I scream, you scream. We all scream for ice cream!

We celebrated Ben and his 3rd birthday today.

Ben and the traditional 3rd birthday door streamers (I'm too lazy to do it every year (to be honest, I usually forget.)
Birthday Muffins for breakfast (pumpkin bran.... it doesn't matter to us that it's summer....we love pumpkin year round!)
He was so excited about it being his birthday, that he made us re- light the candle 3 times and sing to him again.
We wanted to keep the party simple and small this year, so I ordered 10 invitations and had Owen and Ben make the guest list to keep me from inviting everyone we know.

Coming up with a "theme" wasn't the easiest and when I asked Ben what he wanted for his birthday, all he said was cake and candy, but when I ran across these invitations on Etsy, I thought an ice cream/kiddie pool party party would be fun.

I had planned to make those cute ice cream cone cupcakes, but I was disappointed in my trial run ones and how soggy the cones were the day after I made them. I thought about doing cake balls to put on top of cones, but started to stress and so at the last minute I chickened out and did sundae cupcakes. Ben picked the liners... I wanted either white, silver, ice cream or waffle bowls, but he wanted Toy Story, and well, it is HIS birthday:)

Owen wanted a lemonade stand, so along with water and juice boxes, we had lemonade for everyone to drink. As each kid arrived, Owen greeted them with a cup of lemonade and a colored straw. It was cute and just how he wanted it.
Ice cream cone bubbles, balloons and wafer cookies as favors...
A simple lunch... self serve sandwiches, chips, pasta salad, fruit salad, and veggies for the adults and PB&J and cheddar bunny trail mix for the kids...
Ben and Liam helped fill the pools....
while Owen passed out lemonade...
Ben and "BawBaw"
Time for cupcakes...
and to blow the candles out...

















I contacted Norman's Ice Cream Service about a month ago and arranged for them to come to the party. We had $2 bills for the kids to buy their ice cream with (obviously we could have paid for it all at once, but we thought it would be more fun for the kids to get to pay themselves. And do you know how hard it is to find $2 bills?!!!)





Ben was ready for a nap before the party was over, so he didn't open presents until he woke up....

He was spoiled with lots of new toys and clothes!

After he opened his presents, we went to the Japanese Steak House for dinner...


Happy 3rd birthday to my sweet Ben!

Ben's 2nd birthday...HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Ben's 1st birthday HERE

and just for fun, HERE is Owen's 3rd birthday