3 Years Old?!!

Has it really been 3 years already? Man the time goes by so fast! Our oldest daughter Ellie had her birthday yesterday. Ellie is so excited to be three and is already talking about how next year she'll turn 4! Currently Ellie is about 3 feet 3 inches so she's pretty tall for her age, she loves movies, going to the park, "reading" books, spelling her name out loud, and counting. She learns so fast I can hardly keep up with her. My latest endeavor with her is doing "science experiments" and counting by 2s and 5s and telling time (and not on a digital clock!). She went to the dentist for the first time today and she was pretty scared of the masks but once they took them off she was fine and even let them polish her teeth with the "teeth tickler". She was super excited when they gave her an Ariel toothbrush!
Onto the birthday celebrations! On Sunday we had a family dinner with my family where we celebrated my Mom's and Ellie's birthdays. I made Ellie a pink and white cake and when I asked Ellie what she wanted on her cake she said a star...so I put a star on it! She had fun and got some nice presents! On Monday we went to Chuck E. Cheese's with Chris' family and man Ellie LOVED it!!! (What kid doesn't!) She was a little scared of Chuck E. at first but warmed up to him quickly and even gave him a high 5! She loved all the games, especially "baksetball" and she loved having her Aunt Hailey take her around to the games! She also got some very nice presents there too! On Tuesday (which was her actual birthday) we made it extra special for her and pretty much let her do whatever she wanted! In the morning she got to open presents. The first one she saw as she walked out of her room...a bike! She's been talking about having a bike for months now so we got her a little princess bike with training wheels that she just loves! We also got her a few other little presents that she liked too but nothing compares to a bike! Then she helped me make a special birthday breakfast of eggs and pancakes. She got to turn the eggs whatever color she wanted (she picked orange) and she got to put some sprinkles on the pancakes as I was cooking them, it was so fun! After that she decided that we were going to watch "Princess and the Frog" (big surprise). Next we dropped off Hannah at my parents house (Thanks Mom and Dad!!) and picked up Chris from work and took Ellie to McDonald's for her very favorite Chicken McNuggets and fries and of course the playplace! After that we went to Ben and Jerry's who just happened to be having a free ice cream day (awesome!). She then took a "birthday nap" :) and when she woke up we ate dinner and then went to caper acres. She had an awesome birthday! She's been talking about how fun it was all day today! Now...enjoy some pictures! :)