Tralee Is THREE!!!!!

We celebrated Tralee's third b-day this weekend. She turned turned three on Saturday, and Jim and I couldn't believe it. Three seems so much older than two. Three means our little baby girl isn't a baby anymore.

On Friday night we sat down with Tralee and looked at pictures from when she was born. She was so little. We can't believe how fast this child-rearing thing goes. We're excited for what new adventures three brings, but sad that Tralee will NEVER be two again. After Jim took Tralee up to bed, and tucked her in, he came back downstairs with a sad expression on his face. He reminded me, "When she wakes up, she'll be three!" Seriously, if I could wave a magic wand and stop my children from growing I might be tempted. On the other hand, it's always amazing and exciting to see what new things they come up with.

We spent Tralee's birthday having LOTS of fun. The night before Jim bought some balloons for Tralee. I hung the birthday banner for her (that I got for free!), and we wrapped her presents. When Tralee woke up I made her favorite breakfast, chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries and blueberries on the side. We also opened a bottle of bubbly (the fake stuff), and as we ate breakfast we kept reminding Tralee that she's now three. Jim and I would quiz her by asking, "How old are you Tralee?" She still answered, "two." It took some time, but by the end of the day she was saying, "Wee" (translation: three).

After breakfast I gave both the kids a tub, while Jim got the presents out from their hiding place, and he put the finishing touches on the treasure chest he re-finished for her b-day. Earlier that morning Jim told me he picked out her outfit. I informed him that he picked a spring/summer-time dress to which he responded, "But I want her to look like a pretty princess on her birthday, and I like that dress." I went into Tralee's bedroom and saw that Jim had layed the dress all out on Tralee's bed. It was just so stinken cute, that Tralee wore her summery dress her daddy picked out on her birthday. Jim was right too, it was the perfect dress for her to wear! Once the kids were all ready for the day I asked Tralee, "are you ready to open your presents?" Oh boy, she was READY! We spent the next bit of the morning opening her b-day gifts and playing with them.

She was SO excited to get Rocket from Little Einsteins. Every time we went into a store that had this thing, she would sit down and play with it. I made her get up every time and wave "bye bye" to Rocket. Each time she did so reluctantly, and sometimes with protest. A few weeks ago I came across this Rocket on clearance at Walmart, it was in our price range, so now Tralee is the proud owner of her very own Rocket.

I love her face in the picture above. She was so full of glee to be playing with Rocket. She kept looking at Jim and saying, "It Rocket."

In the above picture Tralee is opening a care package from Grammy Char-Char and Grandpa Jim. She LOVED everything inside it.

For the last few weeks I kept asking Tralee what she wanted to do for her birthday. She always answered by saying, "Go bowing." So, we met up with the other Jacobs family at the bowling alley at 1pm. We spent the next few hours letting the kids (and by kids I also mean Jim and Jared) go bowling. Audie and I threw a few bowling balls down the lane, but we mostly just let the kids play while the adults chatted. It was a fun little party filled with bowling alley food, bowling, and birthday cake. The most important part of all: The kids had a BLAST!

Check out Audie's PERFECT bowling form. I'm pretty sure she got a strike. :)

Ah. . . bowling alley food! Tralee seems to be enjoying it. Can her mouth get any wider?

Hunter mostly stayed like this during the festivities. He was happy to play with a straw I gave him. I hope he's always so easy to please.

As always, Tralee had to be a kitty at some point during her party. She's meowing in the above picture.

Playing with her dollar store party favors.

I asked Jim to take a picture of Audie and me. He said, "I'm going to count to three and take the picture." He purposefully took the picture on "one" so we weren't ready. Weirdo!

Lighting the candles.

Blowing out the candles.

Jim's dad always re-lit the candles a billion time so all the kids could get in on the blowing-out action. So, of course Jim re-lit Tralee's b-day candles several times so Tralee, Jovie, and Oakley could all blow them out a ton.

I think Tralee's b-day was a success. On the drive home from the bowling alley she kept shouting, "Happy Birthday!" By the time we pulled into our driveway we looked in the backseat and saw that Tralee had crashed. She partied herself right out. . . with birthday cake still on her face.

I love my little three-year-old and can't wait to see what three brings to the table.