our daughter's third birthday

We celebrated our darling Daughter's third birthday over the weekend. At every birthday of her's I find myself becoming very sentimental, and for some reason this year in particular I felt more aware of how fast she is growing up.  And it made me very nostalgic.  I love her so very much and now that her brother is here and we are experiencing all the baby stuff again, she just seems so much older in comparison (obviously) but also at this age is when her impressions are really taking hold, and she is transitioning into the realm of being a little girl... I think we still have until she's 5 for her to be out of the toddler phase and into the little girl arena... and eventhough there are really super crazy hard moments with this age, it is still so sweet. One day she wont hand me her boogers, or need me in many ways, and that's natural, but well I guess I'm simply trying to convey that I am working very hard at living in the moment and being grateful for it all.

So without further ado here are just a few pictures from our weekend.

Above: on friday we were invited to go to her school for her birthday celebration where she held the globe and walked around the sun three times. We brought in pumpkin muffins and stayed through snack time.

After snack we picked up her surprise birthday balloons with the bus, aka the "Balloon Bus"

and then we surprised her with them on saturday morning the day of her party! success!

(do we look tired enough? and old? lol)

On sunday the 27th, on her actual birthday, we spent most of the day in our pjs. We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast, did a crazy toddler pedicure in the bathroom (every color was used!) then followed by a mid morning hot chocolate with mini marshmallows in mom and dad's bed where we gave her two more presents- a book and a stuffed knit kitty cat doll. Then we just lounged there and read the two new books she received. It was pretty perfect!

And I caught her having a little quiet moment at the end of the day.

Our daughter is lovely. I am so grateful to be her mom (I gage when I read this on blogs, but it's true).

I'm holding on to these moments, these special years where after struggling to finally get her to stay in her bed, all I want to do is go in there and snuggle her... it's an ironic mix of sentiments and discipline and this is why the dishes aren't always done...

So Happy birthday to our darling girl. We look forward to all the adventures and funny moments this next year has in store!