Camryn turned 3 yesterday. It is so hard to believe she is that old. Lately she has started to look more grown up and not so much like a baby. I even had someone at church tell me she is looking like a little lady. Yes, it makes me a little sad, but I'm also excited to keep watching her grow and change. If the past 3 years is any indication this girl is going to keep her dad and I on our toes! My prayer is that we can channel all of this ornery, hilarious personality into a really awesome kid...and not a juvenile delinquent.
You know how I like to plan a party. The day after Christmas I ordered Camryn a pig smocked dress for her birthday party. I was set on a pig party and the dress was on sale and I had wanted it for awhile. Then we had the pigs. After the Pigtastrophe of 2014 I was sick of pigs so I scratched that idea. Then I saw the cutest Cowgirl outfit. Since she loves Sheriff Callie so much I thought that was perfect. So I shelled out more money for this cowgirl outfit then I normally spend on myself. Then Camryn decided she wanted a dinosaur on her cake. After already doing one dinosaur party I was not big on another one. But she was insistent and I ignored her. Finally I decided what good is a birthday when you can't have the theme you want so we went with dinosaurs - but I made sure it looked girly.
I scoured Etsy looking for a girly dinosaur shirt and found a pretty perfect one. Then Janella created a cake that looked just like the shirt and Camryn loved it. Camryn also wanted a pink cake so Janella tinted the batter. It was all perfect. Memo has some really neat dinosaurs that a friend had passed down to Cade and now Camryn is obsessed with them. I used those for the tables and then added in pink flowers to make it a little more feminine. My plan was to make skirts for the dinosaurs but Cade got sick the night before the party. I ended up spending all Friday night with him at Urgent Care. That put a damper on some of my decorating plans. But it was still cute and I think we all had a good time.
I did fill up Camryn's pool with sand and the kids dug for dinosaurs and other $store trinkets. That was a big hit. Seeing the pictures of the three of them digging in the sand with their hats cracks me up every time I look at it. My plan for the party was to do cake pictures, nicely dig in the sand for the surprises while the burgers cooked and then presents after we ate. It was all controlled, clean fun. Then the adults took too long to eat and the kids wanted to play in the sand. Camryn ended up laying in it and filling her hat with sand and putting it on her head. She even dumped a bunch of sand on Lawson. So, my dreams of controlled fun went down the tubes. By Sunday morning I had a fine layer of grit over every surface in the house. But the kids enjoyed it and that is the most important thing.
Also, you will notice that Cade is not in any of the pictures. The poor guy was extremely sick that entire weekend. He had the same type of infection he had in January. He spent all day on Saturday in our room. I checked on him about 3:00 pm and he had turned off the TV and was sleeping. He slept through me cleaning our bedroom/bathroom and both Jay and I getting ready. He almost slept through the entire party - even with the worried grandparents checking on him from time to time. If you know Cade at all you know that was extremely out of character for him. We started Sunday with another trip to Urgent Care and different meds. Finally about Sunday evening he seemed to come around. We have another trip to a specialist in our near future.
Since her party was about a week and a half before her birthday she was a little confused about what yesterday was. We had a low key celebration of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and cupcakes. One thing about 3 year olds is they have no idea the cost of anything. We bought Camryn something to open....a box of band aids. I think it was her favorite gift. This morning Jay cleaned up about 20 band aid wrappers off the floor of the kitchen and family room. Camryn's sitter also gave her some gifts. She loved the light up wand.
Since she is 3 we are really discovering that we need to be including adoption related language more and more in our normal conversations. We aren't against talking about it at all, as you know, it's just hard to remember to do it very often. Life gets busy. I've got some books on order from Amazon that hopefully will get the ball rolling a little more for us. I'm pretty excited to get them. She is still young and I know she doesn't fully understand the concept of adoption, but it is still so important to talk about it. In our hearts she couldn't be more ours if she was biological, but like her eyes are blue and hair is blonde she is adopted. As fast as 3 years has gone it won't be long before she can understand it.
And another side note to her birthday. Camryn got a My Little Pony makeup set from Jim and Sharon. It came with these My Little Pony press on nails - which crack me up on her still baby chubby hands. But what has been even funnier is watching Jay step on one and then have to pick the My Little Pony nail off the bottom of his foot. I love watching him raise a girl.
