“There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents, and only one for birthday presents, you know.”
- Humpty Dumpty
(as written by Lewis Carroll)
Birthdays are special and should be treated as such. . . a personal holiday – a day to celebrate the awesomeness that is the introduction of you into the universe. I mean, c’mon – birthdays rock, dude! Especially to a kid. So I wanted to make T’s day full of happy amazingness, starting the moment she opened her eyes. Luckily for me, it isn’t very difficult to impress a (now) three-year old! Her big birthday gift this year was a wooden doll house. T’s dad put it together the night before, and I stayed up late wrapping and arranging – and woke up early to ensure that the above image was exactly what greeted little T on the morning of her big day.
She was thrilled, of course. We sang happy birthday and she blew out her three candles. . .
. . .then got to unwrapping her awesome wooden dollhouse (and all the individually wrapped bits of furniture), which she LOVES!
All that unwrapping made PuffyWonder hungry, so after kissing her daddy off to work, it was time for a cupcake! There is no better way to start a birthday off on the right foot than by devouring a rainbow-sprinkled purple-iced yum-tastic cupcake for breakfast – too bad it can only happen once a year (the slightly cross-eyed spacey grin she’s wearing in the pic above is her patented “smile for mommy’s camera” face. Kinda creepy, eh?). After her cupcake (and the proper breakfast that I made her eat after it), I asked her what she wanted to do all day. I was thinking along the lines of Chuck E. Cheese – something birthday-fabulous and different from the norm, but all T wanted to do was go to the playground – she was quite insistent about it, actually. Far be it from me to dissuade her from the choice of a simple outing! Aunt Ki came over (party time!) to help with the baby wrangling and to make T’s day even happier than it already was, and away we went!
(photo compliments of Aunt Ki's cell phone)
We stopped at BK and got a ‘picnic’ lunch (hey, when you start the day off with cupcakes for breakfast, BK counts as a healthy lunch, neh? ;)) T rocked her birthday girl crown for about 5 minutes, and then we hit the slides (image not shown)
(photo compliments of Aunt Ki's cell phone)
Although T swore up and down that she did NOT want to play in the woods and water at the park, I really should have known better (I mean, duh – these woods have always been one of my and T’s favorite places – I used to come here with my dad when I was little). When she started wading, the jeans had to go (cuz’ I was NOT hiking back through the woods with a dripping wet, whiny, uncomfortable birthday girl, not to mention putting one in my car). About 30 seconds after this photo was taken, T started getting a bit upset by the fact that her top was getting wet. So off it came. . .
(photo compliments of Aunt Ki's cell phone)
Little T was splashing around in her skivvies having the time of her life when (because it was the middle of the frikkin’ woods on a weekday and pretty much deserted) another mom and her little boy came up the trail and stopped to play (at his insistence). I can only wonder what she thought about us, as she made her poor little boy splash in the water in his extra-large and very heavy jeans (even though he begged to be allowed to take ’em off). What better way to spend your birthday then (nearly) in you r birthday suit?!!
(photo compliments of Aunt Ki's cell phone)
Meanwhile, baby Ro eyed the world suspiciously from the confines of her Moby Wrap. . .
Later, we grabbed Nonna and went out to Coldstone for ice-cream, just like we did last year. I think this is going to be a birthday tradition, cuz’ Coldstone is awesome AND they have a birthday club (three cheers for free ice-cream!). TÂ insisted on orange ice-cream (I was a bit surprised that they even had such a thing, we totally lucked out on that one) with rainbow sprinkles, gummy-bears, and a cherry on top. Yum!
Oh, and about the awesome wooden dollhouse that she loves? Yeah. She loves it! I love it, too. Definitely a fun and interactive toy that we can play with together (without me getting bored) She spends HOURS playing with it, and I don’t think this one will get old any time soon. . . plus there is always the option to add dolls and furniture to the set. Fun!
Huginn, Muninn, and me 
Kendall said,
July 13, 2010 at 9:25 am
Totally awesome!! Looks like fun. Yeah, I’da been the mom making my kids splash in their very wet and heavy jeans. *giggle* Crazy people. 😉 The dollhouse ROCKS and so does her birthday in general. Happy Birthday Puff!
Me said,
July 13, 2010 at 6:43 pm
Heehee, you’re so mean to your kids!!! 😉 Oooh! Did you see that T has on a green bow at the icecream shop and a brown one in the park? Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!
wecki77 said,
July 13, 2010 at 12:10 pm
What a fun birthday! Was the water near your house? Coldstone sounds like a good birthday tradition to me 🙂
Me said,
July 13, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Heck yes! It is literally 5 minutes down the street. Come on ovah, momma!
Kelli said,
July 13, 2010 at 1:06 pm
In a nutshell, AWESOME!! Pics, cupcakes, dollhouses, stream, ice cream! This is what birthdays are about!! ( question: Where did you find the cool dollhouse? )
Me said,
July 13, 2010 at 6:42 pm
They carry them at some real stores (check Toys R Us and Target), but if you stalk Amazon.com you’ll find that it goes on sale for half price quite a bit – with free shipping 😉 Half price is still $65, BUT it comes with all the furniture and dolls included (except the pets – we got them separately). If you shop around this is an excellent deal for a wooden house.
Apok said,
July 13, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Woah, where’s munkey joe’s coldstone?
Me said,
July 13, 2010 at 6:43 pm
I eated it.
Bryna said,
July 13, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Very nice birthday. I already have pre-vetoed my daughter’s 3rd birthday, well party at least, this coming September. I don’t think I have it in me to do a whole shebang when I will have JUST given birth to her sibling. Cake it is! Although, I do enjoy T’s bday funness. Maybe we will go that route…
Me said,
July 13, 2010 at 4:43 pm
heh, I hear ya. I have yet to post pics from her actual PARTY. I came to the opposite conclusion. . .I didn’t want to skip her birthday party BECAUSE I didn’t want her to have any reason to resent her new sis for it. . . I actually got the bulk of the supplies for her party while I was pregnant with Ro, since I knew I wouldn’t want to/be able to deal with it while handling a 2-month old infant. . .
FooFoo said,
July 14, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Woooow! What a totally amazing dollhouse T got for her b-day! No wonder she spends a lot of time playing with it, there’s so much her dolls can do in there. I had to laugh about Ro eyeing the world suspiciously from the confines of her Moby wrap. These pics are so good, love them all. Oh greeeen! T’s outfit and bow at ColdStone is so pretty. I love green. Now what exactly did T get in her ‘picnic lunch’ from BK?
Happy Birthday, Teagan!!!
Me said,
July 14, 2010 at 7:24 pm
You crack me up, momma! And it was 4 chicken nuggets, apple ‘fries’ (WITHOUT the caramel dip – I’m so mean), and juice in that picnic kids meal – oooh! And a special prize – a plastic Marmaduke doll on a blue pillow. She tried to have him move into her dollhouse, but the wooden dog that lives there had something to say about it!!!
Lenore (trinity's mommy) said,
July 20, 2010 at 11:55 am
hooray. that looks like the perfect day. even I would like that for my birthday. hee hee