Melanie's 3rd Birthday

Today was the big day.  Our Little Miss Melanie turned three.  I don't know why, but that just seems so much bigger than two to me.  I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to have a three-year-old.  Regardless of if I'm ready for one or not, I've got one, and it seems she's growing more every single day.  Not size wise, mind you (just the other day she wore a pair of 12 month capris from last summer), but growing in all other aspects of life.

To celebrate the day we did the same thing we did for her first and second birthdays by having our families over for cake and ice cream.  I decorated a cake and made cookies, and Melanie wanted to get in on the decorating action.

I had made a few cupcakes with the extra cake batter, so Melanie got to put sprinkles on one, as well as some on the cake itself (which I later rearranged to make them more even distributed.  On the cake, not the cupcake.  I'm taking baby steps.)

Pretty happy with her cupcake

I plopped the extra buttercream frosting in a decorator bag, put on a tip and swirled it on the cupcakes.  It turned out much better than I had hoped for.

The cake and cookie pops

The rest of the cookies.

I ran out of royal icing and didn't feel like making another batch for four more cookies.  Matt prefers them plain anyway.

She really understood that today was her big day this year.  As soon as Matt mentioned it was time to open presents she was on top of it before you could blink your eyes.

She's quite ambitious as well.  

This box wasn't all that heavy (most of the contents had been taken out for assembly of the gift) but I was kinda surprised she even tried to pick it up.

Grams and Gramps gave her a trike and some books (the books were in the box for the trike).

She opened the box and got out the books, Grams brought the trike in from the front porch and Melanie promptly took her books over next to her trike to read them.  We tried to entice her to sit on her trike, to which she responded "I need to read I books first". While proper grammar is still a work in progress, I have no fear that with her love of books and reading that she will soon catch on.
It's a good thing this was the last gift she opened, because the party came to a stand still while she perused her newest reading materials.

She tried riding it for a little bit...

... but quickly got back to reading her books.  Radio Flyer's got nothing on Fancy Nancy!

(Claire's already working on how she's going to hitch a ride from her sister)

Melanie also got some money for her money jar.

She was much more excited about the coins than the bills since they make a satisfying "clink" in her jar.

Claire was excited when the jar was left unattended and she got to play with it for a bit.

The "adults" enjoying a game of Elefun

Melanie tried catching the butterflies for a little while, then realized it was easier to pick them up off the floor and put them in her net.  Smart kid.

 Blowing out the candle

That was some good cake!

After cake and ice cream Melanie wanted to try out the chef's set Grandma and Grandpa got for her.  

And what would a good chef do without some food to cook?

Great Grandpa Greenlee is definitely someone you want to invite to your birthday parties.  Ever since I was a kid he's always had his pocket knife with him to help unpackage all your new goodies that you just can't wait to play with, in this case some new play food.

Now she can carry her beloved food box around in style!

And finally, the scooter and helmet from dad, mom and Claire.  Don't ask me where she got the idea for this pose, but she was doing it all night long.  Silly kid!

Happy Birthday Miss Melanie!