarePants! I had a great time at the zoo... and I learned a lot, too!

Hungry, hungry hippo!

Thankfully, he couldn't bite me because I'm too cute. That's the rule. Just ask my Aunt Pook-Pook!

I've heard of piggyback rides, but this is just bananas!

OMG I'm so punny.

Hey, this guy is tall like daddy!

We saw a mommy turtle and a baby turtle

And I provided the voiceover entertainment, pretending that I was the mommy turtle, telling the baby turtle what to do. Turtles follow instruction very well - except for the part about coming closer so I could pet them.

It's surprising to see how orderly penguins are

Look at them standing in line so patiently! How very dignified. I would expect nothing less of animals who wear tuxedos every day.

Guess which one the precocious monkey is!

I crossed the bridge to see...

MORE MONKEYS. You can never see enough monkeys.