Catherine Turns 3

This is normally the point where I talk about how fast my babies are growing up and make some comment about not believing how old they are.  Well, Miss Catherine is MOST DEFINITELY ready to be three. 

We took her to pick out a birthday balloon the night before her birthday. Despite Seth's best (and oft-repeated) arguments in favor of the truck balloon ("It's like Mater, see?"), she decided on a Princess balloon. Sadly, the store was all out of helium and she had to settle for an already-inflated frog balloon:

The designated birthday outfit?

Well, not to be cliche, but... 

Luckily she has a very cute birthday suit.

And the birthday cereal? 

Fake Cookie Crisp.

Thank you, Aldi.

Then it was on to the cake, which she insisted on helping with.

But first she had to help herself to a small sample while Mom was distracted: 

Time to make the icing! 

Guess what happens when you turn it on full speed? 

Finally, time to apply to the cake: 

She also insisted on the decorating: 

"Hello. My name is Catherine Montoya." 

Carefully placing the cars on the track: 

Big brother comes to give guidance and counsel.

And to add airplanes to the track: 

So proud of her work: 

Ta-da!

Seth insisted I add the crown "because she's the Princess."

It's not my greatest work, but she LOVED her cake and got to help with every step.

When we started discussing her birthday last month, Catherine insisted on just two things:

1) A Lightning McQueen cake

2) A party hat  

Catherine waited patiently all day for Daddy to come home so she could eat her cake.

Somehow she got it in her head that she wouldn't actually turn three until she'd eaten her cake: 

We celebrated the official beginning of three-years-old with very, very loud blowers: 

There may have been some tears due to Catherine's inability to blow hard enough to make any noise.

Luckily she figured it out the next day and all was well.

Present time! 

She was quite, quite spoiled.

We got her a leotard and tu-tu, but she pretty much only paid attention to the Cars books from Grandma Cathy. Seth got her a very sweet present. He has a little lamp he uses at night to read books after we turn out the lights. One day he told me he thought Catherine should have one, too. Perfect birthday gift! Now they can both happily read in bed at night. 

I forgot about the cards Catherine was sent until the next day. She was excited to have more presents (okay, just money, actually). Once she'd opened them up we asked her what she was going to do with her money. "Umm...play with it!" 

Also, she was very, very concerned about this card from Grandma Cathy & Grandpa Russell: 

"She's sitting on a three. In the sky.

She's going to fall and she doesn't have any wings."

Happy birthday to my sassy, beautiful, clever little girl!