The Big Three

Stephanie turned 3 (fairly recently)!!!  We had a big day planned, and it mostly went as planned.  We went to see her very first movie in the theater, Frozen.  It was probably a little old for her, but she watched and enjoyed it.  I showed her previews before we left, and she was excited to see the movie with the "snowman".  I rushed us there to be on time, only to fairly quickly realize my mistake.  Trailers were neither interesting nor entirely appropriate for her, and she got a little restless and kept asking where her movie with the snowman was.  Next time, I'll aim for 10 minutes late!  Other than having to switch seats 5 times during the movie, she was actually very happy to sit (or stand or sit in my lap or on the stairs- glad for a low attendance Thursday afternoon movie) and watch.  I thought it would frighten her at times, but she didn't seem to find it scary.  She did get a little upset when one of the sisters started to freeze at the end, but that was it.  After the movie, we rushed over to school to deliver cupcakes to her friends (that we made the night before together).  I did not think I was the kind of parent that brought cupcakes to school, but I had to go in to work to pick up some things, so I thought it would make her feel special to do a little special delivery on campus.  She was so pleased to hand out cupcakes to all of her friends, just grinning from ear to ear.  I made carrot cake, and I also decorated them with little butterflies on toothpicks.  I was worried about the carrot cake going over okay, and didn't consider the toothpicks an issue at all.  When we walked into the room, and I was faced with a group of 3 year old's, I quickly realized that I had 20 cupcakes with 20 little weapons inserted, so I had Stephanie remove them as she handed them out.  It also turns out that carrot cake was not an issue-  put green icing on it, and a group of 3 year old's will inhale them before even tasting them.  In the future, I will be a cupcake parent-  I had no idea how much joy she would find in bringing those to school.  Everyone said "Happy Birthday" and then we stayed for one story and headed to my office, where she got to operate a scan-tron machine, which was fun.  On the way home, she did briefly pass out in the car, but I woke her up when we got in.  Thankfully, Alaina's present had arrived- some very cool magnet tiles and the traditional "God Child" ornament- so I was able to convince Stephanie to wake up and be pleasant.  Unfortunately, I did not think to take pictures because I was worried about getting her in a good mood.  When she opened the tiles, she said "Magna-tiles!".  I thought for an instant that maybe she could read, but then it occurred to me that she must have them at school, which she confirmed.
The last part of her birthday- the "party" if you will, was a moment that I have in every project I do, in which vision and desire don't quite intersect with time and talent.  I had, luckily, mostly decorated the day before, but only actually invited Mary over, and no one else (which is just as well, because that means I don't really have to clean my house- Mary and I are long over that part of our relationship!).  But Mary arrived with a gingertree craft, which was incredibly fascinating to Stephanie.  She concentrated so hard to decorate the tree with icing and candy-  I think her and Mary easily worked on it for an hour.  Kevin made dinner, and I decorated the cake-  and here is where the vision really got lost.  We told Stephanie that it was a Dora birthday cake, and that Dora was going to "Butterfly Mountain".  And sweet Stephanie will tell you to this moment that she had a Dora cake for her birthday, which I find pretty generous because there was no actual evidence of a Dora cake in our house that night!  But she was excited to blow out the candle (note to self, next year face cute number candle towards camera, not child) and when I offered her cake after the candle, she said, "I blow out candle, I open presents now", so we did that first.  Presents are now a big hit, and, luckily for her, she has hit a windfall as Christmas and family visits are now underway (those posts to come!).

The First "Snow" 2013

It doesn't take much snow, apparently, to excite Stephanie (so excited in fact, that she managed to get me to agree to take her out in it before 9 am, and I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about how cold and early it was!). We took just a few pictures to commemorate the occasion.  She actually went upstairs to my closet to request this particular hat... I think because she remembers wearing it in the snow last year.  She used her shovel to shovel snow into the potted mums because the "plants were hungry".  They probably would have been hungry, had they not been very, very frozen.

Two days before, we got word from our in-house meteorologist (i.e., Kevin with a newspaper in hand) that the weather was going to turn ugly very soon-and he was right, because, at this point, it is so cold that even Kevin is willing to admit that it is cold out, but only after the water in his camelback froze in the hose when he was out orienteering on Saturday.   In anticipation of the cold, we got in one more trip to the nature center in town, where we discovered a super fun log!  Additionally, we were discovered by a very sweet neighborhood cat.  I practically tackled him to have a chance to snuggle a cat, but he seemed to prefer to aggressively head butt Stephanie, who did NOT like it.  On the way home, she told me, "I not a big fan of that cat."  I am sure I said that, and she was repeating me from earlier, but it was a very accurate assessment of how she felt.