Addy's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Addy's birthday with her friends today! This was the first time we didn't host her party at our house. Instead, we had her party at a local inflatable play place. We had planned this before Christmas since we were expecting to have a 3 week old baby at the time of Addy's birthday. After Logan went to heaven, we just decided to leave it as planned since it's one of her favorite places to play!

I'd like to say Addy had a blast at her party, but truth is I think it was probably just okay for her. First of all, she was completely distracted by her cake. She didn't want to jump and play, she wanted to eat cake...from the moment we arrived. Looking back, I don't know why I didn't just cut her a piece! It was her party, why couldn't she just have a piece of cake at the beginning of the party? Why on earth did I make her wait until the end? Note to self: never do that again!!! I mean, who could blame her, check out this cake Chris made for her:


The other reason I think it was just okay for her was that I think she was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with all of her friends there! She had 11 friends there to play with her, and she's just not used to that. And, all she could think about was cake! Don't get me wrong, she had fun too! She did a lot of jumping and running around, and even took time to play with some of the other toys there. She definitely had more fun as the party went on!







Clearly, we're still working on proper etiquette for sitting like a lady in a skirt!

After the kiddos jumped for a while, we went into the party room for pizza, cake, and presents!











She got so many princess related presents, which she was super excited about! After the party, Jen and her family came over to hang out. The girls had so much fun playing with Addy's new presents!

Her friend, Rex, gave her the Repunzel dress and wig...check out this hair!



And that completes our month-long celebration of Addy's 3rd birthday! Such a sweet gift from God, our Addy Joy. We love her so much!

Softball/Baseball Opening Ceremony

We had a great time tonight attending the opening ceremonies for softball and baseball! We know 3 kids playing this season, Mackenzie, her friend, Bailey, and Addy's friend, Rex. We made signs for them and cheered them on as they walked in the parade!



Vanderbilt's mascot and the Nashville Sounds' mascot were there, too!


The marching band:


And the team! Mackenzie's team is the Gators (go figure, guess who picked that!).



The players were all wearing a t-shirt over their jerseys that supported another 12U softball player that had recently been diagnosed with cancer. It was really cool!

After the parade, all the players and coaches gathered onto one field for the rest of the ceremony. There was a prayer for all the players, coaches, the season, the community, and the certainly the young girl battling cancer. It was very moving.

Then they announced every single player's name. Yes, all 500+ players! They ran through the tunnel (provided by Vanderbilt) as their names were announced, just like the pros!


As you can imagine, it took a loooooong time to announce all those names! So, what did Addy do while we were waiting? She played with Katie and got Jen to play Simon Says with her! She was Simon. :)



We had a really fun night!

March 23, Addy's 3rd Birthday!

It is so hard to believe that our sweet girl is 3 years old already! It just doesn't seem possible sometimes that she's three already, and other times Steven and I look at her and think, "She's ONLY 3"? We love this little girl so much, she's just the best.

I took the day off from work to spend the day with her. Truthfully, I was needing a "mental health" day anyway. It worked out that we were able to do her 3 year old well visit with her doctor in the morning. It doesn't seem fair that she had to go to the doctor on her birthday, but she didn't need shots! We talked about the salmonella and did her well check.

Addy's 3 year old stats: 30 lbs (43%ile) and 39" (90%ile). She's grown 4" this year!


We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and met Mrs. Wendy there, too! We had a great lunch and Addy got to play afterward in the play area, which is one of her favorite things to do these days!

After lunch, Addy went with Mrs. Wendy to pick Connor up from school and take a nap at her house. I had some errands to run in the afternoon, so that worked out well!

Once Addy woke up, we picked her up and then met Jen and her family at the new bowling alley! We had fun bowling! This was technically Addy's second time bowling, but she was only 11 months old when we went the first time. This time, she actually got to bowl!


Funny thing is that she was more interested in hanging out by the bowling balls and cleaning them with a towel than she was in bowling. Same as her first time!



She did really well, though! She started out bowling by walking up and throwing the ball down the alley. And we all watched in anticipation as it took about 3 minutes for it to get to the pins! :)




Then we tried the ramp. She liked that, too. And the ball made it to the pins a bit faster!



A great time had by all! Definitely something we'll do again!




After bowling, we went to Jen's house for presents and cake!

She got a puzzle, Repunzel doll, and gum:




And then while we were in Disney World, we bought her a princess frame and a Belle wig:



She loved all of it! Of course, the wig had to be put on right away! Poor girl wants long hair so badly!



And check out this video. Listen carefully to our Southern Belle!


And that's not the only word she says with a southern slang! Many one syllable words are now two syllables when she says them, like hair, down, and bed. I love it. It's so darn cute!

Then it was time for cake! We got a Dairy Queen Blizzard cake, so good!


This sweet girl of ours....while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her, we said, "happy birthday dear Addy", and she stopped us and said, "NO! Belle!" Funny girl.

Then just a little bit later, my parents surprised Addy by showing up at Jen's house! I didn't take any pictures, but she was super surprised! I usually don't tell her when they're coming just in case the flights don't work out, so she was super surprised. A great end to her 3rd birthday!

Saturday, we went to Katie's soccer game. She did a great job! She's super fast running on the field. I got pictures of her while she was playing goalie:



Later in the day, she was playing with a new umbrella she got for her birthday...in her snow white dress and Belle hair, and wearing Grandma's lipstick!


She opened another birthday present from Grandpa and Grandma, MY favorite one for sure! It's an alarm clock that displays pictures as well as the time. We were able to set the pictures to change at certain times of the day, so at 7:30 a.m. the sunshine picture is displayed and at 8:00 p.m. the moon picture is displayed! This has helped tremendously for her to know when it's time to get up in the morning! She'd been waking up pretty consistently at 7:00 a.m., but at the same time, I knew she wasn't really ready to get up. She's now getting up between 7:45-8:00 a.m. which is much more normal for her!



She didn't take a nap, but needed one on Saturday. At one point, she had an accident in the living room and to get her cleaned up, I just put her in the bathtub. She always likes for Grandpa to hold her when she gets out of the tub, and this time, she snuggled right in and she was out!


Sunday was much the same. She played outside after church, skipping her nap. Check out our little fashionista!


Then, she crashed. Grandpa was watching golf and she crawled up on the bed to lay by him, and she was out!


We had Jen and family over for dinner along with Wendy and her family. We grilled burgers and had a lot of fun! We played a game of wiffle ball in the back yard until it got dark. Addy played, too. Only she didn't want to use her T-ball stand when it was her turn to bat, she wanted a regular pitch like everyone else! And she hit it, too! We were so impressed!

A super fun way to end a great weekend!