The Big 3

Yesterday my sweet girl turned three. I still can't believe it's already been three years since I first held her in my arms, sang her "Happy Birthday" for the first time, and listened to her first coos and cries. The three years I spent in middle school (6th-8th grade) seemed to take forever. The three years from Cate's birth to now have flown by.

Brennan and I spent Friday night wrapping some presents while Eric cleaned the house and ran out to get balloons to tie to Cate's chair (now a yearly tradition).
Cate was quick to unwrap the presents the next morning. This year she seemed to really "get" that it was her birthday. When she woke up the first thing she said was, "I'm three today. I get to open presents." We let her open all of our presents first thing in the morning.Bitty Baby, a new Wall-E game for her V-Tech V-Smile (she can only play it when I feed Brennan or change his diaper-- it's a wonderful distraction for her), some Little Einsteins preschool workbooks (for Mommy and Cate to do together during the day-- you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but she's still going to be a teacher), and some new storybooks were all met with smiles and delight. Bitty Baby was promptly named Baby Annie (Annie after Cate's favorite Little Einstein character).
Later in the afternoon, it was party time.With a lot of help from my awesome husband, we managed to pull off a pretty decent party for a three-year old given that we're running on a little less sleep than usual (Brennan's usually up twice at night) and that our house has been a disaster for the last 6 weeks. Okay, I'm probably being overly dramatic about how messy the house was, but let's just say that it was worse than usual. Once all the kids arrived, we started with a pull-string pinata in the basement.
Next, we headed upstairs to sing "Happy Birthday." To keep the kids busy, I had them each decorate their own cupcakes. I just put some frosting, "writing icing" tubes, and sprinkles out on the table and let them go to town while the adults enjoyed their cake and ice cream.
Cate just wanted chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Her smile says it all.Miss Cate opened presents after that and was reminded of just how loved she is by everyone who came. New clothes, swimsuits, toys, and games now crowd her room and our living room. I have no pictures of her opening her presents since I was trying to write down who gave her what-- I'm a huge believer in thank-you notes and teaching gratitude to my children. Cate and I will be spending some time over the next couple of weeks "writing" (aka "Mommy writes and Cate colors") thank-you notes.

We ended the day with dinner with family here at our house and then going to the 9th annual Super Bowl of Preaching at our church. Seriously. It's for real. You can check out this link. Or watch part of it here (not great quality).

It was a great day of celebration for all of us. But definitely exhausting for this momma. I still can't get over how much Cate has grown physically and mentally in 3 years. She's memorized several books that she likes to "read" to her stuffed animals, she can recognize all of her letters, spell her name, counts like a champ, recognizes music pieces and sings several songs, traces letters like a pro, understands game rules when she plays them, has a vivid imagination, controls the mouse well as she navigates the PBS Kids website, asks to pray with us each night, and loves people with her whole heart. I love my sweet girl and I'm so proud of the young lady she's becoming. Tomorrow she goes for her 3-year check up. I can't wait to see how tall she's gotten.

Happy 3rd Birthday Cate!

~Melody :-)