Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth turned 3 on Monday (June 15th), but she pretty much celebrated her birthday the whole weekend.

On Saturday, she got to go on a little shopping spree at Target with some birthday money from Grandma Nini. She knew exactly what she wanted, which, it turns out, was all of this:

1. Two little red cups with flowers on them.
2. A princess wand.
3. A little tiny baby doll.
4. A pony.
5. A "beautiful Fancy Nancy rainbow skirt."
6. Sunglasses.
7. A new Snow White polly pocket doll to replace the one she got at Christmas because Rachel accidentally ripped the head off of that one.
8. A bag of pink and white animal cookies (she is my daughter, after all. I think it was my 4th birthday that I requested that my whole cake be covered with pink and whites).
9. A bag of Craisins. (she was super excited about this purchase - "And Mom, you know it's my own bag, right? Like, I don't have to share ANY of them, right? Like, I can eat the whole bag whenever I want?" I guess just knowing she could was enough, though, because she ended up being a great sharer of the Craisins.)

Then on Sunday we did a little celebrating, too, because Tristan and Daniel were going to be gone Monday evening. Here she is with the "strawberry cake with pink strawberry frosting and also strawberries all over it" that she had requested.




Finally on Monday (her actual birthday), she got to open up presents.


Let's just say she was a little excited about her new princess dining set


I guess because she's 3 now she wanted to try out a new, more "grown-up" way of smiling. She's exhibiting this strange face in several of her birthday pictures (if you click on the picture collage above, you'll see it there, too):



After presents it was time for a little fancy birthday cereal for breakfast.
She took about two bites and then decided that she'd rather just eat some plain old raisin bran.

And then after that she decided that what she REALLY wanted for breakfast was a big plate of Craisins.

And she was so pleased about this that she accidentally forgot to smile in her new grown-up way, and she let loose with one of her trademark grins.

We finished out the birthday fun with a little birthday picnic and swimming at the pool.

Elizabeth is so excited to finally be three. This whole week she's been saying things like, "Mom, did you see how I didn't even cry when Henry took my toy? I guess it's because I'm 3 now." Also, "Mom!! Look how tall my legs are! Can you believe it? I guess it's because I'm 3 now." And then she'll do her new 3-year old smile to show how mature and tall and old she is.

I have a feeling we're in for a fun year.