Birthday time!!! Sadie Beth so enjoyed celebrating her 3rd birthday with lots of friends. Obviously, both girls felt very excited...Ainsley so much so she decided to run around in her birthday suit.
The weather turned out to be quite precarious on the day of her "outside-water-fun" party - after a week in the 90s, it cooled down and got real windy, but not enough to ruin the fun.
The rain held off after all....a true blessing because there was no backup plan and 10 small children running around our house would have made me have a nervous breakdown.
Watching the kids run around and play on the swing set made us so glad we went ahead with getting a new one. The old one that was in the yard when we moved in wasn't safe to play on anymore.
Owen was one of the lone boys amongst a great big group of girls - he and his family moved to Michigan recently, so now we have quite the squad of girls.
Here's the whole crew!
From left to right: Owen, Reagan, Julianne, Becca, Madison, SB, Morgan, Allison, and Abigayle in the back.
Look at that happy birthday girl! She had such a happy, thankful heart the day of her party. She thanked each of her friends with a hug for the gifts they brought after she opened each one.
And oh, the cake!!! Sadie Beth a long time ago requested a Sesame Street birthday cake with a rainbow on it. Call me lazy, but I'm no cake decorating diva, so I checked Kroger and Walmart to see what they could come up with. Apparently they are very limited in the licensed characters they are allowed to put on a cake. I searched the city for affordable figurines that we could use as cake toppers, but couldn't find anything for less than $25.
I thought we were going to have a Sesame Street cake flop, but Mrs. Anna saved the day! She was so awesome to give so much of her time and energy to make this awesome Zoey cake for my sweet girl. And it was so worth it when we got to see Sadie Beth's ecstatic reaction to her Sesame Street cake.
Ainsley entertained herself at the party by eating some streamers; hence, the blue mouth.
Every time I see this picture I'm taken aback for a minute because my mind flashes forward about 15 years...can't you envision a very similar picture being taken before this beautiful little one gets whisked off to prom by some young lad?
We really had so much fun during Ainsley's morning naps this fall and tried to spend as much of it as possible outside. On this particular day, we were riding her tricycle and chasing after our neighbor's cat.
She could have done this all morning.
Ainsley's first tail-wiggle. It didn't last long. She started screaming shortly after the picture, and then boycotted anything in her hair for the next 4 months.
I tried to get some nice pictures after church one Sunday. They didn't go so well.
Stinker! I was in the kitchen taking care of something and I heard squeels of sheer delight. 
Ainsley had struck gold and was delighted with her accomplishment because she could not get enough veggie straws. 
Knowing her window of opportunity while I was taking pictures would be short-lived, she was furiously trying to cram as many in her mouth as possible. And notice the background mess. I can't say I miss the "search and destroy" phase Ainsley was going through at this time. It took her about 3 minutes to totally wreck whatever room she was playing in and she would do this as many times a day as I would come behind her and clean. So I just stopped picking up until bedtime for awhile. She's our little rascal!
Sadie Beth was so excited about her first day of preschool. And we were so excited for her.
...a happy meal, kite flying, and playing at the park!
Boobear loved it too!
