She's three!

 I'm back! As promised, with Elizabeth's birthday pictures from way back in June. We had her birthday party June 11, the Saturday after first session ended. Anne and Keith once again graciously agreed to host it at the Windmill subdivision pool, and the Davidsons once again allowed us to make it a joint party with Lydia, who turned six. May as well when you're both going to invite most of the same people anyway!

Maggie made Elizabeth a party hat.

We had a gloriously hot and rain-free first session of camp, but the weekend that followed was rainy and cold! I drove us to the party watching the Weather Channel on my phone to see if the severe thunderstorm warning was going to end before we got to our SWIMMING party. I hate electricity at a swim party.

The first part of the party it rained and thundered some, but it let up for the second half. We ate and enjoyed boring old adult chatter until the rain stopped.

Ruth, Elizabeth, and Sydney. Elizabeth was psyched about her birthday party. She's been asking pretty much every day since June when she can have another birthday. 

Amelia, Maggie, Dillon (bunny ears in the background), Kendall, Carsen, and Meg, posing and waiting out the rain.

We had to have some adults to hold down the picnic table. Chris P., Grandmom (who spent all summer at camp with us), Grandad, Keith, Chris B., and a blurry Mrs. Davidson in the background.

Jill, in a stylish towel for the purpose of staying warm, Anne, Rhonda, and Mrs. Peacock (yes, really, Peacock- the Hicks' Grammie, visiting from Ohio).

The goofy hot dog griller people.

Love to get people stuffing their faces in photos. Big people, little people, all are fair game.

My kids love parties and events where there are Cheetos and cheesy chips. I don't do cheesy chips at home, partly because I can't find the motivation it takes to keep a damp paper towel after the cheesy fingers and faces, and partly because I've never seen that florescent orange color in nature. The Red No. 5 and Yellow No. 7 it takes to make the bright orange are probably found in a million other things I feed them....so yeah, it really is more about the cheesy fingers and faces.

For some reason I failed to take any swimming pictures. Now everyone is in a stylish towel wrap. (Me included.)

This year we did a butterfly cake. I opted for the butterfly on top instead of the more creative, more time consuming butterfly shape.

Yay for presents!!

Lydia got some presents too. 

Another successful birthday. It's hard to believe the baby is three now. Life is easier in a lot of ways, now that we don't have to travel with a diaper bag everywhere we go, and we can skip naps altogether now when we need to, and people can feed themselves and put on their own shoes. At the end of July Elizabeth announced one day, "I will sleep upstairs now. You can give away my crib." And so she does, and we took the crib down, a previously irreplaceable piece of furniture that's been part of our lives for eight years. I'm always surprised when people who only have one kid consider not having any more because the baby years are so hard. They're also so short. What's a couple of years in the grand scheme of things? A breath, a mist, a distant memory in a lot of ways, even though I'm really only a year or so removed from it. And then, Lord willing, you get to enjoy them for the rest of your life!

Next post, more of camp. Have I mentioned that I miss it?