THREE

Scarlett turned THREE years old last Friday.  Throughout the day she kept exclaiming, "This is the best day ever!"  So I think I can say it was a successful birthday.

We spent the morning of her actual birthday prepping for her party that would be held the following day.  I asked Scarlett what kind of party she wanted, and she just kept telling me she wanted candy, so I turned that in to Scarlett's Sweet Shoppe, and ran with it.  We filled lots of mason jars with yummy sweet treats.

She took her role of jar filler very seriously.

We asked where she wanted to go for lunch on her birthday, she thoughtfully replied "New York!"  So off to New York Pizza Kitchen we went.

Attempting a photo...

Not quite successful, but good enough.

 

 Sydney loved the fresh bread they brought out.  And enjoyed, even more, the pizza I let her eat.

  

 Such a terrible picture, but it's all we got.

After lunch we went home and baked 88 mini cupcakes and decorated them with our good friend Kelly.  Thank goodness she came to help- I would have been frosting for hours!

I also made a birthday cake for that evening.  I left while Scarlett was adding the sprinkles, and when I came back... something had happened to the cake.  I asked what happened, and Scarlett told me she didn't know.  I asked, "how did that happen to the cake?"  To which she replied, "I don't know.  It did it all by itself."

 She got very upset during questioning.  We talked about telling lies after that.

 Later that evening we had a delicious macaroni and cheese dinner, as per the birthday girl's request.  We celebrated with Grandma and Granddad, and the Hisermans.

When Scarlett opened her gift from the Hisermans, it was a fairy dress up dress, and she got so upset.  She kept saying, "I didn't want that!"  After a minute, I realized what was happening, and when I explained to her that this was just for dressing up, and not her Halloween costume, she got very excited about it.  (She chose her Halloween costume about a month ago.  No way was she switching now!)

 She wears her heels daily.

Best little friends.

 Happy as can be eating her yummy cake. 

Happy birthday to my sassy, sweet, smart, independent, loyal little love.  Mommy loves you, thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much.

I've been jotting down the cute things Scarlett has been saying over the last few months, and I do not want to forget any one of them.

*We have been looking at houses on and off for the last year.  A little while ago, we decided to re-do one of our rental properties in Chicago, so that put our own plan to purchase a home on hold.  Scarlett heard Rob and I talking one day about wanting to wait until we refinance that property, so we can get the cash back that we put in to it, before buying a house.  We joked that we just don't have enough cash to buy a house.  I still watch the market in Napa to see what is listed, and one day I was pulling up the mls website on the iPad  and Scarlett said, "Why you lookin' at houses?  We can't buy one.  Daddy don't have any cash right now."  I laughed and asked her what we were going to do about it.  "I know! Let's get a new Daddy! One with lots of cash!"

*Referring to her baby dolls (after asking me to babysit them), "Them are my sugars.  I'll call you and see how my babies are doing."

*We were reading a book one night about animals.  I noticed that several were from Africa (in the book it tells you a fact or two, and then also where they come from).  I thought I should ask if Scarlett noticed where most of the animals came from, but then I thought that might be a difficult question for such a little kid.  As soon as I dismissed the idea, Scarlett asked "How come all these animals come from Africa?"  Smarty.

*When we put her to bed at night, I stay in Scarlett's room after we turn out the lights and sing a song to her.  She lately has been asking me to lay my head on her chest.  While I sing, she plays with my hair, and always whispers, "you're a good Mom."

*Scarlett and I were telling my Mom about our Sweet Shoppe theme for Scarlett's birthday, and all the little details, and my Mom kept saying things like we didn't need to have a big party.  She made a few comments along those lines, Mom's not a huge birthday party fan, and Scarlett finally looked at her and said, "Well, Grandma, you don't have to come to my birthday party."

 *After a morning of shushing Scarlett, she looked at me sadly, "I'm sorry.  My voice is just not quiet."

*When I make one of her favorite meals she will tell me "this is a really good dinner, Mom, thank you."  But her most recent comment, "Mom, I'm really enjoying this dinner tonight", is my favorite.

*After leaving a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago, Scarlett said "Today was a really good day, Mom."

*Scarlett has become quite the picky eater, but we have strict rules about trying the food, and eating our vegetables.  She threw an incredible fit over her veggies one night, and was extremely exhausted, so we told her she could choose to eat, or go to bed.  She chose bed.  When we tucked her in, she sobbed "my heart is broken."  And was asleep before we could walk out the door.

*I was in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast, and the girls were in the living room when I heard "Come read with me Sydney (picking up her children's Book of Mormon).  God loves us.  Jesus loves us.  God and Jesus love us.  They is our best friends."  If they know nothing else, I am glad they know this.

*Scarlett told me her tummy hurt, so I suggested she try to go potty.  When I went to check on her, she was sitting on the toilet, curled over, tummy obviously really hurting, and she said, "I can't handle this all by myself!"

*Sydney thinks her big sister is the best- she laughs at everything Scarlett does.  Scar loves this, and really hams it up.  One day, she was tickling Sydney's tummy, they were both giggling uncontrollably when I heard Scarlett yell "she's the funnest baby of the whole world!"