**This is a week overdue, I'm having problems publishing post from my laptop!**
We went to the doctor for Alex's 3 year check up Monday! He said she is doing great! She is tipping the scales at 31.8 lbs (63%, up from 28.6 lbs at 2) and measuring 38 inches (64%, up from 36.25 inches at 2). It was a pretty typical check up, no worries, no shots! Alex was very interested in everything the doctor was doing and kept asking what he was going to do next!
A glimpse of Alex at 3...
Alex is currently wearing a 2T, sometimes a 3T, but still wears her 18 or 24 month jammies.
She is still a fairly picky eater, but since we are in the middle of berry season, as long as I have fresh berries in the house, she is a happy camper!
She loves carrots. She actually told me my grandkids will be named Carrot (boy), Lettuce (girl) and Broccoli (boy or girl). On that note, she loves to help make salads. I probably shouldn't have had the grandkid discussion while we were chopping veggies for a salad!
The only cheese she will eat is mozzarella. If you ask her, she will tell you she will only eat it at Nomi's house.
She LOVES corndogs...I'm pretty sure she would eat one everyday if let her, but I don't!
She is such a great little helper. She likes to help make dinner, hang up laundry and pick up toys.
She is always asking about time. She knows when the clock says 7:00, she can get up in the morning. I've started telling her what time the clock will show when we have to leave, take a nap, take a shower or any other thing.
She wants to know where everything is. She is not happy knowing we are going to the store, she wants to know what store, where it is, how we get there, what it's by and what we are getting there.
She is all about hugs and kisses in the morning. When Josh leaves for work, she makes sure he gives hugs and kisses to herself, me and Cooper!
She is extremely independent, she has to dress herself and brush her own teeth. She carries her stool from room to room so she can reach whatever she needs.
Her favorite phrase is, "can you tell?" Anytime we ask her a question, the immediate response is, "can you tell" then she will answer after we ask her to tell.
She LOVES to play games! Current faves are Candyland and Uno Moo.
She calls Cooper Coopsie Boy or Cooper Pot Pie!
She dances to the credit music at the end of movies. She always ask Daddy to dance with her.
She loves to sing. She makes up her own songs depending on what she is doing. Today it was a song about riding a bicycle with a bell that rings and dings.
Alex LOVES having her nails painted and playing with anything make up related. She received about 20 different lip glosses for her birthday. We are getting one out at a time, it stays on our bathroom counter and she goes in there about 20 times a day to reapply!
She still calls Chick-fil-a, Chick-a-flay. It's soo cute, we don't correct her.
All in all, she is SOOO much fun, SOOO funny and such a joy to be around!
Alex and Cooper have a love hate relationship while they are awake. It's quite funny. Alex is so sweet to Cooper 95% of the time, the other 5% she complains if he gets too close to her. Cooper is starting to take commands from Alex and gets especially excited because she is the one who lets him in and outside! Cooper has loved his Alex since day one!
Josh and I celebrated our 4th anniversary yesterday! Over the weekend we did a little pre-celebrating. The James' kept Alex Saturday-Sunday so we could have a little time together. Our plan was really to not make any plans. We rented a car and decided to drive towards the Hill Country. We stopped in Bastrop for lunch and then went on to San Marcos. We bought curtains for our dining room and living room and I got some new shoes! Real romantic! LOL. From there we drove towards Canyon Lake and to Wimberly. We did a little shopping in Wimberly. After Wimberly we drove to Austin. We drove around town a bit and stopped at a tiny little Mexican place for dinner. We decided to head home so we could sleep in! Sunday morning before we picked Alex up we dove to Brenham to have breakfast. It was such a fun trip. I love driving on beautiful Texas roads with my best friend! The pic is our Texas map. Each color (green, red, pinkish and purple) represents a different road trip we have taken from College Station. I love looking back at it and remembering the fun memories we made on each trip!
We celebrated Alex's 3rd birthday yesterday with a Fairy Forest Party on her actual birthday! I started off my morning at 6am with a quick shower and a trip to the donut shop for her breakfast tradition! A chocolate sprinkle donut. This year we included chocolate milk! She gave both 2 thumbs up! She ended up eating about 3 bites of her donut before Cooper swiped it and had 2 sips of her chocolate milk before she decided she was over it!
We wrapped up fairy wings and tutus and delivered them to each girl attending the party. Alex selected the colors. She chose purple for her friends and pink for herself.
My sweet little fairy on her birthday!
My biggest task was creating the fairy forest. I knew in my mind exactly what I wanted it to look like, but creating it was the hard part. I spent the months prior to the party cutting out all of the paper good (cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers, Happy Birthday Alex pendants, Alex's Fairy Forest pendant and the animals around the forest). The week before the party I created the forest. My parents came in town Thursday night and my mom helped with all of the finishing touches. Josh suggested we use some astro turf we had in the attic for the forest floor. I LOVED the way it finished the look. We had so much fun working on every last detail!
We had a kid height table and kids chairs for the girls. Each place was set with a craft to start with. The table centerpiece was edible. We made marshmallow kabobs and fairy wands that were pink chocolate dipped pretzels.
Each girl had bracelets, rings and a wand set out for them as well.
I made the little cone shaped tree to match the topiaries on the food table.
The food table, before the food was set out. I re purposed the topiaries from Alex's baby shower to match the theme and color. The book on the left was our inspiration for the party.
The only picture I have with the food on the table is actually cropped in from a different picture so it isn't the best! The kids food included Magical Fairy Wands (fruit kabobs), Fairy Garden Veggies (carrots, celery and tomatoes with ranch), Snail Sandwiches (ham and cheese roll ups and pb&J roll ups), Chocolate Kissed Fairy Berries (chocolate covered strawberries), Fruity Fairy Flowers (tarts filled with yogurt, blueberries and raspberries) and Fairy Fizz (sparkling cherry limeade and strawberry lemonade).
Each item had it's own little sign I created.
The inspiration along with a close up of a topiary.
As each girl arrived, they picked a seat and started working on decorating a fairy house. I painted them pink and added a pink and green ribbon. Each girl received a little bucket of jewels to glue on to the house.
When they were finished decorating them, I placed them on a bag with their name. They used the bag later to take home their fairy house, wand, bracelets and wings. While they were decorating their houses, the girls snacked on the fairy wands and marshmallow centerpieces.
One by one, the girls were taken to the face painter while the others worked on their houses. Every girl ended up having her face painted and a few went back for painted bracelets!
Alex loves to have her face painted anytime she can so we wanted to make sure to incorporate it into her birthday party!
Alex had so much fun opening her presents.
Since we celebrate Alex's birthday 3 different times, we try to change up the cake/dessert each time. We ordered cupcakes and I made wrappers and toppers to personalize them.
When the girls we done with cupcakes and ice cream they all played around. Alex gave Chandler a ride on her new tricycle.
Before the fairies left, we tried for a group picture!
Her birthday party was soo much work, but soo worth it! I loved seeing Alex's face light up every time she saw a new detail of the party coming together. My mom was the biggest help setting everything up and making all the beautiful bows that were tied to anything that stood still! Josh was a champ cleaning the house and doing yard work while we worked on the food. My sweet Dad did pretty much anything we asked from putting together gifts to running to the store for stuff we forgot! Terri and Ray were key in keeping Alex and Cooper occupied the morning of the party!
