Birthday festivities!

Olive's birthday presents, ready for opening:

Video of Olive opening her new fishing rod:

Presents from Nana and Papa:

Knuffle Bunny!:

Pasta dinner:

Chocolate gelato for dessert:

Posing with our 3 year old:

Waiting with Irene for the big co-birthday party to begin at Pump It Up:

Air hockey with Auntie Laura:

Videos of the fun:

Olive and Luna go down the slide:

Uncle Matt and Olive on the big slide:

Even Oscar got in on the fun:

Olive worked hard at perfecting her scream on the slides. With Auntie Jess:

The whole birthday crowd:

Olive's cherry topped cupcake (her request) with pink frosting (Irene's request):

The birthday princesses opening presents in the inflatable throne:

Oh, my girl

Oh, my girl.

My baby.

It is your birthday and today you are 3! 3 years ago you met the world and we met you. You lay blinking in my arms, looking back and forth. Taking it all in. You haven't stopped for a moment since then.

You are the smartest. The kindest. The most thoughtful.

You are the sweetest. The funniest. The best dancer.

You are the cutest. The cuddliest. The best ever.

You are my girl.

My baby.

Happy 3rd birthday, kiddo!

Corduroy

Ever since discovering the Corduroy the Bear book at Nana and Papa's house up north, Olive has really enjoyed Corduroy. For Christmas, she got 2 Corduroy books and a small Corduroy bear. By chance, I happen to check out the MN Zoo schedule late Friday night and discovered that Corduroy the bear was going to be making an appearance on Saturday morning!

Off to the zoo we went:

Waiting and watching:

Priceless reaction to seeing Corduroy coming up the walkway:

There he is:

Checking out Olive's Corduroy:

Hug:

At this point, Corduroy's handlers were trying to shoo Olive out of the way so he could continue walking to his destination. But no, Olive turned her little self around, looked at Sam and me and said, "I want my picture taken with him".

OK, kiddo:

Finally, he was where he should be, so Olive went back for more chatting:

A handshake:

Maybe just one more picture:

Seems this meeting was a hit!

Winter Kid

It's been cooooold here for most of January. Most people don't leave their houses unless they have to. Not us! We have to get out. On a Saturday we ventured into the below zero temperatures to go to story time and a special presentation from the zoo. It was so cold that the zoo volunteer could only bring one animal.

But that was OK with Olive:

Next we walked down the block to Bread and Chocolate for hot cocoa and a chocolate croissant:

See? We can stand it:

Caroling with Olive

Olive really enjoys the piano at Grandma and Grandpa LaChance's house. Over Christmas, she would sit there for a long time, and somehow seemed to know how to hold open the songbook and play songs. Well, Olive's versions of the songs.

Videos of her very subdued Christmas songs:

In this one I get reprimanded for the camera use:

And this popular carol about the Christmas fairy:

Winter Fun

Some videos of all the outdoor fun Olive had in the snow up north.

Toboggan ride with Papa:

First snowmobile ride with Daddy:

And the big family sleigh-ride through the snow:

Yes, that's really our family. Singing "Jingle Bells" while on a horse drawn sleigh ride. And yes, we really are that happy.

And lucky!

Olive sings

Olive likes to see videos of herself. She also likes to sing. Last week she thought maybe she'd sing some songs and then watch them back on the camera. I think they are each amusing in various ways. She's such a funny kid.

Take one:

Take 2:

Take 3: