The Party

So today was the much anticipated zoo birthday party.  Poppy has been talking about it non-stop for the last couple of days, saying how she couldn't wait to eat cupcakes and see the animals, her cousins and her friends.

How cute are these 3?  Ava was Poppy's personal bodyguard and BFF of the day...

The first thing we did was head to the Rainforest exhibit.  The zoo provided us with a hostess/tour guide and she was sooo good with all of the kids.

Then it was back to the party room where she brought out a few animals that the kids were able to touch.  Poppy seemed impressed with the chinchilla, but wanted nothing to do with the blue-tongued lizard.

After some yummy pizza, it was finally time for singing and cupcakes!

All in all, it was a perfect little party for Poppy.  She was so sad to leave the zoo and we've had to promise her all day that we will go back again later this week.  And since the minute we got home she's been going through and playing with all her new loot.

Her last words of the day, as she was headed up to bed were, "I gotta go, it's been a rough day mom."  Seriously, how does she come up with this stuff?!

My 3 year old

I can barely believe it myself.  Poppy is 3 years old.  And she is acting like a 3 year old too.  All sorts of new attitude and defiance and absolutely hysterical things she is saying lately.  The night before her birthday, as I was tucking her into bed I asked her if she could believe that she was going to be 3 tomorrow.  In a sad little voice she said "But I don't want to be 3!  I'm still want to be a little girl."  I re-assured her that she would have fun being a 3 year old and that she would still be a little girl.

We have her big birthday party at the zoo next weekend, so on her actual birthday we celebrated with the grandparents and my aunt and uncle, and a Korean feast.  Poppy was in her glory with all the rice and noodles she could eat...

Then it was time for the much-anticipated singing and birthday cake.  Here she is shushing everyone as she patiently awaits the festivities...

Check out the cake I made (it was much easier to make than it looks).

She got all sorts of princess and Thomas stuff for her birthday, which she couldn't have been happier with.  This morning she brought her shiny new plastic princess wand into our bed so that she could turn us into princesses and princes and then she stared at her wand and said "I got everything I ever needed for my birthday!"  Sweet girl.

dancer

Have I ever mentioned how much Poppy loves her dance class?  Loves it.  She also takes it very seriously.  Her eyes rarely leave her teacher.  And she gets annoyed with the other girls when they don't pay attention like she is.  Our big recital is coming up in a few weeks and she has been practicing non-stop at home.  I've been on modified bedrest for the last couple of weeks (due to a compressed nerve that is causing some serious pain in my legs) and taking a few weeks off of dance class was out of the question.  Luckily Poppy has the best dad in the world who has been rocking it out with the other moms in our "mommy and me" class.  Tonight I went with them to take a few pics...

Could she even be any cuter?!