Happy Birthday, Princess

Our baby princess turned three today! It is so hard to believe it has been three years since she rushed into our world and our hearts! She has changed our world more than we can express! You may remember she is the first girl born into the Nelson family line for at least 125 years, and she wears her responsibility well. While we are scared to death about what we're doing, we are proud to have her as ours. She is well suited to be the only girl between two brothers!

She is really such a sweet little girl! When she woke up from her nap today, I was essentially done with her cake. When she saw it she exclaimed, "Thank you, mama! Thank you for my princess cake!" So here is the princess cake for my princess...
(This is the Pampered Chef doll cake recipe, but I totally cheated. You're suppose to use two cakes to make a dress tall enough for a barbie, but I didn't want that much cake around for the next two weeks, so I cut a hole in a paper plate and bowl to stick her feet through and put them on a cup to give it more height, then hot glued the ribbon around the bowl. I drew most of my inspiration from my sister Judy, who never met a crafty project she couldn't conquer! The model was very patient with me as I worked on her dress and kept her hands in the air for a very long time!)

She opted for a menu of macaroni and cheese for supper. We splurged and bought the "expensive" shells and cheese. I am glad for my kids' simple taste in meals when I have been working on a cake all day!

Here is the bag of rocks that Reed got for Ashton. He went with Ryan to a museum for a movie last week and knew he had to get these pretty rocks for her. Ryan tried to convince him to go with something like a book, but Reed stuck with the rocks. He was so excited! When Ryan was getting out the gifts before supper, Reed called back, "Would you bring out the rocks for her!" Then he covered his mouth in shock! We just ignored it so she wouldn't notice (and, of course, she didn't!), but he was so horrified that he had said that! He'd worked so hard at hiding them and keeping them a secret all week.
And then we had the bear chair (which arrived safely on Wednesday, thank you, Lands' End) as the grand finale. She was very excited to have her own "hippo" (Reed's is a hippo), so after the cake we broke it in with a movie. It is very soft and has a tiny fuzzy blanket that matches.
Then I had to figure out how to put candles on that cake without torching the princess' hair. We were successful, and she delighted in blowing them out!
So we have made it through Thanksgiving and Birthday without the baby showing up! We would like to get our carpet installed next week, if that also fits into his schedule. I have noticed less heartburn in recent days, so...we'll see.