On April 21st my precious baby turned 3. I can’t believe it. She is such a sweet little girl…unless her brother has made her angry. She is very sensitive and has started to pout when her feelings are hurt. She loves all things girly. She especially loves jewelry, clothes, and shoes. She likes to wear lipstick. She loves to have her finger and toe nails painted and will comment on any woman’s feet or hands with painted nails. She likes to get a brush and “pix” my hair for me. She says “I will make you pitty and pix you hair.” She likes to sing. Some of her favorite songs are Bring Back My Bonnie, Bingo, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, and of course, Moon River. She likes anything to do with princesses. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and the entire month leading up to it, she would answer “A prinsa birthday cake with tars.” (A princess birthday cake with stars.)

I’m going all out for the kid’s birthdays this year. Simply because we usually do low-key family things and they need to have a few big celebrations in their honor. And because I failed my kids on such a grand scale during nursing school…I may have a little guilt. Anyhow, we planned on a party here at the house with a jumper, pinata, cake, and pizza. I was really counting on Wesley to help me with all of the outside preparations because cleaning house and having the cake ready were going to be enough for me to handle. Not to mention just keeping up with Caden & Mattie is usually enough to keep me more than busy. Friday morning I was a busy bee in the kitchen when I get a call from Wesley. His back went out. I spent the rest of the day on the road to get him, at the doctor’s office, taking care of him at home, cleaning, and baked cake until 1:00 in the morning. I thought about ordering a Dairy Queen ice cream cake since everything fell to me to handle. But my Mom reminded me that all Mattie has talked about was her “princess cake.” Wes was pretty much bed bound on Saturday until the party. I’m glad my parents came at noon to give me a hand. I can’t describe what a stressful thing it was. I rely so heavily on Wesley. I know it was miserable for him, too. He was in a lot of pain and pretty stressed about not being able to help. His back is fine, just a matter of old football injuries combined with too much weight and lifting too much. He really strained his muscles. Part of it was because he was carrying big bags of soil to the backyard the night before to get the flower beds in shape. We bought flowers and it was his responsibility to get them planted. Friday, while I was tending to Wesley, Caden went and planted quite a few flowers on his own. He assured me that it was okay because his Bam showed him how to plant flowers. I kind of wanted to be upset that things weren’t planted just “so” but it was super sweet of him to do it, it made him feel good, and afterall, he was doing what his Bam had taught him. It was important to him…he would say import-nent.

So we had the party, and Cody & Katie came, Wesley’s family, and Mikka and her kiddos. I wish I would have taken pics of the jumper but oh well. When we sang Happy Birthday to Mattie, she sang along, and blew out her candles like a pro. I went to get my Mom a knife to cut the cake and in the meantime Mattie picked up a spoon and just dug in to the top layer of the cake. In her eyes, the cake was just for her and I was so glad that I hadn’t caved under the pressure and ordered a cake. It was pretty sweet. The pinata (I have no clue how to put the tilde over the n) was a princess and Mattie was not at all sure about hitting her with a bat. However, Caden had been to a birthday party with a pinata and was all over it. He and Javen gave the pretty pinata really good whacks. I’m so regretting not having the video camera out!!!! Oh well, I couldn’t have filmed and Wesley couldn’t either because he was on crutches for the party. I have to add that Mattie got an umbrella…and she calls umbrellas – cinderellas. Isn’t that sweet? I’ll post a few pics and then sign off for now. Excuse the grammar and spelling errors, no time to edit.

 

 

 

 

 

The pinata is bigger than Mattie! 

 

 

Helping herself…so glad my Mom got this shot.

 Caden admiring his work…I love how he puts his hands on his hips.

 

Mattie in some of her new birthday duds

 

This is from last night. The kids had the waterhose out while I was fixing supper. I spied them and told them to take their clothes off and get inside. About 5 minutes later, this is what I saw looking out the kitchen window…

 

 

Caden was literally taking mud and washing his face with it.