Aspen's 3rd Birthday

My crazy, silly, wild Aspen girl turned 3!  The day before Aspen's birthday I invited a bunch of the neighbor kids over to play in the swimming pool, slip n slide, and have cupcakes and Popsicles.  I think she had a fun time and felt special, even though it wasn't an official birthday party (she's too young).

I like to decorate the house a little for my kid's birthdays.  Aspen had the cutest look on her face when she woke up and saw the decorations just for her.  She immediately wanted to open presents and got a Rapunzel doll, some little princess dolls, a baseball bat and glove, and a new scooter.

On Aspen's birthday she got to pick what she wanted to do to celebrate.  And she chose going to a movie in the theater.  So we went to see Kung Fu Panda 3 in the dollar movies.  We didn't want to get a sitter for Luke, so it was his first movie too.  Fortunately we were the only family in the theater, so it wouldn't have mattered if he fussed.  But because he's an angel baby he didn't squawk at all and slept through about 1/2 of it.

Then we had the extended family come over for a party.  Aspen opened her presents and we had cake and ice cream.  I tried to make her a "Daniel Tiger" birthday cake because that's her favorite PBS tv show.  When I showed it to her I asked if she knew what it was and she said "No".  I'm pretty sure when I told her what it was she said something like "That doesn't look like Daniel Tiger".  So cake fail by me.  Then my family left to go up to Rick's memorial service at the cabin (he passed away suddenly a few days before from a heart attack while hiking to Lake Mary).  But Isaac's family stayed for a pizza dinner (Aspen's choice).

I hope Aspen had a fun time celebrating on her special day.  And I hope she knows how much we love her!  Here are a few things about Aspen over the last year:

• Aspen loves "Krave" cereal.  She eats it almost every day for breakfast.
• Aspen has finally learned her colors.  She isn't the most academically minded child, so trying to teach her things has been a struggle.  I know she's capable, but she has absolutely no interest.
• Aspen knows 2 letters, O and A.  And you wouldn't believe what a challenge it has been to teach her those.  I'm really curious to see if she enjoys learning in preschool where she can be competing with other kids her age.
• Aspen is hilarious.  That kid cracks me up all the time.  She is always saying the funniest things, and I wish I was better about writing them down.  But the other day she asked me, "Are you going to miss me when I go to preschool?"  I told her that I would miss her, but she's going to have so much fun and make lots of new friends.  She looked at me like I was stupid and said, "I can't MAKE friends, I don't have powers."  So apparently she thinks the only way to "make" friends is like Elsa does when she makes Olaf on Frozen.
• She is still a confusing mixture of being a girly girl and a tom boy.  She really like purses, mom's shoes, and dressing herself; but she doesn't care if she's filthy and her hair is a mess.
• Aspen can still be super stubborn and independent.  She's a challenge to get to do anything she doesn't want to do.  And even though she still whines and cries a lot, she's getting a lot better and learning to use her words to explain what is wrong.

Aspen can definitely wear me out, but I love that girls so much.  She's got a sassy and mischievous personality.  In a lot of ways she reminds me of myself, so I guess it's payback for all the stress I caused people throughout my life.  But she can also be such a sweetheart.  She's been such a good big sister to baby Luke.  And I'm so excited to see her learn and grow.  I can't believe she's old enough to be starting preschool and soccer in a couple months, but she's so excited to finally be able to do some big girl activities.  We love you Aspen.