Back to the den next, but I wanted to take a minute (or, you know, 1000 words and a million pictures, whichever comes first), to talk about the crazy thing that happened here over the weekend: my BABY turned THREE! You’re probably having a hard time believing this, because he was just born about a week ago and because he’s an itty bitty BABY, but I know it’s true because my e-mails from Babycenter now start with “Your 3-Year-Old” instead of “Your 2-Year-Old.”

Here’s my big three year old, being three:

Knock wood and all, but Abe is a charming and pretty chill little toddler these days. I was looking back over what I wrote when he turned two, and apparently he had a lot more trouble staying in one place back then. He still has a lot of energy, especially at 7 in the morning, don’t get me wrong. But nowadays he’s focused and curious, still very much in the midst of the “why” phase that’s been going on for as long as anyone can remember, and is actually capable of watching an entire half hour show on TV, which is nice for me, especially since he appears to be pretty much finished with napping. He loves his toys, his brothers, his friends, people he knows in general, his dogs and cats, music class, and never being alone, ever (an unfortunate trait for a kid with no siblings close in age, but perhaps it’s just a phase).

Also Blue’s Clues.

Hence the party theme.

Abe was VERY excited about this party, ever since I first suggested a Blue’s Clues theme to him a few months ago. Sadly, there hasn’t been a new Blue’s Clues episode since 2007, so the available merchandise dried up quite awhile ago and fetches surprisingly handsome prices on ebay and the like (if anyone out there is still sitting on a pile of Blue’s Clues memorabilia, now is the time to sell!)

This made party planning a little difficult, but, fortunately, they still make BLUE things for parties, even if they don’t make BLUE’S things.

(Incidentally have you SEEN season 6 of Blue’s Clues?! Things get really wacky. Totally the season Blue’s Clues jumped the shark).

So we went on a dollar store shopping spree for blue plates, napkins, balloons, crepe paper, etc. And there is nothing more fun for your almost three year old than getting to accompany you to the dollar store to pick out stuff for his upcoming Blue’s Clues party. Especially if you also buy him a box of Skittles in a moment of weakness.

Really, everything about this party was super simple. And yet Abe thought it was the best party ever. Three year olds are pretty great that way.

I did find a reasonably priced (affiliate link) Blue centerpiece on Amazon, which was the only actual Blue thing we had, decorations-wise:

Oh, and there’s the cake: it’s a paw print, see?! It was very technically complicated, because I’m such a master cake maker and decorator. One round cake plus four cupcakes:

And then frosting with blue food coloring, that looks kind of more aqua because I hate using too much food coloring. Also, aqua is pretty:

Abe picked out the stuff for the favor boxes:

Then I kind of….let the kids and Dave hang up a bunch of random decorative stuff. Blue stuff. Plus the banner I made for his 1st birthday party:

 

And Abe wore the Blue’s Clues jacket his grandmother found for him, so he was kind of a decoration, too:

At some point I planned to come up with a few themed games and activities, but in the end all we did was play one round of Blue’s Clues. We printed out some paw prints and attached them to a canister of sugar, birthday candles, and paper baking cups (have you already figured out Blue’s Clues?):

Then we hid them around the sunroom and turned the kids loose to find them, while one of the older kids drew pictures of the clues in a handy dandy notebook:

And then they figured out Blue’s Clues, and everyone ate cake:

It was very simple, but it worked really well for this age group. They all seemed to have fun, no one got frustrated, and there was cake at the end!

Abe kept blowing out the candles before we could finish singing. Oh well:

Then the presents. Kristi spotted a Blue while we were at the thrift store the other day, so we gave him that:

And I was saved from my underplanning when one of his presents turned out to be a bubble machine! So fun! It was warm and sunny out, too, so the kids spent a long time playing outside…..always a nice bonus to your party when you’re a January baby: