Ella is 3!

Ella is now officially three years old!  Her birthday was last Friday, the 10th.  I cannot believe it was three years ago that my baby girl was born!  The time we have had with her has certainly flown by, yet at the same time, it feels like I have had my sweet Ella forever. 

Some quick facts about Ella, the three year old:

Her favorite things to do:  playing pretend. She loves being a princess, mom, baby, big sister (pretend and real life), witch, and sometimes she is a prince.  She also loves to draw, paint, and do crafts.  Likes tv shows and movies (I have to seriously limit her screen time or she would watch for way too long).  I think playing pretend is just her ultimate fun thing to do.  Oh... and she loves to help me cook.  She usually helps every night.

Favorite movie: Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast

Favorite food:  Apples and Brocolli

New developments:  She talks really well.  Knows all of her letters and the sounds that each letter makes (can see the letter and say what the sound is and also hear the sound and say what the letter is). She is now working on putting letters together to form words.  She is much more coordinated than she used to be (doesnt fall down all the time like she used to.  ha!)

A recent quote:
As we were sitting at the table playing with play dough
 Ella:  Do you want to fight?
 Me: Uhh... no
 Ella:  You are a kid!  You have to fight!
(I guess she was pretending we were both kids...? and I definitely am not a supporter of play fighting... so I am not sure where this came from.  But I thought it was funny)

    For Ella's birthday this year we had three different celebrations.  One with my family, one with Craigs mom, and one with Ella's best friends.  Here we go:

Last Wednesday we celebrated Ella's b-day at my parents house.  This is the only picture that I took at my before the camera died.  My dad made Ella a little house out of a huge cardboard box.  Ella really loved it.  I made a ton of rainbow cupcakes (what ella had been asking for for weeks) while there, that I used for all of her parties.  We had dinner, cupcakes, and Ella opened some wonderful gifts.

The next day Craigs mom visited.  We had a great visit with her, had a delicious lunch, and Ella got some more great gifts.

Then Friday we had a small birthday party with Ella and her best friends.  Our big gift to Ella this year was taking her and her two friends to see Tangled. 

Giving Mariah a big hug after opening her present.

Opening her gift from Eliza.  I really like this picture... the girls seem so old!

Ella's good friend, Charlie, joined us for lunch.  We had pizza, cupcakes, and ice cream.

Here is a picture of the rainbow cupcake. This was actually not the best one to take a picture of.  This was probably made with the bottom of the batter, since it was not completely mixed in. But you get the idea.  The were yummy, pretty, and lasted for 3 parties.

So easy to make.  Just make WHITE cake batter (no yolk), seperate batter into about 6 different bowls, and add food coloring to each bowl (I used gel coloring because it is brighter), mix... then just layer a teaspoon of each color into the cupcake pan - no mixing.  So easy!

In the car, getting ready to go to the theater.  They were pumped!

Waiting for the movie to start with their sweet 3-d glasses on!

After the movie.  A little tired...but happy!  

Let me tell you... Tangled was SO good!  I seriously loved it... and was cracking up during some of it!  I do not buy movies -ever- but this one I really think I will buy.  Go see it!

Ella had a great few days of birthday celebrating.  We really enjoy our girl so much and are so blessed to have her in our lives!