3-Year Old Princess. . .

He's not the princess, but I sure enjoyed this view:) Emma's awesome daddy built her a sandbox for her 3rd birthday!!

A few tools. . .

A perfect corner. . .

A delivery of sand, straight from the beaches of Brazil. . .

Fill it up. . .

. . . and now she has her own sandbox!!

I, on the other hand, was a little more handy in the kitchen!

These are not chicken poops. These are failed Oreo balls. The almond bark just wouldn't melt correctly, so I couldn't cover the balls; I had to settle for just plopping the stuff on top! (But it doesn't really matter how pretty they are. . . they still get eaten!)

I made 113 Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

A BIG E for a BIG GIRL!!!

Pre-birthday treat!

We invited our ex-pat friends over to celebrate Emma's birthday on Sunday evening. Harald and Silvia (the Germans), Aaron and Holly and Jacob, and Mollie all came over. As if the Oreo balls and cookies weren't enough, I felt the need to make a Chocolate Cobbler and then bought ice cream to dump on top! Yummy goodness!!

I bought a cute "3" candle and thought it was going to be like a sparkler because of the picture on the package. So I lit the candle and we started to sing Happy Birthday to Emma. She blew out the candle and turned around. As she turned, the candle relit and the fire started blazing again. She looked at me in total confusion and then quickly blew it out again. After the third time of blowing out the candle, she thought it was funny. Seven or eight attempts later, the flame was finally gone.

Feliz Aniversario!!! Happy Birthday to our princess!

Opening gifts from Grandma and Grandpa (thanks to a recent runner)! Definitely one of Emma favorite gifts was the box of rocks she received from Mollie. I've never seen a kid so happy to get a box of rocks!!

After she took her first bite of ice cream, she looked at me like she was in pain. It was then that I realized she's never taken a bite of ice cream (on her own) before!! We don't really eat it, so it's never in the house, meaning, she never eats it! It didn't take her long to realize that it's quite tasty!!

On her birthday, wearing her new leggings from Grandma!!!
At some point over the last few months, pink invaded our home. It's everywhere!!
Cute.

Birthday dinner with just Mom and Dad.

The princesses are everywhere too.

Kisses for the birthday girl!!

Kevin and I sat on the couch talking after Emma had gone to bed. I can't believe she's three years old! We've spent a lot of time talking about growing our family over the last two years. As much as our hearts desire that, we agreed that we can't imagine our family any other way right now. We have been so incredibly blessed with this amazing child. She has such a sweet, tender heart and is just plain fun to be with. She makes us smile more than we ever thought possible!

Happy 3rd Birthday to a sweet little girl!!