3 Years

Today our little girl turns 3. It feel like she's always been with us... but at the same time, it feels like only yesterday I was holding her as a tiny newborn. 

Like any parent would say - Halle as brought us so much joy and love. She makes us laugh, play, imagine and think hard everyday. Not only has my heart filled with love for her, but everyday that I watch B with her I fall in love with him all over again. He is such an amazing father, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have them both in my life.

Everyday I marvel at our little girl as I watch her grow, learn and become her own person. She's smart, thoughtful, adventurous, sensitive, funny (hilarious, really), creative, inquisitive and friendly. She is the best helper we could ever ask for - whether we are cleaning, cooking, gardening, or out running errands she always wants to help... and more often than not she doesn't slow down our progress. 

She has the biggest heart - always offering hugs and kissings, taking care of her "babies" and friends and sharing. There has been a lot of talk from her recently about having a baby (nope... not pregnant!), and I just hope we can give her a sibling while she is still excited about it. I know that with all of the love she has, and her helpful nature that she would be the best big sister, but until that time comes, we'll just enjoy this time we have with her!

I'm wishing this sweet little girl a very Happy 3rd Birthday, and looking forward to spending the whole day doing fun things with her!

Dinosaurs for Halle

It's been very quiet around here. I can't even tell you how many times I have sat down to start a post and I just never finish. We've done a lot around here, including the creation of our vegetable garden out back. We're still working on the bench (a few other things have been higher priorities recently), I'm getting ready to paint the downstairs rec room and we're on the hunt for Halle's big girl bed (she still LOVES her crib, but I think we're ready to move her to a big girl bed). So, hopefully things will start to happen and this blog will see a bit more action soon.

For now, I had to pop in quickly and share Halle's 3rd Birthday Party, which happened on Sunday. She asked for Pink Dinosaurs and I did my best to deliver. The day was overcast and it drizzled a bit, but our birthday girl and her little friends had a great day. What could be more important?

I made the banner myself, using last year's as a template. I traced each of the shapes and the letters (except for the "R" in Three, which I had to freehand), and then painted everything in. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The cupcake liners & cupcake stand I found at HomeSense. Those little pink dinosaurs on top of the cupcakes were made from Salt Water Taffy (also purchased at HomeSense). I had found instructions in Chatelaine on how to make them, and B put them together on Saturday evening while I was baking the cake. He did a great job!

Halle had asked for a "Sprinkle" cake, so I used this recipe that I found on Pinterest to make the cake & the whipped vanilla buttercream frosting. Both were awesome and will stay in my recipe book for future use!

The kids were happy just playing together, but I did have a few activities for them. I had photocopied some dinosaur colouring pages that B's Mom gave Halle, and B also buried some dinosaur sand moulds in Halle's sandbox for the kids to dig for. They loved the latter one, and also loved playing with some little dino's I tossed in there for fun.

I honestly think Halle's favourite part of the whole party was having people sing "Happy Birthday" to her. She just loves it...

I can't believe she will "officially" turn 3 tomorrow! These past three years have just flown by... and it's been an absolute pleasure being her Mama. Planning her exactly what she wanted for her birthday was the least I could do!