Happy Birthday, Arianna!!!!

Our little Lady turns 3 years old today!!! We are so glad she is a part of our family. We are not having a party for her this year since we are limiting visitors to our house to minimize germs, but we did have a birthday lunch and cake. We let Arianna choose what she wanted for her special birthday meal; anything at all that she wanted to eat. What did she choose? "Honey and samwich". (Translation: Peanut butter and honey sandwich) I also asked her which fruit and vegetable she wanted with her meal: Cold peas and pears. Hey- talk about making my life easy!!!!!
For her birthday cake she chose chocolate cake with yellow frosting and an elephant on top. I searched for an elephant to go on top and had no luck, so I got creative with some marshmallows and frosting (should've left some frosting white- oh well) She loved it!
I used a chocolate cake recipe from Deceptively Delicious. I tried hard not to let anyone see me making it or even see the cookbook sitting out on the counter. I even carefully rinsed the bowls and beaters when I put them in the sink. Nonetheless, the first thing Kenneth asked me when he saw the cake cooling on the rack was, "What vegetable did you put in it?" You could smell it and the stinkin' thing came out totally red. It did NOT look that way in the cookbook. What did I add to the cake you wonder??? BEETS!!! The girls actually gobbled it up without a problem. I could taste it because I knew it was in there and Kenneth definitely wanted his piece with ice cream to cover the taste a little. I should have known not to try it. The only recipes I have had luck with in that book are the chocolate dessert recipes that involve avocado, believe it or not!!! So, if you ever think of trying to put beets in your child's birthday cake, think again and feed them extra vegetables at dinner instead!

I also spent what felt like forever searching all over for the candles and the matches. I guess that comes of moving too much; can't seem to be able to keep track of where I put everything in every new place I live!!!

Arianna is such a smart little girl. She loves to rhyme words. When we first started talking about rhyming a few months ago, Arianna caught right on to the concept, whereas it took Emma a few days to really get it. (Don't misunderstand, Emma is very good at many things and has an amazing memory, we were just amazed at how fast Arianna 'got' it.) Arianna loves to say things like, "Mommy tommy lommy"- in her little sing-songy voice. Can't you just hear her? "Boat. . .goat!!!! refrigerator. . .regigerator!!!" Sometimes they aren't real words, but most of the time Arianna is in a world of her own anyway!

Sometimes it is as though she has had special training on how to press our buttons. Especially Emma's buttons. Wow. Arianna sure can drive her crazy. But, I guess that is one of the roles of the little sister.

She loves to play with animals, her favorites of which are: elephants, polar bears and unicorns. She loves to read books and really likes to play independently (mostly with animals).

A good friend of mine always does a Birthday interview and posts it on her blog. I think it is a neat idea, so I decided to start that this year with Arianna. Here goes:

How old are you today?
3

What is your favorite animal?
unicorn

What is your favorite color?
yellow

What is your favorite food?
a cake with an elephant on it

What is your favorite treat?
cookie
What kind of cookie?
Chocolate cookie

What is your favorite book?
The elephant and the penguin book (Tacky in Trouble)

I want to go play!!!!!!
(At this point I had to bribe her with a yellow skittle. It worked and I got the final 4 questions out of her!)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A mommy

Who loves you the most?
Jesus (She said this without hesitation)

What is your favorite time of the day?
January

What is your favorite activity?
wrapping paper
What does that mean?
I mean I just color with markers and my new crayons
This evening we asked her again what her favorite thing to do was and she said:
Take care of my animals!

Here are some pictures of the day:
Here is Arianna eating the second course of her breakfast. She chose oatmeal and then yogurt and granola with some blueberries in between.

Here's Grant covering his ears when I was using the mixer to make the cake this morning.

Arianna playing with her animals at one point this morning.

Emma 'reading' Arianna a book before lunch.

Here is her meal of choice. . .minus the pears. Didn't have any more fresh ones and couldn't find the canned ones!

The cake. It's kind of pathetic, but hey, she liked it!

The lady with her cake. Gotta love that smile!

Elephant goes down the hatch!

Arianna getting ready to open her presents. Emma wanted so badly to have a doll of her own. (That's what we gave her)

Here is the Birthday girl cruising around outside later this afternoon.

And finally, for your viewing pleasure is a video of the singing and blowing out of the candles.


If you have an extra moment and haven't seen it before or forgot, you have to watch the video of her 2nd Birthday. Kenneth and I have watched it at least 20 times in the last year because Arianna is so cute in it!!!! It is a classic! Here is the link. (Just scroll to the bottom of the post.)