Birthdays are supposed to be memorable, right? Considering we had to cancel on a few guests and had a near-hospital visit, I’d say this one can certainly go down in the books.

All said, Saturday was still a Minnie-rific time…and I think our sweet (yet sick) 3-year-old felt celebrated. Poor thing came down with a 103-degree fever three hours before the party started. We decided to press on with just close family (who can tell a kid that their party is cancelled?) — and thankfully we’d already decided back in June to keep things small this year anyways.

The Minnie Mouse theme was an easy choice — she’s been the longest-lasting trend in this house. Grandma blew up a pile of red and pink balloons while I went around the house and pulled out every piece of Minnie memorabilia I could find. We all got in on the theme thanks to Nana Beth and Papa Bob, who brought mouse ears for us to wear!

The menu included Clubhouse Cheeseburgers, Hot Diggity Dogs, O’toodles Cheese Doodles, and Pluto’s Pasta, among other Disney-themed dishes…

About mid-way through the festivities, Claire’s fever began to spike again. We wrapped up and sweet pea spent the rest of the evening cuddled on the couch before asking to go to bed early. When I woke her to check her temp around 10:30, it had soared to 104.6! We decided to give the medicine a half-hour to work, and thankfully it did its job — saving us from a Saturday night trip to the ER.

Claire was a pitiful princess all day Sunday, but woke on Monday back at 98.6 — ready to tackle her new year. “I’m THREE now,” she keeps reminding us. Yes, sweet girl, you sure are!