She be three

{our beautiful birthday princess}

We celebrated Lucy's third birthday in grand style this week. On her actual birthday on Monday, we had a sushi lunch at home. I considered this to be "big girl" food and thought she'd have fun with it. She ended up picking it apart a bit (Laura: think Borough of Sugar Notch) but it was a good first attempt.


After lunch, we made brownies (from a mix) with buttercream frosting (from scratch). We ate them after a very fancy pasta dinner (Lucy's request) and we all agreed they were delicious -- though Lucy mostly just licked the frosting off the brownie, leaving a poor bare brownie underneath (Laura: think Alex, Cheeto).

{yummy!}

On Wednesday, we had a little "kiddie" party at home. A few of Lucy's friends came over and together we destroyed one perfectly good Tinkerbell cake. Literally, we ate ALL the frosting off of it. What the heck, it was her birthday and she could eat frosting if she wanted to. And so could I.

{tinks, as we call her around here}

{the party favors...I painted little boxes for the kids with their initials on them and 44 cents inside each one in celebration of the new mr. president}

{lu loved her new party dress, which she deemed "perfect"}

{perfect for twirling!}

{henry & katie}

{the kids helped me pick out lucy's three candles}

{so hard to wait for cake!}

{making her wish...i wonder what it is?}

We also spent a fabulous weekend in NYC to kick off the birthday festivities...I will post about that soon!

O2B3

Specifically, oh to be LUCY and be three! Happy Birthday to our spirited, creative, smart, dramatic, amazing and beautiful girl!

Winter Games

{she asked her nonno to do this and she sat there like a buddha for a good long while...crazy child of mine}

Cooped

We've been cooped up the past few days due to weather, Phoebe's first big cold, (lack of?) inertia, etc. To keep busy at home, we've been...

Getting fashion advice from Elton John:

{"goodbye, yellow brick road..."}

Mountain climbing:

{"mommy left the room & i got up here ALL BY MYSELF!"}

Taking cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu:

{lesson one: no metal in the microwave!}

{love the tiptoes}

Learning about diplomacy:

{"listen, lucy, i was here first, but i will let you have that end of the table as a good will gesture."}

Spreading world peace:

And what have YOU been doing?

Miss Phoebe Grace Awtfer her Bawth

{"hey, my hair is growing after all!}

Because she's mine, she walks the line...

I don't think I ever officially announced it, but Phoebe is walking! She took her first tentative steps the day before Thanksgiving (at 9 months!) and now, at 10.5 months, she is a grade-A certified walker. Here she is on Christmas Eve, walking to her mama :) And yes, we are battening down our hatches.

Phoebe's baptism

We had Phoebe officially baptized on Dec. 28. I say "officially" because I baptized her myself at the Vatican in September. Being only three days after Christmas, we kept the celebration fairly low-key...as in, I served Christmas leftovers and no one seemed to mind. Phoebe looked gorgeous (as always) and was a good girl during the ceremony, though she was more content to crawl around the alter and attempt to walk in her long dress (impossible!) than to stay in my arms. I guess that's what I get for waiting over 10 months to baptize my "new" baby!

Here's our girl on her big day:

{this is with her boyfriend jake, who is totally and utterly in love with her...we will display this photo at their wedding for sure}

Although I kept the food low-key, I did re-decorate the dining room for the celebration. I just have this thing lately about not wanting to see Christmas stuff after Christmas. So I changed it to a "winter bird" theme and I was very happy with the results...