FINALLY 3!

Cali’s birthday was on a Tuesday so we got up early and let her open her presents before Benji had to go to school. We spent the morning playing with the gifts and then she played at Mia’s house in the afternoon. Michelle brought her home asleep from the car ride so she got a nap in and then for dinner we headed for McDonalds! We ended the night at our house with cupcakes.

early morning presents - yes, they love to sleep in their clothes.

all the gifts and a happy birthday girl

@ McDonalds, my camera died so we just have a picture of Rose, happy meals all around for this family.

blowing out her candles

the kids decorated their own cupcakes

On Friday night we celebrated with lots of cousins at our house. We just let all the kids play, opened gifts, had cake and then watched a movie. Sorry no party games this year – next time she’ll probably be old enough to care.

cousin presents!

all dressed up in her princess accessories

playing with the cousins - love my toy room

Cali decided that the cake needed to be Ariel - we looked on the computer for ideas and this is what we came up with.

cake and ice cream - most of the kids like vanilla - weird

I feel like I don’t have much time to be sentimental – more like just trying to get this posted before Rose needs food, Packer has another break down, Cali decides to get in one last 2 year old tantrum and Benji begs for help with his computer game… Cali has been a fireball her whole life. She is stubborn and knows what she wants and cannot be reasoned with in the same way that worked for our boys. At the same time she is great at little tasks, anything that involves helping someone. She is my best cleaner and helper by far. She loves to play Uno with me and actually follows the rules. She LOVES to play house with anyone willing and she will ALWAYS be the mom. She loves to rough house with Dad and brothers. Cali hates naps but sleeps great at night. She loves her 2 blankets, pillow pet and sippy. We have attempted potty training a few times but she has not proven ready.We love our Cali girl. So happy she joined our family 3 years ago. She has been my only baby that came 100% on her own with no inducing or meds. It was the middle of the night (of course) so we grabbed Ben’s brother Pete to stay with the boys and headed to the hospital to meet our baby girl. She came quickly, it was a perfect delivery and our lives have never been the same since 🙂