Maura's Pony Party

Our main goal during our trip to Kentucky was to celebrate Maura's birthday with our family and friends. I just couldn't imagine celebrating it down in Georgia by ourselves or with a party of newer friends. There's just nothing like being able to get together with the ones we love the most to celebrate the most important events of our lives. This particular event was momentous for us. Maura was SOOOOO excited about her birthday this year. She's talked about turning three and having a party for the past three months. She equated turning three with growing up and often talks about the two in conjunction with each other, ex, "When I turn three and get bigger, I will do..." I still of her as such a baby, but she's going to grow up in spite of me. Now that she's three and potty trained, you'd think she was an adult--she pretty much thinks she's ready for everything! My big girl, all ready for her pony party. I love putting her down for a nap on party day and then being able to bring her down into the party room that we've decorated for her while she slept. She was so excited when she saw it all together.

She especially loved her pony cake. I had planned upon a horse shaped cake, but she picked a two layer cake instead, similar to the cake we had planned for Lorie's shower. Actually she wanted the exact same cake as Lorie's shower, complete with the lamb on top, but I was able to pacify her with this design. Mom made the cake and decorated the bottom part for me because I was sure I wouldn't have the time to do it all on Saturday when we got there. I made the horse on top out of fondant before we left Georgia and prayed it wouldn't break on the drive up. I cut the purple ponies out of fondant and piped in the icing manes and tails. I was pretty happy with the end result, especially since it was my first fondant experience.


The table all ready for the little cowpokes to come "eat." Whenever a bunch of two and three year olds get together very little actual eating takes place. Maura with her aunts and uncles: Uncle Scott, Aunt Katie, Aunt Lorie and Uncle Micah.

Maura and Tristan with Pappap. I was so thankful to my parents for allowing me to use their house for the festivities. I really wanted to be able to use the yard for the party and to bring the horse out for the kids to see. I prayed for good weather for the party and was rewarded with a beautiful day with weather in the 70's. They've had such awful weather there all winter and spring that it was nothing short of a miracle to have a beautiful day. Sweet little cowgirl Maura, riding the range on her trusty steed.

The Allen family all ready to party! Maura's friend Sarah was the first to arrive. I'm not sure, but I think Sarah might have been even more excited about the party than Maura was! Everyone brought their horses with them to the party.
Grammy and Tristan waiting for the party to start. Tristan just loved having more people than usual around to hold him. Sarah was the only one to don the horse costume and gallop around.
Lily came with her pretty pony too. I gave all the kids bandannas with their name embroidered on them, courtesy of my mom. The kids put together a cute craft of a picture frame when they first arrived.
Pretty soon, it was time to eat: Pony PB&J, hay casserole, apple slices and baby carrots, and trail mix on the side. Sarah and Lainey. Like I said, the kids ate NOTHING!

Except maybe Liam and Lily snacking a bit. The adults had better appetites. We had Round up BBQ Beef, Hay Casserole, Cowboy beans and Stampede Salad. Yum! The kid's first "game" was a horse race. I had originally intended to have them make hobby horse and race them, but it was just too much to do, so we fell back on a bring your own pony theme. The horse race was hilarious! Their personalities showed through on this horse race. Liam and Maura went racing off towards the barn, while Sarah, Lily and Lainey had practically a photo finish.

Sarah wins!! Maura stops to pick up a cone. Must be genetic. Mom says that I played my first season of t-ball standing on my glove and picking posies! I just never really had the killer instinct in sports and neither, apparently, does my girl!
Don't worry, everyone got a blue ribbon. Sarah was really proud of hers. Maura was too. By the way, Maura loves her cowgirl boots and wants to wear them all the time.

Sarah riding the "pony" and checking out her winnings. Lily looking awfully cute!

Liam was more interested in the candy than the "pony." I really wish I'd made it a point to get every child's photo riding the "pony." Grammy and Pappap LOVED hanging out with their grandkids.

We all played a fun bucket toss game. I think Lainey was a LEEETLE close!
Emily was a pro. As the oldest child present, she aced the games. The Needle in the Straw game was the absolute favorite, and it was absolute mayhem! We hid a bunch of little toys in the straw and then let the kids go for it. They were the perfect age for the game. They're still young enough that they didn't try to kill each other going for the toys.

There was a lot of hay tossing, but they kids found every single toy in the stack. They loved it! My mom went and got Smokey Joe for the kids to pet. He's getting really old and not quite as surefooted as he should be, so we avoided putting the kids on him, but they loved having a chance to pet and feed him. He's so shaggy from the winter! Maura got to pet him first.
Lily has her own horse, but she still wanted to pet Smokey. Her mom, Dawn helped. Liam and Amy thought it was great fun to feed him a carrot.

Sydney went between terror and fascination. She decided it would be OK for mom(Shauna) to feed him the carrot. Shauna, Emily and Sydney are our old neighbors in KY, who we're really going to miss when we move back because they moved to Carlisle while we were gone. Lainey and Julie, our friends from church took their turns with Smokey.

Tristan wasn't sure what to think. He was very interested, until he got pretty close, then he turned around and hung onto Brent very tightly! Maura took a break from the festivities for a tractor ride.

She really loved this aracade style shooting game. She was good too! We just had to keep her from shooting everyone else too. Our last game was a pinata. The kids loved this! Maura like giving it a few whacks.
Sarah was pretty good at it, but none of the kids made a dent, until...we gave the bat to Brad.

Two swings later, he knocked off the head and the kids scattered for the candy. Notice Brent hiding behind the tree as he holds the rope. He had no desire to appear on the next episode of America's Funniest Home videos!

We all went in for some cake and ice cream. Maura LOVED being in the center of it all with the candles and Happy Birthday song. She was proud and embarrassed all at the same time. She blew out all the candles almost in one breath!

Tristan and Scott singing Happy Birthday. Tristan sooned returned to Daddy, because it was past his bedtime!

Maura loved opening her gifts this year. She needed very little prompting except for some redirection when she started flip flopping and zipping around the room from her sugar high. Tristan gave us all a display of his newfound cruising abitities. Daddy and Angie looked on.

Maura got this cute blanket as a gift from Lily and the kids couldn't resist flopping down on it. I really wish I'd gotten them to look up so I could see their faces. Sarah and Lainey keeping an eye on the present opening. Maura was so excited over this gift. Grammy and Pappap planned on giving Maura her gifts on her actual birthday, but they wrapped up this little gift, five plastic horses, to give to her at the party. Well, she made such a huge deal about it, yelling, "Grammy and Pappap gave me these horses!" Grammy got a little embarassed, thinking that others would believe that it was ALL they'd gotten her! It was pretty funny.
Liam and Sarah figured that hiding under the present table was way more fun than watching someone else open presents! We had such a great time and enjoyed ourselves emesely at the party. It really is exhausting to give a party, but it was worth it to see how much Maura enjoyed everything.

Brent had to leave and head back to Georgia on Sunday, but we let her open a few gifts before he left so he could watch. We gave her this scrapbook that I made of our Disney trip. It had a photo and autograph of each character we met while we were there. She loved it!
Happy Birthday Sweet Maura!! What a big three year old girl! Whew! That was a lot of photos! Just in case you didn't get enough of the birthday photos, never fear, I have photos from her actual birthday three days later! Stay tuned!