Almost a month has passed but our little Eva turned 3 on June 11! Those of you who know us or who have read this blog for awhile are familiar with that crazy string of major life events that started with a surprise (and tumultuous) pregnancy, Eva's miraculously healthy arrival, and our move to Montana immediately after. Eva's birthday's will always mark the anniversary our our big move also, and it seems very hard to believe that 3 years have already passed!
These days Eva is more fun that ever and we are so blessed to have her as part of our family. She is funny and intelligent, if not a bit sassy, but we love her personality. Have I mentioned that we finally boarded the potty train? We tackled it before our big Memorial weekend trip and I'm happy to report she is doing fantastic with it. None too soon since I have plans for her to attend preschool in the fall.
When I asked her what kind of birthday cake she wanted she simply said "blue". So I came up with the theme idea myself, stemming from her love of umbrellas. She is often seen sporting an umbrella and saying "I not Eva, I Mary Poppins!".
I almost forgot to take a picture of the decorations so this one is a bit of an afterthought!
A recipe for "cloud cake" was floating around Pinterest so I thought that went nicely with the theme.
It wasn't my best decorating work, but at least it tasted good. It was basically a from-scratch angel food cake with coconut on top and I'm sure I could have made an equally good cake from a box in half the time. I'll never learn.
Eva is funny—it has always taken her quite awhile to warm up to people. She is just now finally coming out of her shell a bit. It also can take her some time to warm up to things. We have given her new books, clothes, etc. and have gotten the response "I don't need it!" Only after a few days will it turn into her favorite toy. I wasn't sure how she would react to her new birthday presents so I warned everyone in advance.
We bought her a new trike and she had no trouble warming up to it. She sat right down on it while she opened the rest of her gifts.
When she opened this new dress from Nana she had to try it on immediately and model it. And never take it off.
And I loved her reaction here:
But her cousin Colter figured out that the tissue paper was the best gift of the night.
And then she was off.
With a few lessons from teacher Roxie she has been riding her trike like a pro. We have been keeping it inside for now, until the point she gets so crazy that I'll have to touch up and repaint every wall. So far she hasn't been too destructive. One of the benefits of having girls! ;)
There is one more Eva-ism I have to document. When you ask her how old she is she will hold up 3 fingers and say "This is "W!". If you try to tell her "no, it's 3!" She will argue with you. She has some sign language videos she watches in the car, and she is absolutely right about this. Three fingers (in the middle) as we typically hold them up is the sign for W. The sign for 3 uses the thumb and first 2 fingers. No problem. Except now when she is counting something with three things she will say "W" instead of 3. Ha!
Happy Birthday Eva! We love you!