Eliza's 3rd Birthday

 It's completely hard to believe that my little girl just turned 3.  I swear I was just bringing her home from the hospital last month.  But 3 she is, and a wonderful 3 year old to boot.

As Eliza exited her bedroom, we greeted her with the Happy Birthday song.  The first words Eliza uttered were, "Where's my present?  I want to help wrap them."  I just had to chuckle at her excitement - the girl loves presents.  She often carries some of her things around in gift bags and wants me to "open" them.  Every day, she gives me something that she likes and says it is my present.  Her love language must be gift giving and gift receiving.  After a breakfast favorite of chocolate chip pancakes, Eliza could hardly contain her excitement.  She voted to open gifts immediately after breakfast, and since we thought she might want to spend the day playing with her new toys, we consented.

We had three presents for her to open.  After seeing the packages, and with a cute little smile on her face, she said, "I want more presents - put them in lots of bags."  So, when Eliza wasn't looking, Bruce divided up her gifts into twice as many bags to make the birthday princess happy. As evidenced by the smile on her face, she was happy - her presents were pink and yellow, her favorite colors.

Watching children open gifts is one of the best things in the world. The expression on her face was one of pure joy. She showed excitement and love for every single present. 

Bruce and I gave her a smart play pad, a set of Sesame Street books, and a Dora tricycle.  She got a Dora outfit, movie, and box of Dora fruit snacks from Grandma Richards, and a Dora hairbrush and Dora stickers from Zabien.  

After presents, we went outside for her to try out her new bike. She did pretty well for her first time, I hope that she will learn how to pedal and steer by the end of the summer. It was a bit of a rainy day, so she spent most of the afternoon reading her new Sesame Street books, playing with her smart pad, and watching her new Dora movie she got from grandma.

After she rode around outside for a while, the neighbor Brandon came over to see if she wanted to play.  Normally, Eliza is pretty quiet around Brandon; she will play with him, but isn't one to say much.  However, she was so excited about her birthday and her presents, that she talked his ear off for 20 minutes straight.  She told him all about each one of her presents, and even brought him inside to show him each one of her new books (they came in a set of 18).  I'm happy that she was so excited about her presents.

(In this picture, she is telling Brandon all about her presents, even though they are not currently looking at them)

Later, her friend, Ally, came over for dinner.  After a quick family home evening lesson, they went outside to play in the pool. Giggles and squeals permeated the air making it evident that this was the best activity.

Love this photo - she's got the best facial expression

What a silly dad - that slide looks a bit small

 When it started raining steadily again, we decided to go inside and have birthday cake. If her presents weren't evidence enough that she likes Dora, perhaps her cake is.

I am not a cake decorator by any means, but I gave it my best shot with a butter knife. Buying the Wilton frosting colors from Joann's certainly helped with getting the right colors.  I checked the cake pan out from the library.  Who knew that was a good place to get a hold of a variety of cake pans.  She was a little hesitant to eat the cake; I guess she didn't want to hurt Dora. She told me that it was a silly cake, and she didn't want to eat her eyes or mouth, only the backpack.

Unfortunately, my camera died during the middle of the Happy Birthday song - just know that she blew the candle out on the first try.  (I think this was the first year she was successful at that.)

Dear Eliza,

You are a beautiful, precious girl.  You are so smart and inquisitive.  You are bright and learn so quickly.  You are a great helper to your mom, and an even better big sister.  Zaby is your best friend, and you are quick to share with him and include him in your activities and pursuits.  You are silly, creative, talented, a great communicator, and you love juice.  You love to help mom make dinner, play the piano, make up songs, and read books.  I can't believe how much you have grown up, but I want you to know above all that mommy and daddy love you!!