Happy 3rd Birthday!

Oh, my heart! Today is our sweet little girls' 3rd birthday. I can't believe they are three and yet it always feels as though they have been a part of our family. I have such sweet memories of the day they were born and the days after in the hospital. If you are new to my blog, you might not know that our girls became a part of our family through the gift of adoption. Now, these two monkeys are 3-year-old loving, little girls who know how to keep mom and dad on our toes!

 They:

• are the best of friends! But, they know how to push each other's buttons.
• love all things girly and princess but are also huge fans of Thomas the Train and Cars. 
• will eat almost anything I put in front of them and are still allergic to peanuts, wheat and eggs so that makes cooking interesting. Luckily, they love most vegetables and are often asking for more green beans, broccoli and asparagus!
• love spending time with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins!
• are sleeping in big girl beds as of February!
• are potty trained as of January!
• are great helpers! They want to help mom cook and clean and help dad outside.
• love being outside playing on the swing set, doing sidewalk chalk, riding in the stroller and playing on their new tricycles!
• love participating in Tiny Tumbler's at the YMCA! We enrolled them around 18 months for a session and they ran around crazy most of the time. Now, they are old pros - doing forward rolls and walking on the balance beam!
• are so polite (at least we're doing something right!) and always saying please and thank you!
• love being read to by daddy at bedtime and having a sing-a-long with mom. We sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Jesus Loves Me" (among others) nightly! 
• adore babies! If there's a baby in the room, that's where they go first!

Nora:

• is the older sister by one minute and has a pound on Lily (that pound makes a difference!)
• her best animal buddy is "Woofie" and her best blanket friend is "Bugs". But, she has to have a huge crew of friends on her bed every night for bed.
• Is usually a little more cautious in new situations than her sister.
• is all about the drama! Silly girl!
• for a while, called me "Cruella De Vil". (We no longer watch 101 Dalmatians). Just kidding! ;) Thankfully, she's over that stage and calls me "Jill Pill" these days. I'll take that any day!

Lily:

• her best buddy is her Cabbage Patch doll "Jillian" and she has two twin babies that she calls "Susie" and "Other Susie." She's usually content just to have the three of them at bedtime.
• will jump right into a new situation and always runs up to other people to say "Hi!" 
• Might give us a little more run for our money. ;)
• loves fiercely!
• loves to sing (we'll often hear many of the songs we sing at bedtime throughout the day.)

We celebrated their 3rd birthday on Saturday with our family (we're not quite ready to have a party with friends yet) and we had a pretty, girly tea party! I'm working on a blog post to share all the party details with you and I'll have that up within the next couple days!

Happy Birthday, girls! :)