Turning Three

Happy Birthday to my not-so-little girl!

Somehow three years have gone by since Clare was born.  How did that happen?! 

I'll warn you that this is a long, rambling post with more details that most people would care to know.  You might just want to glance at the photos and move on.  :-)

Clare has grown into such a sweet preschooler.  She has her moments, definitely, but most days the sweet moments outweigh the sassy ones.  She has such an imagination - she has been playing "birthday party" for the past three months.  She can entertain herself for hours.  She loves collecting little things in her "trinket box" - a tub of random items like parade necklaces, small blocks of wood, note cards, stickers, sea shells, etc.  She likes "helping" - with dishes, sweeping the floor, folding laundry, baking, cooking.  She likes playing outside -- picking dandelions, collecting sticks and rocks, running up and down the driveway.  She likes playing with Molly -- bossing her around, putting her on a leash, covering her head with blankets, showing her dog treats and then hiding them on her.  She's never been one to dole out kisses and hugs but she does like to snuggle with a book.  When she gets hurt or when something goes wrong, one of the first things she says through her tears is: "Want to read a story!" I'm glad she associates stories with warmth, snuggles and the feeling that everything is all right. 

We celebrated her birthday with a small party: two good friends of ours (honorary aunt and uncle to Clare) and my brother Derek.  Clare decided earlier in the week that she didn't want a big party.  This morning, though, when she kept saying, "Who's coming to my party?" it made me wonder if maybe she would have liked a bigger shindig after all. 

Hanging out before the party.

We cooked venison backstrap on the grill, which Clare loves.  She also gobbled down her fruit salad and cucumbers.  She loves cucumbers. And to my surprise, she decided she likes pickles too.  "I just like the seeds.  I don't like the bumpy parts."  In other words, she ate the insides and left the shell of her pickle looking like an empty boat on her plate.

When I saw my friend Holly last weekend, I asked her for a delicious-tasting frosting recipe.  (Holly is an amazing cake decorator.) She recommended Strawberry Mousse.  Besides tasting really, really good, mousse is a bit sloppy to decorate with which worked great for me since I could use that as an excuse for the results, since cake decorating is not my forte.

Clare requested a puppy cake.  I made the mistake of browsing Pinterest for ideas... there are amazing puppy cakes on there, almost life-like.  I had to steer Clare toward the really simple ones before she got her heart set on dogs that looked like they could jump right off the pan and into her lap.  The following design is a suggestion from Holly and I love it. 

Yes, this dog's body is a bit out of proportion, but it has all the essentials like candy eyes and a candy collar with dog tags.  Someone asked me if I let Clare choose the flavor of cake.  I admit I never asked her.  Kids only ever eat the frosting anyway and today was no exception.  The rest of us enjoyed the super moist chocolate cake that's a birthday staple in my family. 

As Clare watched me cutting up the puppy cake, she kept saying, "This is a puppy for eating," as if to reassure herself that it was okay to eat it.  I did feel a bit odd cutting it up in front of her.  She's sensitive to things like that.

Three-year-olds know all about gift opening.  Clare grabbed her presents off the desk, arranged them on the living room rug and was tearing into them before we could get ourselves assembled there to watch her.  

Her own little gardening tool set!

Glue sticks and her first pair of scissors.  She loves doing "pwah-jects."

Karl was a great little boy all day.  I had to include this because he's so cute...