Birthday Party

I am behind on my posts.....So, here we go.....

This year we had a low key b-day for Elaina. We just had a family birthday party. It was fun. Not much to report other then there was cake, presents, ice cream, and one excited 3 year old girl. What else do you want out of a birthday party??

Speaking of cake.... our dear friends, Carl and Sabrina, offered to make her cake this year. They made her cake on her first birthday too. They brought it over mostly constructed but had some assembly to do so it was a perfect project to enlist the help of Elaina on. She loved helping and it was cute to watch her do it.

Here is a pic of the cake they made on her first birthday...

Here is Elaina and Carl working on putting her 3rd b-day cake together...

Here she is helping Sabrina make her cupcakes for the top

And placing candles on top..

The final product. SO incredibly cute. BTW- Elaina picked this cake out from some books Sabrina had. It's pink - that's all Elaina cared about was that her birthday party was "pink."
Here are some pics of the b-day girl with her finished cake.

Once everyone got here, it was present opening time..Needless to say, she was thrilled about this. This is her opening her princess soccer ball. My dad, who is an avid lover of soccer, was thrilled she got this - NOT.

All smiles....

After everyone left, Erik and I realized we did not give her her big gift from us - her scooter. DUH!! We completely forgot - what were we thinking?? So, we brought it down after everyone left. She love this thing and rides it all the time.
She did not get a nap that day so this was her during dinner.. She was actually eating with her eyes closed. I just kept shoveling it in and she would open her mouth and chew - eyes closed the entire time. It was very funny.

Thanks to all our family for coming to spoil Elaina on her b-day. She had a wonderful time and loves you all so much

And, a special thanks to Carl and Sabrina for the cake! You guys are amazing friends and so special to us... and great cake decorators/bakers :)

4th of July parade

This 4th of July, we attended the Farragut 4th of July parade, again. The Parade was on the 3rd.... My neice, Alexandra, marched in the parade with her twirling team. She is a freshman this year and twirls on the Farragut High School twirling team. I find that SO hard to believe that she's in high school. She is growing up to be such a beautiful sweet, young lady. And, I know I've mentioned it before, but she is SOOOO talented at twirling. Really. I love to see her twirl. We had a wonderful time at the parade. The weather was nice - not too hot so that was nice.

Elaina enjoyed sitting on the curb watching the parade.....
Alexandra marching with her team... wouldn't you know that as soon as I took this pic my batteries died. By the time I got new ones in she was long gone up the road.

Elaina and her Aunt Kate waving to the helicopters

Elaina and her daddy

Family photo

Elaina and Alexandra

Elaina Claire is 3!!!!!

Yesterday was Elaina's 3rd Birthday! We can't believe she's 3 years old. It's bittersweet. We love this age but it is so sad to think that our baby girl is now 3. I guess the days of calling her our baby are over. Well.....maybe not. She'll always be our baby, huh?

Erik and I took the day off to spend with her. First stop....breakfast. We let her pick and she picked "Chicken-Lay"... that's Chick-fil-A for those of you who don't know.

Our little 3 year old ready to go inside.... Birthday smile :)

Next it was to Target to let her pick out her gift. That took foooooooooorevvvvvvvvvver. It was a good idea in theory but 3 year olds tend to not be very decisive. Oh well - she picked out a princess cash register. We also snuck in some other prizes for her to open on Saturday during her party with family.

Next stop - the splash pad. Turns out, she is NOT AT ALL into the splash pad. She wasn't very much last year but I thought it was an age thing. Nope, she's one year older and still not into it which is weird because she loves the pool. Go figure! But, they had a playground next to it so she played on it for a while.

After the splash pad, she konked out in the car. She had a busy 4th of July weekend and was tired from all the action. So, we let her take a good nap, then stopped by her school for cupcakes with her school friends.

It was a fabulous day spent with Elaina. Unfortunately, I had to get on a plane to go to Aiken for work. That was hard to do but I did not have to leave until 7pm so I was able to be with her. I am lucky that work let me fly so I was able to take a later flight rather then spend the day driving. Happy Birthday Elaina Claire!!! We love you!