It’s incredibly hard to believe that our baby girl turned THREE this year!! Here are the highlights from her birthday and birthday party…
She woke up with a room full of purple balloons……and the first present to open of the day…a dress I personalized for her with the word, “three”!She got dressed and went downstairs for her next surprise…a huge 3 in purple balloons!!Grandma & Grandpa were in town, so we took Elliott to preschool together. Here she is outside of his preschool, in all of her birthday glory! She picked out this dress for her birthday and would have stayed in it day and night if I would have let her…Then we stopped at our favorite coffee place for a birthday hot cocoa…and the barista put a candle in her whipped cream and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” to her!!
She went to gymnastics and then Grandma, Grandpa, Selah and I went to go pick out a cupcake from a bakery. For weeks I had been asking her what she wanted for her birthday, and her ONLY response was, “A cupcake.” I tried to tell her that I was already making cupcakes for her birthday party, but she could think of nothing else she wanted. The day before her birthday, she reminded me that she would like a cupcake for her birthday. I reminded her we would have one on her birthday party day a few days later. She looked at me as if I had not heard the 1 million times that she told me she wanted a cupcake for her birthday and almost burst into tears. So :). We decided to let her pick out a special cupcake for her actual birthday.
After naptime, she got to go into the basement and see her special gift picked out and put up by her Daddy…he added a SWING to her beloved birthday present from last year–the gym in our basement.
Needless to say, she LOVES it…(and her Grandpa, too!!)
We went to Red Robin for dinner (her choice) where, of course, they sang her Happy Birthday and she buried herself into me as she normally does when put on the spot!But she definitely enjoyed her ice cream when the singing people went away :).Us!And then she had her long-awaited cupcake at home afterwards!!
HER BIRTHDAY PARTY:
Selah is our super tactile child. She LOVES playing in rice and sand and squishing play dough between her fingers. So we decided to party hard for her 3rd with play dough, her favorite friends, and her grandparents.
Our most wonderful Selah Bean is turning three!
She’s our silly, hilarious, playful one (as you know),
To you, her favorites, she asks: “Will you celebrate with me?!”
Join us for a party with games and PLAY DOUGH!!
We decorated our craft room with purple!Made favors for our friends!Personalized an apron for every kid!Decorated cupcakes with sprinkles!And waited patiently for our friends to arrive!
Our friends arrived and put on their aprons!Here’s everyone ready to create with play dough!Selah was overjoyed to have play dough in her hands and her favorite girlfriends by her side!Happy birthday girl!
The first challenge was to create a cupcake that Selah would like to eat for her birthday.
Elliott’s cupcake creations!Quinn’s delicious goodies!Charlotte’s yummy looking cupcakes!Selah’s dough-light-ful birthday cupcake!Ava’s cupcakes definitely took the cake 🙂
The next challenge was to create a playdough version of Selah. Here’s what we got:
Pretty good!!And Elliott’s playdough Selah is very creative!The dearest friends!!!!
The kids played with play dough for a little while longer until it was time for cake!
My darling girl and her cupcakes with sprinkles!Happy Birthday to you!Selah and her Nonna, who usually always wears purple, to Selah’s delight!!She opened some super fun and thoughtful presents from friends and family!Happy Birthday, our dear Selah Bean!!!
If you’ve made it this far :), here are some extra special birthday bonuses…
Here she is in the “three” dress that I made for her…
And THIS is a picture of ME when I turned 3, alongside of Selah on her birthday. My mom made this sweet Care Bear for me for my third birthday, and here is Selah with it as well!!
Our darling little girl is growing up so quickly before our eyes, and she brings an exceeding amount of joy into our home every day. Selah lives life as if it were a musical–and we adore it!! She literally sings her way through life…she sings throughout the day, sings herself to sleep, and wakes up with a new song on her tongue every morning.
Here’s a video of one of her latest songs:
It is so easy to see her mother’s heart burst out of her every move…she is constantly so eager to take care of everyone around her and serve every chance she gets.
We had the joy of taking care of my niece a few days a week at the beginning of the year, and Selah (and Elliott) were on cloud 9 to have her in our home. Here is Selah feeding her a bottle……and reading her a book, in sunglasses of course!
And that heart does not exclude her babies and stuffed animals! It is not rare for us all to be playing together and for Selah to jump up in the middle of our playtime and exclaim, “I hear my baby crying upstairs! I’ll go get her and bring her down!” She is the epitome of sweet and kind and loving. And although she has definitely learned how to push her brother’s buttons this year :), most of what comes out of her heart is genuine love.
