Ashlyn Turns 3

Ashlyn turned 3! I can't believe it. I know I say that like every day the older she gets. It's true! It's hard to believe I have a little 3 year old here!

We had a fun day on her birthday! It fell on President's Day which meant Daddy had the day off school. He still had wrestling practice in the morning, but after that we had him the whole rest of the day. When he got home we called Ashlyn's birthmom, Rae, and chatted with her for a while. She sang happy birthday to Ashlyn, which brought a few tears to my eyes. I'm so thankful to have her in our lives and the bond between her, us, and Ashlyn is definitely unique and definitely special. Anyway, we then headed to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch. We got some nice cheesy pizza and a bunch of tokens. Ashlyn of course was so busy she never stopped to eat. In fact by the time I had ordered the pizza and gotten our salads and come back to our table, she and Collin had used up almost all the tokens playing games! Collin was just a little competitive on those little kid games. He was pretty proud of all the tickets he "helped" Ashlyn win, ha ha. Anyway, Ashlyn had a great time and it was fun to do something different together. She of course had to go to time out for her big fit when we left but well, that's not unusual right now. 

This was right before we left.... see how happy she was to leave.

I had been asking Ashlyn for a few weeks what kind of birthday cake she wanted. I even have a book full of kids cakes that she liked looking through---but she never gave me an answer. I took that as, I will do what I want! I knew if it looked like a "birthday cake" she would be thrilled. So I put this together and sure enough she was so excited to see it on the counter when she got up in the morning, and asked many times throughout the day if it was time for birthday cake yet! 

 I also put up lots of streamers and balloons the night before her birthday and when she got up and came out to the kitchen she was so excited to see that it really was her birthday. She kept requesting for me to sing "happy  birthday" to her all morning. :) I didn't mind!


We hadn't known if I would end up having to teach a few lessons that night or exactly what Collin's schedule with wrestling would be that day, so we didn't plan a big party. But the night before we realized we actually could have some friends over for cake, and luckily some of them could come! It was perfect to have some of our good friends (and their kids are Ashlyn's buddies) over to celebrate.

Blew out her own candles this year!

Just a little excited!

Ashlyn had fun opening her presents too. She got a set of Lion King play figurines, a Maisy movie, some new books, and a Minnie Mouse coloring pad from us, a little cash register and cleaning kit from Grandma and Grandpa Whittier, and a fun little elephant that blows butterflies (I think, still need to get batteries for it) from her buddy Addison. She was in heaven! Happy birthday to our sweet 3 year old, who is the light of our lives!