Mallory is 3!

Mallory woke up at 6:30 yesterday in anticipation of her birthday. She got to go to "school" where she blew out the birthday candle and they sang Happy Birthday to her in sign language. Then she chose to go to the Steer Steakhouse with me for lunch where she overtook my BLT sandwich, and as a super-special treat got a teeny-tiny Diet Coke of her own. The people we ate lunch with, including Brad's parents, sang Happy Birthday to her and she smiled very shyly and jumped into my arms and said, "Thank you, Mommy. That was reawy nice." When she got to our house, I had decorated a little bit with Disney princess stuff and she said, "Mommy! I wuv it! I wuv my party!" She then attempted to nap, or at least pretend to nap while I baked more cake -- but most of that time she yelled for me. For the rest of the day she kept talking about and preparing for her party which wasn't scheduled until after dinner. When it was time to get Burger King for dinner, she refused to leave the house..where her party was, see. "No, I stay here." "We'll have to leave without you Mal -- Grandma and Grandpa are waiting for us." "Okay, bye Dad! Bye Mom!" I had a moment then that is not parenting perfection, but I didn't know how to get her out of the house without being really hard on her on her birthday, so I said "Oh, no, Mallory! The police are going to come and get Daddy and Mommy because little girls can't be home all by themselves!!! You have to come RIGHT NOW!" She was like, "oh! ok." And out the door we went. Don't worry....I then proceeded to tell her how police officers protect people and if they think parents aren't protecting their kids, the parents can get in big trouble...etc.etc.etc. so that she wouldn't think police are bad or scary.

Then, BK.....remember my post about Brad's experience a couple of months ago at a BK? It was worse this time! This play area was tiny and Mallory was afraid to come down. My sister went up first, but Mallory still wouldn't come out. Brad had to crawl up again and rescue her. I WILL remember to never let her go into these again...at least not for another 6 months or so.

So, we were almost late for our own party. Presents were opened, cake and ice cream were eaten, and little Mallory was celebrated!!! Good day!

I wasn't planning this cake, but Mallory kept telling people she was going to have a pink cake. What? I make cupcakes - Betty Crocker - nothing fancy, no decorating except for maybe some lettering and sprinkles. I had already made chocolate cupcakes, but I pulled out a flower mold and did another batch of cupcakes - went to Walmart again looking for pink icing and voila! She was happy and I tried something new. Tasty, too. Maybe someday I'll learn cake decorating like so many of my friends. It looks like fun.