And Now She is Three...

Today, the youngest Young'un turned three years old.  What fun! And whew!  Birthdays are work, but it's good work. 

Elaborate gifts are something which doesn't usually happens here on the Little Farm.  Mostly this is an economics thing -  5 kids x cost of elaborate birthday gifts = a big hole in the family budget.

We try to make each child's day special in other ways.  Afterall, it's not all about the gift when you get right down to it.

Young'uns here get to choose the menu for breakfast and dinner on their special day.  We also decorate the dining room where we eat these meals and we tend to linger over the meals a bit longer, too.  Oh yes, the birthday guy or gal also eats their meal off of the "You Are Special" plate.  If I forget this part, one of the kids remembers every time!  Apparently, the plate is a big deal.

At some point during the day usually during a meal, the Big Guy and I recount the "Day You Were Born" story.  Even though it is pretty much the say each year (the details don't change after all), they all love it!  I love hearing what the older kids have to add to the stories of the younger ones.  It's fun hearing their versions of when I went to the hospital and what they did while we were gone or what they thought when they first saw their new sibling. 

I chose the breakfast menu this morning because Abby would have picked sandwiches.  Call me strange, I just have trouble with sandwiches at 7:30am.  We had chocolate chip pancakes.  She had one in the shape of a 3 with a candle in it.  She was completely enamored!

Abby's dinner choice was...hot dogs. 

"Do you want anything with the hot dogs?" I asked.

"No thank you.  Just hot dogs," she replied.

We had hot dogs with a few side dishes and she was very happy.

For the most part, everyone gets a birthday party each year between ages 4 and 10.  Their party is part of their gift for us.  Again, nothing elaborate, but still fun.  We've had army, Lego, tea party, spy, Star Wars and pirate parties.  We've had parties where guest spent the whole time cutting out and decorating (and eating) sugar cookies or making structures and weapons out of duct tape. The whole family gets into the planning and preparing.  It's good stuff and we do it at home.

Everyone gets to put in their 2 cents about the cake on their birthday also.  I've made the Millennium Falcon, a army battle which took place on a camo cake, a pirate ship complete with an island and about 25 lbs of cookie dough.

This year has been the year of the dog cake.  Ellie, our oldest daughter, turned 7 earlier this month.  She had an animal party and wanted a dog cake.  Apparently, this dog made an impression on Abby because when asked she wanted a dog cake too.  Ellie's cake was a brown beagle looking sort of thing.  Abby wanted a pink poodle.  Hmmmmm....

Here is the result.  She was very happy!

Not exactly a poodle...but she isn't too picky.

So, it was a good day.  When I tucked her in, Abby declared this the "best birthday I ever hadded."  She's only had 3 and I'm pretty sure she can't remember either one of her 2 other birthdays, but I'll still take it.  Abby Grace is ready to take on the next year.

I'm feeling a bit sad, however.  At some point today, I picked her up and she took my face between her hands as she does several times each day to give me a kiss on each cheek.  (There's a whole French thing going on here...we've no clue from whence it comes.  Odd.) 

When she grabben my face, I realized there's been a change in her hands.  They felt more like thing little kids hands and less like chubby toddler hands.  Sigh.  I've seen this happen four times already, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

The red thing in her hand is a pack of gum.  HER own pack of gum which she got for a gift.  She tried to go to sleep with it.

Welcome to 3 Abby Grace!  We can't wait to see God work in your life this year.