Carmella's 3

Oh my goodness! I can't believe that our little princess is already three years old. She is no longer a toddler, she is a long and lean little girl who loves Disney princesses and everything that goes along with them.

I kind of felt bad that we basically sang happy birthday to her last year and didn't do much else. We had just moved here and didn't know anyone at the time. Over the past year we have made some wonderful friends and have become close to several of our neighbors. So this time around it was actually difficult to pick and choose and put a limit to the amount of guests we invited. All and all we ended up with 32 people at the party.

We didn't want to overwhelm our sweet girl with too many gifts all at once so we had a small family celebration on Friday evening. Daddy was finally home from his trip and Grandma and Pop Pop were here to wish her a happy day. She got a few clothing items, some hair accessories, a fun packet of princess arts and crafts and a set of magnetic dolls with dress up clothes to put on them. She was thrilled.

The next morning the bouncy castle arrived. Her dad told her that the princesses sent her a gift for her birthday party. And as the castle quickly filled up with air she saw all the princesses on the front of it and got so excited. She couldn't take her shoes off fast enough to get to be the first to jump in it. What a special treat.

The guests arrived, the party was under way and our little girl was the perfect hostess. In fact, all the kids did a great job. We only had one full blown tear fest when a little boy tried to climb through a folding chair and it collapsed on him. It took him a while to calm down after that. I don't think he was hurt, it just scared him to tears.

She got a pretty Ariel cake and managed to blow out all three candles by herself!

When the party was over, and after she took a nice long nap, our little family of four climbed back into the bouncy house and hung out bouncing around for a while. Our new neighbors, next door, came over and joined us for a while. It was a nice relaxing way to visit with them and get to know them a little better too. It really was a perfect day.

Then on Sunday, Mark and I gave her our present. A few months ago I was able to call in a favor to a consignment sale that we have a special connection with the lady that runs it. She set aside a two seater, Jeep kid's car that came in so we could purchase it for our kids. It is in perfect condition and retails close to $600. It was on sale for a mere fraction of that and was a deal we couldn't pass up. Mark's folks went halfsies with us which made it even more of a steal. So after church yesterday we got Mark's folks on Skype and they were able to witness her reaction to the gift in real time. I love modern technology and laptops with built-in cameras.

And that's it...I promise. The birthday girl is officially 3 and there are no more surprises until next year--I swear!

I need to send out a special thank you to my parents for helping me put all of this together and pull it off seamlessly. We miss you already.