HALEY TURNS 3!Last Saturday we celebrated Haley's 3rd Birthday, complete with balloons, gifts, and a "fairy princess castle cake." She was so excited to get started with the celebration that we had to beg and bribe to get her out of her pajamas before opening presents (that's what I get for leaving them on the coffee table). So the gifts were opened before breakfast, which left a long, rainy day ahead of us. She and Rob played with her new toys (roller skates! Cinderella doll! Littlest Pet Shop! Candyland!), which gave me a few minutes to put the finishing touches on the cake that had taken me most of the night to decorate...
For lunch Haley had asked to go to The Green Mill, a local restaurant. We thought this was a really cute and grown-up preference for her to have, until we got there and realized she was really after the mints they have by the front door (oops, looks like she inherited my sweet tooth). One lunch out + fussy, hungry infant + birthday excitement + lots of mints on an empty stomach = toddler meltdown. Thankfully she's not old enough yet to have unrealistic expectations about how things are supposed to be (another of my weaknesses I hope to not pass down), so she didn't hold a grudge and fell asleep in the car on the way home. Rob and I were very grateful at that point that Haley hadn't wanted a party with friends - it might have just been too much for us all to handle. Instead we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with balloons, eating cake, and enjoying our giggly, gorgeous 3-year-old.
Haley thought it was great that Jake could hold onto a balloon all by himself. 
The Fairy Princess Castle Cake!
This girl has an amazing sense of balance - we'll try them outside if it ever stops raining.
It's becoming a tradition that she gets to help bake the birthday cake. Yum, cake batter!