A few months ago, I overheard this conversation:
Selah, as she takes Elliott’s pencil and sits down: “Elliott, I need to use your pencil.”
Elliott: “But Selah, that’s MY pencil.”
Selah, in the sweetest, most genuinely convincing voice: “Yes, I’m SHARING it with you!”
Elliott: “Oh! Thank you, Selah! Thank you for sharing it with me!”
Selah: “You’re welcome, Elliott!”
It’s hard to articulate the depths of her heart, but this conversation was so typical of her…she was truly not manipulating him, but she just genuinely believes that she was giving Elliott a gift by letting HIM share with HER!
As she approached her third birthday, any time it would come up in conversation and someone would ask her old she was turning, she would respond, “Three…THEN FOUR!!” I think she is determined to catch up to her big brother! 🙂
She continues to be our amazing gymnast.
Strong arms on the bars at almost 2 1/2!
She is truly talented and it is such a joy to watch her doing something she loves. We did the “Mommy and me” gymnastics class last year, and a couple of weeks before she turned 3, she started the 3-4 year olds class, which is a class without her Mama!! (Granted, I do sit right outside where she can see me and watch her through the window…baby steps for both of us!) I talked to her about it ahead of time, wondering how she would do without me (and let’s be real–how I would do without her!!!) and she said she was excited to do it. The morning of her first class, however, as we were getting her into her leotard, she said to me with a voice that quivered more with each word: “Mom? I was just thinking that I actually want you to come into my class with me…” and then she erupted in tears. My heart broke and I held her as she sobbed…Elliott and I comforted her and prayed with her and he gave her advice on what it is like to go into a class without me. It was precious. Sure enough, when I walked her into her class a couple hours later, she let go of my hand and waved goodbye to me with no problem. It has been so incredibly fun to watch her thrive!!
The first few moments of her first class all by herself! (She’s second from the front in the pink)Climbing the rope!Peeking through the window at Elliott who got to be there for her very first class to cheer her on!!And a celebratory hot chocolate afterwards because–come on! That was a big deal!!!! Cheers to big girl gymnastics!!
She is wild and messy and silly and free and creative and and hilarious and we adore every part of how God created our little girl!!! Enjoy a snapshot of her year below!
Selah takes artistic license when it comes to doing anything…eating dinner, crafting, writing her name…
One night while out to eat as a family, I looked over and saw Selah doing push ups like this! Bahaha!! (I know–bad Mom for taking a picture…I took a picture and then reminded her of what good table manners are…)Most kids sit while crafting, but not this girl. She crafts while balancing on one foot.Oh look, here she is sitting to craft…but with nothing but her brother’s backpack on. She can’t do anything the “normal” way!!She LOVES puzzles as much as her big brother! At 27 months, she could complete this 48 piece jigsaw puzzle all by herself.She loves to build and create at Home Depot!“Look, Mom! It’s a monkey sitting in a high chair!” She is a budding artist who draws extremely hilarious and creative pictures!!“Look, Mom! It’s a snowman walking!”I found her like this at the chiropractor one day. The chiropractor is one of her favorite places to go :). (Yes, yes…she takes after me!!)Did I mention she is messy?!!!At Chick-fil-a…making goofy Chick-fil-a saucy faces at herself in my phone…Thanks to Aunt Melanie, we figured out how to FINALLY get her hair into pig tails!! She was about 2 1/2 at the time… We continue to hope and pray that she GROWS SOME MORE HAIR!!! 🙂
Selah continues to have a love-hate relationship with animals of all kinds. She screams in absolute horror if our friends’ cat even takes a step into a room that she is in, but then she can be in a pen filled with Alpacas and literally chase after them yelling, “Here, alpaca! Here, alpaca!”
Chasing down Alpacas, trying to feed them vegetables…And here she is feeding a bird at the zoo. I love that face!!!She actually looks like she’s really enjoying being in the mouth of this Alligator!She loves dressing to match me!!Goofy face!She ADORES her big brother and his friends!They truly are BFFS…She still loves to dress up in all varieties of clothes…Probably one of my favorite things about Selah is how FREE she is. She doesn’t have a care in the world. She sleeps like this most of the time…hands above her head, baby by her side…in total peace.And yes, I know…we are the only people on the planet who still have a monitor for their (now) 3 year old…but come on…I would have missed all of these precious sleeping moments if we didn’t have one!!!!!My darling girl!!Here I am at 2 as well. I was probably an early 2 and Selah is close to 3 in this picture, but I think we look pretty similar!!Welcome to age 3, my love!!!! I cannot wait to see how you change and grow in the coming year!!!!
