Liesel turns three.

sorry to bombard the blog with a trillion photos of this pink roses cake, but the girl loved it. She chose this cake (or a much more wedding-ish, perfect-ish version of this cake) while surfing pinterest with me. I asked her what she wanted her cake to look like and she said: "pink" So we searched for pink cakes and she chose the one with real roses. I was going to buy pink roses (since after all, it was supposed to be a pink roses cake), but they were $20, and the orange ones were sporting a Manager's Special sticker and were in the 75% off bin. So orange it was. And it turned out to be a three-year-old dream. 

L begged me for a Rupunzel balloon at the grocery store. I was overwhelmed with Mom-guilt since I never bought her a birthday present and caved. $4. Seriously? She smashed it mercilessly the whole way home and then tossed it up in the air, watching it get smaller and smaller the second she stepped out of the car. What?! I asked. I didn't want it anymore mom. My mom once told me while I de-cluttering and experiencing a wave of sentimentality if it had served the measure of it's creation. It had. And now I judge everything by that. If it has, I feel no guilt in letting it go. So, so long balloon. 

All I could think of were those sea turtles choking in the ocean when they mistook rupunzel for a jellyfish. 

That is what the world looked like on our drive up to L's birthday party. Is it weird to ask your friends to host your child's birthday party so that they don't have to drive 1.5 hrs? I think so. We paid them back by getting a babysitter that night for all of us and watching Catching Fire at the theater. 

The birthday theme was pink. In case you couldn't already tell. We had popcorn (that's the treat she picked), strawberry go-gurt and cake. We had wrapped the juice boxes the day before since L & Rylee were begging to wrap something. Win-win. 

Liesel loved opening her presents. The Dr. kit was the bomb. She loves it. And the whoopee cushion? Check out these kid faces: 

 They loved it-- then Liesel popped it. Never would have thought 3-year-old's could understand potty humor, but they totally do. They were all cracking up. It was Owen and Henley who came to the party and the size was really perfect. 

Favorite party moment: in my family we have a tradition of going around and saying one thing we love about the person. My mom always said more than one thing and cried. I always did too. Which was really embarrassing as a teenager. But it is so special! It was adorable to watch her little face as we went around the room. Here are some things people said:

I love Liesel's happy smile

There's no one more deserving of Henley's hand-me-downs

Liesel is brave! I love that she picks up critters: bugs, worms and even spiders!

Liesel is smart, beautiful and fun. (Brian-- after which L ran up and gave him a huge hug)

I love Liesel's fun personality-- she bring so much light and life to our family!

After presents, the kids went outside and played in the snow:

 And lit the snowman on fire. 

 All in all, I felt happy about her party. It was simple, but she felt special and loved and that's what I wanted the most. 

Liesel at Three:

The first thing I can think of is what Liesel does every morning. She and Hannah share a room and lately what she does is wake up, flip on the light and run right to the fridge to select what the early morning snack will be. She then runs back, climbs into Hannah's crib and proceeds to feed her. Nevermind that Hannah was sound asleep before L turns on the light, or that she may not want the following things for breakfast:

snap peas

yogurt (L was feeding her with a spoon, it was half gone and not a drop in the crib)

cherry tomatoes (these on the other hand had been spit all over the crib and floor)

gallon ziplock of shredded cheese

cheerios

grapes

and that was only this week. 

I am trying to put a stop to it, but it's so hard to put a stop to something when it means you're stealing 30 extra minutes of zzzz's. But really. I need to put a stop to this. 

She is quite the singer still and makes up songs all the time. They are usually some variation of a primary song and I recognize about half of the lyrics. The other half are made up and usually involve the following words: I know, marry, today.

Lately she's been peeing slightly in her pants. Yesterday, I told her she needed to stop. She said: but you give me new undies and then it's fine. It's not a big deal. She often tells me what the 'deal' is. That's not the deal. The deal is _______.  She also loves to tell me what her two options are. This is a parenting technique that I've seen work like a charm, but not with her.  For example last night: These are your two options. If you're still hungry uou can have some more soup, or you can get in the bath right now with Hannah. She looks at me and says, Um, these are your two options: you can have toast, or you can have toast and jam. She does this all the time. Complete with her two fingers out and then grabbing each finger with the other hand as she explains both options. I try not to laugh, but it's too funny! She likes to ask for activities or crafts. 

Her prayers are honestly my favorite part of the day. I love hearing the stuff she comes up with. She moves all over the room, rolling, rubbing her head on the carpet, lying on each one of us-- but she gets the job done. Some prayer repeats are: Jesus in the clouds and trumpets (from the 2nd coming picture I presume), spoons, pink, grandma, family, carpets, chairs, the new day. She insists on saying, "I say these things."

This summer she was so interested in bugs and critters. At my parents house she was always looking for curl-up bugs and would hold anything from daddy long legs to fish. I'm not sure if she still has the same interest since there's fewer critters here, but she doesn't seem to be afraid of animals. Lately she loves horses and cherishes the two new horse toys she received from Grandma Hays and Uncle Matt. She talks quite a bit about horses and will sometimes ride her imaginary horse named Pink Roses on the rocks.