Gearing up for Raya's birthday!

So  Raya's 3rd birthday is in 8 days---May 18th--I  can't believe it's so close!

I thought it was time to share her birthday invitation from this year :-)

(click to enlarge)

As you know we're  doing a "You are my sunshine" theme. You may remember that  this  photoshoot was very spur of  the moment, so I'm happy with how it turned out considering! lol. Sometimes people  comment on how Raya sounds like  "ray of" and we occassionally call  her  Raya (ray of) sunshine....so that explains that :-)

Here is a sneak  peek at Raya's  birthday  shirt I made her---still  have plans to make a yellow and white  chevron skirt  to match :-)

And just  for  fun, here is Raya's  invite  from her  2nd birthday---she's grown so much!

As far a celebrations, she's  got quite the line up! First, on the 17th my mom and I are taking my girls and Sawyer  and Harper to the Playstation--which is  like a big  indoor play thing for kids. They've never been there so it should be fun! Then on the 18th, her actual birthday, I have a quick birthday shirt  I whipped up for her to wear (nothing fancy---using leftovers in my stash haha)

I don't know yet what  we'll  do during the day on the 18th (we don't have to watch Finn that day, so I think we'll  go play somewhere and stop for icecream maybe) ....and then that night Raya is being surprised with her new bike!

Saturday the 19th  is Raya's party then!  It's going to be small  with just a handful of people, so I'm not going crazy on the party planning. But we're grilling out dinner and having sunshine cupcakes (I'm making them) and then she'll  get her dollhouse which I know is going to be a huge hit!

Then Monday  the 21st I'm arranging a park  playdate for her "friends"....since I feel  kinda  bad her actual birthday party is so small (it's  hard at this  age because our family isn't very big, and to just invite tons of friends always comes off feeling like a gift grab to me....so I  thought this way I can still  tell  Raya she'll be seeing all  of her "friends" later. Thankfully she doesn't get to particular about who her friends are LOL....she just  likes other kids!)  So  that Monday, weather pending, I'm trying to get all my SAHM friends to the local park for a playdate and picnic, which should be fun. We haven't gotten together with that group since way back  at Valentines day I think!

Whew---she's got lots  of fun in store doesn't she?! :-)

(And on a sidenote, my big girl has her  preschool  open house tonight---eek! I'll be sure to fill  ya all in on how that goes haha. )

To end, here are some photos from Tuesday that  I never got around to sharing yet. The lighting was bad that day, so the quality isn't the greatest---but the girls were being cute none the less