Three!

My Birthday Girl is 3! We invited "the locals" over for a small party to help celebrate. Of course, we had Claire's favorites...pizza and cake!

It was great to have both of my nieces there - the first time for all 3 girls to be together. Of course, we didn't get a picture!


Claire got so many nice presents and she loved everything. I really think she would have been happy playing with each present for hours - it was actually hard to get her to open anything else. As you can see, after Mary Lynn's present she had to stop and have a coloring break and play with the animals. Uncle Jake and Lindsey gave her a barn that makes animals out of "moon dough." Can you see the animal theme??


Uncle Andy, Aunt Tara, and Samara (and Ace and Deuce) gave her a Backyardigans lunchbox full of choking hazards. cough, cough, ahem...I mean candy and gum! The funny thing is that she had no idea it was candy! She's showing her "treasure" to Uncle Matt. You can bet if she knew it was chocolate, she'd never share. Katie has to be sneaky and get something to play with when no one else is looking :-)

Aunt Mere gave her this sea turtle towel, Sam gave her a "Biscuit" Halloween book, and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Bradford gave her a cat piano. It does all kinds of stuff including playing songs in "meows." Katie enjoyed dancing to Claire's music!

As exciting as all this was, Samara got a little bored I think. (She's thinking, oh what a yawner this party is. The whole room isn't paying attention to me?!)

Uncle Jake came home for the first time since being at UVA!! It was so great to see him and Lindsey again! (Claire LOVES Lindsey. She likes to "show" her things!) I'm sure they were bored out of their minds too. :-)

We took a break from presents for pizza. For a girl that barely eats anything, she can pack away some pizza. I think she ate 4 pieces!

I had a very cute creative idea for her cake, but all she talked about was a chocolate cake. I gave up my idea because I thought she might just cry when she saw it and it wasn't chocolate! I went for the always reliable Ukrops cake.

YUM! No time to smile, this is serious business.

And back to presents! Mimi and Papa gave her a baby doll and cradle. Sally gave all kinds of goodies....why didn't I get a single picture of you Sally?! Sorry about that. Claire got new flags for our mailbox from Maggie next door. She loves the flags with animals on them, of course. I also can't forget a card and $5 for the piggy bank from Ganny! Uncle Matt, Aunt Alison, and Katie gave her a gorgeous monogrammed dress....didn't get a picture but you know you'll be seeing that in pictures SOON! And last, Mommy and Daddy found a Wonder Pets "flyboat" which has been a big hit! All of these toys have equaled hours and hours of entertainment!

Here she is playing with the horses from Uncle Andy and Aunt Tara.

And putting her baby to bed. She was having so much fun playing that I didn't have the heart to make her go take a nap. We skipped it and played with new toys for the rest of the day!

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl. I can't believe I'm the mommy to a 3 year old preschooler now! Thanks to all that made her birthday such a special day. Still more celebrating to come with preschool and Popa and Abu!