Look who's . . . turtle(?!) years old . . .

Ellie's third birthday came with great fanfare. We had decorations, balloons, the works. (Okay, so a few streamers and a tablecloth from the dollar store, but when she saw it after she woke up in the morning, she was super excited: "Wee-hee, wa-hoo, it's my birthday!"). Some of her cousins called mid-morning to wish her a happy birthday. She was a good little parrot and told them just about everything I told her to say: "It's my birthday . . . I got presents . . . I have a balloon . . ." When I told her to say, "I'm three," Ellie protested and said, "No, I'm not being numbers! [then back to the phone] I'm a turtle!" So I guess she has a little different reckoning of aging than the rest of us.

Ellie opened presents over a lunch of chicken nuggets (her favorite). She got Tangled, some great books, a puzzle, a color pad, Hooper Humperdink and a purse and mirror from my parents (she used to always play with the hand mirror in my mom's room, so now she has her own and sleeps with it most nights). And then there was the football from Charlie. I took the kids to the dollar store to pick out presents for each other, and Ellie insisted that Charlie wanted to giver her a football. She also got They Might Be Giants DVD Here Comes the ABCs. That one was supposed to be for Christmas, but Brady couldn't wait. She looooves it.

Ellie and I had an impromptu playdate at the park with Ellie's best friend from the ward, Danni (Danielle). Her birthday is the day before Ellie's (she is one year and one day older), so we took her a balloon on our way to the park and she joined us. Ellie had to bring her purse and football and is showing Danni the family picture inside.

Climbing on the stagecoach.

Magic wands and climbing in the trees.

Ellie wanted a cousin party for her birthday. We were worried about that since we moved away from all the cousins (she was used to going to cousins' birthday parties). But then we remembered we do have cousins right here (my cousin Brad and family). So Ellie had a second-cousin party. The night before she was running around in circles telling Charlie, "the cousins and coming, the cousins are coming!" Of course, just before they got here she woke up from a late nap (which she rarely takes anymore) super cranky and not the greatest hostess. But she perked up for the cake (every time I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she answered, "chocolate frosting"--good girl). By the end she was running around with Brad's girls and playing with the balloons (and all of this I of course failed to get a picture of). Those girls were pretty good sports to come to a three-year-old's birthday party. Ellie has adopted a few families of cousins since we moved here, but these we could prevail upon since they are actually relatives, right? Plus, we fed them dinner and Brady cooked.

So we had a pretty successful day and a pretty happy three-year-old. We're glad to have her in our family!