Happy Birthday to Eliza! It's only a couple of weeks late! It's not like we have have been to Hawaii and then jumped back into a packed week of soccer camp and swim lessons or anything :-)
Wow, I have a 3 year old girl! And what an amazing little girl she is! And can you guess what this special little girl loves? Pink, princesses, babies, pretty things, girly things, dancing, oh and lots of riding bikes, running, playing, swimming, following her brother, showing everyone who is boss, reading, helping (sometimes), and generally being a 3 year old full of life!
Again, I could write a whole blog post, and maybe someday I will, about gender roles and how fascinating it has been to see these two kids fall so closely into their gender roles. For some reason Princesses and pink are harder for me than Batman and Spiderman were though...but isn't that the double standard! I know I went through a pink and purple phase but it was around 4-6 and this is from 2 to who knows when! And this kid, like Corbin, has not been exposed to a bunch of Disney or anything close to it. Some TV, yes, but not too much princess and pink but oh man, she picks this out from across the room! And says things in a sweet sing songy way, like "oh mommy, pink, my favorite!"
Most of Eliza's little friends and family friends were out of town near her birthday and yet she had seen Corbin's special Space Party and since then (and before) she had been talking about her "Party" a pink party of course. With lots of friends, pink, pink cake, pink presents, pink things to do, everything pink. So without having a big party, I knew I had to do it up right, pink style! So a week before, we had a "Fancy Nancy" picnic party. For those of you who do not know of "Fancy Nancy", she is awesome! It's a book by Jane O'Connor and illustrated by Robin Priess Glasser. Fancy Nancy is all girl. She loves everything fancy, frilly, dolls, cute, french, and more. And yet she also loves exploring, learning, learning to live with her sister, is independent, deals with disappointment, and many more emotions. She is strong, she is fun, she is wild, and she learns how to solve problems herself, in her pink tiara and frilly dress. It's kinda like "Lady Bug Girl" which I also really like a lot.
So we decided to dress up fancy and go have a picnic and fancy cupcakes with her friends Uma and Alden.
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| Corbin decided that fancy meant ninja style. |
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Fancy brother, fancy mommy, and fancy Eliza. Daddy stayed home and did daddy things.
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| Eliza had on her flapper style dress, necklaces, princess shoes, a boa, and her princess doll. |
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| Eliza and Uma on the Village Green |
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| These two 3 years olds are FANCY! |
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| Now check out that pose! |
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| Brothers attempting hugs from girls who did not want hugs. But it was worth a try! |
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| Picnic! |
We brought out the fancy picnic basket with fancy glasses, fun pink plates, little cream cheese and jelly triangle sandwiches, sparking cider, and veggies for lunch. MMMMmmm good!
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| mmm...cream cheese and jelly sandwiches with white bread. What is this goodness??? |
We had planned to go and get fancy cupcakes but the cupcake store was closed for the whole 4th of July weekend. Luckily, there is a restaurant right on the green with cake and ice cream. Not quite as fancy but everyone was happy.
Thanks for celebrating with us Uma, Alden, and Aimee! We then had a little breakfast party with her other best bud, Silas and family a couple of days later. Breakfast is fun to have coffee cake for dessert!
The other thing about Eliza's birthday this year was that Adam and I left for Hawaii (by ourselves!) on her actual birthday. At first I felt horrible about doing this, then I realized that she has NO idea what her actual birthday is, so we just pretended it was the day before we left. So much so, that I almost forgot it was her actual birthday when we left!
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| Big brother really wanted to help her with the tricky tape (and the rest of it too). |
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| Bubble Gum! Pink bubble gum! |
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| A fancy, frilly, girly, pink dress from Grammie Dani! Who knew Grammie Dani would ever by something like that dress. But she loves it! |
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| All dressed up to go to Grammie Susan and Grandpa Marks' house for 10 days! |
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| A ferry for a princess. |
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| Don't forget your sparkly green Tinkerbell shoes when wearing fancy dresses! |
We celebrated down on BI too. Pink presents, pink cake, and lots of fun.
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| Corbin really wanted to help again. Daddy intervened this time. |
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| Princess decorating set! |
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| a pink cake for me! |
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| This is one happy 3 year old! |
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| Thanks Grammie Susan for the Pink cake! It was even pink on the inside! |
We had so much fun celebrating this 3 year old who is so full of life; both the good and the bad. She is a joy to have in our lives. Not only is she into pink but she also loves to swing on her new swing set and just learned to pump (thank God!), she is riding her balance bike like a pro and is ready to try a pedal bike, she love to say things like "Tomorrow Uma and I will be princesses when we grow up." Tomorrow refers to both the past and the present for her. She is quick to show her emotion, she can scream like no other, she is switching between napping and not napping. Which can be great and horrible all rolled into one. She is very excited to go to the "Yellow School" next year, which is where Corbin went. She is fully potty trained now except at night! Yahoo!!! Thanks to Grammie Susan helping while we were gone and some bribing with pink bubble gum to go poop :-)
We Love you Eliza Jolie!
