Happy Birthday Riley Roo and Happy Easter Too!

Our Little Miss is 3 years old today!  It's so hard for me to believe that 3 years have passed since I became a mom and that my "baby" is no longer a baby or even a toddler for that matter, she every bit a little girl.

This year, Riley's birthday fell on Easter Sunday, an event that won't happen again until her 85th birthday.  The colliding of these two events, meant a full day of fun and celebration.  There were birthday presents, a basket of treats from the Easter Bunny, and egg hunt, a special birthday breakfast and our annual Easter lunch with family at Gigi and Popdaddy's house.  Oh, and candy, candy, candy and some cake too.  A pretty perfect birthday I think!

Finding eggs from the bunny

The birthday girl with her cinnamon roll, her special birthday breakfast request

She gasped with every egg she opened and then said "more M&Ms!"

The birthday girl won the head from the lamb cake this year, lucky Roo!

Daddy, helping Riley claim her prize

While the things that I love about my little princess are too numerous to count, here are a few things that we know and love about our 3 year old:

*She has an amazing imagination and can keep herself occupied with pretend play for hours.  She also has 2 imaginary friends, LaLa and Rosie, who conveniently take the fall for most of the hi jinx that happen around our house.
*She is still a little bookworm. Riley loves to be read to, look at her books by herself and has also become a great storyteller herself.  It makes us laugh when she corrects a missed or changed word on our part, she definitely pays close attention.  We love to listen as she "reads" to us too, her stories are the best!
*She's a little bit of a drama queen.  I love the inflection in her voice, her expressions and her gestures when she talks.  She also regularly catches me by surprise with her ever expanding vocabulary. 
*While she is somewhat discerning, she is anything but shy.  She tries to make friends wherever she goes and is more than willing to strike up a conversation with just about anybody about princesses, her favorite thing to eat, our cat Bella, pretty much whatever is on her mind.
*She also adores her friends and pretty much has the most fun ever when she's around her buddies. 
*She is still a great little snuggle bunny.  Riley has enjoyed being cuddled to sleep since she was a newborn and would still prefer to always sleep this way if at all possible.  As far as I'm concerned I hope she never out grows that. 
*Her favorite food is pasta, fruit and chocolate ice cream
*Her favorite color is purple.
*She loves to sing and dance.  Her songs are sometimes real songs, sometimes made up and most often a mixture of both.  She also loves for us to dance her around the living room, waltz style, while pretending to be a princess.

Riley Roo brings so much laughter and joy to our lives and we are so lucky that this sweet and sometimes silly little girl is ours.  Happy Birthday Riley!

Getting Ready for Easter

Riley got some practice hunting Easter eggs before the big day at our neighborhoods annual Easter egg hunt.  Unfortunately, it was cold and really windy that day so she had to bundle up and hold on tight, but she had a great time anyway.

Riley also had some fun in dying eggs for the Bunny

This year she was an expert at puting the eggs in and taking them out of the dye. Sadly there are no pictures of my proud little egg artist looking at the camera, she was way too busy to pose for me.

All ready for Easter!

A Party Fit For A Princess

Riley's 3rd birthday falls on Easter this year, so we decided to have her birthday party with all of her friends a week early.  When we asked Miss R what kind of birthday party she would like to have, there was absolutely no question in her mind, a princess party. 

We took her to the Disney store and let her choose a princess dress for her special day.  It was a tough decision, but after trying them on and twirling in each she decided that she wanted to be Cinderella for her party.  It was the perfect dress to match her favorite pair of "glass slippers" too.  She also got to wear the tiara that mommy wore for her wedding. 

On the morning of her party, she woke us up at 6:45 to let us know that it was time for her birthday party and she also wanted to remind us that we really needed to go get her Cinderella cake.  It may have been just a little too early to get the party started, but she was WAY too excited to go back to sleep.

 Riley got to have all of her very best friends at her party and she had so much fun!  We had a mix of princesses and some superheros too, so the girls decorated wands and tiaras while the boys had fun playing with their masks and swords. 

In honor of Riley's Easter birthday we thought it would fitting to have an Easter egg hunt....

 All the little ones got to dash around after prize filled eggs and then check out their loot.

Of course her perfect princess party would not have been complete without her Cinderella cake...

 and she enjoyed every bite!  Especially the frosting.

Riley loved every minute of her birthday party and we are so lucky to have such wonderful friends to help us celebrate our little princess!