My 3rd Birthday Party

I had my third birthday party at Junior Gym in San Mateo. I had been to several parties here before and always loved it, especially the zip line. Almost all my friends in my preschool class came to celebrate with me. Mommy liked that it was well organized, easy to set up, and all we had to do was bring food and show up (although the party planner in Mommy always makes things more difficult than they should be). 

I've been really into dinosaurs lately, so we had dinosaur-themed favors, some decorations, and a cake with little dinosaurs all over it. After all that work, Mommy totally forgot to take pictures though, oh well!

 

Most of the party was spent running around so fast that Mommy just got a bunch of blurry photos.  

Here I am, at my own party, still doing the zipline even after the group activity started.

Totally blurry photo but the parachute was my favorite!

 

They sang Happy Birthday to me under the parachute and I just sat there frozen

The best photo that Mommy had of the cake! She originally planned to do a dinosaur-shaped pull-apart cupcake cake, but ended up with a baking disaster. So the day of the party, she ended up serving boxed cake mix cupcakes for the kids, then got a ready-made cake from Safeway and decorated with dinosaur figurines. It actually turned out pretty cute! The dinosaurs surrounded a cupcake (volcano?) which I ate. I loved it!

We ended the day opening presents at home. It was a great way to cap off my week-long birthday celebration!

Three

I am three years old! On my birthday, I went to day care where we celebrated all of the March birthdays. We had donuts for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and cupcakes. Nothing says birthday like lots of sugar and junk food!

 

Since it was a weekday, we kept it low key. I got to open one of my presents from Alex and Kieran. Mommy and Daddy got me a Strider balance bike, but they waited until the weekend to give it to me. 

We capped off the day with an ice cream cake. I had been waiting for this day when I could blow out my own candles!

South Lake Tahoe

After our first trip to Tahoe and seeing how much snow there was, Mommy realllly wanted to go back and snowboard herself. So we convinced Ma-ma and Yeh-yeh to join us in South Lake Tahoe for a quick weekend trip. This time, we went to Heavenly Mountain since it was one of the few ski resorts that had on-site childcare for Colin. They stuck me in ski school, Colin in day care, and Mommy, Daddy, Ma-ma and Yeh-yeh all got to ski together.

It was a perfect day with awesome conditions.

Mommy checked in on me and Colin at lunchtime and it seemed like we were both having a blast. Colin always seems to adapt well to "new special preschool" situations. And at the end of the day, Mommy and Daddy found me at ski school and I got to go on a few runs with them.

Looks like the lessons paid off. I loved skiing and was excited that I finally got to ride the chairlift!

It was a fun day and Mommy was happy that she finally got to snowboard after all these years.

Before our drive home, we stopped by the lakeside to enjoy the scenery.

Ski Week in Tahoe

During winter break, we headed to Tahoe for our first real ski trip. Tahoe had a record snowfall this winter and we knew we had to make at least one trip up to see all of it. Mommy also felt it was finally time for me to learn how to ski.

But on our way up, another snowstorm was passing through and they had to close the I-80. That left us scrambling to find a dog-friendly place to stay for the night, and we ended up at a Best Western in Roseville. Not ideal, but the upside was that Brady was finally allowed to sleep in the same bed with us!

We finally made it to our awesome cabin in Kings Beach the next day. It was so big and nice, too bad we lost a night there! There was a bunk bed I got to sleep on top, and also a ping pong table. Lots of fun!

What the cabin normally looks like.

Can you see the front of the cabin?

The cabin was surrounded by plenty of fresh snow. We couldn't even use the fenced backyard since the snow was so high.

Looking over the fence to the backyard. Can't even see the bottom half of the cabin!

Deep powder in the front yard.

Colin licking an icicle.

Video clip of us in the snow:

We also spent an afternoon at a sledding hill that we discovered last year. We tried to build a snowman, but then it started to snow. And Colin's mittens kept falling off his tiny hands, he had enough and wanted to leave. Poor guy wasn't a huge fan of the snow!

For my very first ski lesson we went to Boreal Ski Resort, which is where Mommy learned to ski when she was my age. I took a two hour lesson while Mommy and Daddy waited with Colin. With our luck, there was a power outage at the resort that day, so instead of getting to ride the magic carpet, I had to carry my own skis and walk up the hill! It must not have been too bad because I really enjoyed my lesson and afterward, I wanted to go back and keep skiing. After lunch, Daddy walked back up with me to practice some more. It would have been nice if Mommy and Daddy got to ski too, but somebody had to stay with Colin.

At the end of the day, it ended up seeming like a four day trip just so I could take a two hour ski lesson. It took a lot of effort, but it was all worth it in the end and we accomplished our goal of me learning to ski!

We stopped at Nut Tree for lunch on the way home and shared a kids size(!) banana split.

 

Valentine's Day Crafts

I chose a box of cheap valentines from Target for my classmates this year so sadly, no homemade valentines for Mommy to help me with. At least she got to satisfy her crafting bug with Colin's. They were super easy and fun to make!

Colin had a little Valentine's party at preschool and was excited to show off his projects. He was even more excited to eat all the candy he received.

As for me, I was just happy to find a surprise note in my lunchbox.

First Tooth!

I finally lost my first tooth! I had been waiting impatiently for this to happen, since I'm one of the last kids in my class to lose their first tooth. It finally started to wiggle and then wiggled for two weeks. It got to a point where it was so loose that I was begging Mommy to pull it out. But she wouldn't do it. Finally, I couldn't wait and I pulled it out myself!

Before and after.

We've recently started journal writing in school, and the story of losing my tooth was one of my first entries. Here it is! (spelling has been corrected for this story, grammar has not)

My Tooth is Loose
One day I was doing my homework. I wiggled my tooth. It has been wiggly for a week. So I pulled it a little. And it clicked. Mom! I shouted. My tooth clicked. Did your tooth fall out? she exclaimed. No, I insisted. So I tugged it super hard. I tugged so hard...it fell out! My gums were bleeding super hard. I couldn't stand it. Finally it stopped. It had been a minute. I put the tooth in my tooth bowl that I made. At bedtime I put the tooth in a plastic bag then I put it under my pillow. After my first dream, I woke up. I looked at the time. It was 1:04. Then I laid down. Then I heard a fluttering sound so I sat up. I laid down again. It started again. I was confused. So I got out of my bed. Then I saw the tooth fairy I think. The next morning I looked under my pillow. There was 3 dollars and a note. And here is the note. And I can't wait until my second tooth falls out!